A very unexpected visitor

So last Monday, JW went to the post office to pick up the mail and came back with a guest. Abenanna's grandson sent Flat Stanley to visit Montana.

This is Flat Stanley getting acquainted with a very indifferent Tinkerbell.

Flat Stanley made a little snow man. It was pretty warm that day so in the sun it melted, melted, melted.

We took Flat Stanley on a hike and a few other places.

Now, Stanley is upstairs in a box - awaiting to be taken to the post office for his return trip to Arizona tomorrow - he has to be back in Cool-town by March 16 and we don't want him to be late getting back to school.

Pretty sad life when a paper boy coming to visit causes excitement on the crick. JW was feeling a little displaced by the "Flat Guy".

Oh well, changes are a comin' - so life will be totally turned around 7 days from now ---- stay tuned.

Yeah for HAPPPPPPY HOLLY DAYS!!!

So for several months, I looked forward to Christmas. The kids were going to be here even if JW wasn't going to make it home for the holiday (the only silver lining on the dark cloud of the mine in Nome shutting down is he got to come home. I spent way too much money on some new decorations. Bought a new tree for the "man cave" so I could put a bigger one upstairs in the living room - one that I could put more presents under. Bought a little white flocked tree to put in the girl's bedroom. I even scooped up some frozen deer poop in a plastic bag and sprinkled in a little red glitter so we could leave it as evidence that Santa had been there. Broke down and bought Christmas dishes, silverware and napkins that I had wanted for years. Bought special Christmas mugs for the girls to drink from and some cheapy ornaments so I could put them on a tree out on the front deck.

Even Tinkerbell loved the upstairs Christmas tree and is finally getting a little used to the girls. For the first time, she did not hide in a dark hole in the basement all day while they were here.

I bought too many things for my favorite little girls - so many in fact that a few days before Christmas, I hid a couple of presents deciding to wait for Easter to give them some pink building things - similar to tinker toys. I arranged for a flight for number one child so she could spend Christmas with us for a change. I bought socks, socks and more socks since that is tradition - everyone gets socks for Christmas.

I cooked and cooked and cooked - way too many cookies and every kind I made, I had to make a few and bake them before I added nuts since youngest granddaughter is very allergic to nuts. Then I added nuts and baked more. I made caramels (with and without nuts) and some dipped in chocolate. I made fudge and spiced pecans and chocolate covered cherrys. Terrible thing is that I'm the one with the major sweet tooth - I think everyone else would have been just as happy if I had only baked a little.

We made tamales and after the girls got here, we made sugar cookies and decorated them so we could leave some for Santa. They helped mix the dough, cut the dough and then decorated. Jules had to do more than her half of the decorating, because Madison like to put lots and lots of blue sugar on her cookies - she says purple is her favorite color but I think she really prefers blue.

The girls got to spend some time sledding down the hill along the side of the house. But when they returned Christmas eve, the wind had blew all the snow away or into big drifts. So Christmas morning, they tried to sled down a big drift in the front yard. It was a short trip and Jules kept heading into the tree.

The day after Christmas, Nana and Tata hike out back to the other side of the hill to find a place for sledding. It was a little windy and awfully cold out. But, we found a perfect place and came back to get the rest of the family. We then all hiked out across the hill and spent the morning sledding down the hill. Even this old lady went down the hill twice. First time I've ever really sledded. I've secretly been wanting to go back out there and can almost guarantee that if we get another nice snow, I'm going to sneak out back and spend some time on that hill. At least back there, no one could see me.

Saturday evening, we took a lot of photos of the family. Wanted at least one decent picture (considering the subjects) of the whole group since it's been so long since we've all been together here at "my" house. We also decided that next year, we're going to go back to doing charity gifts instead of buying for the adults in the family. Even got the son to agree to that. However, the sock fairy is not happy that I've been told I cannot even buy socks and I cannot buy Happy Thanksgiving socks or Happy New Year socks.

Next year, Christmas is going to be very quiet wherever we are since we have to let the grandkids spend the holiday with their Grama Toni. But we are planning to all meet together in 2010 for another holiday (but I'm thinking less candy and cookies the next time around.

Not sure what new adventures await us this year. But whatever happens it will be okay. JW is applying for every job he thinks he would qualify for. We probably won't jump into moving somewhere until he works there a while and it looks like something that will last. The house is still up for sale and if someone snaps it up this summer, then we'll have to decide where to go. But until that day, we continue to work on the house and enjoy life here on the crick.

Where is Summer rushing off to?

