Everyday Life

Sorry, sometimes I just can't think of a creative post title. 'Everyday Life' lately has consisted of some hiking, berry-picking, climbing (or, chasing toddlers at the crag), and riding bikes on the driveway.

Not sure what the face is but it's kinda cute.

Yes, of course tractors go berry picking.

K and buddy in the muck.

K hiking down the Snow Lake trail.

Isabel and Isaac, climbing.

Kye bouldering.

Little Boy's Paradise

K is pretty fortunate to live where he gets to see semi-trucks, tractors, giant snowblowers, graders, and such on a regular basis. Since they are working on the new chairlift project, there have been even more pieces of equipment about. Here's a sampler.

We went to the zoo. K's opinion was that the animals were pretty cool but the tractor was by far the best exhibit in the whole place.

 K and his buddy drive the groomer

A whole line of tractors?!?!!!!!

[Apparently, his excitement got the best of him.]

Happy Birthday!

As K's birthday approached, we asked him how old he was going to be, to which he replied, "2 August". Nobody knows who taught him that. He'd also hold his pointer finger and thumb out, to indicate 'two'. Pretty cute. 

His birthday was a series of 'things K loves', starting with watching 'Cars' while momma made him a breakfast of hot cocoa, waffles, banana and huckleberries. 

I don't really do fancy so this is the decoration for K's bday. Simple but cute.

After nap, we went to the lake to go swimming- 

another favorite activity

K didn't have a lot of requests for his birthday but he did mention balloons. 

Hanging them from the beam was a hit as he could run through them.

Thanks Pinterest! :)

A cool new John Deere from Grandpa Don

New books, read by Gwammy Ellie

I wish I had captured a shot of his face while we sang to him...

he just beamed.

Dr. Pepper Chocolate Cake and Molly Moon's Homemade Salted Caramel Ice Cream, 

following Mac-n-Cheese with Bacon...it was a good day!

Kid Heaven

My dear friend Stephanie just moved to a 5-acre farmhouse with her family of four children. We stopped and camped there one night on our way home. This place is heaven for kids, with tractors, fields to run in, a nice big lawn, a tire-swing, play-house, and a large deck full of toys.

Kye had a great time playing with Steph's kids and it was nice to catch up a bit...in between wound-care, diaper changes, naked babies refusing diaper changes, potty training, eating, naked babies refusing to eat, temper tantrums, bedtime routines, etc. Ahh, parenthood. :) We have it pretty easy with just the one.

Kye with Abbey and Caleb

Kye and Caleb

Apparently Matchbox cars are interesting to older boys too.

 This pic cracks me up b/c I was trying so hard to keep the kids from drinking the 'pool' water

and, in the moment that I snapped the picture, they all managed a drink.

Whatever, pee water is probably good for you.

Kye and Caleb

The Way Home: Bozeman and Butte

With no open camping in Yellowstone, we loaded Kye up in his carseat after watching Old Faithful and drove to Bozeman, crossing our fingers that our favorite dispersed camping site would be open (on a Friday night, chances were slim). Pulling in around midnight, we were pleased to see our site was completely open!

Kye plays in the creek near our camp

We each got to ride to Emerald Lake, a trail we had to turn-around on a few years back due to snow and incoming lightning. This time, a storm threatened but never really came. It was a fun ride with a pretty lake and beautiful wildflowers.

 Emerald Lake

 I know, it's wrong to pick wildflowers, but I couldn't resist 

and they made a lovely camp arrangement.

 Monster truck & bus take a bath...

 ...and drive some heinous terrain.

We made the short drive from Bozeman to an area called 'White Hall', near Butte, for an overnight and a couple mountain bike rides. 

I rode a loop from Beaver Pond to the Continental Divide trail; it was pretty fun but, for some reason, I was creeped out about bears and cougars and didn't enjoy myself that much as a result. One thing about riding in Montana is that you often go without seeing a soul on the trail. It's pretty great to ride without having to dismount all the time, however, it does give you a sense of vulnerability and wildness, which is both good and scary. 

B left camp early to ride the next day. The second he left the camper, it started to downpour and didn't stop for quite some time. He was hating the ride, but then the rain let up and he got on some awesome single-track and thoroughly enjoyed himself.

Yellowstone Whirlwind

We decided to drive through Yellowstone on our way home, even though it wasn't exactly 'on our way'. When you drive right up to the entrance, you might as well go through it, right?

As you approach Yellowstone from Red Lodge, you go up and over Beartooth Highway. We really wished we had more time to explore here; in fact, we could probably spend a solid week just in the Beartooth Wilderness. This time, we just drove right through, stopping only for a few pics. It is beautiful, wild, and empty (once off the highway).

On the way up Beartooth

At the summit of Beartooth (nearly 11,000 ft), there is a little ski area,

open only in the early summer. 

Here is the view from the top, where several runs 

go down about 3,000 ft of vertical.

Coming down from Beartooth Summit

It was a super quick visit of Yellowstone and it was actually great. We picked our top four sites/things to see and hit them all: bison, Yellowstone Falls, Grand Prismatic Spring, and Old Faithful.

Lots and lots of bison; this is taken from the truck window

as we stopped while they crossed the road

(we weren't the dumb tourists getting too close for a good photo)

Same thing here, we are only steps away from a parking lot and our truck.

Kye wanted to take his stuffed sheep, 'Baby', to see the buffalo.

Yellowstone Falls

One of the prismatic springs, 

from the boardwalk

I had heard you could take a hike to get you above the prismatic springs for an aerial view, but it was hard to find any info about this hike. After wandering around the boardwalk area, we could see people on a trail past the springs and could also see the road to access it. We hiked a short distance on the Fairy Falls trail (actually a road), then took one of many side trails up the hill for a fantastic view. 

If you do a Yellowstone visit, I highly recommend this. It isn't a super hard or long hike, but the view is amazing and there are much fewer people than on the boardwalk.

Grand Prismatic Spring

After our hike, we ate a great meal of Bison Meatloaf in the Old Faithful Lodge, then found a spot to watch the Old Faithful Geyser blow. Kye ran around in his pajamas as we waited, giggling and getting silly tired.

And when she blew, Kye said, "Kaboomy!"