Mauws Family Get-Together (Camping Round 4)

A few weeks ago we headed over to Placid Lake for our annual Mauws Family round-up.  Tim and I went over on Wednesday to secure some spots.  Thursday morning we drove to Missoula to pick up Ted from the airport.  Carol and Colette and Kelley joined us early afternoon, and Marvin and Cindy made it up later.  Carol brought the boat up so we spent a lot of time cruising the lake.  Friday just about everyone else showed up.  We had quite a crew, about 25-30 people.  As always wonderful food, and great entertainment when everyone gets together! 
Saturday night me and Tim, Ted, Bob and Carol, and Colette and Kelley headed to Missoula for the Creedence Clearwater Revisted Concert.  Opening act was Chance McKinney and Crosswire, who are a Missoula band.  The concert was held in a open field at the fairgrounds.  We started off in the "sitting" section, but when CCR came on, we made a dash for the "standing" side.  As the concert progressed, we made our way closer and closer to the stage, until we were right at the stage for the encores.  It was an amazing concert.  We were a little skeptical how it was going to be considering there were only 2 original members, but they really rocked!  It was an awesome time.
Always fun to get together, especially when the Mitchells can join us, since we only see them about once a year.  We will see everyone at Placid next year!

Kelly ready for fishing, before he broke his pole

Ted, before getting a lecture from the park rangers

Crazy Carol!

Ted towing us in after an "incident" with the boat key

Colette trying out the jet ski

Nothin like being on a boat on a mountain lake

Chance McKinney

Funny faces

Ostertag Family Reunion

Sunday, we had a little family get-together up Dry Wolf.  Almost the whole Ostertag family was in attendance.  The only people missing were my cousin Mike and his two daughters.  It sounds like a big family shin-dig when in reality there's only my parents, me and Tim, my cousin Debbie, my cousin Tom and his wife Sue and their two daughters, Brenna and Amy.  That's us!  Here's the whole fam damily at our wedding:

We had a great day catching up and sharing a lot of laughs.  It had been quite a while since we had last seen eachother.

Amy, Debbie and I playing Blongo Ball

Debbie and Tom

Brenna, Amy, Dad, Sue and Tom putting up the tarp

Camping Round 3

Sawmill was our camping destination this weekend.  It was kind of nice staying so close.  Tim had to run into town on Saturday because we were having some windows installed at the station, so it was nice that he could run in quick and come back.  Jeff and Kim and Savanna camped with us too.  Kim and Savanna came up Friday night and stayed over.  We just hung out and kept Savanna entertained!  Or maybe she was entertaining us!

Waving Hi!

Fishing for some wood

Jeff joined us Saturday after he got off work.  After supper, the Nicholls and Olson families came up for a get-together.  Kim, Landon and Sherri were in charge of mixing the ice cream together in the ice cream ball.  It turned out really well!  It was the first time we ever used it.  It was really nice to get together as a group, everyone is busy and it's hard to get together like that.

Kim and Landon "mixing it up"

Sherri's turn

Laine and Savanna

Otto

The gang

My little Laine

I think Jeff enjoyed the ice cream the most!

Rodeo Weekend

This year the Compton family joined us for the festivites in Stanford.  It's so great that they live so close now.  It was a week before Sarah's birthday, so we all decided to celebrate!  Always a ton of laughs when we all get together! (Thanks for letting me steal pics Sarah! As if you had a choice!!)

Camping Round 2

A couple of weekends ago, we were able to escape once again for a peaceful camping trip.  We found a nice spot up Moose Creek, north of White Sulphur Springs.  It was so quiet up there, hardly saw any other vehicles going by.  We spent the days reading and playing games.  Not a bad way to spend the weekend in solitude.  We got to try out our shower too.  Benjie found a wonderfu hole to dig in and was covered in mud from head to tail!  So he had to have a little bath.

Chillaxin'

Making Breakfast

Enjoying coffee- yes i had coffee!

Very muddy puppy

Bath Time

Fourth of July

For the 4th, our friends Sarah and Jimmy, and their two little boys met us at the Gates of the Mountains for a little boat trip.  It turned out to be a pretty nice day.  We boated up the Gates to the Indian Cliffs Village.  Charlie had a great time waving at every single boat that went by! 

Charlie in his little life jacket.

Chris and Sarah

Jimmy and Chris

Pictographs

When we got back home, I ran into town to watch fireworks with Joni and the boys.  Shawn and Alex put on a very good show.  Laine had a great time watching the fireworks.  He kept "ooooh"ing at the pretty lights.

Today we had a little family get-together at my parent's house.  Jessica, Jake and Ian made a trip back to Montana from Wisconsin to visit for awhile.  And Jay came up from Texas too.  It was so cute to see the little cousins playing together.  And interestingly, they all just happened to be dressed in green and brown!

Laine and Landon Nicholls, Ian McNeff

Ian

Laine giving Ian a hug

Ackley Lake

Our fishing trip to Ackley last weekend was a bit more successful than our trip to Seeley.  Quite a bit actually.  I have never seen fishing like that before.  It was a very fun day!