Flathead Lake 2009

Well, another Schow reunion has come and gone. It's crazy how fast the time flies by. We look forward to these reunions for two years, then when they finally get here they are over before we know it! We found these great cabins on Flathead Lake in Montana, and we rented all four of them (which was totally necessary since there were something like 45 people there this time). We had beautiful weather for most of the week, and everyone had a great time relaxing on the dock, swimming, tubing, boating, playing cards and of course eating lots of great food. A couple highlights of the trip would have to have been all the fun us young marrieds would have in the evenings. Whether we were showcasing our (lack of) breakdance moves, moon walk skills, or paper bag grabbing technique, we were constantly laughing our butts off. My family truly is great and we had such an awesome time. So thanks to Grandma Betty and to all of our parents for funding this vacation and providing all the great food and fun memories. We can't wait till the next reunion!!!

Our first night at the lake - we were the only brave ones to go for an evening swim (And yes, Steve is actually wearing a swimsuit, he was just trying to trick you - and his face is classic Steve for ya ...haha)

My Aunt Sopi is the one looking very Vogue and reading a magazine.
She is so cute.

Jane has some pretty awesome skiing skills ;) And Jill is obviously
doing a great job of helping her!

Tauri and baby Ella

Nick managed to stuff 28 giant marshmallows in his mouth.
I always said he had a big mouth....

Nice worm Alex

Luke doesn't look like an awkward dancer at all.....right....

My sweetie and I sure had a great week together

Jane and I spent many hours in the boat taking the boys for some pretty harsh tube rides. I felt bad when they'd have some pretty bad wipe outs and get launched off. No, no I actually didn't feel bad at all...

This was our "rough and tough" girls tube ride. Kate was the bravest of all ;)

Now this is what a real tube ride should look like! I think Kenny and Luke were the two victims in this particular instance.

Nice hair Levi!

Shane & Jennica and their kids on Luau night

Playing some good old fashioned Rook. (I'm pretty sure
Grandma and I creamed them!)

This is what kids look like when a piniata of candy explodes. Chaos!

Jane, me and Ashley working on making some pendants. So fun! (Thanks Kate for all the great crafts)

Ry Zanako!

Aka 'My dear daughter' My greenie (and former mission companion), Brittney, flew up from Utah this past weekend just to hang out with little old me! I love her SOO much and am so grateful she made the effort to fly all the way up here to visit me :)We seriously had the funnest time ever just catching up, reminiscing, staying up way too late, and laughing A LOT! She got here Friday around 11am and we were laughing within the first few minutes just because we could not find eachother at the little old airport. We literally must have passed eachother in the corridor and not even noticed. Hilarious (okay, so maybe you had to be there...). Friday night we headed up to the Capital Ex fair, and enoyed a fabulous evening of walking around eating mini donuts and commenting on all the crazy outfits (or lack thereof) and white trash people. A seriously good time had by all. We sat front row to the 70s/80s performance of the "TimeBenders", and you better believe that we were hootin and hollering and singing along. This picture below would be of the "Pointer Sisters"....right..... and if you don't recognize their name, I can guarantee you know their songs forsure. Google it.

After the show, we went inside to check out all the booths and displays. This was us getting settled in a Native American teepee. Saaah too wicked...

Saturday around noon Brittney, Shay and I drove over to the Ledge for some suntanning and frolicking in the fountains. So did half of the city's population (check out the throngs of people in the backround...)

Shay and Britt. And unfortunately there are no pictures of me that are appropriate to post ;)

Example of the throngs of people... and does anybody notice the creepy man on the left side of the picture? Why is he sitting there staring at the kids?

Our Saturday night photo shoot with the Jeep

And last but not least....here's us picking the plethora of raspberries from our back yard. Yeah, I had two bowls of vanilla icecream with raspberries in one day...

Famulak Family Fun... haha cheesy alliteration.

