Teddy Roosevelt Nat'l Park

...Far surpassed our expectations. After leaving Devil's Tower, we began the drive to North Dakota to visit Theodore Roosevelt National Park. It's safe to say that I was pleasantly surprised by North Dakota. I guess I expected that whole region to be similar to most of Wyoming... which is not my favorite. I blame that on too many winter snowstorms stuck on  I-80, but really, isn't one too many? Instead it was much more green and filled with National Grasslands.

There were huge boulders called cannonball concretions laying loose on the ground. The one below was the largest we saw. Concretions typically form when minerals precipitate from rock and glue sediment together different from the surrounding rock.

You can see how these form in the bedrock and then are released as the surrounding rock weathers. It's pretty cool. Even Jim thought so and he's not a geo-nerd so you know they must be interesting.

The valleys were so pretty. The amount of green in the park was really surprising.

There was a mellow charm to the area. This was my favorite lookout point.

This little bird was singing up a storm, perfectly happy perched atop the overlook.

It took a moment, but Jim found the source of the bird-song.

One of my favorite things about this park was the prevalence of wild horses, not to be confused with Wyld Stallyns. We were driving along the main park road when tourists on the roadside urged us with fervor to slow down. We figured it was going to be another bison crossing the road but instead it was a couple stallions in the midst of a dispute.

Evidently, the dark stallion from the picture below had approached and harassed the mares in the picture above. The light colored stallion came to the aid of the ladies and chased him off, kicking him when necessary. We just saw the end of the exchange, but it was rather heated. The white stallion stood and stared as the dark colored stallion walked away into the distance. He stood just like that until the other horse was far, far away and seemed to pose no additional threat. It is always amazing to see a glimpse of the social dynamics of wild animals. I wonder what the exchange was like for the photographer sitting in the middle of the herd.

We kept driving and found yet more horses. The guy below and a couple friends who we saw together on multiple occasions. I affectionately referred to them as the frat boys.

There were of course bison, who did occasionally cross the street and stop traffic. Seriously, I never want to see one of these guys angry unless I'm watching it on YouTube in the comfort of my own home.

Next to the horses, the other great animal discovery of this area was the prairie dogs. Having never been to this part of the country, they were a great surprise to me. The sheer numbers of them and the expanse of their colonies was quite surprising.  They were all over the place and really quite adorable to watch.

This park was not filled with a lot of bells and whistles, but had a pleasant serenity that I found quite refreshing. We enjoyed it immensely and feel it was our favorite (new) park of this trip.

North Dakota antelope count: 4

Summertime is Here Again

Which means we take off into the unknown and do something splendid. This year that began with a drive to the parent's home in Utah to collect our Ellie-girl and then drop the kids off for a time to alternate between grandparents' homes. The couple days before we took off on an adults-only adventure were fairly significant, even though I haven't many pictures to prove it. You'll just have to trust me.

It all started with ice cream:

Not just any ice cream, but SubZero ice cream frozen by liquid nitrogen. Neat idea, but somewhat lacking in flavor since it's all made from a powdered ice cream base and tastes about as good as that. The experience was fun, and it was a precursor to a necessary family conversation, but we'll get to that later.

That Saturday was the American Fork Canyon half marathon which we were registered to run with my in-laws. I had been really excited for the race until about a month prior.

The girls were able to make signs to cheer on family members and stand near the finish to cheer people on.

Ellie ran the last 0.2 mile with her dad. She was crazy excited to see him and it took but moments for her to take off and grab his hand.

The girls were really filled with anticipation and a decent degree of patience as they watched for Grandma to finish.

Jim finished around 1:41 and Jim's dad did really well, finishing under 2:00. Me? I seriously rocked the Casbah. Check it out below!! New PR 1:45:19!!! That's like an entire hour improvement for me!

Just kidding!

