Successfully fighting the midwinter funk

This last week, though cold, has been a good week for me. Nothing too exciting has happened, but I'm appreciative of the range of activities I've been able to enjoy the past few days. Thursday night I attended a play in Bozeman ("Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" by Tennessee Williams) with a friend from my mom's group. The production was incredibly professional, especially for Montana, and I enjoyed a night "out on the town" not to mention the fact that I love theater! On Friday afternoon Claire and I had a playdate with my mom's group and we even braved the weather for a short stroll, though the kids were bundled with only their little eyes peaking out. Saturday, we skied again. This time we checked out some trails about an hour and a half from our house, basically in the middle of nowhere. However, they were great trails and even better, across the road from the trails was a little cabin called "The Soup Shack." No hyperbole here, it was the best soup either of us have even eaten in our lives! (sorry moms!) Of course, after eating such great soup, we had to try the dessert too--an "alpine mud slide"--I'm still thinking about it! (If any of you ever happen to find yourself on the cutoff road between the Big Hole Valley and Anaconda, you have to stop!) Today, I enjoyed a beautiful service at my church--First Presbyterian, Bozeman. After I had gotten myself and Claire dressed, Nate noticed that we matched in our denim, thus the photo.

Off and Away!

This picture doesn't show it, but Claire has spent the past week mastering the skill of crawling. She still "cheats" sometimes and rolls across the floor to reach her destination and does some commando style dragging, but she does now know how to get her knees and arms to work together for a crawl. This afternoon she was "chasing" us around the house as we cleaned the floors. (Nate's been helping me even more than usual with some domestic duties the past few days as cold temperatures have kept him home. It was -26 degrees here Monday morning.) I guess it's time to do some baby proofing and get all those outlet covers in!

First Family Ski Trip

We finally got out on our skis today! I definitely needed to get out and get some fresh air and exercise after a long week at school with the end of the semester and finals (some of which still need to be graded, but I ditched them for a chance to get out). We went to a new cross-country trail system about an hour from our house. The trails were pretty easy, so it was perfect for skiing with a baby. Claire seemed to love it, cooing and laughing when Nate would go downhill and towards the end of the ski, falling asleep in the backpack. After a snack, I hung out with Claire in the yurt while Nate did a more intense loop.

Testing the New Camcorder

We received a new camcorder for Christmas, and here's a test video of Claire, who will be the main attraction of all future videos. I'm not sure if the sound will work, so you'll see her rolling to get into trouble (she does this instead of crawling at this point). I'm also telling her, "No, no," as she tries to pull books off the shelf. She actually DOES listen...well at least momentarily!

Visit to Washington

Chistmas and New Year Update

We arrived home on Monday from Washington, had one day to regroup, and then back to work on Wednesday. We had a wonderful visit in Washington, lots of rain, but we enjoy the time to visit with my parents and siblings and their families. My parents recently finished a family/rec room addition to their house which was a perfect place for all nine grandchildren and ten adults to hang out (especially in the leather couches in front of the new flat screen TV!). Claire thrived on all the attention from her aunts, uncles, and cousins.

In addition to Christmas, we had a meaningful weekend after Christmas as we celebrated Claire's baptism. Nate's mom flew in for the occasion, and my parents and sister surprised us by having her fly in as well. Having so much of our family present as we acknowledged God's grace to us through the gift of Claire and her belonging to the greater family of God made for a moving and precious day.

A Holiday Tradition

I often tease my mother about her love for "knick knacks," but I am glad that she likes Christmas ornaments or else we wouldn't have anything interesting to hang on our tree. While we were growing up every year my mom would buy each of us a new ornament and mark it with our names and the date. (The oldest "surviving" one I now have is from 1981.) When we were officially "on our own," she gave each of us all of our ornaments from the years gone by. As a result, every year when I get the ornaments out and decorate the tree, I have a connected feeling to my family and to all the Christmases past that I decorated trees with my siblings (which my mom redecorated after we went to bed). I'd like for Claire to experience the same tradition, so I bought her first ornament (the silver frame on the left--yet to get a picture). The bell on the right is my ornament from 1982, when I was 8!