May in Missoula

For the family.  Okay: I'm backtracking all the way to May here.  (When it comes to vacation posts, this is how I roll.)  A few days before Mother's Day we drove up to Missoula where my husband's brother and his family now live, plus my mother and father-in-law now live there too, plus, my sister-in-law's parents were there visiting (they're like another set of grandparents to my kids), so it was all one big awesome shebang.

Seeing family is always filled with so much goodness, like slipping into a warm, easy pool where we can all touch the bottom (versus that cold, deep ocean where I struggle to keep my head above water).  I get all warm and fuzzy surrounded by people who love my kids as much as I do, when it is not just me and my husband alone wrapping them in our blankets of unconditional love.  If my kid slips, she won't drown.  If she takes off in a wayward direction, I'm not the only one calling her back.    

I don't often get good photos from these family trips, though I do at least get snapshots with crappy lighting for the family album.  There is a degree of presentness that keeps me away from the camera, although I usually regret it later.  That presentness is a good thing.  We still have the snapshots, even if they don't make it to the sphere.

But here, some photos I did get from our time in Zoo-town.

:: Caras Park, just our nucleus of four.

 

:: In line for the Carousel with cousins Owen and Sam.  My kids are obsessed with this carousel even though Hazel's only been to Missoula twice and Juniper was just a baby when we left Montana.  Their grandma gave them a booklet of all the horses and they quickly memorized each one, naming their favorites.  (Click here to see Juniper riding as a babe, and here for last Thanksgiving.)   

:: Spring unfolding.  

:: As my mom puts it, Juniper has no social filter.  So she doesn't think twice about adopting a dog from a perfect stranger.  (She has been obsessed with pets for two solid years...we need to get a dog.)    

:: At Nana's new apartment just down the road from Aunt D and Uncle M.

:: Downtown (no where near Nana's apartment) walking to the Farmer's Market where I bought the tomato plants that are now producing nicely in my garden.  (You go Sweet Million!)  

:: Lunch downtown with the kids and Aunt D.  

:: Winding through a narrow valley to Aunt D and Uncle M's place.  You'd never know this is just 20 minutes from downtown Missoula, the second largest city in Montana.

:: At their homestead.  Barbed wire and blossoms, kids playing in the creek, the cows.    

And my nephew, Sheriff Owen, going after the bad guys.  

:: Huge family playdate at the pool.  

:: Mother's Day.  It went like this: my husband and his brother awoke early and went on a wild turkey hunt, literally.  

The rest of us awoke to snow.  The husbands came back in time (shocking!) to get ready for our Mother's Day Plan.  The plan was to surprise my husband's mother at church (even more shocking!), presenting her with a corsage--a tradition she'd had with her own mother and aunt--and join her for the service.  

My sis and I had gone out the night before, so Mother's Day was really about this lady^.  

I think she liked it.  As for my kids, it was their first time in church.  Juniper adored Sunday school (they watched a video, so of course) and Hazel made it about half way through before she and I ended up sitting in the truck.  

:: As for me, I got the best gift: a night out, a rose, and a card full of love:  

"I like the way you talk."  --Juniper

"I love your fingers."  --Hazel

"I love how the birds sing songs to you."  --Juniper

"I love your little boobs."  --Hazel

"I love the way that love fills your heart."  --Juniper

"I love your soft things."  --Hazel  

:: And it's always glorious to come home.  

Happy Marry Day: 11 years

A couple of years ago I told myself, When it becomes more ridiculous to not have a cell phone than to have one, I'll get one.  That time came and went and I am now the proud owner of an iphone.  (And I'm WAY excited about Instagram...note the slideshow on the sidebar of my website ------weeee!)  That said, I've made some fledgling texting follies which may or may not have resulted in us not finding a babysitter for our 11th anniversary.

So instead, we made it a fun, fancy date with the kids.  I not only found my wedding dress, but wore it for the first time in 11 years.  (It fit!  But I had made it expandable.)  Juniper, especially, was ecstatic to see me in my "marry dress".  She wanted me to wear exactly the same things I wore 11 years ago.  I could satisfy her with the right dress and shoes (Chaco sandals) and a shadow of my grandma's pearls.  She would tell Hazel, "Don't pull her dress!  It's silk!  It could tear!"  I've never, ever, seen her so concerned about fashion.  She gazed at me with stars in her eyes.  It was quite touching.  

