The New Montana Millers

For the past decade we've been driving back and forth and through Missouri on all of our cross country trips, stopping in scenic places like Brookfield and Keytesville, but I can say now that I may never have another reason to go to Missouri. That's heartbreaking, I know. My sister and her large clan moved back home to the Treasure State to run the family glass business. We didn't have a lot of time to hang out, since the drive to Montana is twice as long as it was to Missouri, but we still had a chance to get together and let the kids play in the dirt, or at least that appeared to be what they were doing.

Took a short walk down the trail by the glass shop...

Tried to make Grandpa Jim sick on the merry-go-round!

Stopped to see Great-Grandma Steele!

Paul visited the Lolo Sewer and Water plant! He was thrilled...

Had a little too much candy...

Hung around the glass shop watching other people work...

 

And otherwise had a fantastic time hanging out with all these cousins!

Another trip through Utah...

We loaded up the car and took the long drive north back in early June. Not unusual for summer, as we seem to do it almost every year. Of course we made some familiar stops in Utah and hung out with the usual people, as well as the newer arrivals. It's never enough time, but we try to make the best of it...

Our first stop was to check out these alien dudes in Roswell. Driven through a few times, but we decided to actually check out the museum this time... I'm a believer.

Adam enjoys long drives.

And it wouldn't be a trip to Utah without a stop at the Utah Sellers' house! Here Nolan showed Hailyn his hamster friend who also made the long drive to Montana. I tried my best to accidentally leave him in Uncle Josh's garage, but somehow it made it back into the van before we left...

Played some board games...

Strolled to the park with Noelle...

Like father...

Like son.

Hung out in the hot tub.

And then we went over to Uncle Andy's house where Becky got to meet her newest niece, Violet!

Not so sure about all these boys...

Even I got to hang out with the baby!

And they all got to hang out on the fluffy rug together! We're fortunate to have gotten the time to spend with everyone, and no doubt... we'll be back!

A June of Transition

So it's been a while... as in, months, since I last made a post. There's a reason for that. Way back in May we got ourselves into a bind with the sale of one house and the purchase of a new one which ultimately left us with a massive amount of work to do. We bought a foreclosure that needed a pretty serious renovation, so while I stuck around and did the demo work, Becky and the boys went to Montana for a short while. But between all the work, we still managed to do a ton of driving this summer and saw a lot of familiar faces. I'll start off with the house though... here's where it all started...

We emptied out the old house... among all the stress of moving was the bittersweet feeling of saying goodbye to the first home we ever owned. A lot went on within the walls of this house, a lot of growing for these three...

And how they were back in 2013 after we first moved in...

Unfortunately they got bigger, and that meant we needed more space. So we went out and got more space... lots of dirty, outdated, disgusting space...

Ready for action... 

Still a long way to go... but we're getting there one can of paint, one box of screws, and a lot of sweat and curse words at a time... I'll post some more as we move along!