Seems like it was just July 4 and now we are moving to the middle of August.

On July 12, we went hiking to Glacier Lake (jva & abe went up there with JW in 2002 while they were here). The lake was still partially frozen and we had a heck of a time getting over to the farther part of the lake. The snow was piled deep on the trail. So one more scary snowdrift to climb over for this old woman. Since I made it over, I was a little less stressed coming back but then, I walked too close to the rocks and next thing I knew, one leg fell through the snow all the way up to my hip. That was not fun trying to get up and continue forward off the drift (especially with a whole bunch of people watching). The good thing was that no one else was brave enough to climb over the drift, so we had that whole side of the lake to ourselves. JW caught 1 fish, put it on the stringer and then didn't catch anymore so that one got turned loose.

It was an absolutley gorgeous day and a nice hike. Kind of steep but only 7 miles round trip.

The next day, Blaine and his family showed up on their way to the new home in Idaho. It was so great to have them back on this side of the country.

B & J stayed for a week and then they went on to Idaho and left the girls with us for a week. While B & J were here, we took the girls fishing at Wild Bill (the same lake we went to for the reunion). They each caught a few fish - nothing large enough to keep so had to just throw them back.

And we took them up Beartooth Pass to play in the snow. It was kind of cold though and they needed mittens. There was quite a bit of snow up there for late July:

JW had lots of fun spending time with the girls. Every day around 10, he sliced apples for them or found them some kind of snack. He made 3 swings for them in the tree and they spent a lot of time swinging. He took them on walks up the hill and helped Jules plant some flower seeds in a cup to take home with her. And the girls and I made a cake - they had fun licking the beater.

The girls loved their room.

On July 24, we had to take them to their new house. We decided to take a long drive through Yellowstone to see the water that spits in the sky and the bubbling water and the buffalo. Jules counted 162 buffalo. I told Jules about pine beetles and how the red trees are dying because of the pine beetles. So then Madison kept asking "why are the trees red", "why are the trees red". Finally, I asked her "Why are the trees red". She answered, "Cause a mosquito bit them".

It was fun in the park but even with staying just outside the park, there wasn't enough time to do what we wanted to do. Really need to go back and spend a few days. We didn't get to the paint pots again (somehow, we always miss the turn off - or maybe we needed to go north toward Mammoth).

On the 25th, we got to their new house around noon and ate lunch then kind of vegged a bit. JW cannot stand just sitting around so he decided that we needed to head home the next morning especially since B had to work. It was hard leaving them but it's great to know they are just over that mountain and a ways down the road so we can drive over for 3 or 4 days weekend when we can afford it.

As we came home, we saw this dreaded site:

The fires of August have started - This one was up above Wild Bill Lake in the area where we had taken our Timberline Lake hike a few weeks earlier. Knowing how much dead wood is in there, it is amazing that they have actually got it mostly contained now.

Back to reality and JW is back to searching for a job. He has apps in all over the place including back in AZ at the Ray mine where life started for us. Hoping to hear something soon from someone. Who knows where life will lead us. Maybe JW is done working forever - it's been kind of nice having him around all the time.

All we know is if we are meant to be in AZ at this time in our lives, that's where we'll end up. Not exactly our first choice but.........

4th of July

So while the rest of the world including JW was out enjoying a wonderful 3 day weekend last week, I was on call and virtually stuck at home. So instead of doing anything like cleaning the house or laundry, I literally spent the entire day from 7:15 a.m. until 10:00 p.m. Friday working on a quilt for the girls' room. Wanted to handquilt it.

Here's a picture of it on the bed: (I haven't totally finished all the quilting I want to do on it - for right now have only quilted around some of the fairies. Will do more quilting on it this fall but for right now, it's just a little warm to be sitting under a quilt - even with a very light cotton batting.)

Froggie Prince cube was added to the room by Aunt alexshuman. Not too much fun to blow up with a vacuum cleaner. - especially when the only one you have that will blow air is one used for cleaning ashes out of the stove so you have to totally clean it out first. But we got it blown up.

Since this is the fairy room, our own little Tinkerbell has decided it's for her. We keep the door closed but anytime I go in there, I have to make sure she hasn't snuck in behind me. The other night she did get in and several hours later we heard her scratching on the door trying to get out.

Meanwhile, while I was home. JW hiked up to Sylvan Lake for the night. He did some fishing and caught some golden trout. Not sure what is on the agenda for tomorrow. Hoping B, J & the girls are here Sunday. Tata can hardly wait to take the granddaughters fishing.

