Life in Montana: Events and Outings

Camping and More Barley Picture

Tue, 05 Jun 2007 03:02:18 GMT

We went camping this weekend at the new campground on Hauser Lake. It is called White Sandy. It is right next to Black Sandy. They aren't charging camping fees this year because it is the first year in service. We got up Saturday morning and got packed up and headed out to the lake. We found a nice spot thanks to the nice camp host that told us someone was leaving soon and if we wait a few minutes we could have thier spot. He was a really nice older man and probably the most active camp host I have ever seen.

We had a few friends stop out and join us for the day. Cory brought his boat out so after we got everything setup we went out wakeboarding and tubing. It was really hot out so it was nice to get in the water. The Hartman's, the Leitgeb's also joined for the day out there. Bill decided to stay out was us along with Whitney and her husband Victor. Whitney works with Angie at the credit union. We all had a really good time but I think we are starting to show our age. We were all so tired from being in the sun and on the water that we all crashed before midnight.

Barley came with us and I think he had a good time. Minus the water which he still isn't sure about and the heat that he was always trying to hide from. If he would have cooled off if he would get in the water. I did walk him out into the water and made him swim back to shore. It wasn't very far but he is a good swimmer.

I woke up a little sore the next day. I hadn't been wakeboarding in a long time or it might have been getting bounced around on the tube. We were planning on staying out there longer on Sunday then we did but it was really getting hot and Barley was melting. So we packed up and head for home. Boy was he glad to be back. He slept so well that I had to wake him up when I got out of bed. It is normally the other way around.

Pictures of the weekend are in a new gallery so you can check them out.

Night Two

Sun, 22 Apr 2007 14:17:10 GMT

I would have to say I prefer night one :) We got him in to bed at about 10:30 but he seemed to have to get up every half hour. Most of the time when we took him out he went to the bathroom but then it got so he just would whine to get out. So the last time we actually did the good parent thing and let him whine for a few minutes (this was at 3:00am) and eventually stopped and went to sleep. I woke up at 7am and was actually scared somthing happened to him but he was fine. He was in his crate playing with his toy. Chris got him up and now 8am he is taking his morning snooze. I tried to put him in his crate after he curled up in my lap but we walked right out back in to my lap.

He is so cute when he sleeps I can't help but have him cuddle with me :)

Have a GREAT Sunday!!

Ang

St. Patrick's Day

Sun, 19 Mar 2006 22:23:12 GMT

We had another fun weekend. How could we not with St. Patrick's Day being on a Friday this year.

It was really neat that the Helena Diocese, with its new bishop, declared that Catholics could eat meat and enjoy the holiday's other traditions, green beer! Well I don't know if they where really thinking about the green beer but it was nice to let everyone eat their Corned Beef and Cabbage. From what I hear there was quiet a few diocese that did the same thing all over.

The last two years I have made Corned Beef and Cabbage to celebrate and I did again this year. I started it by soaking the brisket in brine last Friday. I moved it over to the crockpot Friday morning and cooked it all day long. I came home and added the veggies and potatoes at lunch and added the cabbage when I got home. I managed to make the whole apartment building smell like it. We had Mike Leitgeb and Carrie over for dinner. So we sat down to a nice dinner with of coarse some green beer to wash it all down. Carrie was watching her 6 month old nephew Gus so she brought him over. There is a picture of him in the new album I have put up.

After dinner Eric and Renee stopped by and we all headed out to the Edge to continue the festivities. We meet Bill out there and Mike and Nikki showed up a little while later. When we first got there we found out that they weren't serving green beer. (I know we all thought that was pretty crazy as well.) Since we don't live to far from there I ran home and got some green food coloring so we could make are own green beer. We were the only ones at the bar who had green beer so that was cool. We hung out there for quite a while playing pool and shuffle puck. My brother who wasn't drinking that night came out and hung out for a little bit then became our sober driver for the evening.

From the Edge most of us went down to the Roc's Western Bar where we ran into some people that Angie works with. She and Renee ran around the bar, getting asked where they got their green beer, while Mike, Eric, and I sat down and played some poker. Aaron went down the street to a bar where some of his friends were hangning out. I also ran into some people that I work with in the poker room and some more friends of mine, Aaron and Eamon.

