Fall 2010

Well, although the title of this post is Fall, that isn't exactly accurate. Fall involves cooler weather, falling leaves and football, right? Well, here in Bozeman, Fall involves snow, leaves under the snow, and football in the snow! We have really only had about 2 big snowfalls here, but we have over a foot of snow on the ground and it is here to stay. They played the high school championship game the week before Thanksgiving in a blizzard! The snow is beautiful, but there is just a lot of it. Scout loves it, and Craig loves plowing it with his 4-wheeler. It does make everything so bright, you can go outside at 11pm and it looks like 4 in the afternoon. We missed the negative temperatures last week because we were in Florida for Thanksgiving (hehe). I think there is a storm headed our way though. Here is a clip of Craig and Scout in the snow.



Back in September, Mimi (my grandmother) moved into a retirement home and out of her house that she had lived in for over 30 years. I had nothing better to do, and she needed help packing, so I flew down and surprised her the week of her move. We got her house packed (barely) and moved her into her new apartment. She loves it and thinks it is the greatest thing on earth that the Beauty Salon is directly across from her apartment. She gets dinner every night, and has tons of cool amenities that she is getting used to. It was a bit emotional for me, going through all of her old things, and packing up the house we all grew up in. She had so much stuff, and all of the kids and grandkids and great-grandkids have some cool things of hers that we will treasure forever. She turned 85 this past Saturday and hasn't missed a beat! She became a great-grandmother for the 9th time this past Sunday when my cousin Natalie had her second little boy.

For Thanksgiving, the Hawkins family headed to their condo in Destin, and our family joined them. Craig and I flew to Dallas, picked up my mom, and the 3 of us drove to Destin. It is a 12 hour trip, but it went by pretty fast. My sister and her family came down on Wednesday and stayed for Thanksgiving on Thursday. Craig's daughter, Jasmine, made the trip with his brother, so we were all in sunny Florida for Thanksgiving. Instead of cooking, we went to Cracker Barrel, and had a great lunch. The rest of the day was spent taking family pictures on the beach and swimming in the heated pool. Then, on Saturday, we headed to Alabama for Blake's 9th birthday party at the dirt bike track. He is growing up so fast and rides his bike like nothing I have ever seen. Even Bailie rides her dirt bike around at full speed with no training wheels. We had a nice trip overall, but it was long. Craig and I got a little delirious at the end of the car ride back. It was so great to spend time with our families, I just wish we had a lot more days! There never seems to be enough hours in the day when you are on vacation. All of the pics are on my Facebook page, but here are just a few:







So, for the most part, we are still alive up here in Montana, just buried beneath a lot of snow. I am just waiting to buy my ski pass and then I will be taking full advantage of this snow! Happy Winter everyone...