how we spent the rest of our trip

On sunday we headed over to Kerry and Lana's for brunch, and to spend the night. The girls talked Papa into saddling a horse for them to ride. Kiersten loved being up there by herself. she was all smiles.

Karalee got to ride without Papa holding and leading the horse. she is getting so big. It's fun to see them doing things like this.

Even Evie got to take a turn.

We had our friends Aerik and Brooke over with their little boy, Chase, who had not been on a horse before. It took quite a bit of persuasion, and a little trickery to get him up there, but he seemed to like it. Afterward he said something like, "I'm 4 and I can ride a horse!" His 4th birthday was the day before.

On monday we drove to Montana to stay for the night. We went to this fun water park called Splash montana. It was perfect for kids. The main pool doesn't go deeper than 3 1/2 feet. I didn't even notice the deep pool with swimming lanes until we were driving away. We had lots of fun here.

Ben and the girls enjoying the lazy river.

Kara was barely too short to go on the big water slides, but she still had fun on the little kid slide.







We stayed in a hotel in missoula that night, and left after breakfast the next morning. We got home around dinner time. Ben and I both showered, and then Ben headed out to get some dinner for everyone. While he was gone, Evie was sitting on the couch playing with some toys, when she stood up, smiled at me, and then just fell off sideways, hitting her forehead squarely on the coffee table. I can still see it in slowmo in my head, and keep wondering, why didn't I jump up to grab her as soon as she stood up? Why didn't I set her back on the floor as soon as she climbed up? I guess because she climbs everywhere, and hasn't ever fallen off the couch, but that's really no excuse. In my head it seems like I had time to catch her as she was falling. But it happened anyway, and she started screaming of course. As I picked her up, I saw she had a red scratch running across her head, that didn't look too bad. But as soon as I noticed it, that red line turned black and popped open, spraying both of us with SO MUCH blood! It was terrifying. I rushed into the bathroom, and got it as under control as I could and tried to call Ben, but I heard his phone ringing from the other room. So I got dressed and got her ready, and looked up ER's in the gps, so I could leave when he got back. He was back within minutes, and I told him what was happening, he saw the bandaid on her head and said it couldn't be that bad, but when I lifted it to show him, he agreed that she needed to go to the hospital. the neighbor came over with a first aid kit, and we got it bandaged better, and off I went while Ben stayed with the other kids. Having always waited hours in the ER, I was prepared for a long night. But show up with a one year old bleeding profusely from her head, and you get taken care of straight away. Everyone there was really nice, and she didn't cry at all. When I walked in, both the receptionists looked at me and said, "coffee table?" I was shocked, but they both just laughed and said it happens to every kid. ( I guess Kara and Kiersten were some miraculous exception) The Dr. decided she could close it with dermabond, so she didn't need stitches, which was great. So the hardest part was just holding her still for the glue to be applied, and I had 2 nice male nurses to help me, so it wasn't all that bad. One of the nurses gave her a soft little teddy bear to snuggle with, and she was happy with that and grapes from my purse. So, it was a scary and sad night, but it turned out the best it could have, I suppose. here she is all glued shut and bandaged up. It hasn't bothered her, unless she see's her reflection in the mirror. Then she picks at the bandages a little.