Ellis' Day SIx - Blow Up the Front Yard Day

Fourth of July

After getting all the food squared away for the barbecue. We all decided to to take a long ATV ride out on the property and over to the river. Maddy O, Sophia and Erika drove in the Rhino.

We saw a moose, through the trees not far away from where we were riding. We had never seen a moose out on the property before. Jeremy said it must have been a female, because the males already have antlers in velvet this time of year.

Everybody had fun sloshing through the slews and mud. Madison got the chance to ride her new 125 on the trail for the first time. She got in a couple of hairy situations, but she made it through. Without any tears or complaining. In fact I think she had a great time.

The Smits at the Bitteroot River

The Ellis' at the Bitteroot River

Ellis' Day Six - Blow up the Front Yard Day (part 2)

Fourth of July (Part 2)

After we got back from our ATV ride. Guests started arriving. Some of my parents friends brought some horses out to the barbecue. The girls got to ride them around the property. They really enjoyed themselves.

After the Davis' and I led the girls around the property. The girls got to paint Peanut. I didn't even know you could do that but apparently you can. Maddie O, Madison, Sophia, and Sadie all painted the horse using watercolors. It looked pretty neat.

After the horses were trailered out we got to shoot the shotguns. I did pretty well this time with the 20 gauge. Jeremy and most of the guys shot the 12 gauge. But it has too much kick for me. My dad got a really neat clay pigeon thrower for Christmas this year, but we hadn't had the occasion to use it yet.

Erika and Kam also took a turn with the 20 gauge. I don't think either of them were expecting such a kick. It's always a little jarring the first time you shoot a shotgun. But they were good sports about it.

Kam and some of the boys threw some horse shoes.

...And Erika and I wore some really sexy earmuffs!

Julie and John even came out for all the festivities.

There was way too much food. It was downright comical how much food there was. I think we will still have leftovers in a week. My mom was serving some seriously giant pieces of cake.

Of course there were fireworks. Jim and Jeremy were in charge of setting them off and put on a great show. There were tons and everyone seemed to love them. We couldn't get any great pictures but the fireworks were awesome. The good ones this year were the Baby Boomer, the Crazy Cowboy and the Blooming Cactus. It was so great to finally watch the fireworks from my parents new front porch. It was an amazing day.

Ellis' Day Five - Relax A Bit Day

Having a bit of a lazy today in Montana. We all got up late, we stayed up late last night, then didn't do anything too exciting most of the day. The boys did go to the Indian Reservation to pick up the fire works for the festivities tomorrow. As usual they got a ton of fireworks. It should make for a great show.

Jim and Jeremy spent some time showing Kam how to shoot the BB gun. He's been having the time of his life on this trip. It's a boys paradise out here.

Jim and I had a bit of an archery contest. I was, of course, a crack shot.

With the suction cup tipped arrows, that is.

We all (Julie & John, Mom & Dad, the Smits, and The Ellis') went out to the Stock Farm for dinner tonight. We had an excellent time and even better tasting food. The kids even learned to fold their napkins Paca Bates style.

Erika even tried something new! Wild boar quesadilla. She loved it. There are very few times I've come out of there unhappy. The head chef, Toby, is really amazing.

We ended the evening with some warm up fire works to get the kids excited about tomorrow. Followed by some wii boxing and many cocktails. A fun time was had by all. Julie really enjoyed the wii, especially the sports game.

I know I've put a ton of pictures of me on the blog these last few days, but I never have pictures of myself. Especially while doing anything, because I'm the only one who takes pictures. So with the shutterbug Erika around I thought I could take advantage of it and actually post some pictures of me for a change. Even if I look terrible!

Ellis' Day Four - Dead Animal Day!

Foxy Lady! We should have known that the next day would hold interesting things when we all started trying on my Dad's fox hat at dinner.

The girls were all dressed alike today. Twinsies. With all the mosquitoes the girls want to stay inside all day. They have been playing in their "club house" (the down stairs closet) pretty much all day for that past several days. We have been encouraging them to get outside, but it sure makes for a quiet whine free day when they are hold up in the house all day.

Jim and Kameron fished two dead muskrats and two dead trout out of the pond. They stank so bad! Erika and I had to dump them out on the property. It was disgusting! I thought I was going to hurl.

My mom decided to put a bounty on muskrats and marmots. She told us she'd give us a $100 per every one we get. So Erika and I decided we'd trap a marmot. We found rusty old trap in the garage. We set it next to a marmot hole and set it. I looked on the net to see what they were attracted to and all I could find was human urine. Since neither of us were willing to pee on the trap. We decided peanut butter starts with pee so that would be a better choice. So far we haven caught anything...maybe tomorrow!

With the marmot and muskrat bounty, the boys decided to take a shot at it. Jer ended up killing a muskrat with an oar, by wapping it on the head. For those of you who don't know, a muskrat is just like it sounds, a giant musky rat. Jer and Jim, rednecks that they are, decided to skin it. They are currently curing the hide. It was a little disgusting but we just kept our distance until the gross part was done. We finished off the evening with some dead animals at the Victor Steak House. Yummy! Tune in to see what the Ellis' and Smits take on tomorrow.

Ellis' Day Three - Mining Day

We went out to Phillipsburg to the Sapphire mines today. We left Sadie with Grandma loaded all eight of us into the car and headed out first thing in the morning.

The Ellis' standing in front of the waterfall that's about half way up Skalkaho Pass. With the high water level this year it was really ripping along. We can usually climb the rocks about half way up and take pictures there but not this year. I'm actually surprised the road hasn't washed out.

Jim and Kameron washing the gravel so we can pick through it and look for sapphires.

Maddy and Maddy were great mining partners this year. They both took in a haul of sapphires.

Erika and I got the "miners fever" too. We looked through 7 buckets of gravel in total. Everybody found quite a few sapphires. Gem Mountain in a great place to spend an afternoon with the family.

Dirty elbows and forearms are part of the fun!