KristinHorgan

Eva is going to want her FOUR front teeth for X-Mas!

Yep - she has lost her other front tooth!  She is missing all four of her front teeth - two on the top and two on the bottom!

Mama Robin

About ten feet outside my office window hangs our canoe under the deck.  A Robin family has enjoyed nesting on the seat the last few years.  I noticed the other day that the eggs had hatched - three I think.  All day long the Mama is out hunting and when she returns with a worm they start chirping - loudly! 

Fairy Townhouse

The girls and I went to the Bozeman Public Library the other day to make Fairy Houses.  We had so much fun!  This design was all Elsa's idea - thankfully that had really good glue guns!  It was really hard to capture just how cool this turned out - the photo doesn't do it justice!

Notice the hanging light fixtures, small bed on the second story, and the swing!

The fairy we made is lounging on her swing!

Clasen Castles

I am writing this from Red Lodge, Montana right now. (while a 7,000 acre forest fire rages about 15 miles away) I'm here with the girls and my dad, in my parents very POSH 5th wheel travel trailer.  My mom is a few miles away at a condo with at reunion with a handful of girls she was in Girl Scouts with, 50 years ago in Billings, Montana.  One of her friends, Kay, was in my parents wedding.  I met her once, when I was about 10 years old.

My mom had this idea to put together a scrapbook with photos of all the houses we have lived in over the years to show her girlfriends.  She had gathered the photos and brought them up for me to help her put in an album.  We bought the album on Friday night and I started working on the project on Sunday.  (We went boating on Saturday)  I worked on it Sunday afternoon, most of Monday, and Tuesday morning.  We left to drive to Red Lodge yesterday, Tuesday.  I had my mom journal a little bit about each house.  These are 12x12 layouts.  I remember all of these houses except for the one in Pleasanton. So here it is - the Clasen Castles! 

Cover Page

Pleasanton, California
Bacon Court (the top photo is from 1968, the one below was taken just a few weeks ago.  I wrote in Then and Now after I scanned it)

Plesanton facing page

Carmichael, California (near Sacramento)

Carmichael facing page

Tulsa, Oklahoma

Tulsa facing page

Richardson, Texas (We should have had Richardson instead of Dallas)

Richardson/Dallas facing page

Potomac, Maryland

Potomac facing page

Eden Prairie, Minnesota (Minneapolis)

Eden Prairie facing page

Colleyville, Texas (Dallas)

Colleyville facing page

Park City, Utah

Park City facing page

Last 3 pages

Okay that's it!

Boating on Hebgen

We got the boat fixed and have been using it this summer (as opposed to last summer where it never made it in the water!)  We've had it down on Hebgen Lake, near West Yellowstone. 

With Papa Dick & Grandma Barbara this last weekend.

Eva actually fell ASLEEP while we were pulling her in the tube!

Elsa is becoming a very good skipper!

Will and I last Sunday morning at a brunch.  We celebrate 10 years on August 8th!

California Photos from June

So I'm just a little behind with my posts - but better late than never right?

Disneyland - the girls and I went with Grandma Barbara.  We walked on to nearly every ride before 11am.  I can't emphasize enough what a difference it makes to be walking through the gates with the first wave at 8am!

Marley

Malena

BJ & Oliver

Kelly & Nora

Pauline & Eva

Pauline & Elsa

Me with my cousins and their kids - Kelly with Oliver and Nora and Christy with her twins Marley and Malena...

4 Generations Pauline, Barbara, Kristin, Elsa & Eva...

As if family and Disneyland were not enough of an incentive to drive to California from Montana every summer, there is the added benefit of Chris and Betty-Jo's pool...

Fish photos from Rainy Lake

So it took Andy Nute TWO or THREE  MONTHS to get Will the pictures of the massive sturgeon they caught on the Rainy River last fall.  However, all week long he has bugging Will, who has hence been bugging ME, to get the photos to Will.  So here they are Nute!

Northern Pike

Northern Pike caught by Elsa, seen with fishing guide Chris Granrud - we had one guided fishing day.

