Yellowstone

We left Helena last Saturday at 6 am, dogless, but excited for the weekend ahead. Francesca had no idea of what was to come.  We headed down to West Yellowstone, ahead of schedule, and visited the Bear and Wolf Center hoping to see some animals. Frannie didnt get to see the bears up close, but we hit the feeding time for the wolves. It was a nice transition into the park.


Baby wolf  happy at the wolf viewing center





Alpha male showing dominance over alpha female at carcass

 
  We found our ride into the park,a 1978 Bombardier, and sqeezed aboard ear plugs in place. They didnt have toddler sized ear plugs and it made for a challenging trip. We did see animals along the way and had a great trip in.

 

Our ride in






Elk




Yellowstone traffic jam



 We stayed in the Old Faithful area and rented a little cottage for the weekend. We didnt do much, but explored what we could and rested. It was a great weekend and we are hoping to do it again very soon. The park in winter was quiet, free of crowds, and should be enjoyed by all. It was a very special weekend.


Ground transportation at the Snow Lodge




Taking a break in front of Old Faithful until it went off




Our ride out




Happy at the Fountain Geyser- it only goes off every 8 hrs and we caught it!!




Blue Star Spring

 What's Happening with Baby? Week 15
Your baby is now beginning to grow his very first hairs. Around this time the baby's eyes close and won't open again until the 7th month. Nail beds are beginning to become visible at the ends of the baby's fingers. The baby's arms are now long enough that she can grasp one hand in the other.



Mastering 2011

For many people, the new year is about resolutions-resolution to change something they did or didn’t do in the past year.  For us, the past year was just about right for a change.  We didn’t do too much, didn’t do anything we didn’t want to do, and we didn’t do too little.  We spent time taking in the seasons slowly and learning to share our lives with a two year old.

01/01/2011

In 2011, we made the choice to bring more into our lives by having a baby this July.  We will be able to prepare for this baby and enjoy life at the pace which suites us much better.  With Francesca, we had so many other pots in the fire that life seemed to keep us spinning.  For example: I don’t have a second job working until the wee hours of the morning, we aren’t remodeling a newly acquired house, we don’t have a wedding planned and we don’t have anything big coming our way besides the new big change-baby #2.  I constantly compare this pregnancy to the last and forget how different our lives were then.  Being settled and having some major life events out of the way will be a relief.  I’ll be making cookies.

Todays cookie:  Moosewood Restaurants Big Chocolate chip cookies

Last year, with all my free moments, I began wondering what it would be like to understand cooking.  To be able to make my family meals that made me say, “yum”.  With my Aunt Simones visit from France in the summer, I took the opportunity to learn more about French cooking.  Basically, yes I started the Julia and Lindsay (Julia and Julia) project.  I didn’t have direction, didn’t have a goal besides cooking when I could and whatever I liked (yes, I’ll be passing on the aspics).  This year I hope to continue the practice and tackle the deboned and stuffed duck recipe.  I have the duck in my possession, just need the mastering the art of French cooking books.  Right now I am typing as I am making cookies but would really love to be cooking that duck.  Sometime soon; I’ll keep you posted.

End of 2010

Christmas was peaceful this year.  We left out cookies for Santa and apples and carrots for Rudolph.  It was fun for us b/c Francesca knew who the major players were.  We went to church on Christmas Eve with her friend Freya and family and spent Christmas day with just us and the moment.  Frannie had to be woken up and convinced it was Christmas and not farmer’s market day (both fall on a Saturday this year).  We spent a long morning going over gifts and enjoying the white splendor outside.  New years was not eventful besides all the coughing and chilling temperatures.  We enjoyed some crab and fireworks from down the street.  We are all looking forward to 2011.

Beginning of 2011

We will be spending next weekend in Yellowstone as a substitute Christmas vacation and hopefully the weather isn’t as bad as it is forecasted to be.  Lou and I have wanted to go to the Park in the wintertime since we moved to Montana and decided this might be the best time to go, since the next two years probably won’t work.  For the first 90 or so days of the new year, I’ll be tied up in Legislative work and wont have too many spare moments for making cookies or enjoying quiet time like I did over Christmas break.  Francesca will be turning three this March and she is already looking forward to her party.  She has a great group of friends to share it with and is excited about the singing.  We moved her up to the big sister room upstairs (to be shared with the new baby) and made her old room the play room/guest room.  She is have so much fun with all of her things that previously resided in the closet and having a new room.

New room in progress

=

Besides visiting family for the birth of the baby, all I have hopefully planned will be the visit of Seattle over Labor day.  I am not sure what type of leave I will have, but that is usually a good time for us to visit (except for fire season or hunting season conflicts).  We’ll see how things work out once #2 arrives and what life will be like.  I think it will be great.

Blogging has gotten off to a slow crawl this year but I hope to keep you all informed as much as possible.  Pictures will come and go and I hope to show you what 2011 is like for us. 

Happy New Year and best of everything to you in 2011. 

Updates

-          Next weeks posting: Yellowstone

-          Baby Update:  14 weeks on tuesday-mostly craving apples and savory/salty things.

