Montana

We took a road trip to Butte in July to be with my family after Papa Gustav Stolz passed away on June 25.  I will be honest, I was pretty stressed about taking the girls on the 12-13 hour drive to Butte, but the car ride turned out to be a breeze and it really was amazing to spend time with everybody and remember what a truly AMAZING man my Papa was.  Our time spent with Papa was a blessing.  We will miss you Papa!

Gustav "Gus" Stolz Jr. 1/25/1924 - 6/25/2011



My dad's blog has more pictures from our trip and of Papa :
More Montana Pictures
In Remembrance

Fountains on the 4th of July

We had a very mellow 4th of July celebration, in fact it was extremely mellow compared to our usual celebrations.  But sometimes smaller is better, and especially if you ask Sophie and Bella, the beautiful quiet fireworks are much better than the giant explosions that hurt your ears! Let's hear it for snakes, smoke bombs, sparklers and fountains!!

 ...Okay, don't tell anybody, but it was my favorite 4th of July in awhile too, I think I just might prefer fountains to sparker bombs and artillary shells these days :)



Viva Mexico

James and I decided to take a kids-free vacation to Cozumel in June for our anniversary!  The girls stayed with Mimi and Papa or Katie while we were gone, and though I think they had a great time they pestered us enough about leaving them behind we booked another Mexico vacation in November... this time with the girls :)

The view from our room was incredible!

 Ahhh, upon arrival I was trying to imagine 10 days of relaxation ahead of us

 We stayed at Cozumel Palace, it was amazing!

 We spent our fair share of time in various beach bars

 And we met a croc named Lucy at the mangroves

We had a great trip, but the return flight was a little scary when the pilot announced 20 minutes before landing that we had lost some of the nose landing gear during take-off, what!!??

We were so happy to land safe and sound on the ground!

Tea with Mrs Nesbitt

What's a girl to do when she gets Buzz Lightyear for her birthday??

 Have a tea party of course!

 Just wanted to throw in this picture it makes me smile :)

The girls helped Mimi make my favorite raspberry cake for my birthday, they were so proud!

Happy Birthday!

Happy 3rd Birthday Sophie and Bella!!

The girls were so excited to get big girl bikes for their birthday!

 The girls looked so cute for their party!

They wanted to wear their beautiful princess dresses with snowboots :)



 The Toy Story cake

 ...and the back of the cake made me laugh.

Bella got into it the night before and ate some frosting, and Buzz fell off the top a few times too many so he ended up sitting on a peep!

May 4, 2011

On their actual birthday I took the day off and we went to the Butterfly Pavilion

They loved it!

 Bella was a little scared of the butterflies!

 But when they got the chance they tried to hold the butterflies :)

 And we visited this starfish at least a dozen times that afternoon!

Easter Bunnies