Montana

Luke's extended family is real great- they get everyone together every two years and have really fun family reunions. This was my third Schow reunion- it's Luke's mom's side with her mom and siblings and everyone's kids/grandkids. So it's not a huge group but each reunion has gotten bigger and it seems the grandkids are just about outnumbered the adults now.
Anyway, so it's been a lot of fun in the past and a great way for me to get to know Luke's extended family and so this year they held the reunion at Lakeside, Montana for the second time. Unfortunately Luke was unable to attend since it was the first week in August and Luke is always busy with "month end" the first week of every month so he just couldn't take off those days. But I was lucky enough that Luke's mom was able to help me fly standby into Montana with the kids so that I could still go.
I was a little worried about being alone on the first vacation since Blake was born and having a crazy 2-year-old and 6 week old newborn to handle on my own, but everything worked out fine. They were both great on the plane (Blake slept the whole way in my front carrier, and Jacob slept the first half but then played quietly and kept entertained the second hour which was great) and people were surprisingly helpful and friendly at the airport, so that was a good start. Then Luke's dad picked me up at the airport and after we finally found each other, we left the airport to realize we had a flat tire- so that was fun.
But we finally made it to the lake houses Sunday afternoon. We had four houses between us, one house for each big family, and they sit on a tall hill right on the lake. We all share one dock that sits in a private cove and has this pretty view. So pretty much every single day, we'd wake up, have breakfast then start getting ready for the lake. Then we'd make the long walk down the hill- and I usually got some help with Jacob which was nice- and then we'd all sit out on the dock, and people would go boating, water-skiing, wake boarding, or just playing in the water. Luckily Jacob loved playing at the edge of the water and could keep himself entertained while I handled Blake.





The three little babies taking a nap together down at the lake- adorable! Finally I got Jacob a boat ride by Wednesday. He was a little nervous when we were going really fast but he seemed to enjoy it has has been talking about "riding on a boat" ever since.


So I would usually be down on the dock for about 2 hours or so until Jacob would beg to go back up and take a nap. I never really liked leaving so early and always had intentions to get back to the lake when Jacob woke up, but every day he took 3-4 hour naps! So at least it was still nice to relax at the house, read a book, and just hang out with Blake.
Every night we would do something fun all together. The first few nights all us girls watched the Bachelorette finales together, another night we played minute-to-win-it games, and one evening I took Jacob down to the dock with a few others to do a little fishing.

Jacob's cousin Christian caught his second fish!

And Grandpa helped Jacob fish too, so cute :)

Another night for dinner was a fiesta and so everyone got to wear mustache's and sombreros and later the kids hit a pinata and danced, everyone had fun!

Blake with his great grandma Betty

Blake even got in the spirit and sported a uni-brow for the night, haha

Jacob taking a swing at the pinata

mad dash for the candy One big reason I wanted to make it out to the reunion was so I could see the other babies too! Two of Luke's cousins had their babies the same week as Blake- they were often referred to as Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Blake was born Monday June 20, Emerson was Carrie's baby born the 22nd, and Jennica's baby Savannah born June 24. Although they're so close in age they still vary a lot in size but are all so sweet and adorable! On Thursday, we took a little side trip with Luke's family to Big Fork and poked around the downtown shops for a bit. Jacob spotted this little fountain and spent awhile playing in it and getting completely soaked!

Thursday ended up being our last day too since I needed to be able to catch a flight that night. So it was a day or two earlier than everyone else, but that was ok since we all had so much fun and did everything we wanted to. Jacob is still talking about seeing his cousins, riding on the boat, flying in the sky on the airplane, swimming in the lake, and seeing Grandma and Grandpa. Even though he got in a couple scraps with his younger cousins and was a handful at times, he obviously had a great time, and so did I.
I am just grateful that we were even able to make it out at all, even if Luke couldn't come. And even without Luke, I am so grateful to everyone who was sooo helpful with the kids. Everyone was so nice to help me keep an eye out for Jacob (who loved more than any other kid to run away!) and everyone was more than willing to offer a hand to hold Blake, which I loved just as much as he did.

Thursday night, after we left, Grandma Betty had put everyone's name into a drawing to win a quilt that she had made. Turns out Blake won the quilt! People had previously joked with me saying I deserved the quilt this year just for coming out to Luke's reunion without him, so I almost thought they had it rigged when they told us later we had actually won. So if we got a quilt out of it all, then I guess the trip really was worth it! Haha, either way, we had a lot of fun and are looking forward to going (together!) to the next reunion in two years!