Eight

One on of our last days in Montana, we celebrated our niece Bryn's 8th birthday a couple weeks early. We started off the fun with some tie-dying:

We discovered that similar to fishing, tie-dying requires patience. So not surprisingly, it ended up being Mandy, Maryn, and me doing most of the work. Although I had way too much fun, so I shouldn't really call it work! And look at those results!

Then it was time for the usual pool antics. There were a few special events for Bryn's birthday... first Scott threw her in the pool with her clothes on. She later got her revenge by dumping a glass of water on him once he was dressed, which resulted in Zach crying in outrage on his dad's behalf. :)

Then Alan got in on the swimming action (this is not a common occurrence, Scott's mom is generally the one in the pool):

And then there was the water slide. Yes, the kids went on it a little, but the water was very cold, so Alan and Scott did their best to create some excitement about it.


And what's a birthday without cake??

Charlie didn't get to take part in much of the celebration, preferring to spend time checking out his crazy big brother.

Palisade Falls hike

Our final hike turned out to be our easiest, just a half mile along a paved path with little elevation. Our destination was Palisade Falls, which was located in the Gallatin National Forest, a short drive from Belgrade and somewhere I have every intention of returning!


^ The kids running along the path - definitely an easier hike; Palisade Falls


^ Our little family; Grandma Cookie with 4/7ths of her goofy grandkids


^Scott & Zach hiking up close to the falls


^ A nice little mini-falls finding its way down the mountain


^ Goofing around by the creek, although I think this pose would be more appropriate if it was Bryn and Maryn choking Zach.

A few of his favorite things

Zach had some homework at preschool the other day. He needed to provide some information about himself, to be shared with his classmates so they can all get to know each other. I promised myself that I was going to just ask Zach the questions and write down whatever he said; no editing, suggesting, or otherwise modifying. Here's the result:

Name: Zach Willard
Favorite color: pink
Favorite food: M&Ms
Favorite book: The Cat in the Hat
Favorite show: Caillou (I confess I stepped in on this one... since his first response was Cars. I know it probably doesn't matter that he picked a movie as opposed to a tv show, but the perfectionist in me couldn't let it slide. He did pick Caillou on his own after I explained tv vs movie.)
Favorite thing to do: play cars
What he wants to be when he grows up: a train driver - he was later more specific, said he wanted to be Thomas's driver.
My Family: mom, Zach, Charlie, daddy, and Koskie
Favorite pet: a goldfish

The last one cracked me up, since we don't have a goldfish! I teased him about it, asking about Koskie, but Zach just giggled and said he likes goldfish. But he mentioned Koskie as a member of our family, so hopefully the poor dog's feelings aren't too hurt.

I was also intrigued to hear what he'd say for his favorite book. We read A LOT of books, getting a big stack of new ones at the library weekly. He seems to like to read just about anything, although I can't usually get him interested in non-fiction. And his "favorites" are short-lived - we read them up to 6 times a day for a couple days and then he's ready to move on to something else. Despite all that, he answered the question immediately, no doubt about it.

I hope they ask the same series of questions next year; it'll be interesting to see what changes!

Preschool & Pox

We interrupt this broadcast of historical events to bring you some more current ones. While I still have lots to catch up on, more from our trip to Montana (a hike to a waterfall! and I love waterfalls perhaps more than sunsets, so guess how many pictures I took!), our visit to Milwaukee, and now Scott's parents' visit here. But while they are still relevant, some activity from the last 24 hours:

Zach had his first day of preschool yesterday! While he has been doing various school-type things, such as our ECFE classes and his outings to the Mom's Day Away program, this is truly the beginning of "real" school for him. He will go Tuesday & Thursday mornings to the program at Salem Lutheran church. He is in a class of 18... only 4 of which are boys! There is one teacher and one teacher's aide, both moms of young kids and seemingly great with preschool-age kids. I had to laugh when Zach referred to Mrs. Bryant, the aide, as "the one whose hair comes out in back." Interpretation: both times he's seen her, she's had her hair in a low ponytail. :)

It was fun to drop him off yesterday and witness just how mature he's gotten. He had absolutely no anxiety about me leaving, was asking the teachers (and me) all sorts of questions, and could not wait to dig into all the new toys and activities. When the teacher asked the kids to line up at the door to head to chapel, you could see the spectrum of the kids' readiness for this type of organized instruction. Zach was second in line, and happily marched down the hall, while many of the other kids had to be herded by their parents first to get in line and then to follow the line down the hall. Seems like such a simple thing, but then again, we adults have been doing it our whole lives!

