From the back seat

Calla: Violet, can I touch your seat?

Violet: No. 

Calla:  Why?

Violet: Because I'm really, really special.

Calla:  No you aren't.  You aren't glass.  Only glass things are special.

Violet:  No, I am special! 

Grace (intervening from the middle seat):  Calla, everyone is special.   Even you.

After nearly five hours of trying and failing to accomplish all but one thing on my list, I must admit it made me giggle.  I may still be giggling.

And she's off!

This spring I told Calla that one of the things we should do this summer was take the training wheels off her bike. 

And then we moved and she didn't do a lot of bike riding and we kind of forgot.

Until yesterday.  We were camping in Yellowstone and she was riding all over having a grand time at the camp ground while we were all packing up to leave.  I mentioned that we should take her training wheels off pretty soon.

Apparently she heard "now" and went to tell her daddy that they needed to come off.  Now.

After a brief discussion about how once they came off they weren't going back on and she needed to try them first NOT on the pavement, daddy got to work.

Calla got on.  Daddy gave her a little push . . .

And . . . .

. . . Calla was off . . . 

. . . through a campsite . . .

. . . onto the pavement . . .

. . . around the bathrooms . . .

. . . back off the pavement . . .

. . . through another campsite . . .

. . . and . . .

 . . .back onto the pavement and stopped without even so much as a wobble.

I was laughing so hard I was crying.  But honestly, I had an inkling that might happen. 

She's thrilled and now there is one less thing stopping her. 

Two years ago we threw that bike in the back of the truck and her first attempt at riding it was at Yellowstone.  And this week she got to take her training wheels off at Yellowstone.  Yellowstone is good for this kid. 

While mommy is away--Part II

While mommy is away, daddy is in charge. Not that he isn't in charge when I'm not away, but when I'm four hours away and I have no Internet or cell service, he's really in charge.

First thing they did was watch a movie. Then they really got down to business--they made a list:

This is the list:

-Clean the whole house and laundry
-Read books
-Tell Stories
-Clean out car
-Cook Food
-Cake
-Cookies
-Spaghetti
-Pizza
-Lasagna
-Pancakes
-Waffles
-Valentine for Mom
-Go to Church
-Water Calla’s Plant
-Take a Bath
-Go outside
-Sledding
-Drawing
-Dot to Dot
-Watch movies with popcorn
-Play Games
-Hang Pictures

There was a line through the cleaning out the car item and it was replaced with bowling. They apparently had a great time--and don't tell Grace, but Violet won. They also didn't get to hanging pictures, but they did hang a rather large picture on the livingroom wall.

It was this big:



And it involved over several days a lot of paint (followed by baths) . . .



And more paint . . .



Some serious concentration by a 19 month old . . .



Glitter stickers . . .



And finally, the finishing touches and LOTS of tape . . .



And some very excited children who kept the secret all the way home even though they were so excited they nearly burst.

They made me close my eyes and everything. Needless to say, I was very surprised.



I love my kids, and my husband. They know how to make a mommy feel loved, even if she does abandon them for a long weekend.

Coming tomorrow: how a mommy makes three little girls spin in glee! (I was nearly spinning in glee just thinking about it.)

Every day

Every day at least once I look out the window and marvel at how beautiful it is here. Today it was several times.

Brent got home this evening and took the girls outside. Moments later he came back in. This is what they had found.



The kids totally got into it.







Oh Idaho. You are so beautiful. I know I haven't wintered though yet, but I still think people should shop shaking their head when I tell them they should move here.

Two days, 800 miles, 6 stitches and a puking baby

**WARNING** If you are a little bit squeamish at the thought of blood or puke, don't read this. There isn't a LOT of blood and not a lot of puke, but there is enough to make the squeamish squirm.




So this week has been nuts. And today is only Thursday. We spent the better part of this week getting ready and getting on the road. Late nights, kids so excited to go to grandma's house (haven't seen them since June) and a couple days in the car.

I took the kids in the morning on Tuesday to the photo shoot for the International Babywearing Conference. Brent met us there and we were on our way. But first we stopped at the Starbucks in Idaho Falls. Because that's the last (and first) Starbucks for a good 1,400 miles. The only Starbucks on the planet that doesn't have another Starbucks a block away. But that's okay because it has saved me a lot of money since we moved to Idaho.

Two of the three kids fell asleep, the third one was happy and quiet and we made it to our "best case scenario" destination--Ontario, Oregon. And we found a hotel. And ordered pizza. And went for a walk because it was a beautiful night. And came back and got ready for bed and crawled into the two full size beds we had pushed together and were trying to get the kids settled in when it happened.