I ended up giving my spot to a cousin so I guess *technically* I don't get to claim the time. It was a 20 minute improvement over her PR though so I don't really want to take that joy away from her anyway. As for why I didn't run, as we had Ellie tell Grandma Debbi the night before, it was because her daddy knocked me up. We told the girls at the park over ice cream and then had them each make one of the announcements to the grandparents. Suffice it to say no one was disappointed that I chose to not run the half.

Saturday afternoon we took off for the hills on our grown up road trip. The first stop was Jim's grandparents in Idaho then we drove through the Grand Teton's on our way to Devil's Tower in Wyoming. We went to the Teton's last summer but didn't take a single picture of the mountains so this route was chosen specifically to mend that error.

I feel better knowing that you are now looking at the above picture and not just assuming I'm getting fat... even if I still feel that way sometimes.

Devils Tower is a sacred sight to the Lakota Indians and at several places around the tower there were trees tied with these cloth prayer bundles. It was pretty neat to see even though I do not understand the true significance of them.

The tower was pretty neat. I loved all the columnar jointing and found it really fascinating. Geology rocks.

There are two trails around the tower and we traversed both of them. The longer trail actually took us out of sight of the tower for quite a while and was very different than I expected but took us through several of these hilly fields. I really enjoyed it, even if hiking in my five fingers meant that I was on my toes the whole time and had insanely sore calves for the next 2-3 days.

We camped at the KOA adjacent to the park and had an amazing view of the tower from our tent door and a spacious grassy lot to camp on. It was pleasantly surprising and definitely worth the visit. When we left Idaho, Jim's grandpa jokingly challenged us to count the antelope and we made it our mission to do just that. Wyoming's total: 241.

School's Out!

Aeryn is officially done with 4th grade.

She brought a friend home from school so they can play before everyone's lives get insane for the summer. And yes, those are lollipops sticking out of their mouths so precariously. So far the afternoon has brought hearing Taylor Swift and Carly Rae Jepsen songs over, and over, and over again while girly laughter escapes from the bedroom door. 

I'm so ready for summer to begin, and yet so not ready at the same time. Fortunately, we've got some fun things to look forward to, including summer 5th grade prep homework! Mwahahaha. As much as I love getting a break from homework battles, I am one of those mean moms who makes the kids do homework in the summer so they can return to school in the fall as moderately intelligent human beings instead of having forgotten everything they slaved over for months. 

May by iphone

Yesterday I was playing around with Photoshop and realized I have not taken a single picture with the *real* camera since May 4th. This is most definitely not like me. It is just so easy to rely on the iPhone now that the camera is so good. Seriously, it's hard to understand why anyone would buy a point and shoot camera anymore when phones are multi-taskers with such high resolution cameras.

I know the month is not over, but since I've been both a photo and blog slacker, here's an overview of life as captured imperfectly and in the moment.

May is walk/bike to school month. We did one of each in the first week but nothing since. It's just far too easy having the school bus pick up 20 yards from our door.

My parents sent chocolate covered strawberries for Mother's Day. I did a good job of sharing, but probably just because the insert card said they should be eaten within 48 hours and I thought I'd get a stomachache doing that alone.

I ran the Hippie Chick again - only this year I did the quarter rather than the half marathon. In truth I felt like a slacker since all these amazing ladies are so. much. faster. than I am and totally rocked it. Then I saw this picture and noticed how much weight I've gained since last year and wanted to cry. Oh, well. It was a really fun time.

Squirt made a Mother's Day gift at school and hid it in her room. Amazingly, it stayed alive and well! I almost cried when she gave it to me. She was so very happy about it and it's pretty much the cutest thing you ever did see.

Jim made chocolate souffle's of awesomeness. One bite and your eyes will roll back in your head from awesomeness. Seriously, we eat really well. Like, really, really well. It's no surprise since our entire courtship (like 2 weeks) before we decided to get married revolved almost entirely around food or conversations about food.

