WOW! Where Have I Been?

Well, since I last blogged, forgive my slackness, I don't feel like we have had a busy summer but I guess we have had lots of fun!  My sweet cousin, Lauren Cross, married the man of her dreams at the end of July, which brought lots of family to Montana from IL!  My dad has 6 siblings including his sister Mary here, and basically 3 siblings and their families came out for the wedding plus my grandma!  That was a ball and all my family came except my dear brother-in-law, next year we are going to get his butt out here!  Pardon my typing!  My family and my cousin Laura were blessed to spend time up at Flathead Lake at the Cross' cabin.  Tom, Titus and I camped one night in the yard there!  We all went to Glacier Nat. Park from there and did an amazing hike at Avalanche Lake there!  I was so excited to show my family the beauty of Montana and to make sure they had a good time.  We came back to Missoula for the wedding and before they all left we did some bike riding and we took my nieces to a sweet park and the Carousel while my parents and sisters went rafting down the Alberton Gorge!  My nieces are 8 yrs. and almost 2 yrs. and both of their first times here and Titus had a great time with them.  Gracie was a great helper with the two younger ones and Bella said Titus' name with the cutest ring to it, I miss hearing her say his name!

We also went for about a 20 mile bike ride on the path along Hwy 93 from Lolo to Florence and back!  When we pulled up to Subway in Florence to eat, this is what Titus was doing in the bike trailer!  So cute!  I thought I was going to die that day and I WASN'T pulling the trailer, Tom was!

We have been enjoying all kinds of food and smiles this summer!

Including trout on the grill and zucchini!  Mmmmmm!  Go hubs!

We went for a hike along Cache Creek Trail down off Hwy 12!  Titus loved the water and loves throwing rocks in the water (or down the neighbors stairs).

We made our first homemade ice cream with the ice cream attachment for the Kitchen Aid (we have had it since we got married in 2009).  Mmmmm!  Homemade Flathead Cherry Ice Cream!  Go hubs!

Labor Day weekend we traveled over to WA and visited some dear friends, the O'Dells, in Spokane.  Titus is missing due to the fact that he had not woken up for the day yet and this was at about 9 am their time!  Yes these 5 adorable kids are all theirs!  (L to R: Acacia, Naomi, Adelyn, John, Justus, Joyalise & Beth)

Once Titus woke up that morning, we headed on to Richland where Tom's brother and family now live.  We enjoyed our time with them as well and the girls definitely enjoyed showing us their ballerina moves, thank you Zowee and Noelle for always being ready to entertain us :)

We got one night of real camping in, which was interesting, Titus woke up and it felt like he was awake for about 2 hours before I could get him back to sleep!  Like our Jumbo Marshmallows?  The smores that night were terrific to say the least!

Our campsite out at Trout Creek off I-90, yes we have a little 2 man tent, which we love and stay warm that way on the cool Montana nights!

Our little camper and his poking stick that he loved walking around with!

Hiking Adventures!

Fourth of July weekend we did a hike down in the Bitterroots just past Hamilton called the Sawtooth Trail.  It was very pretty, Tom says it was about 6 miles round trip, and a lot of it was along a creek which was so beautiful and when our trail would go along the creek it would be cool temperatures from like our knees down and felt so good in the hot warm sun.  Lots of the trail was shaded but still warm.  Our intention was to hike into a pond so that Tom could fish and catch us some trout for a late lunch.  Well you have to cross the creek towards the end, about 1/2 mile, from the pond and the crossing log had been washed away!  So Tom tried fishing the creek in that area where we were supposed to cross and had caught one small one but otherwise no luck.  He thought about keeping it just to show Titus but he didn't want to waste a fish.

Titus did ok on this hike, it was a little bit long I think and we also had to drive about 1 hr and a half just to get there!  So overall I would say he did good for his first long hike!

In the lot before we left, Titus' first exploration of sand and gravel!  He was so cute playing in the "dirt".

Titus and Daddy with his fly rod!

Some of the raging creek, so nice and beautiful.  Titus had fallen asleep on the way in and I think this is where he got disturbed from the raging of the water, he was not a happy hiker then!

Titus loves clapping, he had just discovered it that weekend!  We were in a little 'camping' site here eating some snacks that thankfully were packed while we were waiting for our fisherman to catch us good one!  Better fishing next time!

