The Northern Lights!

I saw the Northern Lights!! It was such an awesome experience. I was in bed half asleep when Bret called. He told me he was watching the Northern Lights so I jumped out of bed grabbed my shoes and stepped outside. He was a couple hours out of the city so the sky was much darker, making the lights brighter. For me, it was faint but the green wave moving through the sky was still an amazing sight! The area where the lights were moving was much wider than I expected. I have always wanted to see these lights but never thought I would get the chance. I thought there were only visible from Northern Canada and Alaska... shows how much I know ;) Now I know that from 11pm to 1am is my best chance to get a view! (PS Thanks Romers for being a good sport and texting me back last night at midnight. I was so excited to see the lights I had to tell someone!) I'm going to be spending lots of time with my camera now trying to figure out how to take a picture like this one! I picked this one from Google because the green color is the exact shade I saw last night. Beautiful!

Upper Missouri River Valley Fair aka THE FAIR!!

We had an awesome afternoon at the fair last night. I love that we are able to do these sort of things as a family right now. Its so much easier to agree to outings when I know Bret will be there to help out. I love our family time!

Haylee is always talking about how much she wants to go on rides and how fun Lagoon looks so we thought both girls would love going to this fair. As you can see, she was happy while we were sitting close to the ground.

 

Then we started moving...

 

She was terrified! This is just on the Ferris Wheel!

 

She made me wrap my legs around here while she hugged this center pole. I made her stand up and wave to Bret as we made the loop down to the ground but she was not happy about it!

 

I managed to get a couple shots while I was in the air.

 

 

You can also see the Little Muddy River winding through the background.

 

 

 

 

The girls got their faces painted. The sign said:

FREE FACE PAINTING with a Gospel Story 

The kids that were doing with face painting (which was just coloring on faces with water color pencils) were telling the story of where Jesus came from. They were explaining what to do if we sin, they said God doesn't want to be around anybody who isn't perfect. It was very hard for me to sit there listening to these kids say what they were saying. I finally said that God loves everyone no matter what. Haylee then looked at me and said "Mom, you're not supposed to say God remember." Well, that gave us something to talk about the rest of the afternoon.

 

 

Haylee and I got wristbands to ride all the rides. Maycie wasn't tall enough so her and Bret shared some tickets. They got loads of daddy daughter time in!

 

 

 

 

Maycie sized rides! The dragon ride went too fast to get a picture of both girls but you can see them sitting in the very back.

 

 

Nice thing about the kids being able to ride the rides together... I got a few minutes of Bret to myself!

 

 

We sat on the front row for a bear show! They look so cuddly and friendly. I wish I had one for a pet!

 

 

 

 

 

This bear is named Jack Jack! He's 22 years old!

 

I don't remember this little bears name. She is 6 and had twin cubs that were there but you couldn't tell they were cubs because they were just as big as her!

 

 

 

Mace couldn't decide if she wanted to cover her eyes or watch the bears. The sun was right in our eyes for the whole show.

 

 

There were  quite a few bouncy houses set up that the kids could play on for free. That made the girls happy!

 

 

 

Do I even need to say anything about these pictures?? If you know Haylee, you know she's in heaven!

 

 

 

Next up, the kids Bret just HAD to play ring toss.

 

 

 

 

This is Haylee and a neighbor girl at the end of the fun house. Haylee said this part was her favorite part of the whole fair.

 

 

 

There were a few rides that Haylee really wanted to try but after standing in line and watching them for a while she would chicken out when it was her turn to get on. I'm proud of her for going on the rides she did go on!

 

 

Maycie wanted to try all the rides! She would run up to the ruler to see if she was tall enough but sadly, she wasn't. She would still stand in line by Haylee and try to sneak her way onto the ride. Maybe next year.

 

 

 

The girls wanted pictures with all the things they came home with. For starters, we have Haylee with her wristband.

 

 

Here we have both girls with the yellow monkeys they won on their own from throwing darts.

I love the smile Maycie has on her face! Its a rare occasion to actually catch a picture of it.

 

 

 

After the fair we went to dinner with some neighbors and then Bret headed back out to the rig for a few days. Overall we had a wonderful day together. I keep saying it but I really am so happy to have the chance to do this stuff as a family. I know, being in the oil field, we won't always have Bret around to enjoy stuff like this with. I think that's why outings like this or simply the four of us going to the park mean so much. We don't get to spend every evening together. We don't get every weekend to go out together; but right now, we're taking every opportunity we get to just be a family. Knowing all too well that a phone call could come in at any moment to steal him away. So, I'll say it again, I love our family time!

