My fren' Jen

So it isn't very often that I get to spend time with one of my nearest and dearest friends- Jennifer J.-M.  Jen and I have known each other roughly 9 years now. I know that because she was at my wedding 8 years ago on 8/30/11, and she has known me as both "Mommy Dearest", but also "Stone Cold Lush". 

Jen was in town recently for a much anticated Montana vacation. I booked in advance and secured myself a kid-free, spouse-free evening of sitting with my friend, picking amazing juke box music and searching for the name of the South American women that wear bowler hats on my wicked awesome smart phone.

Before we knew it, it was after 9pm and the air was ripe with desire.  Desire... for karaoke.  We headed to the Play Inn, where you don't even need a book of songs to peruse when you know what the eff you'e doing.  We both selected two songs. In no particular order:

Mary Rose - Midnight Special
Jen - Renegade
Mary Rose - Ballroom Blitz
Jen - Fancy

I can say- truthfully and honestly, that I had no idea that Jen had the PIPES that she does. This is the girl that I could barely get to sing backup on "Night Moves" 7 years ago but now she's belting out Reba like she had actually pimped out her own girl child. 

After a night of frolic we came back to Casa Swan and sat by ourselves by the firepit and watched lightning and clouds and the full, full moon as it lit up the night-time sky.

Jen, I can't wait to come see you again, hopefully in the near future, but even if the earliest I get to see you is Christmas I look forward to the

From La Madre Loca

precious few minutes I get to spend, giggling and chortling with you.

As a testament to how much effort I'd put in to writing a blog just for Jen, I did this entire blog entry on my smart phone after 3 having beers at a baby shower.

Love,
MR

We kick karaoke ass



Fear and loathing in the Play Inn

From La Madre Loca

Where does the time go?

So July is nearly over and I have hardly posted at all this month. Sorry, blog, for ignoring you for so long, but here is a nice long one for you.

This month has been pretty busy, even if we're just busy with doing nothing. The Swanz (I'm adding the z because it gives us street cred) went camping this month for the first time this summer, and had a big blast. Camping included lots of awesome food (thanks to Mrs. Violett and her keep-it-new-by-keeping-it-in-the-box cook stove), some fun kids to play with (also provided by Mrs. Violett, and also Mrs. Ballew), and some hiking. Elora hoofed it the whole mile up the trail to find the Pine Creek Falls which were BEAUTIFUL.

Both kids did really well on the hike, but Elora really took my breath away with her observations and her stick-to-it-iveness.

After we got thoroughly filthy on the camping/hiking expedition the 3 gathered clans decided to make a pit stop at Big Timber water park on the way back to Billings/Colstrip. I had almost wiggled out of it when the kids were asleep when we pulled up to the park, but once they woke up we knew our plans to try to escape were all for naught. But after getting my sweaty body into my one piece bathing suit it felt totally worth it to clean myself off for the first time in 36 hours hours using a public swimming facility.

I've never been a huge water slide person, but I think that after this trip Big Timber will probably be a destination for The Swanz (street cred!) again in the future. They have a slide with rafts that we all enjoyed, and the kiddie pool was a hit with the younger Swan. Elora went down lots of slides with her daddy, and looked like she was having a pretty good time.

We made it through our work week after the refreshing and relaxing time spent in Pine Creek, and this last weekend we just kicked at home, Swanz-style (more street cred!). This "style" includes beer, blow up kiddie pools, and usually something Thad has cooked in the smoker. I got to enjoy a kid-free trip to the farmer's market with my MIL Saturday, followed by picking out new glasses at Sam's Club. And my new peeps are going to be AWESOME.

The next few weekends will be pretty much filled with various activities, hopefully including more camping. Colter turns the big TWO August 21, no party planned as of yet but we might find something awesome and fun to do to celebrate it when it rolls around. Any fun suggestions would be appreciated!