This last weekend we went up the Morrell Falls up in Seeley Lake, MT.  Titus did really well for this hike and was even playing with, ok pulling, Mommy's hair on our way back out!  He did not complain at all unless he was hungry.  This hike is 5 miles round trip and has a beautiful waterfall at the end of it!  This hike is very easy, only about a 250 ft. elevation gain on it, if you have not been there, you need to go!  The waterfall cascades and is 200 ft. total but you only see about 90 ft. of it because of the cascading.  Still so beautiful and it was very cool in there from the mist of the falls!  Little Titus' lips and hands were purple but he didn't care!

We could not get Titus to look at the camera, the falls were just to exciting for him!

We also took my cousin Nate basically on the spur of the moment with us, he hadn't been there since he was in a backpack himself and I bribed him by telling him the falls were 900 ft.!  Whoops!  Before we left I got out my day hike book and found out that I was mistaken!

Mommy and Titus on the creek crossing bridge, clapping!

Walking, Climbing & Much More!

More and more I know I am really enjoying my time at home as a full time mom.  Titus is just growing into this fun little boy and he is so precious in so many ways.  His smile is precious, his personality is precious, his learning capabilities are precious, his tender heart is precious and his spirit is precious.  Thank You Father for such a precious child to call my own for the time he is here on this earth.  May I be faithful to nurture his heart into a young boy who loves You in every way.  He has already shown concern for others, when we are around other children and they get hurt or start crying for other reasons, he goes to them and seems as though he is curious as to whether they are okay.  I just love watching his interaction with others, he is very curious and ready to "play" with others.  Makes his mama's heart just melt.

Daddy captured a great smile that I wanted to share with you all!  He has 8 teeth!

My cousin Heidi just graduated from Valley Christian High School here in Missoula last Sunday and this was a toy that my uncle put out for the kids to play with, his old set of roping horns!  Titus loved it, notice the verse reference on the "ear tag".

At 49 weeks, last Saturday, Titus started taking his first steps!  Every time we would get out the video he would resort to crawling!  He is doing it more everyday, I WILL catch him with my video eye!

Trying to get him to balance to walk on his own at the dance following the graduation party!  A first ever Valley related dance, woohoo go Valley!  Daddy dressed him for church that day!  Can you tell?  Mom picked the shirt out at the store though!

We did our first backpack hike last night!  Very awesome!  We went up to the "L", only 1 1/2 mile round trip and elevation gain of 500 ft.!  It was much easier than the time we did it last year just after I had Titus!  It was a breeze compared to what I remember then!

"L" stands for my Love and Lil Muffin in my opinion!  Ha!  Titus loved the backpack, he was just "chatting" away and enjoying his snacks mommy brought him!  I was shocked, he did much better than the first time we tried it, course he was much smaller then.

The view of good ol Missoula from the "L".

Some beautiful wildflowers we saw on our hike included the Indian Paintbrush!

Titus missing his oldest cousin, Gracie!  He was "chatting" away at her pic and loving the frame she is in.

Can you say "spider man!"  He climbs up on the rocking chair himself and then decides he wants to go for the speaker and climbs the back of the chair!  Yes, he does know the word "No!" already but I wanted to get a pic of it first!

20 Weeks & Counting....

Tom with the pack and Titus back at the car after the hike.

Titus sleeping on trail on the way back down.

Our little guy is now almost 5 months old! That is crazy. I have found him 3 times now awake in his crib on his belly this last week! One of those times just being this morning. He isn't too happy about it yet but for some reason he does it.

This last weekend the students were off of school Thursday and Friday and what our youth group does every year with that 4 day weekend is plan a 3 day/2 night "Missoula missions trip." Giving 32 of our high school students the opportunity to experience missions right here in their home town by staying at the church and serving our community in different ways for the past 9 years! They usually always get to go to the Poverello Center, a local homeless shelter, where they organize their clothes closet for the homeless people, many times wipe down the mattresses that the homeless people sleep on and serve the homeless lunch and usually get to eat lunch and visit with the homeless people themselves. They also usually go to Missoula 3:16 Rescue Mission, a local Rescue Mission that also serves the homeless by providing lunch for them and opportunities for them to overcome addictions that many of them face and they provide a place for them to study the Bible. The students normally get to organize their food pantry, rake leaves and serve lunch and get to eat lunch with the homeless there also. The students always get to go to Burlington Square Apartments too, an apartment place for the elderly in our community. Here they get to clean apartments for those who have said yes to the opportunity for the students to help them in that way. They also were able to play Wii bowling with these elderly residents who beat the students badly I might add and have dinner with them and visit. The last day of the missions trip the students load up and go to each one of the high schools that is represented in our youth group, Missoula has about 3 public High Schools and 2 private High Schools, and they split up into groups and prayer walk around the schools. Those 4 events are usually things they do every year, there are other things throughout the weekend that they do that may change every year like Random Acts of Kindness or they did spend an afternoon this year helping with the City Parks and Recs Department, working on a local park in town. So many of the students are blessed by helping their community and realizing that there are people right here that they can help and I think it hugely helps them realize how blessed they are.