We went to the fanciest restaurant in town and had planned to have dinner a la Fancy Nancy, but it really became more about us reminiscing to the kids about our wedding day.  We had a blast.  Juniper, several times, wished us a "Happy Marry Day!"  I will certainly pull this dress out again before another 11 years fly by.

^11 years ago.  Nice to see my step-dad on this blog (tall bearded man on the right), he passed away almost 9 years ago.^  

^From a July camping trip with my mom...blog post coming soon.^

:: A montage from our night:

'Night.  

Under the Tetons 2

(Click here for the first installment.)

The second time out, we camped in a small, quiet, tent-only campground on Jenny Lake. This time, it was more about the fishing.  

^Juniper, plying the lakeside, found a spinner.^  

For us, staying in a campground is like going to the suburbs: we are surrounded by neighbors--something far more exotic to my kids than mountains, lakes and trout.  Juniper stopped every single person with a dog, firing off questions: "Is that your dog?  What's her name?  Are you the owner to this dog?"  And, "My name's Juniper and this is my little sister Hazel.  I'm four and she's two."  Hazel would stand nearby, shifting from side to side, looking up, scrunching her nose and repeating Juniper's same questions in her toddler garble: "Is dat yo dawwwwg?"  At least half the campground knew us.      

:: Notes from my journal(!):

At camp: Juniper bounces around, starts a conversation with anyone who will look at her, which is pretty much everyone.  Camping is really fun this year.  We're back in a tent.  The kids are learning the tricks of the trade, like how to find your way back to camp in a homogenous forest.  They are climbing rocks--Juniper scaling them like a gecko, Hazel getting frustrated and whining, "But I don't know howwww!"  They balance on the beams of fallen trees.  Juniper splashes in lake water slightly warmer than liquid nitrogen and not until the sun sinks behind the peaks does she say, "Mom, I think we should go back to camp now.  I'm getting kinda shivery."  

^J bug, practicing her camera-smile.  Note the chocolate around her lips and marshmallow above her eyelid.^ 

We are in the campground of yesteryear.  Tiny, one-car parking spaces, large tent sites, spaciousness around picnic tables and firepits (so many campgrounds these days have a tiny communal area and huge parking space).  The road through camp is so narrow and winding, you'd hit a boulder or tree if you dropped your attention for a second.  And thanks to that, the rare car moves slowly.  Kids play on the road, in the road, on the other side.  We don't worry.  It's the first time I've been to a campground like this in years (of course we couldn't with the trailer).         

:: We are still working out the kinks of car camping.  I don't think I've ever been good at car camping--not since I was a kid camping with my dad.  Packing for a ten-day *backpacking* trip I could do in my sleep (or could have, anyway).  In the old days, my version of "car camping" was to load my backpack and throw it in the car.  But we learn with every trip: the white-gas stove runs out of gas, so to avoid a late-night trip (with elk all over the road) to the nearest store, it's wise to have more on hand.  There are four of us and one eats like a teenage boy, so we could use a bigger pot.  You should never be without a potty chair (running down the campground road carrying a 45 pound kid who eats like a teenage boy = not fun).  And since we're nearly always in grizzly country, we are strict about NO FOOD IN OR AROUND THE TENT, and we have designated "tent/sleeping" clothes (i.e., NOT the same clothes in which we eat s'mores).  We camp in the mountains where it's cold, so I may want to remind my husband to bring a jacket if I don't want him wearing mine.  And my family is sure to catch fish, so it might be nice to have a place to keep them (instead of emptying the cooler of high-dollar chicken-apple sausages and greek yogurt).  Like I say, learning with every trip.  

:: The fishing:  

:: Hazel, on a flopping trout moments before the end: "The fish is waving good-bye!"  After we thank the trout and break it's neck, Juniper gets into the scientific exploration of gutting fish.    

She especially likes the air bladder. 

:: The best fishing holes did not have the most kid-friendly banks, however.  

:: Tonight, me: "Hey honey, what do you think about this picture?  I was really just trying to show how much Juniper has picked up speed since last year.  But all I could get was a blurry shot."  

My man: "Yeah, that's because she's really picked up speed." 

'Night y'all.