THE MINI MEUNIERS: busy weekends

Since we arrived here, we've had some action packed weekends. Last weekend my second cousin or first cousin once removed (I'm not sure which one is correct. She's my dad's cousin) had a wedding reception in Billings. My Dad's side of the family is a little unique in that there is a large disparity in ages. My Dad's Mom is the oldest of her siblings and had my Dad fairly young (at 18) so he was the oldest cousin. Ashely is the youngest cousin and she is 22 or 23 I think. And there's a lot in between, including Jennifer whose wedding we were celebrating. Jennifer and I were pretty close when we were younger, but as we got older we fell into our own personalities and groups of friends and didn't really keep in contact. But she looked beautiful and I was happy I was there to celebrate with her. My family also came from Great Falls which allowed for the five generation picture below. My great grandmother is 86 and suffers from Alzheimers. I haven't seen her for several years and she didn't remember me, but she was enthralled with Emma and the other babies there. She seemed to enjoy herself.

5 generations of Kale-Wingerters!

This weekend we took Emma on her first camping trip to Cooney Dam. For those of you who don't know my grandmother (pictured above) she is a state park ranger and Cooney Dam is the campground she is in charge of. She lives out there basically May-September. My brothers and I used to call her Mister Ranger Lady. Sunday was my cousin Haley's 14th birthday so my grandfather, my other cousins, and my aunt Janie all went out for the weekend. The weather was perfect and the lake was quite refreshing, but was still quite high so there really wasn't a beach at all. The other downfall were the mosquitoes. I sprayed bug spray on 3 or 4 times and I still got several bites. No fun! Luckily Emma only got a few bites. She did okay sleeping in the tent. She did fine when we put her down and she was by herself, but she never sleeps well when she can see us. She is a restless sleeper and I think when she rolls around and opens her eyes and is able to see us, she thinks she should come sleep with us. So in the middle of the night, she crawled out of her blankets and wanted to snuggle in with me in my sleeping bag. Of course I could not say no, but sleeping with me did not make her any less restless so I didn't get much sleep. Overall it was a great weekend. I've missed the calm a campfire brings. Here's some pictures.