These thousand miles..

August has been a blur. But I have to highlight a couple things. The second weekend in August, Derrick's parents came for a visit. Grandpa brought presents: t-shirts for the girls that say, "Mess with me, Mess with my grandpa," and "I'm never in trouble when I'm with Grandpa." They look pretty sweet. It was Aliya's first t-shirt. 

They also brought Minnesota sweet corn. Or as the girls say, "sweet on the corn."

Then we went shopping. I don't know if all little girls like to shop, but Madison & Breanne are pros! It's quite fun...they just need to work up their stamina. I love it when they find something then ask, "Is it on sale?" I am training them quite right! I also love the "style show" when they get home and have to try on all their clothes for daddy. They get so excited and twirl and spin.

The gifts didn't end there, for our anniversary, his parents gave us an ice cream maker. This has been a really fun treat. We have enjoyed making (and eating) the ice cream. I was so excited, I went right out to buy ingredients to start a batch. I didn't even know I wanted one. Madi said, "Now we don't need to go out for ice cream, we'll just make it at home." (That was until we went to Culver's...)

On Sunday that weekend, we visited a National Monument in our "backyard." It seems like when you live close to that sort of stuff, you seldom visit, if ever. Pompey's Pillar is about 30 miles out of Billings. William Clark stayed there with his team while exploring the west. It was a gorgeous day to be outside.

Aliya started a  new trick. She takes a towel or washcloth and places it on her head, and just looks at me and smiles as if to say, "I'm so funny." And it is pretty cute as long as it's not a pair of undies...or at least not dirty ones.

On August 13, we headed up to Glacier National Park to take in the sights and camp with the Sechler cousins who were on vacation there. The drive was nice up there and we saw some new parts of Montana. When we got there, it was cousins, cousins, cousins! It's so fun to watch Caleb, Rebekah, Madison & Breanne all play together.

Unfortunately, it was rainy and cold the whole time we were there. We drank plenty of coffee and the good thing is, the weather made us stay at the campsite and then the cousins really got to play (as opposed to drive from place to place.) I got to play dominos with my oldest nephews and Aliya loved little Abigail! It was almost like Aliya chased her and hugged her.

We left Glacier on Sunday (probably as the clouds started to move out and the temperatures warmed up) and headed to Moses Lake, WA with Derrick on Highway 2. Again, it was fun to see a new part of Montana. We stopped at a county park briefly and the pine trees there were gigantic!

On Monday morning, my phone rang early with news that Grandpa Veldkamp had passed away. Thankfully, it seemed he went peacefully in his sleep. We left Moses Lake on Tuesday at 11:30am and drove straight through, arriving in Minnesota a little past 1pm Wednesday. The visitation was Wednesday evening and the ceremony was Thursday morning. I have great memories of grandpa and remember talking on the phone with him from time to time and always exchanging,"I love you"s before hanging up. It was unique to have the family all together and we were able to take grandkid and great-grandkid pictures...everyone was soooo excited about that!

Since we were in Minnesota, we decided to make the most of it and stayed until Saturday. We had the traditional pizzas (Dar's and Pizza Ranch) and took back lots of Minnesota grown produce!

All in all, we put around 4000 miles in the 10-days we were gone. On Sunday, after our journeys, we were getting ready to go get Madi's school supplies when we got in the van and it wouldn't start. God is so gracious and faithful! The battery was dead and we were able to quickly replace it, but thankfully it died when we were home, not on the reservation at 10pm on a Saturday night.

And on a parenting note, don't wait until three days before school starts to buy school supplies. I believe Derrick said, "It's like the day after Thanksgiving, for school supplies!" What a month!