Snapshots of Summer 2013

In May I panicked. I knew that in just a month I would have 4 girls at home for the summer, and no husband (he travels 4 days a week), in a new town where we weren't established with many close friends yet. I sat down with the local magazines and asked neighbors about things we could do in Billings this summer. It didn't disappoint. I put off blogging, working out, and other personal interests to give my summer to my girls. It was possibly the best. summer. ever.



We spent many days at the spraygrounds, wading pools, & swimming pools in Billings.



We rose early to jump on the trampoline nearly every day.

We did tennis camp

We visited all the parks for picnics and playdates

We played in panties

We took swimming lessons from our neighbor

We went on family hikes on the weekends

We visited Billings' waterpark

We enrolled in summer gymnastics

We shopped. A lot

We visited downtown festivals (like the Strawberry festival)

We visited the Billings Zoo (bears wrestling in the background!)

We went on bike/scooter/powerwheel rides through the neighborhood with friends

 

We visited the Montana Fair

We signed up for soccer camp

We used our firepit more, for hot dogs and smores in the evenings



And thank goodness for phones with cameras to capture these ordinary moments of our extraordinary summer.

Lydia's 7th Birthday

 

My beautiful Lydia is 7 years old! For her birthday we were going to do something special with her small group of friends here in Billings, so we took the girls to White Aspen Ranch for horseback riding! Each of the girls got to ride the horses around the arena a few times, and when it wasn't their turn, they walked around the stables petting horses and looking for Petunia, the resident pig. After the riding, it was presents, pizza, and a piñata!

 

 

 

  

  

 

Then later that evening she got her presents from her family. Both sets of grandparents spoiled her with American Girl things, Scarlett picked out some jewelry and nailpolish, Claire picked out a Barbie toy, Hadley got her a movie, and mom got her some clothes. But her favorite gift was probably dad's gift - a pet fish! I suggested she give the fish a "V" name, and so she chose "Vector"...a la Despicable Me...and now Lydia's pride & joy is Vector Viets :)

 

 

Visitors from Scotland

We were so excited to hear that our good friends from Aberdeen, the Rankins, were coming to visit America! And it was for a wonderful occasion - their son was getting married in the temple in Utah. We quickly made arrangements to go down and spend a long weekend with them while they were here. It was a blast.

 

Of course we spent time in historic downtown Salt Lake City, visiting the Church museums and Temple Square.

 

We also did a lot of shopping and eating. We went out to eat at a Brazillian churrascaria, Texas de Brazil, where they feed you endless cuts of meats. While the adults were busy still stuffing their face, the girls kept Reanne busy.

 

Our family stayed at my sister's condo in Provo. We were surrounded by college kids and the girls were thrilled to play with all of Madison's toys! Provo has a great waterpark, so we spent an evening there, at Seven Peaks.

 

 

The best part of the weekend was boating at Deer Creek Reservoir. We rented a boat for a half-day, and everyone went tubing, swimming, and waterskiing. Reanne even got up on skis.

 My boating buddy Scarlett. I even got her to go tubing with me! By late afternoon both of my babies crashed, they were so tired, and loved the hum of the boat.

 

 Thanks for a fun weekend Rankins! Hopefully it's not too long before we do this again :)

 

 

Big Sky State Games

Josh signed up for his first triathlon in Montana. This was big for him because it was his first one since his hip surgery, and his first one with his new bike.

What is it with men and their expensive hobbies!? Josh had a nice road bike before, but has been nagging and nagging to upgrade, just a year after getting his first bike. It was just waaay too expensive. For the cost of this bike we could take our family on a vacation. So we always argued about it. Finally he got his way months and months later - with help from a bonus from work, our tax return, the sell of his old bike, and now I don't have to get him a birthday present. He got his bike, and he is thrilled to race with it.

ANYways, the Big Sky State Games is an annual Olympic-style event for Montanans with something like 50 different sporting events. They have soccer, fencing, golf, ...even arm-wrestling and roller skating! But we stuck with the basics: Josh signed up for a triathlon and I signed up for a 10K.

Josh did really well in the triathlon and placed first in his age group. There were very few in his age group...but he was first nonetheless :) I am very proud of him, he trains so hard and really loves it.

 

 

 

I competed in the 10K, and had a goal to finish it in an hour....which I missed by a matter of seconds! I've been discouraged because I am just so slow after taking so much time off. Plus its been hard to find time to run with 4 kids at home and a husband who is out of town every week. But excuses aside - September is coming and with school in session, I'll get it back!

Claire's birthday and our week in Kansas

Since we were going to be travelling on Claire's birthday, we decided to simplify things this year and just have a "family birthday" for her in Kansas with our Viets cousins.

 

Claire was super-excited that it was going to be a pool party. I'm not exaggerating when I say she was in her swimsuit from 8 in the morning till 8pm that night.

Right after dinner she was in the pool again. The only way to get her out was to tell her we were going to have cake & ice cream and open presents!

 

 

Claire got her own "American Girl" doll. The Dillard's version :) She loves it!

We had a fun week in Independence. For such a small small town there was plenty to do. We took the kids to the waterpark, the zoo, the mini-golf course, the playgrounds, the carousel, and the train ride.

 

When they restored the carousel a few years ago, they asked local artists to come decorate the horses. Our Grandma Sharon did two of them - Faerie Cyan and Rough Rider.

 

We spent the 4th of July at a neighborhood party, setting off cheap fireworks...that aren't cheap. Kids loved them though. The smoke bombs and the parachute men were their favs.


We spent a day in Tulsa at the Tulsa Zoo (great bargain btw!).

We also did some shopping in Tulsa, took the kids to Despicable Me 2, and took our party of 12 to the Cheesecake Factory.

It was a wonderful week, made all the more special by all the Viets family that is together in Kansas.