And when Scott's parents and I picked Zach up, he was full of stories. His favorite was singing songs, particularly an activity they did that involved "the ants go marching." I'm really looking forward to more stories as he gets to know both the kids and the teachers better.

On the Charlie front, we had some excitement with him yesterday too. Charlie is normally an extremely content baby, so when he was crying or whimpering any time he was awake, and sleeping only in someone's arms, and restlessly at that, we knew something was up. His head was extremely hot, and suddenly those little dots on his body seemed like more than a rash caused by some sort of skin irritation. His temp was 102.4, so I called the doctor and was told to bring him in, since fever + rash = not good. After waiting too long (along with a boy who was apparently kicked too hard in a certain sensitive part of his anatomy at karate practice), the doctor ended up taking some blood - from his heel, a horrid process - to check his white blood count. Diagnosis: chicken pox!!!

The doctor at urgent care instructed me to return the following morning for a follow-up with Charlie's regular doctor, since his fever was higher than is typically seen with chicken pox (it was 102.7 at the dr office). But first she scared me to death regarding the contagiousness (is that a word?) of the pox, and informed me Charlie would probably have to stay in the house for up to 2 weeks. Yikes!

When Charlie woke up this morning the fever was completely gone, and he was acting like his normal self again (we got smiles!). The spots also seemed to have faded a bit, and definitely hadn't become raised or gotten larger. So long story short, when I took Charlie in to see his regular pediatrician, the new diagnosis was roseola, a common virus with small children, much less scary, and much less contagious. As long as the fever doesn't come back, he's good. Whew. I feel like we dodged quite the bullet with this one... I can't wait until Charlie turns 1 so he can get the chicken pox vaccine!

PS... I also learned Charlie now weighs 13 lbs 15 oz. And while he may look totally bald in those pictures, he does have some hair coming in. Too early/thin/short to tell what color it is though.

Drinking Horse Mountain

Our second hike was to the top of Drinking Horse Mountain. While it was a little shorter (1.2 miles each way) and slightly less steep than the first, it seemed longer and harder! Perhaps it was because it was more exposed to the sun and therefore hotter. Or maybe it just seemed longer becuase we heard more complaining from the kids - I think the novelty of hiking wore off!

The view from the top was spectacular, although I could have done without the kids from the YMCA camp. :) I didn't take too many pictures since Scott was golfing and therefore I was toting Charlie (another reason why the hike seemed harder to me - 13 extra pounds makes a difference!).

1 fish, 2 fish, 3 fish, brown fish!

If you are ever in the Bozeman area and need a fishing guide, have we got the man for you: Mr. Collins, Scott's dad's friend and a fellow retired teacher. He bravely agreed to bring all the gear and teach Zach, Maryn, and Bryn to fish. He was very determined that each of them would catch their first fish!

We started at this little stocked lake. As you can see, Scott and I arrived in style in our old car.

After only a few hits and no snagged fish, we moved on to another lake just down the road.

Zach was mostly interested in reeling his line in, over and over, and eventually he and Bryn decided the nearby hill required exploring. Maryn displayed the most patience, by far! After no luck at that lake (or the adjoining lake), Mr. Collins arranged with a friend for us to use his river-front property. So a few days later we were off to the Gallatin River for another shot at catching those elusive fish.

After a snagged line and some wading in ice-cold water for Mr. Collins, Zach landed himself a brown trout!

And then Maryn and Bryn caught theirs too, and some were even brave enough to touch it.

So after three different locations, four to five hours, many casts, one tangled line, a handful of worms, a few trips through the river to find the perfect spot, and one soaked Bryn - these three kids caught their first fish! Thanks again Mr. C - your perserverence paid off!

Big Sky days

Our days in Big Sky country quickly developed into a pattern:
- an outing (more on these later) in the morning, often including lunch
- naps/quiet playtime in the early afternoon
- the rest of the day spent in Grandpa & Grandma's backyard, like this:

^yes, Scott taught Bryn how to jump from the trampoline into the pool. Apparently he's that uncle.

^the pool is pretty cold... a post-swim snuggle or a soak in the hot tub is often required.

^a nice backdrop for jumping (or wrestling) on the trampoline, don't you think?

Not shown here, but also a standard parts of our days:

- delicious meals and great conversation

- Grandma-administered baths (...for the kids), ended with a scented lotion rubdown, after which we played a guessing game of who smelled like what. The night Zach selected "Sensual Amber" really stumped us - we would never have guessed that one.