Calla's head bounced off this:



It was one of those things that happened that you just know that it wasn't good. And that you were now going to be up until at least 1 am because you were going to spend some time sitting in the ER waiting for them to sew your kid's pretty little head back together.

Speaking of pretty little heads, Violet was on the table the other day (her new trick) and I took her off telling her that I didn't want her on the table. And Calla pipes up, "Because you don't want her to fall off and break her pretty little head."

The kid cracks me up. And then two days later she ended up needing to get her pretty little head sewn back together.

Brent took her in and I stayed with the other two girls at the hotel room. Brent said Calla was a real trooper and was the perfect little patient. The doctor and nurse were super and certainly contributed to the positive experience. It was obvious they had stitched kids up before. Brent said he asked if there were any alternatives to stitches, and the doctor said they could glue it together, but stitches were a better alternative for this particular wound. "See that white in there? That's her skull."



I guess it figures that Calla would be the first kid to get stitches.

The next morning we piled back in the car and headed west. Everything was going great. Until about an hour and a half from our final destination when Violet started puking.

Poor kid. We just had to keep going because we were SO close. I sat back there with her and kept her cleaned up the best I could. She fell asleep for about half an hour of it, which was good.

But we made it. Violet isn't puking any more. And we got pancakes for breakfast. And we got the first decent night's sleep in at least four nights.

So, two days, 800 miles, 6 stitches and a puking baby later, we are here. And today we are just going to hang out and relax with grandma and grandpa and hopefully get a little rest.

Frankly, the whole thing sounds a whole lot worse all squished together in one sentence than it was. It felt like a pretty good trip, actually.

Is that weird?

I think I need to get some snow boots

When it snowed here the other day, Brent went into work and told some people at the office, "You know, in Washington we had this thing called Fall. It cooled off, the leaves got really pretty. You should try it some time."

Yesterday we learned that we were supposed to wake up to snow and he started in again. "You know, I think it was fall today and yesterday for a couple hours. I think that's how it is here. Fall tries to come, it just has to be sneaky about it."

I think he's right. It was fall for a few hours this weekend. Just long enough for him to get in a bunch of wood. I guess it's fair enough though. In Washington, I think it's winter for just a few hours. And everything stops for those hours because two inches of snow is paralyzing. Coming from Montana, that was always odd to me, but I get it now.

And now I think we might need a snow blower. Really, I think we do.

Anyway, today we did wake up to snow. About two inches of it.



The girls got all bundled up and are out playing in it as I type. It's perfect snow man snow, actually. I should go help them, but we're going to Oregon tomorrow and I need to get all my stuff done so we can get out of here.

I also need to get some snow boots. That is going to be an investment I will need to make pretty soon.

Yesterday it was clear and 65

Today it's snowing.



Yesterday I had to bribe my kids to go outside (we went to the park).



Today they were so excited to go outside that they barely ate breakfast.


Nothing like a little snow to change things up around here.


But next week, it could be sunny and 75.


We'll see.

They are named after flowers

And apparently they are drawn to flowers.



These are my mom's petunias. And they are HUGE! The girls just had to pick them and put them in their hair.

Obviously Violet doesn't have that much hair, but she got in on the action just the same.



Good times at grandma's house.

It made her smile

Last night I made a pocket Goose. It was a sort of celebration. I have found my sewing machine and most of the sewing room is set up. Celebration was definitely in order.

When it was done I brought it down and put it on the chair. Calla saw it and smiled. Then she asked me why I used those "silly aminals." Yes, she said "aminals")I told her it was because it was a 'Silly' Goose.



Then I walked into the next room and I hear, "Mom! I like the pockets!"



I like the pockets, too, Calla.

Those are some BIG horses!

This past weekend we went to Deer Lodge, Montana to visit my parents and go to the Draft Horse Expo. I have a thing for horses. If I didn't have kids, I think I could totally be into horses. I grew up on a horse and I miss it. But babies and horses just don't go together very well. And there will always be horses. I won't always have babies. So that's how it is right now. And I'm okay with that.

Anyway, these draft horses are amazing. And the work that goes into them is amazing. Just look at these two. Aren't they beautiful?



Oh, wait. Those are draft MULES. Sorry.

How about these?



Oh, those are burros. But aren't they cute??

Alright, check these out. I think I got it right this time.



In the barn we even got to pet them. For as huge as they are (I think one of their feet is bigger than Violet), they are sure gentle. All that handling.



They truly are gentle giants.



Gorgeous gentle giants.