Well Tom and I usually have always helped as volunteer staff, Tom has all 9 years and this year I really felt like I couldn't with Titus. So Tom helped as much as he could and he was planning to help all 3 days but I was having a difficult time with Titus on Friday, he would not nap all afternoon and was very crabby and it was making me really crabby to say the least. Tom had helped all day on Thursday and came home for a couple hours in the evening and then went back and stayed at the church and helped all day Friday and didn't get home until 11 pm and then he stayed home with us and never went back on Saturday morning as he had planned. I felt very selfish when he came home and said he was done and wasn't going back on Saturday but it was good I think. Brian, the youth pastor, did have someone there to help on Saturday, but Tom has always helped all 3 days, he takes off work every year to do this and here I was not able to handle our 4 month old by myself for 3 days! Anyway, it was ok, Tom had said the Lord had showed him that He didn't need him for that last day and he was ok with that, so I needed to be ok with that.

Saturday we decided to go for a hike with Titus and we went down the Bitterroot and went hiking almost all the way to Bear Creek Overlook but Titus was just not going to make it that long. It was about 2 1/2 to 3 miles each way and we made it almost to the top but he was crying about half of the way up and it got a little late and we didn't want to be hiking back down in the dark so we ate our little lunch and turned around. A friend of Tom's at work has given us a Kelty K.I.D.S. pack for Titus. Something for us to use while we attempt hiking with him. I think what we found is he is still a little small to enjoy it, he lasted a little while on our way up and then we needed to take him out and carry him the rest of the way.

Sunday after church we decided to take some pictures of Titus in our church's Pumpkin Patch. This is the 4th year our church has sold pumpkins in our Great Pumpkin Patch they set up on the hill just below the church. All the money goes to missions each year and this year it is going towards the Great Commission Fund of the Alliance Missionaries. Members of the church have grown and harvested pumpkins this year for the patch and your family can go pick out pumpkins to purchase and they also sell many donated baked goods too. We happen to get a delicious pumpkin pie there yesterday. This year we had a "pumpkin slasher" come through the patch one late night and the story was in the newspaper and a gentleman, who doesn't even go to our church, decided to come get all the damaged pumpkins and make pies with all of them which was about 20 hrs. worth of work and he brought the pies back to the patch for them to be sold! God is amazing! They started selling pumpkins on the 10th and will sell thru the 31st and already the report on the 17th was that they had sold $8,000! So anyway we wanted some cute pics of our punkin with the pumpkins.

Last week at BSF I helped in the children's program and I loved it. What a blessing, they have a little story time and the babies and those under 2 learned that 'God always keeps His promises' based on the prophecy in Isaiah "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call Him Immanuel" Isaiah 7:14. They sang a little song and had a snack and then those ladies just stay busy keeping those little ones happy. But I think I will wait to put Titus in there until he can crawl, there was this little boy in there who I think might be 1 but is just starting to walk and he can be rough on the little ones around him if you are not watching him every second. I want Titus to be able to flee if Mason comes after him. Ha!

Another Beautiful Weekend

We had a good weekend, we started by hiking the "L" on Friday night right after Tom got off work. I was excited to go until I got there and the beginning part is a little steep, then I wanted to whine about it. But we did it and Titus loved it. Then on Saturday we went to the market and got some fresh veggies and fruit and hung out with Daisy and the kids there. Then Daddy wanted to get mommy a bike so we stopped at the Bicycle store on the way home. We want to go for rides next summer with Titus after we get a bicycle trailer for him and we got my bike 30% off because it is this last years model! And Sunday we enjoyed church and then we went to lunch with some friends of ours, the Tuinstra's, at IHOP, thanks to my aunt Mary for the gift card for my birthday back in June.
Titus is starting to figure out how to roll from his back to his tummy these days, he just can't figure out how to get that arm out of the way so he gets all the way over. He is also starting to enjoy his Exer Saucer that his friend Mr. Drake gave him. Thankfully it is a farm themed one cuz that is part of his heritage, he just doesn't know it yet. He hasn't quit figured out how to spin his seat in different directions to look/play with other things, mommy and daddy have to help him with that. He has his four month check up this Friday and I am so excited to see how much he has grown.