Aeryn's newish bike endured it's first major wipeout. Of course, that means Aeryn did too. It was in the middle of the bike lane on Alder and I just counted my lucky stars there wasn't much traffic at the time. She was a little freaked out by this one, and it made for the third pair of pants to get gaping holes ripped in the knees in the same week.

Squirt had track and field day for school. She was so very excited about it. She really is enjoying running and track events, even though she takes after me and doesn't have an excess of natural talent in the area. I love her continuous excitement just to try things and that she doesn't get discouraged by other's successes.

Some friends are gone for an internship this summer and loaned us their laminate flooring. I installed it one night (or was it two nights?) while Jim was gone and it was seriously a PITA. If we had somewhere to move our furniture it would have been much easier, instead I would move things from one side of the room to the other laying a small section of floor and then shifting the furniture so I could fit a few more boards. It was a lot of work for 2.5 months of non-crappy flooring (but I LOVE IT anyway).

Jim's cousin Jordan got married so we (Aeryn & I since Jimmer was in L.A.) headed to Portland to offer support. Aeryn and the cousins had so much fun running amok around the temple grounds. I love this picture. They were so goofy and really make me laugh. Tyler looks like a total hipster with his hair and glasses - it's pretty much my favorite thing ever.

I love the Portland Temple. The contrast between the marble and the evergreens is just stunning.

This is actually the only picture I took of the wedding-folk and it was mostly so I could text it to Jim and prove that the deed was done. It was a delightful day and both families seemed very pleased with the union. I wish them all the best life has to offer.

After the wedding we headed to the coast to spend the weekend in the Lenz family's beach house. It was really charming, but seems small compared to the new one that is in the works.

This house will be about as close to the water as possible. It was a chilly day at the beach, or rather a normal Oregon one, but of course the kids did not mind one way or another.

Our youngest niece spent a decent amount of time like this at the beach. She was squeezing the sand between her fingers repeatedly and I don't really have any idea what she was trying to do but it made me laugh.

May has been good. For June, I plan to return to my normal camera-happy self. I've missed it. 

Car Wash

This morning I read an article about how parents inadvertently make their children more fragile by protecting them from boredom/pain/small failures and so on. One of the points the article made was that children need to be allowed to make mistakes, to be expected to work, and to let them be bored once in a while (yes, I realize that there was more than one point there). If you are curious, I found the article here: http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200411/nation-wimps).

I've been thinking about how I parent and I feel I do really well in some areas and not so well in others, but the law of averages seems to be working in my favor as my kids are reasonably well-adjusted, capable, and happy. However, I sometimes make silly mistakes. Like today, when I didn't take Squirt to school for the 4th/5th grade fund raising car wash.

I couldn't find info in the school newsletters and there wasn't any clear information sent home or on the website so I figured it was just 5th grade and we didn't go. Instead, Aeryn got to play outside with her friends, make her own lunch, sweep the kitchen and vacuum under the table as a result of the mess from cooking her own lunch, sit in time out for a small mistake, and get bored. When she got bored, she chose to do this:

Yep, she chose this on her own.

Which is when I realized that I may be imperfect in many ways and I could easily over analyze my parenting on so many different levels, but I truly think she's going to grow up and be ok.

A Tale of Two-th Fairies

Squirt has a tendency to get a little crazy when she's got loose teeth. Her hands are always in her mouth playing with them (which drives us all a little nuts), she doesn't want to eat anything or brush her teeth, and she talks about it constantly. Her gums are often sore and purple so she doesn't want anybody to look at it, let alone help the thing come out.

Three days ago, she lost a tooth. 

It wasn't unexpected because she'd been bugging the thing for a couple weeks. I was even on top of it enough to make sure I had cash on hand so I wouldn't be running around town at 3am trying to find an open store to buy a pack of gum and get cash back. You laugh, but I have done that more than once. FYI: the only stores open here at that time are Walmart and 7-11. 

