Wonderful Week with Nema

We've been into the full swing of things around here, enjoying a festive week with Nate's mom, "Nema," visiting from Massachusetts. Claire loved every minute and all the spoiling. While I was at school each morning she had one-on-one time with Nema that included trips to museums in Bozeman, reading lots of books, and singing Christmas songs. We also took a weekend trip to West Yellowstone which included some cross-country skiing, a visit to the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center, a night out "on the town" for Nate and I (meaning choosing between one of two open bars in town), and a trip to the Imax Theater for Nate and Nema. Thanks for coming out and ALL the spoiling Nema!

Here's our group shot on early Christmas.
Claire showing off her beautiful Christmas dress, a gift from a family friend, Dot O'Connor.
It didn't take long for Claire to get into the spirit of ripping open the presents. Here she's in awe of her new princess castle.
Susan gave Claire her own tent; one of the things we love about her is that she really gets down to Claire's level to play. Of course Claire darted out of this picture right before I snapped it!
Claire skied with us the first day, but on the second day she was pretty frazzled. Nema kindly stayed with her while Nate and I skied again. For Nate, that meant being free of 30+ pounds on his back.
Claire watching some of the wolves at the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center. These are all animals that would have to be euthanized without this sanctuary, and they will never be reintroduced to the wild. Notice the wolf checking out the raven in the background. It's quite amazing to watch the wolves as the run, play, dig, and eat.

Getting into the Christmas Spirit

With cold, wintry weather around here (it's supposed to be a HIGH of zero degrees on Monday), it's been easy to get into the Christmas spirit. We've done some baking, are listening to Christmas CDs, doing our advent calendar, made a countdown chain and ornaments, wrapped most of our gifts, put up the tree, and even visited Santa yesterday at the Three Forks Christmas Stroll. I'm hoping this means we can enjoy some quality time with Nema (Nate's mom--who arrives Monday for a week-long visit) as well as focus on creating some memories with baking, books, music, and movies instead of frantically shopping and wrapping in the next few weeks.

Claire likes to wear the bows more than putting them on the gifts.
The end result of Claire's decorating means many ornaments on one or two bottom branches. Unfortunately, she seems to notice if I try to rearrange any.
A visit with Santa, first one ever actually, we "suggested" some things she might tell him she wants for Christmas which just happen to correspond exactly to what we got her. I'll be curious if she figures that one out on Christmas morning.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Ever since I was at Calvin College in Michigan, Thanksgiving has been a difficult holiday for me because 9 times out of 10 I haven't lived close enough to family to celebrate with them. Therefore, knowing my parents would be here with us this Thanksgiving thrilled me. I've been particularly reflective this year on how much I appreciate the food, traditions, and genuineness of this holiday as compared to the commercialization of so many others. I enjoyed finding and preparing some new recipes as well as making the meal together as a family.

We've had a great long weekend with lots of down time around the house for reading, taking walks, playing games, doing crafts, eating, hunting (for Nate), and letting Claire be the center of attention (a place she loves to inhabit!). Thanks for making the trip Mom and Dad, loved spending the holiday together!
Some snuggle time with Grandpa

Thanksgiving Day hike at Headwaters State Park (Nate, Claire, my Mom)

Claire amusing herself and us with hide and seek

Craft time--making an Advent Calendar for Claire

Snuggles with Grandma after church

That's a Wrap

Nate spent five days this past week in Eastern Montana hunting for deer with a friend. He did shoot a decent buck.

He's been wanting to do his own processing of game meat for years (instead of bringing it somewhere else to have it done), and this year he decided to make the investment in a grinder and other equipment.
Here's about 1/2 the deer finished. He's been at it about five hours and still isn't done. Despite some strong hints about it being a "great family project," I'm staying well clear of this one.

Snow Fun

We had our first big snowstorm of the winter this week with enough snow to actually make a snowman. Our house is actually located in a zone of the valley referred to as "the banana belt," so while other areas get a lot of snow, we often only have an inch or so. Rarely do we have enough for playing in the yard. Claire loved stomping around in the snow, making snow angels, brushing snow off the trees, and now checking on her snowman several times a day through the window. (Hem was longing to eat the carrot nose, so I'm waiting for that to disappear.)

Closer to the real deal...

Thanks to a special package in the mail from her older cousin Jessica, Claire now has two new princess outfits (just in time to go with the paper plate wings and tinfoil crown--see previous post).

Ribbit

Claire was a cute frog this year, thanks to a hand-me-down from cousin Elly.

She got into the act, hopping around the house yelling "Ribbit."

We did our treat-or-treating on Friday afternoon. Downtown Bozeman hosts a trick-or-treating for kids, and we met some friends there. Claire started figuring out this meant FREE CANDY, and lots of it! She loved saying, "Trick or Treat, Trick or Treat, Give me something good to eat."

Last weekend, she and Nate carved the pumpkin while I attended a conference in Salt Lake City. It was my first night ever away from Claire, and she and Nate had a fun two days together going to the museum, shopping, building towers, painting, and watching movies.

Fairy Princess Girl

Claire is fascinated by all things princess right now, especially Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Ariel, and Jasmine. (Thanks to Disney's clever marketing they seem to be EVERYWHERE.) She saw an advertisement for a fairy costume on Sunday and wanted one; of course, I gamely suggested we could make it ourselves. A little cardboard, tinfoil, paper plates and paint....thank goodness she's not really old enough to know the difference between "homemade" and "store bought."

Rocky Creek Farm

I had Thursday and Friday off from school this week, so I was thrilled to be able to meet some friends Friday morning at Rocky Creek Farm. We had mild weather, as opposed to the 5 degree temps of last week, and this allowed us to enjoy all the farm had to offer: hay rides, hay forts, pumpkin getting, swings, and face painting. Every year I take about 30 pictures of Claire and the pumpkins hoping for the perfect shot, so this is only a few of those!

Transitions to Fall

In the past few weeks we've gone from sundress and flowers to harvesting the last of the garden's tomatoes to getting groceries in the snow this week. Fall also means I'm spending more time with work obligations, and Nate spends some treasured time in the woods hunting. However, yesterday we enjoyed a relaxing morning and afternoon together as a family hiking along the Madison River, soaking at Norris Hot Springs, and then I worked on making some salsa and sauce for the freezer with all the tomatoes from the garden (for some reason I thought we needed six tomato plants!).

Looking so innocent...

I had to take a picture of Claire continuing her nap on the floor after I had moved her since she took off her diaper and thoroughly soaked her sheet...so frustrating...and then look at that face!

Taylor's Fork

We've been quietly settling into our Fall routine around here, so there haven't been many interesting photo ops for the blog in the last few weeks. We did have a gorgeous day in the Gallatin Canyon today--fishing a little, but mostly just enjoying the perfect fall weather, fewer crowds on the river, and time as a family.

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.