At the end of the night Aaron came back to get us and Angie and I took him out to breakfast as a thank you for driving our drunk butts around. Pete and Steph were going to join us but Steph had to work early in the morning. It was already 2:00am and they live about half an hour away so we couldn't argue with that. There is nothing better then a 2:00 am breakfast after a night drinking and we even got to watch some drunken people have a little fight.

We woke up Saturday morning feeling a little ruff but a lot better then we should have. It was also snowing like crazy and didn't let up until Sunday morning. I took some pictures of all the snow. Not a bad accumulation considering that on Friday there wasn't even a snow bank left in town.

Saturday day and evening was pretty low key. We went over to my parent’s house and watched the Carroll basketball game on TV. They ended up losing but made it to the elite eight. Saturday was Cory's Birthday so we went over to his place and had some ice cream cake and watched a movie with him, Renee (his girlfriend), and Bill.

I hope everyone had a great St. Patrick’s Day and weekend. Till the next time,

Chris

P.S. I don't know what happend with the background color in this entry but I can't get it fixed.

Veterans Weekend

Mon, 14 Nov 2005 04:58:49 GMT

Well another week has gone by and we thought we should catch up with everything. We both had an extra day off this week for Veterans Day. We took advantage of this day to catch up on some wedding stuff. Angie talked to a few DJ's, we went to the jewler guy and ordered our wedding bands, and stopped and checked out an enormous book of invitations from a party store. But don't worry we did have some fun this weekend as well. Not that planning for the wedding isn't fun or anything.

Saturday we had the last regular season Carroll football game. It was very cold and windy but the hot chocolate with peppermint schnapps and hot cider with rum helped out. The game was a blow out and the highlight was the halftime contest. I was trying to catch little mini footballs that Pete was throwing from ten yards away. The catch, I had to catch them with a gaint pair of pants that I happen to have on. After three tying round we ended up losing. The winners got a $200 to Murdoch's. Which to those of you that don't know is like a Ranch & Home, Big R, or a Fleet Farm. But we didn't get turned away empty handed we got hats that say Murdoch's on them.

The game was such a blow out and it was so cold that we decided to go home. The final score was 66-13 and besides that the score it was a big day for Tyler Emmert. He broke Jon Kitna's total yardage record. Here is a link to the story:

Helena IR

http://www.helenair.com/articles/2005/11/13/sports_top/b01111305_01.txt

We also went to mass Saturday evening and met with Rev. Jim Connor the pastor that will be doing our marriage classes. Which is another wedding task taken care of. Saturday night ended with me playing poker with my brother, his friend john, my soon to be brother-in-law Troy, and my friend Eric. Angie stayed home and studied for her loan officer test. Isn't she dedicated?

On Sunday we went and got a couple of Sunday papers because our engagement annoucement came out in the Helena paper. Here is the link to it on the internet:

Helena IR

http://www.helenair.com/articles/2005/11/13/engagements/evan1113.txt

We also went to a 25th wedding anniversary of some really close friends of the family, Mike and Kathy Sampson. We got a lot of congradtulations while we were there because people either saw the annoucement in the paper or had recieved the postcards that we had sent out. What was kind of neat celebrating a 25th anniversary while we are starting our lives together.

Well that was pretty much it. Later

Chris

P.S. Sorry only one picture this week.

Halloween 2005

Mon, 07 Nov 2005 05:58:57 GMT

Here are the pictures from our very eventful and and somewhat hazy halloween party.

We threw a Halloween Party Saturday October 29th. The day began w/ a cold game at Carroll College. The game ended w/ a close score of 42-0. Carroll was unstoppable:) After the game we headed home to get dressed for the party.

I was very impressed with everyone's costumes. Bill (naked hula girl) won for best male costume and Carrie (grandpa) won for best female costume. Some of my buddies from work thought that the old couple were actually old and couldn't figure out why they were at a halloween party at their age...great costume guys.

Here are the costumes that were there....