This month we've been able to have a couple really fun weekend trips with Nick's side of the family. Nick's dad's birthday was on July 11th, so both sets of Nick's grandparents and all of his Aunts and Uncles and cousins went camping up at his Uncle's land north west of the city. Nick and I took a tent to sleep in and we all just had an awesome time hanging out, sitting by the fire visiting, and staying up way too late! His land was right on a lake as well so we even got in a little bit of boating.

Nick and Uncle Brad setting up our tent...obviously I helped a lot.

Kyla, Jaylin and Andrea put on these hats and came up with this pose all on their own. So cute!

Nick's brother Bryan on grill duty

Playing a little friendly football.

Nice form Nick...

Who can chop through the log first? Is it Neil in his birthday crown???

Nope. Nick was the victorious one!

Nick's cousin Mike decided he wanted to take home this GIANT rock to use for landscaping his yard, so all the men got together and had to figure out how to get it in the back of the truck. It was quite the ordeal to watch, and quite hilarious. Just picture 6 or so men trying to push, pull, roll, slide and lift an 800+ lb. rock. Pretty funny...

I loved the little path that led down to the lake. It was so peaceful, and with the sun streaming through the trees like this, it actually reminded me of
the Sacred Grove.

Nick's sister Alysha and I down by the lake

A little blurry, but Nick had some sweet air!

The birthday boy celebrating the big 5-0 !

Then, a couple of weeks ago Nick and I drove down to Outlook, Saskatchewan with his parents and sister for his mom's cousin's 25th anniversary party. It was like a mini-reunion for his Mom's side of the family so it was great to see a bunch of the family that I've basically only met once at our wedding. We stayed out on their acreage and quite enjoyed the quiet farm life. This place was teeny tiny. Like seriously, it made Cardston look big! On Saturday morning, us girls went for a drive into town to get the local tour and an icecream cone. We went and walked out onto this old bridge (which used to be a train bridge and has now been converted into the longest pedestrian bridge in Canada) and the river view was beautiful! Nick and the boys went gopher hunting, then that evening we all got together for the party and just spent the rest of the night visiting with everyone.

I love the architecture of this bridge, isn't it beautiful?

Alysha and I down by the river. We had to go wading since it was SCORCHING out, and I was basically a sweaty mess! yuck.

This was a small cone. And she had already licked a lot off! Go figure...

Is it bad that I think my husband looks hot with a gun?

Our wonderful hosts Susan & Murray

The whole clan L-R: Brenda, Ernie, Donna, Chris, Kali, Murray, Susan, Dad-Neil, Alysha, Me & Nick and front: Flo, Thomas, Gpa Cyrille, Mom-Teressa, Kaitlyn

Nick's mom and her favorite cousins growing up, Susan and Brenda

The lake

Cute little Levitucus & Dandilion with Auntie Trunchbull ...
bruhaha I'm so random but I crack myself up!

Why I LOVE going to the lake:

Sleeping in and waking up to my Dad's pancake breakfasts
Reading lots of good books
Going wakeboarding and skiing on smooooth early morning water
I get to RELAX. all. day. long.
Seeing how bad of a sunburn my Dad will manage to get
Taking pictures in Big Fork
Playing Cards and Board Games and chatting into the wee hours
Watching movies in the middle of the afternoon
Tanning/napping on a towel in the sun
Evening family swimtime out in the middle of the lake
Henry Weinharts Vanilla Cream Sodapop
Taking leisurely tube rides (I have retired from the vicious ones)
Watching (or driving) the boys on vicious tube rides
Making meals and doing dishes as a family
Enjoying the peace and serenity that only the mountains can give you
Spending quality time with my family

Macho...macho...man.... (can you hear the song in your head?)

Four Generation tube ride: Mom, Grandma Hull, Jill & Dani - Sweet....

Tom, Nick and Alex getting some sick AIR!

Think they're excited to play with fire?
(please take note of my Dad's shirt we got him - haha so funny!)

Dani was not a fan of our Canada Day fireworks :(

Mom, Jill and Grandma Betty enjoying some shade

Nick and I swimming...

My cute parents - notice how burnt my Dad is (classic Ron.....)