Welcome, Auntie Tyler!

Hotel Schleicher has definitely been hopping during the past 2 months, but we have been loving it! Our most recent guest was "Auntie" Tyler, one of Amy's closest friends (one that Amy has known since kindergarten). We were SO happy to have Tyler visit us again. Her last visit to us was only a few months after the boys were born when we were definitely still in survival mode. We did absolutely no sight-seeing of MT and didn't really see much outside of the house at all. Tyler even had to cook some of her own meals!

This time around, Hotel Schleicher was a bit more experienced in the hosting-with-kids department. :) We even whisked Tyler away to Yellowstone for the weekend (pics on that journey still to come!). It was fun to watch Cody and Jaden warm up to Tyler throughout her visit. Already on the first afternoon of her stay, the boys requested a story from Auntie Tyler.

Another day, Jaden and Cody showed Tyler how to play Hullabaloo. 

Tyler caught on quickly. :)

Towards the end of Tyler's visit, we took Tyler to a local kids' event called the Rubber Duck Regatta. There were all kinds of carnival games, like this beanbag toss.

Thankfully, no one minded when the boys basically just dropped their beanbags into the holes.

Next, Jaden and Cody participated in this mini-Olympic games course. They both "threw" the frisbee onto the pool noodles,

chucked a football through the hanging hoops,

and attempted to whack the ball through the arches with a golf club.

At the end of the course, Jaden and Cody used markers and stickers to decorate a medal for themselves.

The main "attraction" of this event was the actual rubber duck race. We arrived too late to purchase our own competitive rubber ducks, but we were still able to watch a few of the racing finals.

We used up our remaining tickets on a few other games, like this Plinko-style one.

Jaden and Cody were quite pleased to show off all the prizes that they won-- like these animal finger puppets, a few race cars, and even a little action figure (that broke before we even pulled out of the parking lot...). Jaden is also proudly wearing his self-decorated medal in this picture. 

Overall, the event seemed to be worthwhile for our little guys, as they seemed to enjoy the games and prizes fairly well. Tyler was a great helper for us there, too, leading the boys around and snapping a few pictures.

The greatest part of the event (for the boys, at least) was its location. The Regatta was held at the same park where we often stop to feed the geese and ducks. So of course we had to do the same on this day.

The waterfront views at this park are quite nice, too.

Our little Cody has developed quite an arm when chucking food at the birds. He definitely puts his all into his throws. :)

Thanks, Tyler, for joining us on this little outing and for always knowing just what to do to help out!

After the Regatta, we continued on to our new Scheels store (a very large sporting goods store) that was having its grand opening that weekend. It was pretty amazing to see the mini-bowling alley, the shooting range, the golf simulator, and the full size Ferris wheel inside this store. We didn't get pictures of anything at the store other than these large aquarium pillars.

On the way out of the store, we actually saw a real scuba diver swimming around inside this tank. Impressive!

By the end of Tyler's visit, the boys were calling Tyler by name and freely giving her hugs and kisses. Each morning after they'd awake, they'd look towards the stairs and say, "Ty-lah, UP! Ty-lah, UP!" Tyler certainly is a fun playmate and a wonderful friend. We were all so thankful for her time with us!