Hike of the week

So far this is the absolutely best hike. Saturday morning, we got up at 5:15 and after a breakfast of crispy bacon and Kodiak Cakes (just add water - wheat and other grain pancakes - a little more wholesome than the family tradition of Bisquick), we headed east to Red Lodge. From there, we headed south past Wild Bill Lake (where we fished 5 years ago for the reunion) and on another 5 miles to the Timberline Lake trailhead.

I wasn't sure how hard the hike would be but I had read the description in the hiking book. It is only 4 1/2 miles from the trail head to the lake so I knew I could do the mileage. However, this hike also had an elevation gain of 2000 feet so in 4 1/2 miles that's pretty steep.

We got to the trail head and started up the hill - up up up we went. JW was totally surprised when we got to the 3 mile mark as we had only been hiking for 1 hour 37 minutes. He could not imagine we could have walked that far in such a short time. We have been averaging 1 1/2 miles an hour so we are getting faster.

After the 3 mile point, the trail switchbacked up over a hill, then we reached a point where we had to forge the stream. Now the water in this little stream was roaring down the hill. And the way to cross was over 2 logs - kind of side by side but with a 3" gap between. Brave person that I am, I sat on the log on my rear and kind of did a cheek-walk across the water. Good exercise i'm sure cause i could feel the burn.

Anyway, once across, we walked on to Gertrude Lake and talked to some guys camping there for a few minutes. Told them we were going the extra half mile on to Timberline Lake. They had heard the lake was still partially frozen and thought we may have to blaze a trail through the drifted snow to get there.

This is where the trail led to:

We knew the lake had to be just beyond that hill. However what we didn't know is how deep the snow drift was or how soft - sinking in snow up above your knees is one thing but any deeper than that and I'm not sure how we'd get out. We started climbing up the hill to the left of the snow. Believe me, it is a lot higher than it looks. When we got as far as we could on the rocks and I had made the mistake of looking down to see how far I would fall, JW started across the snow. That's when I got really nervous but also determined I was going to see this lake. So, after doing my panic thing for a while and shuffling my feet in the snow to make sure I wasn't going to do the slip and slide thing, I followed him across the snow and down a little bit to this view:

I was totally amazed. Even told JW that the reason I like national parks is because they always have the neat lakes like this one. At least that is the only place I'd ever seen them.

We decided we needed to walk over the hill to our right so we could see the rest of the lake since we could only see a portion from this view. We got to the top of the little hill and found we were going to be ploughing through snow drifts to get where we wanted to be. I told JW to go on ahead as I needed to take a picture of these tiny little blue flowers.

They were only about 3/8" across and were scattered across the area. I love these little alpine flowers - usually they are purple, yellow or white so I was totally amazed to see an actual blue flower.

We hiked on to the other part of the lake and had to stop for a couple of pictures before JW was allowed to start fishing. The kind of milky spot in the lake is ice that hasn't melted yet. It was a little cool with the wind coming across the water but I found a huge mostly flat rock (It had to be 5 feet high, 8 feet long and 6 feet wide) so after eating a lunch of kipper snacks, string cheese and an apple, I laid on the huge rock to sun myself and rest up for the hike down. It was so peaceful and we had the entire area to ourselves.

At about 2, we decided we needed to start down. When I got to the snow to go down the hill, I was a little braver this time and got down quickly. At the stream, I crossed again by sitting on the log and scooting across. At about 3:30, we stopped 3 miles from the trail head to eat a granola bar and rest a few minutes, then at about 3:48, we started the final descent.

JW made the comment that there was no way we would reach the truck by 4:30 (which we were kind of hoping for) So, being in the lead, I picked up the pace and we pulled into the parking lot at 4:32 (a little off our goal but to do 3 miles in about 45 minutes and with my old arthritic knees, I was very proud of us - I always walk slower down hill as it is a bit painful).

When we got to the truck, we headed back home - stopping in Red Lodge long enough to buy a few fireworks for when the granddaughters get here (smoke bombs, snakes, tanks, hens laying eggs - all the little non-explosive ones that you can see in the daytime since dark is too late around here in July) and we got a shake from the Red Box Car.

Wasn't sore at all. Hardly tired and for the first time this summer, I didn't take even one Advil all weekend. Sure wish all of you could come and go hiking with us. Would love to share this area. I am on call for 4th of July weekend so next hike is an overnighter to Sylvan Lake - round trip 12 miles but at least we'll get to rest all night before hiking out. At least, that's the current plan. HAPPY 4TH TO ALL OF YOU.