Mommies new bike, a Globe Carmel 5 made by Specialized. The color is called a bourgogne red and I have a little dinger bell too, reminds me of an ice cream truck coming through the neighborhood when I ding it! And it also has a suspension system which is cool, I can stand on my bike and bounce up and down with my suspension! And it has a nice Comfort Plus seat and the frame is Aluminum so it is a lot lighter than your typical bike you would find at Walmart!

" The Prepared Daddy," ready for any spit up, has a water bottle in one pocket of his shorts and a blanket in the other in case it gets cooler on our bike/walk. Titus does have a onesie on!

Our destination picture at the top of the "L" hike on Friday night. Only a mile and half round trip with a 500 ft. elevation gain.

Labor Day Weekend

Titus turned 13 weeks this last Saturday and we decided to take him for his first hike! Our adventure on Saturday was up to Blue Mountain Lookout. We hiked the last mile of the 8 mile trail up to the Lookout Tower, so we drove about 10 miles on a gravel road to get to the start of the last mile of the hike. Very pretty drive but the hike was even more beautiful. Tom carried Titus in our front carrier and he just looked around at everything, very alert. Looking at all the pretty trees and interesting things in the forest. He did get hungry on the way up and we had to stop so mommy could nurse him. Then we finally reached the top and it has a great view of different mountain ranges around us. The Lookout Tower is a working Forest Service fire lookout! I wish we could have climbed the stairs to the top but it looked a little scary to do with a baby. Then Titus got hungry again and then we headed back down after attempting many pictures with the sun shining so bright. Titus slept on the way back down, what should have taken us an hour and half for the whole trip took us about 2 and a half hours with a baby!
Then on Sunday after church and much errand running we headed to Rock Creek, east of Missoula, to hike there, hoping to see many Bighorn Sheep! We drove about 27 miles to get there, it was all paved roads which was nice. The area out there I noticed was very pretty and just about everyone lived in a cabin type home, which is one of our dreams someday, a cabin with some land! Right when we started our hike there we saw some Whitetail, course mommy couldn't get the camera out fast enough before they ran away. But we enjoyed that hike, we just hiked until we thought we should turn around for the sake of Titus. He got hungry on that hike too, and slept on the way back to the car. I am not sure where that trail took you for a destination but I think we will go back again sometime and try to find out. We also had packed some firewood in the car with some food and smores to enjoy for dinner but as soon as we got back to the car it started pouring. We never saw any Bighorn on our hike but we drove a little further up the road hoping it would stop raining and find a campsite to enjoy our goodies. We found a group of Bighorn near the road but it never stopped raining so we went back home. We will enjoy a campfire here soon with our goodies!
Titus is growing so big and no one can believe he is only 3 months old! I think he has rolled over at least a dozen times now since he was 8 weeks old! Three times just yesterday! And he is discovering his hands and feet and his voice. He generally sleeps about 10-11 hours at night now but he has been sleeping through the night for at least a month already. He has moved into his own room since he was 12 weeks old and that transition went really well for him. I think mommy was more worried than he was. Just tonight I got out his rubber duckies at bath time for the first time and was squirting him with them and he was laughing! Oh, he is so cute! Daddy gives him airplane rides and he loves it, he just keeps springing up off his feet cuz he wants more!

We hiked around this rocky cliff area, the trail was probably just at the base of the rocks and above the trees that are below, a lot of the trail was covered in shale.

The view below our Rock Creek hike, horses grazing, one of mommies favorite of all God's creation.

Daddy and Titus on our hike in Rock Creek, my two favorite men!

A view of Missoula coming back down the Blue Mountain National Recreation Trail.

Blue Mountain (fire) Lookout Tower, 50 ft., we wanted to go up into it but the stairs were very steep and at the top of the stairs the door was closed. But they say you can see 5 different mountain ranges from up there!

At the top of Blue Mountain, 6,460 ft.

Crazy Summertime!!