Morticia Addams (Angie), Gomez Addams (Chris), Creepy Clown Green Hair Guy (Cory), Devil (Renee), Angel (Renee), El Bandito (Eric), Frog (Austin), 80's Prom Dates (Cliff & Christina), Dead Prom Dates (Jaimi & Jade), Cat (Natalia), Ginger (Jen), Pirate (Bobbie), King (Tim), Queen (Amy), Grandpa (Mike), Grandma (Carrie), Pregnant man (Mike), Doctor (Nikki), Naked Hula Girl (Bill), Bat Girl (Jenn), Mariners Fan (Aaron), Sponge Bob (Dave), Witch (Sarita), 60's Chick (Sara), Biker Girl (Avery), Scary mask dude (Brad), Marilyn Monroe, More Hula people (Ilea & Phil), I am sure there are more but if I don't have pictures it is hard to recall that evening :)

A couple hours into the party the basement was so packed we could harly move but when we went in to check on the keg it was still way too heavy, so chris's brother came up with a great idea...KEG STANDS. Oh my gosh...everyone packed into the laundry room :) I did not happen to venture that way...wouldn't have worked w/ a dress on. Chris's brother grabbed first place with 27 seconds...crazy. Natalia had so much fun the first time she tried it she had to go again :) Good times.

Needless to say we didn't have a problem finishing the keg by the end of the night. I think Chris and I arrived back at home at about three in the morning. I haven't stayed up that long since...geez I don't know if I can remember. I was very excited to wake up the next morning w/ no hanger...maybe I am not getting as old I thought :)

Chris and I are already thinking for next year. Happy Halloween.

Ang

Poker Night & Ladies Night

Wed, 26 Oct 2005 00:11:16 GMT

Last Saturday all the guys got to together over at our apartment for big poker game and all the ladies got together and decorated Eric and Renee's basement for the halloween party next weekend.

Eric, Mike and I got just about everyone that we knew and was willing to come and play. We shoe horned 13 people at two tables into the living room and kitchen. At a $20 buy in the pot was pretty large. We got started around 7:30 pm and we didn't finish until 1:00am. It felt like forever. But it was a really fun. Eric ended up winning the whole thing and taking home $130, Leitgeb took second for $80, and I took thrid for $50. We had orignally planned to start a second cash game once there were enough people out, but no one wanted to because they were having to much fun watching. Everyone left asking when we were going to do it again. I'll let Angie talk about her fun over at Renee's house.

At Renee and Eric's house the ladies gathered and consumed some tastey wine and decorated for the big event next Saturday. HALLOWEEN PARTY! I can't wait. We put up lots of lights (orange, puprle, pink, and black) and a spider with 10 foot long legs...he is so cute though :) Lots of gossip and cackeling occured throughout the evening. Before the night ended we made plans to meet over there this coming Friday night to make the 'Jello'...about three hundred of these little jello shots are going to be made for the party. Good times.

We will definitely have pictures of our costumes and everyone elses...I have informed everyone that if you show up with no costumes it is a $10 just to get in the door :) We'll see if this works.

Chris & Angie

Football Weekend 10-15-2005

Tue, 25 Oct 2005 23:47:04 GMT

Well it has been a couple of weeks since we last wrote but we have been kind of busy. The picture in the new album are from two weekends ago when we went to the Carroll Montana Tech football game. We had a pretty big group out tailgating and their was a record crowd in the stadium. That is because Montana Tech is Carroll's biggest rivallary in the conference. There is down right hatered between these two schools. So it was fun wacthing Carroll kick the snot out of them. Carroll was beating them so bad at halftime that we didn't even go back in for the second half. We just watched the scoreboard from the parking lot, ate some more food, and had a couple more beers.

After the game we headed out to Cory's house to continue the fun and to watch MSU Bozeman play on TV. Cory graduated from Bozeman so it was kind of like having two tailgate partys in the same day. His team didn't have the same fate but it was a very close game that was decided by a field goal.

Sunday was spent recovering and watching more football on TV.

