Day #66-72 of summer break

Aka trip to Montana to go to Grandma's cabin.

My fam took pics of everything from every photo device, but I only have what I took (so far) and I'm anxious to post my wonderful trip, so here it is from my point of view:

 Olivia got to ride up in our car on Saturday.  We listened to books on CD and talked a ton! It is an 8-9 hr trip.

The next day we went to church Cooke City style, in a barn.  It happens to be a church filled with a lot of my family members.  1st cousins, 2nd cousins, 2nd cousins once removed, 4 great aunts, grandma, etc.  GO Jackson clan!

 Here's how we get to church through the forest and back again.

Me & 14 yr old Olivia.

The next day; Me & Mom!

Me & Isaac!

Then I sat outside and painted my toenails & fingernails!

This is a special picture to me, so family, here is the reason why I love it so... EVERYONE IS IN IT! From L to R, Dad, Grandma, Ben, Olivia, Mom holding baby M, Nettina & J in the window, Isaac and Matt.  I'm the one taking the pic, but I'm there!  11 of us!

And what are we doing?  Building a shed for the 4-wheeler and other supplies.

Burn fire burn!  We keep a fire going most days to get through the trash wood, if wood can be called that? ;)

 Dad was pulling out rocks for the foundation of the shed.

 Mom sawing down baby trees in the middle of forest paths.

 Then another day we walked over to the horse stables for a visit.  Above is Nettina & J crossing the river. And below is Mom.

Ben took a break from digging holes for foundations and panned for gold. He was successful and got a few ity bity flakes.

J up on the horse.

Olivia found a cute kitty!

Here's how I cross the creek.

The two of us are so fast that we took pics of them behind us crossing.

 Today was Melissa's hair salon day, so I styled Nettina's hair in 2 french braids & Olivia's in one long french braid down her back!

 I got to eat a meal between MOM & DAD!  I sure do love them!

Here's how we got rocks for the inside ground cover for the shed.  One person was down at the stream shoveling rocks into a bucket.  Then the people at the top would pull the bucket by using an attached rope up the zip line and then we would dump the rocks into the wheel barrow.  Usually we take turns screaming down the zip line having fun, but this year we worked and didnt get a chance (plus it wasn't rigged right).

Mom working the wheel barrow. And below is a pic of all the rocks we hauled up.

 Then for the structure we made "A"s for Allred ;-) .  So Dad had me hammering nail plates at the top joints.

 He had Nettina using the nail gun to finish off the A's.  Go girls team!

 Although, nothing can be said about how hard Matt & Dad worked on the A's.  They were at the saw most days with Isaac & Ben helping throughout too!

 The next day Ben took Isaac fishing/backpacking.  Here's where they stayed at Crane Lake.  Isaac got sick during the night so they left camp and came back to the cabin.  So Ben took me up and we packed up camp and brought back fish!

Ben & Isaac were successful and caught 31 fish.  They ate 13 and brought back the rest for grandma & us to eat too!

Good job fishers!

And then, they feasted!

Lots of fish!!!!

 Here we are packed up and ready to hike bike to the car.

 On our way back to the cabin we stopped at the border to take pics together.

 Dad is directing the construction of the "A" shed.

 There are the 4 men working together!

 Sibling snuggles!

 We saw this doe and buck throughout our stay.

They love the salt lick.

He was a good size too!

Ben on top of our sturdy "A" shed.

 We also got to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary, so we went down the road to Cooke and had lunch at the Beartooth Cafe.

 We took our pic by the Trading Post bear too.

 And one more pic by the anniversary sign Mom hung up for us!

 More shed work.  Sides are on, tar paper on, and doors being hung.

 This is how to keep children warm on early mornings.  This was the day we declared the "A" shed done for this trip.  We poured out the concrete and stamped it as OURS!

Here's a pic of the final piece!  

 My hand is right above the 2013. Ben's hand is to the left.

Dad let us all sign it with our family names.  Even the kiddos put their hands in!  We all felt so accomplished!

Last year, 2012 the city of Cooke was voted coolest small town.  It is becoming increasingly popular, but we know the family heritage and meaning behind all our trips to paradise!

One more trip through the park for the year, aka Yellowstone Park.

Then we all crashed at my house.  Beans was so excited to have us and my whole family back so he could snuggle and be loved by everyone! Mom & Beans snuggles!

Beans & Olivia snuggles!

Beans is on top of Jonathan and next to Nettina.  I was glad Jonathan could spend time with all of us before and after the Montana trip week.

Overall, if you just wanna know, it was a great trip.  Lots of fun!  Lots of WORK! But I dont mind it. Lots of snuggles with family that I love!

From my journal, here are some of my fav's: making a face with my breakfast (dont have that pic, but will get it to you, my blog readers, when I can), making a dutch oven peach cobbler with Ben for our family, the 4 of us sib's having a giggle fest in bed with mom and singing the song, "There were 4 in the bed and the little one said, "roll over, roll over" so they all rolled over and one fell out." And let's just say there was a pile up off the bed by the time the song was done.  :)

Isaac helped drive home with Ben & I.  We were so excited to have Beans back!  Vacation is fun, but its always good to get back home again too!