 

 

Minot

Since I didn't take my secret trip to Minot for a Fathers Day present we decided that we take a little vacation and go as a family. It. Was. Awesome. We stayed at a hotel that was connected to the mall. Yes, they have a mall! It was just like being in Salt Lake! We went to Olive Garden for lunch. It was so nice going to a real restaurant! We went swimming in the huge hotel pool. Had dinner at a delicious restaurant in the mall. When you first walk in you see the open fire with rows and rows of rotisserie chickens roasting. The smell was amazing. For dessert we went to Cold Stone. Now do you see why I loved it there?! It was a real city!

Here the girls are ready to hit the road.

 

 

 

This is the scary blue slide! Bret took Haylee down this very first and it was a very traumatic experience. Not only is it pitch black in the slide and it curves all directions but it is the fastest slide I've been on. Bret was trying to keep Haylee in front of him and slow down at the same time. They came shooting out of the tunnel so fast I couldn't see Haylee. It took a few seconds for Bret to find her, once he did, we could see she was completely panicking. She refused to go down the big slides again and spent most of her time just swimming in the big pool. When I went down alone I got anxious towards the end because I wasn't sure when to hold my breath. I was pretty sure I was going to die so I can only imagine how scared Haylee was! You only see light the instant before you hit water.

 

There was a shallow pool for kids that had two slides and a couple of this that sprayed water down. That was all Maycie needed to be happy. She did go with me down the yellow slide and loved it but wanted to go back to the kid pool afterwards.

There was a large swimming pool and a 48 person hot tub! We spent a lot of time swimming as you can imagine!

 

 

 

The room was great! Bret slept in one bed, I was in the other and the girls were on the hide-a-bed. Best nights sleep! The mattress we have in the trailer is thin narrow and far from ideal. Sleeping on my own without 3 people kicking, stretching or squishing me was amazing! Aaaaaa refreshing!

 

After eating breakfast the girls wanted to go swimming again so away us girls went while Bret took a nap.

 

 

 

We stopped by the arcade for a few games. I think Bret has a secret crush on arcades. He goes wild!

 

 

 

Lunch at a Mexican restaurant where the girls got pretty cool kid drinks. Food was not so good but the drinks were a hit.

 

 

 

My favorite part of the whole trip was squishing into a photo booth with my cute family and getting this in return:

 

Fathers Day

For Fathers Day I wanted to do something special for Bret because he actually had days off!! I was planning on secretly driving to Minot to a golf store and I wanted to get him something super awesome. Well... I don't know all that much about golf or what is considered super awesome. So I started talking to him about what he needed and he ended up picking out his own present . Not my idea of something super awesome but he loves it so we're happy.

I'm so thankful for Bret and for all that he does for our family. I know he works long crazy hours and its hard to explain to people why he does it, but I know that it is for our family. He loves his girls and they love him. I know what it is like to be a daddy's girl and I can't wait for the girls to have the kind of bond with Bret like I have with my dad. My dad is amazing. He is the smartest man I know. Seriously, everybody should have a dad like mine. He literally knows everything about everything. Okay well truthfully, he may not know everything about everything but at least he has an answer for everything- and he's quick! Like, Waldo Bouncy. When I was a kid we learned Waldo Bouncy was the man who invented the bouncy ball. Now that I'm smarter than a 5th grader I know it wasn't Waldo Bouncy but a guy named Stingley who was experimenting with rubber. Wanna know where I learned that? My dad.

I love both these Dads in my life and I am so grateful for their friendship, guidance and love. I hope we get many many more Fathers Days together!

Garrison Dam

We went out on a road trip the other day to Garrison Dam. It was HUGE! We drove for hours and only went around one end of it. Its butts up to Lake Sakakawea which is also huge. It was very windy the day we went so we didn't spend much time there. I was trying to take a picture of the four of us by using the timer and putting my camera on the hood of Bret's truck but it was so windy that it was blowing my camera all over the place. We got lots of pictures of me running to catch the camera! That idea quickly went down the drain. Here are the pictures I managed to get in between gusts of wind.