Chris

Engaged 10-7-2005

Sun, 09 Oct 2005 18:20:45 GMT

Well it finally happend...we're engaged. I was totally taken by surprise...it is scary at how well he can keep a secret :)

It all started Friday after work (well for me that is when it started...Chris has been working on this for some time). I got to my car after work and saw a rose sitting on my front seat. I was so excited to see the rose...I just thought he was being sweet cause I had been sick all week and this was here to cheer me up. On my way home I couldn't wait to give him a big hug for being such a sweet boyfriend. I got to our apartment and opened the door to find it pitch black except for on the kitchen table. There were beautiful flowers and candles lining the table and a bottle w/ a cork in it. There was a note in front of the bottle that said 'Read Me'. I opened the bottle to read the sweetest words. When I finally got to the bottem (I was already tearing up) it asked "Will You Marry Me?". Then Chris came out of the bedroom (all dressed up in a shirt and tie) got down on one knee and asked me "Will you marry me?". By this time I was crying so hard I could barely answer "Yes, I will marry you!".

After lots of hugs, kisses, and tears (maily by me) we opened the champagne. Chris popped the cork , the bubbly was poured, and we toasted to our future.

The ring is a past, present, future diamond ring. It is on a platnium band that Chris picked out. One of the side diamonds Chris got from his mom in May. That diamond was Chris's moms grandmas diamond. (Great grandma). He hid that diamond in an Altoid box in his dresser for months. Crazy. Even crazier was Jill and Jeremy drilling Chris on vacation about when he was finally going to propose. Chris didn't want to say anything but he was already talking to the jewler at the time. The ring was made in LA and shipped back last week. Chris picked up the ring on Wednesday. He acutally had to lie to me one day when he got home late from work cause he got held up at the jewlers...he used talking to his buddy Eric as his excuse. It is the most gorgeous ring I have ever seen...but I may be a little bias.

Well that is when the phone calls started. I called my parents and Dad answered...Mom wasn't home (she was out shopping w/ Candi) so I told him the great news. He was excited and after I talked to him for a bit he asked to talk to Chris...he wanted to congratulate him as well. I told Dad to have Mom call me when Candi and she got back. In the mean time I called Chrissy, Vicki, and my friend Sarah. I had to leave a message w/ Chrissy but got a hold of Vicki. She was so excited and she congratulated both Chris and I. I guess right after she hung up she told Becky and Becky's first question was how did he do it...so Vicki had to call back because she didn't think to ask the details :) It was cute.

Sarah was just as excited. When she and Luke got engaged she had to leave it as a message on my answering machine and it sounded like she was crying so I thought they had broken. Low and behold he had asked her to marry him. Sarah and I have the hardest time actually getting a hold of each other so I was very surprised to hear her voice on the other end of the line when I called. I was so excited to able to tell her my good news in person (sort of).

Chris's buddies kept calling to see what we were up to that night (Mike called just ask Chris was lighting the candles) so he had to fib to his friends about what we were doing because he wanted to tell everyone at the BBQ the next day. Needless to say they were a little suspicous.

Chris and I decided to go Montana City Grill for dinner to celebrate. While we were at dinner my mom called. I told her we were out celebrating and she asked what we were celebrating. I told her that Chris proposed and her response was, "Yeah right!". I said seriously mom he did...ask Dad. She turned her head from the phone and said Joe is this why you told me to call Angie about a receipe? Dad told a good fib so Mom wouldn't know what was going on...good one :) I could hear him giggle in the background...then Mom said Congratulations after the confirmation from dad.

Dinner was so yummy but I could hardly eat. I ordered a salad and sandwich and Chris got their tastey prime rib. The waitress caught on to our celebration at the end of the night and tried to sell us their banquet room for the reception or rehersal dinner. Sorry the wedding will be in MN and the reception in MT will need a much bigger space.

After dinner we called Chris's parents to see what they were up to and they had just gotten home. We mentioned that we were on our way home from dinner and thought we might stop by and say hi. We had a feeling they might know something was up because we never stop over at nine a night on a Friday evening. As soon as we walk in the door they looked straight at my finger and smiled. Steve (Chris's dad) grimmed and said "A ring". Pam started making phone calls and Chris called his brother, sister, and godfather. The word should now continue to spread like wild fire.

The next day I had to go to work but that was actually pretty fun cause there were lots of people I saw and I was able to tell them the good news. I could hardly concentrate the entire time. While I was at work Chris called his buddies back to confirm the BBQ at our place that night. People showed up through out the night to hear the good news. We tried to get people to notice the ring first but I guess they don't look at my hands as much as his parents do :) Even little baby Austin was in the partying mood cause he was still up and movin when everyone left. The evening ended looking at Mike and Nikki's wedding pictures.

