Our home for the summer

     We've all been looking forward to returning to Montana ever since we left last fall. Add to that several months of moving every few days and we were more than ready to get properly unpacked and set up!

The first order of business was to make a birthday cake for our big 4 year old!

Thankfully he was pleased with this easy cake :) 

Happily, we were invited to his "best friend Jason" for lunch on Saturday so we took the cake along and called it a birthday party!

Even though it was chilly outside, inside the greenhouse was 100*!

Ethan is quite happy with the remote controlled tractor he bought with his birthday money from Grandpa Beachy's.

In our first week here Pastor Durfey and family invited us for supper and Uno. 

Lots of fun! Makayla was happy to win the game.....again!

Tucker and Michael are like 2 peas in a pod- muddy, holey jeans and all!

April in Montana started out quite muddy with big snowdrifts in many places. 

The barn is a fun place to visit! Adorable bum calves and.....

....kittens!

Ethan is half scared of the calves but just can't quite leave them alone!

Makayla also had a birthday this month!

Ethan's loot!

Our very close neighbor's and "landlords" bought their son a trampoline for his birthday. So far it's been used for hours and hours already.

Since this was a big number for Makayla, she thought she should have a birthday party! After picking up all these girls, our first stop was the local museum.

I was very impressed with how interested they were in everything! 

Using photo props in front of Steer Montana-something this small town is famous for!

They had an Escape Room set up and the girls wanted to do it. We learned all about the Great Depression while cracking codes to figure out our bank account PIN. We did figure it out and got our savings back!

One of the absolutely stunning quilts on display.

The schoolroom was intriguing to this homeschooled crowd :)

A massive pot used to cook soap, ect.

The girls used biscuits and made personal pizzas for lunch. 

Makayla just wanted a simple cake with 10 candles :)

Watching Felicity, an American Girl movie.

They also decorated cupcakes to take home for their families.

It was fun to see their creativity come out!

Coloring......lots of coloring!

   

Eldon fixed up the chicken coop and we're all enjoying this cute little fuzzies!

This is such a gorgeous view!

The children think it's great fun to bike down the long hill on the lane but it's a bit terrifying to watch!

Mud is an important part of spring, we're told!

The children are having fun riding horses again!

     It's good to be back! Work is going well for Eldon and the children are back to doing school most days. Another exciting part of being back is that Eldon and Makayla are taking guitar lessons and Michael and I mandolin lessons. It's hard work but so exciting to hear progress!

Time traveling!

     Within a month's time, we traveled from 70* weather in Florida to 20* weather in Montana. We figured we went back 2 months in time, which only makes us more eager for spring!

Eldon's sister-in-law gave us a box of fun food when we left Pennsylvania. 

We spent a night at Cabela's in Hammond, Indiana. It's a great place to walk around for an hour or so. The children were thrilled to ride the escalator. 

Jelly Belly Tour, Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin

     Turn down a free factory tour right along our route? Nope! We loved riding on the little cars that took us through and showed us all kinds of cool stuff and taught us how Jelly Bellies are made.

A portrait of Queen Elizabeth-done entirely in Jelly Bellies.

We all had to wear the cute little hats.

The engines that pulled our trains around.

Along the tour we saw lots of retired equipment. 

We thought it was really cool the outer coating is made almost entirely of sugar and added as it mixes in a machine similar to a concrete mixer.

Singing Jelly Bellies! Our "free" tour ended with us buying several bags of Belly Flops (candies that aren't perfect) to share with friends. 

While in Wisconsin, visiting a cheese house is a must! Sadly, they weren't making cheese the day we were there but we still stocked up on cheese.

There is still lots of snowdrifts!

     We spent a few days at my Grandma's in Minnesota. It was a wonderful resting point after traveling hard for a few days. She cooked us lots of delicious food and Eldon's did all sorts of odd jobs for her. On Monday I enjoyed having several of my step-Aunts and cousins stop to visit.

It makes me happy to see Michael loving puzzles.