What a hobby.



I love this picture. Calla is just grinning at that horse.



Violet got in on the action, too.



She was so intrigued by them. She wanted to touch them, but when they nosed her hand, she would chicken out and pull away.

On our way to the barn to see the horses we ran across a chuck wagon. And these three folks were busy cooking dinner for 350 people. When asked what they were making (BBQ Beef) the one guy just said, "Dead cow."



Of course he said it with a twinkle in his eye. But it still struck me as funny. Probably because that's what we call it at our house, too.

But check out his apron. It's "Cook Chaps." Says it right on them. Cool. And they were cooking in all cast iron. Double cool. AND we bought a cook book from them that was put together in collaboration with a 5th grade teacher in a town neighboring ours--in fact, we're part of that school district.

Triple cool!

But as good as that looked, Violet preferred the shave ice we got the other two girls.



She opened that wide for every bite. Love that baby.

Love her.

Yellowstone treasures

On our way out we decided to swing through one of our favorite spots. The Fire Hole Lake Drive has never disappointed us. The first time we went through Grace saw her first geyser. The second time we went through, on a different trip, we saw about four geysers going off--two right by each other. And there is a geyser there that I would love to see go off. But so far the times posted have not been convenient. So we thought we'd check again.

But alas, we'd have to wait for "between 8pm and 12am." Still not convenient.

But it was getting on to lunch, so we parked and noticed a trail. We weren't quite hungry enough for lunch, so, we took it.

And look what we found!



Hot springs! Without a big boardwalk or even a fence or sign around them. Fun! And yes, those two are plugging their noses.

And look at this. There were bones in this one. Some sort of animal fell in.



Or, as Brent theorized, a bear was cooking a rabbit.

This whole little ravine was teeming with hot springs and other stuff. And there was this little creek flowing through it. I wondered if it was warm or cold. So they checked.



The verdict? You wouldn't want to fall in there. It was definitely warm. Warmer than a hot tub.

I wanted to see if we could walk farther in and find the source. We hadn't had lunch yet, but we were still okay.

But look what happened to our trail.



It was obvious that the trail was under there. But it certainly made things more interesting.



Oh, but thanks to babywearing, we were undaunted! And we pressed on.

But, alas, the source of the hot water creek was not to be discovered by us. But, someday, I intend to find it. I will. Baby on my back or not. Note to self: ask the guy at church if he knows what's up that trail. Everyone tells me he knows most everything about Yellowstone. All those years as a guide (I think) would do that.

So we headed back. Over the bridge, that coincidently is also babywearing friendly.



And through the woods.



To the truck for lunch and then headed towards home. And this time NOT through Jackson. That got us in trouble last time. And it took quite a bit longer.

Now, on the road we came upon some stopped cars. And the reason for stopping was big. See it in there?



A big bull elk was just standing in the middle of the road. Just standing there. Sometimes I think maybe they are getting a commission for standing there posing for the tourists--like us. People were flocking to get photos. I stayed in the truck.

Then he crossed the road and I realized why he was just standing there.



Seems there was a cow elk in the river. Just standing in the river. And it was a big waiting game.

She's waiting for him to go away. He's waiting for her to change her mind. It is that season.



And the whole thing just cracked me up.

"Honey, come on, please?"

"Um, no. Not in front of all these people. Are you crazy?"

"But do you see this rack I have?"

"Are you kidding me?"

"But I'm one of the treasures of Yellowstone."

"You obviously have an ego that's bigger than that stupid rack of yours."


Wildlife. It's what it's all about.


Okay. Not really, but Yellowstone sure is fun!

Another hike, another lake

Sunday morning after we got packed up and headed out, we stopped for another hike. There's a little lake on the south end of Yellowstone Lake that is its own caldera. It's about a 1/2 mile hike up and over a little hill to the shore. We heard it was an easy hike, so we thought we'd give it a try.

Grace and Calla were ready.



And it was a neat little lake. A sandy shore on the north end of it.



And up and down the shore was the treasure of the hike. Elk and wolf prints.



We walked up and down the shore looking at them. There's just something wild about seeing sites like that. And we were all alone on the shore. Didn't see another person on the trail. But who knows, maybe we had company . . .

The girls picked up sticks and tossed them in. It was quite pleasant. And the hike was through the trees. Trees that were new from the 1988 fires. The perspective is different than from the road.

At the peak of the hill we could see all directions. Duck Lake . . .



Yellowstone Lake and, oh look! The hill we climbed yesterday!



A good little hike. And once again, made possible by babywearing. Violet slept through the whole thing. I love that.