Today is Sunday (two days later) and it still doesn't feel real. I guess Chris and I will be sitting down and figuring out some dates since that is the first question everyone asks. So far it is looking like either late summer 2006 or spring 2007. Don't worry we will be giving plenty of notice.

The planning is already starting; Pam asked when we will be ready to take our engagment pictures and this is just the beginningof all the fun.

Ang

Carroll Homecoming 2005-September 17th

Wed, 21 Sep 2005 01:33:23 GMT

Tailgating again! I know seems like we practically live there but this was a big one...Carroll College Homecoming.

Chris and I even set our alarm on a Saturday...crazy. We were up at seven cooking chili and makin juice. We arrived at our tailgate spot at 9:30am (the game starts at 1:00pm) and we weren't even the first ones there. We were amused to see that MSU Northern Parents Club had a tailgate a few spots down from us...Nikki's dad was there already setting up and Mike showed up shortly after we did.

Cory and Renee were right on top of things showing up with the grill, wings, and wienies right when we did. After we got the canopy up (thank goodness for that or we would have gotten pretty wet) Cory started up some wings. So fricken spicy (but I am told I am wussy). We eneded up having to get another table from the PE center to fit all the yummy food. We had wings, chili, chili cheese dip, meatballs, spicy little weinies, roxy dip, summer sausage, assorted cheeses, peanuts, and of course...happy juice. Thanks to the master chefs and their flavourful cuisines :)

You must be wondering what is happy juice...it is also known as Lynchberg Lemonades. So tasty :) Nikki's mom seemed to take a small liking to the juice. We were kind enough give her taste even though she is a Northern fan (her son-Nikki's brother-plays for Northern...GO TYLER). Thanks to all of you who donated to a good cause...more happy juice :)

After we got everything set up, I noticed Chris taking my extra pot of chili over to the tailgate spot next to us...they were having a chili contest. There were five entries and ours was number 5. The contest ended right before the game began and at halftime we found out my grandpas chili receipe didn't win first (the lady who set up the contest won first place), but she said we got lots of votes and probably got second. Maybe if we were entered from the start we could have sweept the contest. I was told by a friend that the chili that did win looked so gross she wouldn't even try it...coincidence i think not. Oh well...The last minute entry was a favorite!! Grandpa knows his chili.

We had a good group of people attending the festivities: Cory and Renee, Pete and Stef, Matt, Nikki and Mike, Aaron and Aaron's girlfriend (I mean friend that is a girl or whatever Aaron calls her), and Jamie and Chris's soon to be nephew Lawson. Lawson asked Chris very politly if he could possibly come again to one of his tailgates...so sweet. Thanks to Pam and Steve for buying me a homecoming corsage...it was so thoughtful.

Renee and I made a stop by the Northside Liquor tailgate. We got to register for a sweet gift basket and drew to win a prize. We both won sweet blinking martini glass necklaces...we of course had to wear them :) We also got some parting gifts a key chain and an expired condem. That's right...expired. I hope everyone who received this lovely parting gift checked the date of expiration...Aaron was smart and checked his right away. To his dismay he handed the condem off to his buddy for he didn't think he would get use of it before expiration.

Right before the game started Steve came and grabbed Chris and Pete (fellow pyro) to go light off fireworks.. They let the fireworks off at the end of the national anthem...perfect timing. Even though Chris blew it by losing the flame for the rest of the show....teasing...I know the wind is not nice.

The first half of the game was a slow one which was a bummer because we have this rule that if Carroll is leading at half by 35 points or more we don't go back to watch the game...we stay and tailgate (aka consumption of adult beverages). Sad to say we had to go back and watch the second half :) Carroll pulled out a victory in the end though.

