Welcome to Missoula Family

We had most of Ashley's family and some of my family come to visit us during the July 4th weekend and for baby Olivia's blessing. This was the first time that her family except her mom got to meet their new niece and grandbaby. The only one that wasn't here was Matt, who is still serving his mission in Denver, CO. Mark seemed especially excited. I must admit that I was impressed with all of Ashley's family; they were so sweet with Liv. Her sisters were really comfortable with her and held her a bunch.

On Thursday we showed her family around downtown Missoula. We stopped into the grizzly tackle fishing store near Caras. I was trying to figure out where Jim, Steven, and I were going to go fishing the next day. Jim wanted to do a little fishing while he visited, so I tried to set something up. The consensus was to try the upper Blackfoot river around Ovando. We ate lunch and Mckenzie River Pizza; it was da best. When we were leaving, we put Olivia back in her baby backpack. Jim was helping Kristin who was wearing the backpack, and he accidently pinched Liv's arm in the buckle. She was screaming, and it made Ashley cry. She is a good mom. I guess this was Liv's first boo boo. Jim felt really bad, so I made fun of him most of the day in good fun.

We also showed her family the Missoula Art Museum. There was a wierd rock exhibit on one of the floors; I guess it was art. Here is a picture of Steve meditating by the rock garden.


In the evening, Jim and Steve helped me pick up the rental raft. I found a place that would rent a fishing raft for a hundred bucks. We were hoping it would be worth it. We actually took out Barbara and Kristin on a short float on the lower Blackfoot that evening. Jim and I rode tubes next to the raft. The river was a bit cold, but not too bad. I was the lucky one riding "fat bottom girl". She is my tube that is horribly lop sided therefore quite tricky to ride. She tries to throw you off in the rapids, in fact she did throw me off once. Steve oared the boat while we were in the water.

Olivia was beat after playing some guitar hero with the fam.