We had a great night; We got a Redbox, ate pizza, and just had a drama-free evening. It was delightful.  Then, as fate would have it, the tooth fairy forgot to come. 

Again, this is not the first time it has happened in our home. What happened to the days when she was little and I never forgot to do any of this stuff? It's so much easier when they go to bed by 8... Fortunately, the movie we'd rented was Rise of the Guardians and Aeryn just assumed that Santa was helping collect the teeth so the tooth fairy didn't get too far behind. The next night, you had better believe that I was on top of that one right away! 

The tooth fairy was redeemed. 

Imagine my surprise when two days later she lost ANOTHER tooth, one that I didn't even know had been loose. Fortunately, I still had some moolah on hand from my previous preparedness and figured I was going to get it done right this time. An hour or two after she fell asleep I crept into her room to get the deed done, only to discover that once again she'd rearranged her bed and switched where her pillow was. 

Dang. 

I stood on a chair, because I am a shorty, and dug around under the two pillows and three pillow-pets to no avail. Even on a chair I couldn't reach to the opposite side of her twin bed (man, I sound pathetic) so I sat on the bottom bunk and reached around from every side trying desperately to not lose my balance and smash my face into the wall. I was a sight, I tell ya. 

It didn't work. I didn't find the tooth, nor could I get the money situated. I was functioning on only 3 hours of sleep (I never sleep when the hubs is out of town) and so the only rational option was to go to bed and set a timer to get up at 5 and take care of it then. It was flawless! I woke up, went into her room, and woke her up - on accident of course. 

The tooth fairy was busted. 

Or not. 

She asked what I was doing and I just said I was checking on her to make sure she was sleeping ok. I STILL didn't find the tooth, so in a last-ditch-effort I tucked the money under a pillow at the foot of her bed (man, that girl has a lot of pillows) - which happened to be where her head had been a couple nights before when the first tooth fairy redeemed herself. It wasn't perfect, but it was something, except for the detail that she didn't find it and still thinks the tooth fairy forgot about her. 

Bummer. 

I suppose now I get another shot at it but I feel confident saying that I don't feel confident at all about how it's going to go down. 

{I asked her to smile and show me her missing teeth, which would have been effective if they hadn't been hidden in the back. This missing teeth stuff is much easier when they are little!}

The Littles in our Life

We realized something tragic. With friends moving this summer, there are a whole bunch of kids we love who Ellie may never see again. That all depends on if they move before she gets here this summer, which is as yet uncertain. Jim wanted to be sure we got pictures of the kids all together - you know - more than I already do since I'm a little camera-happy with them all.

When it comes to kids, my favorite pictures are always candid. You just can't force a child to smile and stand perfectly. In effort to preserve the relationships we've built at this point in time I offer the following:

Our attempt at a group shot. At least most of them are happy. Whippy was not thrilled with the idea.

Can't you tell? I don't think she liked feeling contained.

At the start of the week when Ellie first got here, two brothers were fighting over who loves Ellie more. I can't remember who "won" the argument, but right after I took this picture I just said "now, kiss!" and Darion went for it. Ellie was a little faster however and was able to evade it successfully.

Baby-boyfriend and Ellie were trying to see each other really big and really small at the same time through his binoculars. Just try to tell me this isn't better than a perfectly posed and fought for picture with half smiling children.

Ellie and her Whippy. My favorite thing is how this is just perfectly both of them. Ellie hovering over her and Whippy twirling her hair and sucking her thumb. This is a common sight for both of them.

I think this is the brother who won the love-debate. He's really sweet and has a huge heart. It's not uncommon for his tears when Ellie leaves to bring both Jim and his mom to emotional breakdown.

We had to pretend to be t-rexes, Indians, football players, and a host of other things before they could be somewhat normal. It's all good. I don't think that smile would have emerged otherwise.

Her favorite big kid will still be around, however.

Next year will be weird. I'm choosing not to think about it. {Still}