We all stuck around after the game and continued to consume more food and happy juice...good times. I think Nikki polished off a whole bottle of Crown herself..that a girl :) Thanks goes out to Mike, Nkki, and Nikki's Parents for helping take everything down and clean up the tailgate area. From there we decided to go to Bullwinkles for some dinner. Bullwinkles was a good choice because Aaron (Chris's brother) ended up winning $126 playing Keno...sweet. Especially since he paid for our dinners. Thanks Aaron...you're the best :)

After dinner we decided to head out to Oktoberfest. $6 to buy a mug w/ a token and $2 for a token after that. Oktoberfest takes place at the fairgrounds in a huge white and red striped tent. To my suprise it was actually pretty warm...the outfit for the evening was definitely long sleeved shirts and vests except for one girly who felt the need to wear the smalles tank top...I am sure she was as toasty as a two rats humping in a sweat sock or not. After a few beers there Nikki and Chris started to get some nasty headaches (doesn't it stink when you start getting a hangover before you are even done drinking) so we headed home. On our way out I found a stand selling mini donuts...so finger likin good :)

We got home and Chris got a call from some buddies visiting from Idaho so we ended up going to the Rialto to socialize with them. No more beer! It was great to see everyone again.

After a long and eventful day (why do you think this entry is so long...seven in the morning to one the next moring is quite a day) we headed home to fear the hangovers we were going to experience the next day...to our surprise neither of us had one. Maybe we aren't as old as the guy carding us at Oktoberfest called us...Older than Dirt :)

Ang

Bridge Bureau Picnic

Wed, 14 Sep 2005 22:43:19 GMT

Here are some pictures that I just got from the bridge bureau picnic that Carol gave me. She is the secretary for the whole bureau. It was held back on August 11^th at Clark’s Bay on Hauser Lake.

On a second note. If you want to leave a comment there is a link at the bottom of each entry to do so. Also if anyone out there has a blog of thier own let me know so we can link to eachothers pages.

Hartman's Wedding-8/21/05

Tue, 13 Sep 2005 02:08:39 GMT

My friend Mike got married to the love of his life, Nikki Gluinksonson or something like that. It is Hartman now anyways. The wedding was on the hottest damn day of the year with 300 people shoehorned into a little church. I swear with that tux on it was at least 200 Degrees in there. But the fun part was when we got to the reception at the 4H center....FREE BEER..and Crown Royal....Sorry Nikki!!!

The night started off with a short but sweet best man speach. Leitgeb loves Hartman like a brother. Then the traditions that always happen when us group of guys get together. We sing Sweet Caroline and take our clothes off...let me explain that a little better. We don't do them at the same time we sang the song and then went out back and stripped....let me explain that better. Back in our high school days at senior prom we had a picture of all of us with what was left of our tuxes. So we decided to renact this event once more...I mean how often do you get all of us in a tux.

For the groomsmen prank on Hartman's truck we wired the brake peddle to the horn. So whenever he put his foot on the brake the horn would go off. Thanks to Angie and Renee for keeping Mike distracted so we could accomplish this feat. But don't worry we fixed it before they drove all the way back into town. Didn't think being pulled over on their wedding night would be to romantic.

After all the cermony and drinking the night ended with Avery's (that's Mike's twin sister) boyfriend playing the acustic guitar...Time of your lifewas the song. My brother had it pegged before he started. It was an emotional night which was evident from all the tears, including from a BIG FAT CRY BABY whose name I will not mention.

My sister was kind enough to give all of us slightly drunk people, that is if slighty drunk means I am the best dancer on the dance floor, a ride home. Thanks Jamie for the ride. The after party attemp failed before it even got started.

The next day Angie and Renee couldn't walk because thier feet hurt so bad from dancing all night, I mean all night, in bad but I am told cute shoes. I also decided the next morning no more drinking champange straight from the bottle for me. When we went to pick up my truck at 1:00 the next day the only vehicles in the parking lot where the groommen's. Do we know how to party or what?!

Chris

P.S. This is the High School Prom picture that I mentioned above. I don't think we have changed a bit...do you?

Tailgating 9/10/05-Carroll vs Azuza Pacific

Tue, 13 Sep 2005 01:24:49 GMT

We went and watched Carroll beat Azuza 27-7. I think the high for the day was 50 degrees (if that). A lot of beer, chili cheese dip, meatballs, brats, and Roxy dip was consumed. Thank goodness for my over packing of blankets or Aaron would have froze his arse off.

Thanks to Steve for all the sideline passes and thanks to all those who brought the food...yummy!

We are looking forward to next weekends events...Homecoming. Carroll plays Northern and we will only cheer for Nikki's brother :) Go Carroll!

Angie & Chris