Greg, Jessica, Jared, Krista, John, Lydia and Chuck.
Jessica, Chuck, Mom (Gammi and Ellie), Jared and Lydia
Happy posing for a nice picture in front of Mom's Christmas tree.
Ashley hanging out before dinner and gifts.
Hailey playing and keeping busy.
Ethan posing. Really?
Ashely and Ella agreeing to pose for a picture.
The big guy turned 9 and had a fun sleepover with a couple of good buddies. Lots of talking, tek decking, laughing, eating and playing happened. Happy Birthday Happy! 
Ella asked to see the Witches Hat Tower up close because she was so sure we could climb up the stairs and see all around. We didn't get to climb the stairs, but we did run around it! Those of you driving by Minneapolis via 94 or 280 and University Ave. know the old watertower we visited. If you've never stopped, you should as there's a great view of downtown Minneapolis. 
Happy's sporting his new "Faux Hawk" for football. They've had 5 games now and are playing well. Happy's team is the "Blue Huskies" and he is number 23. 
What a lovely trip we had to Montana this summer. We drove out via Detroit Lakes and North Dakota. As the kids saw some of the first rocky outcrops in ND they said, "Cool! Take a picture!" My uncle Mark and Aunt Caroline have a beautiful cabin in Gold Creek they very generously let us use as "home" for a week. We panned for gold, hiked, saw a bear, lots of deer and birds and smelled something funky (but scary...a mt. lion?) on one of our hikes. We brought home lots of rocks and pictures. Mark and Caroline's neighbors taught the kids to ride horseback, let us play with their dogs (Ella's hoping for horses and dogs now) and fed us a great Elk burger dinner on our last night in Montana. When we headed for home we drove through the Bear Tooth Mountains and had a snowball fight on July 19th at 10,900 feet. The drive home was long but beautiful. A visit to Wall Drug in South Dakota wrapped up our trip. The kids can't wait to get back to Mt and Wall Drug.
