A Fall Picnic

Since the weather has been so gorgeous here we decided to go on a picnic tonight. I had everything ready so when Jason got home we could just go. We went up Hyalite Canyon and had our picnic in a campground - in the summer it's busy, and we would have had to pay, but not this time of year! We had BBQ chicken sandwiches, baked beans, some coleslaw made with cabbage, carrots, and broccoli from our garden, and zucchini bread, made with zucchini from the garden. It was a touch chilly in the shade, but no big deal.

There is a big rock in this campground that the kids love to climb on (this rock also happens to be right by our favorite kid-hike with the paved trail). Ruby makes me nervous but Reder seems to be pretty sure-footed.

The dogs had so much fun too. They love going to the mountains.

Instead of hiking we decided to go on a little drive. We went on an old logging road "way up high", as Ruby likes to say, and it wraps around the front of the mountains that we can see from our house. The views from the top were absolutely amazing in all directions (why did I not take a picture??). If you leaned just right you could see our house. It always amazes me what a mountainous area we live in. You get so used to the views you see everyday that you forget that they are in fact three-dimensional, and stretch in all directions. Montana is pretty cool. Oh, and all the way down the hill Reder narrated this 30 minute long story of Dino, and how he got chased by a bear, but his dad got a moose to chase the bear away, etc etc etc. My word that child did not stop talking. It was cute because he got so wrapped up in his story, and was laughing so hard at times, telling us this made-up tale of Dino. Ruby couldn't get a word in at all, and she tried.

We got home pretty late but kids were agreeable and went to bed easily. Tomorrow night we start a new program at church called Love Dare. Sounds cheesy, but I can't wait. It's a 10-week thing, where you get a book that you both have to read (about marriage stuff I'm guessing), then you drop your kids at the church at 6, and go and do what you want until 8. Free babysitting? We're there!