There is a similar picture of me like this when I was about 6, all my dolls lined up on the couch!

Ethan had fun with the many toy cars and trucks in the toybox!

I am so thankful and blessed for this dear grandma of mine! We get along famously- probably because we are both low-drama and practical :).

Leaving Grandma's and making a beeline for Montana!

Pennsylvania

    We spent 3 weeks parked at Eldon's parents in March and had a lovely time. His older brother lives just up the hill and milks at the home place so we spent a lot of time with them as well. I also have a brother that lives a few miles from there so we were blessed with many good visits with all! Also, I barely cooked at all the 3 weeks we were there, thanks to all the supper invitations we received. No complaints here except that we felt like we were being fattened for slaughter by the end 😂.

     The weather was amazing too. The day after we arrived it snowed, a beautiful, gentle snow that covered everything. Then it warmed up and it all went away! By the time we left the trees were getting buds and it felt like spring.

Most of the children liked the snow. Not Ethan though! He's our snowbird.

Michael zooming down the big hill behind the house.

And Emily too.

My niece has a very tame bird that the children loved to play with.

Perched on Michael!

Eugene's also raise puppies and brought a few in the house for the children to play with. So cute!

One Saturday Kylie (my niece) came to play with Makayla. They played in the snow for hours then came in and played Lego's.

Michael was thrilled when Eldon said he's old enough to climb to the top of the silo!

Sunday night snack with their King cousins.

We went to Eldon's Grandpa's for lunch one day. The children always pull out the Tinker Toys and this time they built a cage for the cat!

More puppy fun at Eugene's.

Kylie did a wonderful job of entertaining our children in their attic. 

Grandma King played Uncle Wiggily with Emily.....over and over and over!

They love climbing the huge tree in the front yard that Eldon's Grandma planted.

The very old shop. It was originally built as a chicken house for laying hens. Grandpa King sold the eggs for $1 a dozen and they went to Delaware for hatching eggs. He had the shop paid off in a year! Later this was used by an uncle for a glass shop and now it's just storage. 

Unfortunately, there is no great place to park other than here, where our front end is up almost as high as it goes to get level!

The original part of the barn is the tall part. Eldon's dad added everything else.

Michael is always excited to go to his Great Aunt Ruth's and play with the brain balls :).

Ethan playing with his cousin.... or second cousin? Cousin once removed? 

Playing school with more cousins of some kind 😂.

Aunt Judith came up from Virginia for 2 days. 

Laura and Emily played quite nicely!

Arlin and Ethan are a year apart but had so much fun together! Here they are rowing their boat.

Eldon's favorite meal and it is authentically Amish. Bean soup, moon pies, apple pie, pickles, and cheese.

Early birthday cake for Ethan!

We spent and evening with 4 of Eldon's aunts. Since we love history, Lena pulled out old photo albums and told us a ton of fascinating family history.

Playing Racko. Michael was excited to win nearly every game!

Playing with marble rollers made by their great-grandpa King.

One day we went exploring. This used to be a cute little cabin that Eldon's aunts bought and put back in the woods for a little get-away place. Sadly, it's falling apart.

Checking out the tractor :).

No one (not even Aunt Lena!) can find a date when the barn was built but definitely in the 1800's. The boards in the old part are notched and fit tightly together. 

I love that they took time to add fancy touches! So much history here. 

The original barn (without the lean-to). 

More cool beams.

     Another fascinating yet horrifying story Aunt Lena told us was about Eldon's great-great-great grandma (I THINK that's right....). She fell from the hayloft while throwing hay down for the cows and as a result, died a few days later. The really sad part? She was buried with a stillborn baby in each arm - she had been pregnant with twins.

This barn has the second longest beam in the valley. 

My nephew Dallas taught Ethan how to shoot a BB gun. Eugene then sent it home with us 😐😃.

Riding scooters in grandpa's garage is a great way to burn energy!

     It was sad to leave but like we tell the children, "Without leaving we can't arrive anywhere else!"