The summer is going by so quickly and Titus is now 7 1/2 weeks old! Wow! What a blessing though to have his arrival start our summer. Then my parents were here June 20th thru July 1st. We had such a good visit with both of them but I had a really good time with my mom. I took her to the Saturday Farmers/Peoples Market and "Out to Lunch @ Caras Park" on Wednesday. Tom enjoyed cooking for them a few dinners on the grill and we got to celebrate Father's Day and my birthday while they were here. Gammie really got to enjoy her grandson and Papa did in the spare time that Gammie wasn't! My aunt Mary and my dad looked around at lots of property just in case they ever decide to head west! Who knows, only God right?
Then Tom's parents were here July 2nd thru the 11th. We also enjoyed their visit, we took them "Out to Lunch @ Caras Park" while they were here. We all hung out a lot in Lolo where Kevin and Carolyn and the girls live and played some games and ate lots of food. Grandma enjoyed rocking and walking Titus when he was fussy and snuggling with his warm body and Grandpa enjoyed afternoon naps with Titus.
Since then we have seen 3 old Missoula friends who were visiting. An old Missoula roommate of mine who now lives in Kansas with her husband and 2 girls. We are both moms now and that is so cool to me, I don't feel that old but I guess I am. A mutual friend of ours from California also came through, he had taught Tom how to fly fish and I was in his wedding, needless to say I was upset that his beautiful bride was not here to visit. And another mutual friend of ours, whom we both got to know at different times in our lives, from Colorado with her four children came through too. It was so good to catch up with these friends and to be encouraged in how their lives are still pursuing God.
Kevin and Carolyn and the girls are now in process of moving to Arizona. They are going to be support staff down at the New Tribes Mission Aviation Headquarters for possibly the next couple of years. They are still hoping that they can head to Papua New Guinea when they come through all the health issues with the girls. God already has them on that road in a huge way. Kevin actually left today with all of their stuff and Carolyn and the girls will fly down on Saturday. We are of course sad to see them go, it has been sweet to have them here the last year to get to know them for me and Tom has really enjoyed his time with his little brother.
Besides all the visiting we have just been trying to enjoy our summer with our new son. He is so adorable and beginning just in the last week and a half to smile at me in response to my smile. God's blessings are so sweet. Enjoy the pics and I hope to update sooner next time.

I just gave my horse, Piper, away to a man who is persistent yet has a kind hand. Piper is now 7 years old and to my neglect and lack of time he has not been broke yet, I had gotten a saddle on him and did lots of ground work with him but being his age, he was a handful and required someone more skilled than I to train him fully. I am actually a little over 29 weeks pregnant in this picture!

My parents took us up to Lindey's Steak House in Seeley Lake for my birthday for dinner. Mmmm it was so good, our dinners came with pickled watermelon rind and it was actually surprisingly good.

Tom took 3 students backpacking with him the 15th-18th into the Great Bear Wilderness which is part of the Bob Marshall Complex. He wanted to go in to visit one of our former students who is working in there for the summer, Ethan McKee in center of photo, to bring him encouragement. It was 18 miles in because of a misunderstanding and then 14 miles out, each all done in one day! Way to go, that is my awesome husband! While he did that, Titus and I went to Flathead Lake and spent the weekend at the Cross' cabin with them and about 10 others. It was very relaxing for me even though I missed my husband terribly.

The four Johnson men: Rich, Tom, Titus & Kevin, along with sweet Zowee, she adds beauty to the picture!

While Tom's parents were here we celebrated all three of our wedding anniversaries with a recipe for grilled chicken that Tom wanted to try. Of course, Kevin was helping in his own sort of weird way, ha, jk Kevin. His parents celebrated their 40th this year! Praise God for your love and commitment.

Our friend, Brad Trosen, was up for the challenge presented him while playing "Would You Rather...?" He had to keep his mouth wide open and have "Goof" written on his forehead with lipstick for one players full turn. Him and his family recently moved from Missoula, him and his wife Laura and son Ian are headed to serve in ministry with CMA in Senegal, Africa while their two daughters Hannah & my sweet Emily are living in Minnesota. This was our last hang out with them before they left in mid July.

30 Weeks and Counting

Today we are 30 weeks along in our pregnancy! We are pretty excited for our little muffin to arrive in about 10 weeks! This has been an exciting journey that the Lord has taken us on in our almost 9 months of marriage. God's planning is perfect though, the timing of the year to be pregnant with the different stages of pregnancy. And He has been good in just the blessing of the experience as a first time mom, I have had really no complaints thus far. Now I am just getting huge, I feel, and can't believe I have 10 weeks to go. With that comes discomfort in sleeping, getting in and out of the car & tying your shoes. But if that is my only complaint is my size, I will be able to tell my baby what a great baby he/she was before they were even born. I have been feeling increased movement this week, it is really quit amazing to experience the life inside you growing & becoming active.

Last Wednesday, the 31st, it was Spring Break for the students we volunteer with at our church high school youth group and some of the students were hiking the M in place of yg and Tom & I joined them! My unspoken goal was to to it without stopping but we got a little distracted by the fox & mule deer we saw up there. There are 13 switchbacks on this trail and your elevation gain is 620ft., I was pretty proud of myself since I have not been exercising very much during my pregnancy.