Eva caught this Walleye on the guided trip. It was very cold so the fish weren't really biting that day.


Walleye

Same Walleye that was being measured above.

Walleye that I didn't catch but is standing in for the one I DID catch that took a dive overboard while Will was measuring it.

Walleye

Walleye I caught.

Northern Pike that I caught.

Northern Pike that I think Will caught.

Will caught some bass too and a lot more Walleyes and Pikes that we didn't get photos of.  None of the  fish we caught were in the slot so no tasty fish fries!

Opps I forgot this shot of a Northern I caught our first night.

As if we didn't have enough fish pics Will informed me we were missing the pics of the Northerns he caught on the last day - so here they are.  FYI all the fish pictured were thrown back!

Memorial Day Weekend at Yellowstone

So we went to Yellowstone National Park for Memorial Day weekend - which is starting to look like a tradition for us.  We call this the SECOND annual trip.  Despite the holiday weekend being a week earlier than usual and a cold rainy forecast and high gas prices - the park was packed! (you are allowed to call it just "the park"  when it's only a 1 hour 40 minute drive from your house to the campsite!) I really think it was a lot busier than last year! 

The highlight of the trip was that Elsa learned to ride her bike without training wheels and we saw a WOLF! 

So without further delay....

Our campsite at the Madison Campground.  Most of the snow at our site melted in the rain by the time we left.  We checked out two other sites at the lake and we feel the Madison Campground is MUCH nicer - plus it's such a short drive from our house.

Elsa reading the Wall Street Journal...

Look Ma - no wheels!  Since we live on a gravel road finding good biking surfaces, and hauling the bikes there, has been a bit challenging.  Yes that's the bike she got for her 5th birthday.  Now at age 7 Elsa can ride without training wheels.  This was her very first time without the wheels.  She would have probably done it a year ago had we tried more.  I mean come on - the girl can ski black diamonds but she couldn't ride without trainers!  She got it the very first time Will let go...

Eva tried Elsa's bike without the trainers a few times - but she's not quite ready yet.

Now don't tell me you can't see Old Faithful going off in the background!  The girls are under the blue and green umbrellas...

Seen in the Hayden Valley seeing this lone wolf was one of the highlights of the weekend...

Except - now we aren't so sure it's a wolf!  Coyote maybe?  A ranger I showed the photo to thought it was a wolf - but she was a new intern, not an expert!  So I'm trying to find out! All indications are pointing to Coyote - however I must say this is the best looking Coyote I've ever seen! Especially for the springtime!!

No matter how many times you see the Falls at Yellowstone it's still breathtaking...

Will has this thing for taking photos at the Continental Divide.  We have photos of us before we were married taken at a Divide sign in Wyoming somewhere - he always has to stop!

That would be a completely frozen Yellowstone Lake in the background...

The one night it didn't rain after dinner!  Sunday night we were able to roast marshmellows...

Love my new camera lens!

I can't decide which of these next two photos I like best!

This buffalo jam was on the way out yesterday morning.  The line of cars behind the buffalo was over a mile long and growing!

Weather and a layout

So I guess I'm only inspired to post when the weather is lousy.  It's snowing again.  That said it was 80 on Tuesday and Eva and I planted petunias - which should do okay in the snow.  The first hummingbird showed up yesterday!!! So I filled the feeder - although it was only there briefly this morning feeding. 

I haven't really scrapped for a while - but my office is clean now and I'm raring to go!  I did this layout last night of Bill (my father-in-law) in Mexico this Spring.  I was inspired by Chantel's Keeping It Simple challenge over on the vine.  First of all it's just a really great photo of Bill - I don't know who took it. Second - can you believe that paper with it?  It's perfect!!!  OH I ALMOST FORGOT TO MENTION THAT THIS WAS MADE FROM THE SWEET PEA SCRAPS JUNE KIT!

OVER the snow!

So woke up to SNOW AGAIN this morning - I'm so over it!

Elsa's first soccer game yesterday - before the rain...

Eva recording the ABC Song at Gator Studios last week...

Playing in the rain!

Woodpecker destroying one of our pine trees...