-          Today’s (Sunday)weather out on our porch 5˚F

holiday picture

i have been feeling rather behind not posting christmas pictures for days. it is mostly b/c i havent felt like it. we have had such a relaxing week and holiday that not much has promted me for action. so here, are just a few pictures from our christmas. more details to come once the new  year roles around and my laziness rolls along.




opening presents, what fun

 


re-decorating the buche de noel, notice she did not miss an opportunity to wear her party hat




with our christmas tree





fun with daddy

 

lots of time for fun and laughs

Solstice 12.21.2010

The moon continues to emerge from a total eclipse at 4
http://helenair.com/news/national/article_3ed99a24-81e8-5fc3-aadf-d77df724fb23.html

Skywatchers got an early holiday present this year: A total eclipse of the moon.
Hanging high in the sky, the moon slowly turned from bright silver into a red disk early Tuesday.
A total lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth casts its shadow on the full moon, blocking the sun's rays that otherwise reflect off the moon's surface. Some indirect sunlight still pierces through to give the moon its eerie hue.
The 3 1/2 hour celestial spectacle was visible from North and Central America where skies were clear. Portions of Europe and Asia only caught part of the show.
The totality phase _ when the moon was completely immersed in Earth's shadow _ lasted 72 minutes.
Since the year's only total lunar eclipse coincided with winter solstice, the moon glowed high in the sky.
The last time this occurred was more than three centuries ago on Dec. 21, 1638. It will happen again on Dec. 21, 2094, according to U.S. Naval Observatory spokesman Geoff Chester.

The longest day of the year has passed and now, we are welcoming all the light we receive. Francesca keeps saying, "mama, its dark outside again". all I can say is yes, it is winter time. She replys, "why?" I guess she is holding on to the long days of summer filled with walks and farmer markets (saturdays still receive the good morning, "its farmers market day!") and fun outside. we have been trying to have fun inside but all i seem to do these days is lay around a hack and cough...frannie is a little too. we have filled in the time enjoying the moonlight. with the BIG countdown to christmas this week, we have been distracted from the darkness by the thought of opening the presents under the tree and having some precious moments with our two year old. the christmas pageant for freya will also be a highlight for frannie.

today, the children at jacobs ladder preschool will be celebrating too. the little angels and shepards are about to celebrate the season together and enjoy some silly fun and singing (Lea will be bringing treats to aid in this). next week frannie will be at home with us and taking a break from all her school friends. she hasnt gone that long without them-it will interesting how many playdates will result from the time away. her friends are everything to her. we are so lucky to have landed with a peaceful and joyful place to learn. thank you teacher Jan!

we hope everyone is filled with the spirit of christmas and the joy of the season and the return of the light. Happy Solstice!

SKI GD

Frannie took her first shot at skiing this weekend. We took her up to Great Divide Ski resort http://www.skigd.com/ and she had a great time. When we tried a boot on her, she replied, "I want the other one!". The hardest part was convincing her that she was not ready for the lift-ski (ski lift) and going fast like all the other skiers. Now we just need to find some little skis for her to use around town and to practice, practice, practice.

One...

...two...

...three!

Last run-awesome day!!

Lou and I finished up with the holiday preparations: tree-up, shopping and packaging done, christmas cookies finished. We are having some warm weather and figuring out what small amounts of house work we can do to help the house in the winter. We seem to have a few uninvited earwigs taking roost in our house and we are on a mission-destroy the invaders. They creep me out more than anything else possibly could http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earwig/. Now we are enjoying the few days left of December before the holiday takes hold and work ramps up for me. Once the Legislative sesison starts http://leg.mt.gov/css/default.asp, Lou will be Mr. Mom (sorry Frannie). We should be able to sqeeze in some fun if I have any energy left.

Tree Cutting

Lou and I have always gone out to find the perfect tree for christmas not in a lot, but in the forest.  We found this great place a few years ago and found this year, they are logging it. They are logging to remove the dead trees affected by the pine bark beetle but it is still hard to grasp. Frannie noticed all the dead trees and would not stop asking why they were cutting them down. I guess she has a lot to learn about forest ecology.  We trudged through the snow and found the perfect tree for Francesca's third christmas. She is excited to have one in our house and put decorations on it. It was a beautiful outing and another memorable Christmas tree cutting.


Our tree




Forest View




Big Sky Frost




Crawling in the Tree





Forest Ecology: This is how a tree grows

 

Festivus

This weekend was exhausting. There were so many activities going on in Helena that I felt like the holiday season. We bounced Frannie around and were able to fit in a lot of fun. One thing that I really came to grips with is that I have a truely great kid. I didnt need a book or website to shine this light on me or a mommys group. Everything that we have worked on with her has paid off-we had a great time with her and, from all her singing I believe she liked doing it all with us. She was okay with Santa this year and we forgot to grab a photo with our camera. We did take some pictures while she was Rudolph and with a tree. We got into the moment and didnt feel like we had to document it all. Frannie thinks that everywhere we go there will be Santa and that he should just come to our house today, and not at Christmas. It will be a hard wait this year.



Rudolph




Cookie Decorating




Festival of Trees