Last Blast of Summer

The final weekend before school starts (Nate claims) I always have a fierce determination to "get it all in." I will admit, once, when we were dating I planned a final weekend where we would camp, hike, bike, kayak, and water ski. And when, surprisingly, some of those elements fell through, I might have had a little bit of a breakdown. However, I had much more realistic expectations this time and ONLY wanted us to camp, kayak, bike, hike, and fish. We did camp by the Blackfoot River and fished a little after dinner. Sunday we hiked the farthest we've managed with Claire in tow to Heart Lake in the Scapegoat Wilderness--eight miles total. We saw some new country and explored some areas we hadn't seen before, so all and all a successful "final blast" of summer, even if the bike and kayak didn't come off the roof rack.
Heart Lake

The Happy Camper

Potty Trained for Home, okay...

Potty Trained for Public, not so much...

No picture for this story, but I'm sure you'll all be able to imagine it vividly. We've stuck fairly close to home the last few days as we work to get Claire out of diapers, and she has done a great job at home with few accidents. Therefore, I decided to meet some friend for a picnic at Bozeman's weekly Music on the Lawn series. I put the potty chair in the back of the Subaru for extra protection and packed a change of clothes and some extra underwear "just in case," but I have to admit feeling pretty confident.

We arrived and before leaving the car I put Claire on the potty--no luck. Of course, shortly after meeting our friends and setting up, I saw her standing with a suspicious posture and a drip running down her legs. Outfit change #1--a little disappointing, but I figured she was distracted by the music and activity. A half an hour later, she decided the radio mascot, a moose, scared her and was sitting on my lap, which suddenly felt suspiciously wet. Outfit change #2. (Unfortunately didn't bring a change for myself.) At this point a smarter mother would actually take her child to the bathroom, but I figured she had it all out of her. Wrong. My friend says, "Sandra, I think Claire just did a poopy on the grass." Sure enough, in the middle of the lawn of dancing children and picnickers, Claire has made a deposit. No use yelling at her, right? Just gently remind her where the poopy should go, I tell myself while cleaning up, a little thankful that she at least pulled her underwear down first.

I needed to stop at the store on the way home, so before getting in the car we tried the potty. Nothing. We got to the store and tried the toilet. Nothing. We were checking out at the store, Claire standing next to the cart, and a big yellow puddle appeared, and I do mean a large puddle. I calmly asked the cashier for some paper towels, and she told me to get some from the bathroom. So I gather my wet child, leave the groceries, and head to the bathroom where the paper towels are coarse, thin non-absorbent ones and come from an automatic dispenser--one about every 30 seconds. It takes THREE trips to the bathroom to get enough paper towels to mop up the puddle, and I have nowhere to put the wet ones except to empty my produce and use those bags. Thankfully, no one got in line behind me (I wonder why?). At this point I'm pretty sure I won't be revisiting this store anytime soon and may not take Claire into public for the next year. I also really want a beer and a shower...in that order.

Washington Trip

We arrived home after our last big trip of the summer late Tuesday night. Claire and I spent two weeks in Washington at my parents' house. The visit was a great mix of visiting with family and friends, visiting some of my favorite Washington locales, and some relaxing downtime. We were especially thrilled to be there for the baptism of my newest niece, Lauren, and have weekend with my sister Christine who flew out from Indiana for the occasion.

Becoming a "big girl"...

Yesterday we had a few milestones: our first concentrated effort at potty training (made even more necessary by Claire figuring out how to remove her diaper while we were in WA--I'll spare you those pleasant details), and Claire deciding for the first time since her birthday (when she received it) that she wants to ride her balance bike. These pictures capture them both--riding in her new panties. Nate was thrilled when she wanted to go "off road" into the field; we may have a mountain biker on our hands yet!

I have many great pictures from our two weeks in Washington that I'll be posting soon.

Trip to Glacier National Park

We shared an action-packed adventure with Nate's family in Montana last week. His mom, sister Sarah, and her family (Bruce, Sam, Will, and Julia) all came out to celebrate his mom's 70th birthday. We spent most of the time near Glacier where we enjoyed some scenic hikes, swimming in clear mountain lakes, shared time at the cabin we rented, and a few bike rides. Claire loves spending time with her cousins, and she and Julia had some very cute moments together. (They also had some "Mine!" moments interspersed throughout the visit.)

Glacier is 5-6 hours away, so though it's in Montana, it isn't a place we've visited since living here. The trip up there was scenic (revealing all kinds of new territory we want to explore), and Glacier does have some spectacular alpine country.

The Pink Panther soundtrack is especially for Sam and Will who introduced Claire to "the mouse," as she calls it, while riding in the rental vehicle with its own built-in DVD player. This was a big hit for the many car hours they had over the week! Thanks to Nema, Tia, Bruce, Sam, Will and Julia for being such great travel companions and making the week so much fun.

Weekend in Denver

Claire and I spent a long weekend in Denver with my good friends from Calvin College. The Nydams graciously hosted us again, and Elisabeth and Simon Cooper flew in from Little Rock. Having four 2 year olds running around wasn't always conducive to in-depth, long conversation, but we did manage to fit our talks in here and there. We loved watching the kids together and sharing in the joy and frustration of being moms of toddlers.

It was hard to get a picture with all four together and happy since chances were one was in some kind of funk at all times. However, in the photo below they had some yummy homemade Popsicles made by Sugar Nydam and Trevor Nydam was making the kids laugh in the background.
We had a little pool time in the backyard. Here we were trying to bribe them with candy, but they weren't really going for it.

Bath time was a little chaotic...especially with Simon deciding to wash everyone's hair for them.

Claire and Elsie are great little buddies.

We attempted a hike. Let's just say Jane's sister, Jill, had to bring the car closer so it would be over sooner.

Since Jane and Elis are both expecting new babies in the fall, we're not sure how to make next year work...but we had a great visit!

4th of July Hike

After toying with the idea of going to the Ennis rodeo for the 4th, we decided to avoid the masses and go for a hike together in the Elkhorns. According to the map, we could drive to within a mile of Leslie Lake where we might find some of the cutthroat trout that are still native to the Elkhorns' streams and lakes. As I'm continually re-learning in Montana, the word "road" has many different interpretations on the maps. In this case, ATV track would be more accurate. We ended up stopping about 2 1/2 miles from the lake after a minor injury to the Subaru's bumper which Nate had to fix using his shoelace. Claire is "helping" in the photo below.

Not wanting to call it quits, we decide to see if Claire could last in the backpack the 3 miles or so that remained to the lake. She actually was quite content to ride in the backpack, and we made it to the lake just in time for a downpour to start. We weren't quite prepared gear-wise to hang out in the rain, so we ate a quick snack and started to hike back in the rain. Of course, the sun came out just as we arrived at the car. Still, we got out, saw some new country, got some exercise, and had a beautiful drive home on a back road that cuts from our house through the Elkhorns.