We don't miss the Annual Baldner/Rogers Birthday bash each summer. Mike Rogers and Theresa Baldner have birthdays within days of each other and they always throw a fun shindig up at the Baldner's beautiful property just outside of the City Limits. This year: pig roast, beer, lots of kids, potluck sides, and terrific friends.
Mattie overheard people talking about "the pig" and naturally assumed there was a little pink Wilbur running around. She asked about every 15 minutes "Momma, I want to see the pig. I want to hold it?" I don't want to deceive her but also understand that the concept of eating our four legged friends is pretty horrific and difficult to even grasp at 27 months, so I very carefully showed her the BBQ'ed pig and said that is pig meat in the grill. She looked at it with no reaction and then went about playing. She clearly (thank goodness) couldn't make that connection and just kept asking when she could see the pig ... Crisis averted (for now)... we still have a meat eater.
The kids played and frolicked. It was a perfect night. Perfect weather. A great mix of music blaring (a perk to having no neighbors), and as always, I just want to cry to see all our friends - they are so wonderful. I drank a few too many beers and we eventually left around 9:30 - when our party girl FINALLY showed signs of slowing down.
Another wonderful summer memory for the scrapbook!
every party needs a little picnic blanket cribbage game!
the demise of Wilbur
Matine obsessed with Christy's dog ... of course. "I hold it."
Henry and Finn - always adorable.
THE Rob Bankston!
My beautiful friends and their beautiful babies.
Megan and Elias - after a brief move to Boulder, CO - they are BACK for good!
My favorite shots of the night. The girls playing in the flowers.
Having so much fun.
The fire was a HIT! AND, all the kids stayed behind the green hose line like good boys and girls.
Me and Tony chatting - Peter said I looked like I was wearing a maternity dress. So much for trying to be fashionable in a maxi dress! Ugh....
Well, if you haven't heard me excitedly babble about our Thanksgiving adventures yet, well, I'm doing it again. It was crazy. It was fun. And it was a bit stressful (at least for the manly men of our homes who had to drive the vehicles and shovel cars out of ditches and driveways). For the folks who sat watching all the car sticking, snow tromping fun from the warm house, it was fun.
Most of my non-Montana living friends think that we live in 5 feet of snow all the time, ride our horses to work everyday, and bathe in our long-johns. Not true. While there is an occassional storm that has us cancelling plans or calling in "sick" to work, or a horse here and there on our main streets for no reason, we have had fairly mild winters for the last couple of DECADES and big snow storms have not been the norm this early in the year. I am borrowing some fun facts of our Thanksgiving storm from Melynda, who already did the research and seems to be a pretty reliable source.
According to the Livingston Enterprise, this is the first time in 24 years that 12-below temperatures were recorded before Thanksgiving. Temps dropped from 56 degrees on November 17th to 12-below Sunday and Tuesday nights. Reminder: we are all meeting on Wednesday in Paradise Valley to start our Thanksgiving week-o-fun.
During that week of Thanksgiving there were 600 accidents on Montana roads. There were 60 accidents in Park County (that's where we live) between Friday and Tuesday, according to the Montana Highway Patrol.
So, we know it was cold... but this storm also graced us with -18 inches of fluffy white snow in Livingston!
Now, reminder, we are in LIVINGSTON - the real windy City (Chicago has nothing on us), so the snow blew... and it blew and it blew. Folks, when snow (which is actually really heavy) starts to blow around here, it means there are WALLS of snow that are completely impassible. Many folks couldn't get in or out of driveways, the roads all were shut down because of white-out conditions and random drifts in the middle of the roads .... Crazy I was telling you!
Either by a stroke of luck or insanity, our super troopers still made the trek on Wednesday nights and Thursday morning to join us at our Home Away from Home. They ALL made it (save the Rogers family who decided to not risk getting stranded with THREE children on a 18-below Thanksgiving Day (wise decision).
The view you see above is of Emigrant Peak from the windows and porch of a house that we caretake in Paradise Valley. It's a beautiful home and it was graciously loaned to us for a couple of days so that we could spread out and enjoy the Holiday with our huge crowd of friends and family. What a treat to stay in a fancy, beautiful home for a few days. If we were going to be stranded with 20 people, this was the place to be stranded. 3 levels, huge kitchen, basement with pool table and tvs, kids could go crazy, and we all had our own bathrooms and bedrooms. I don't even want to think about what would have happened had we been stuck with 20 people in our house! Someone would have died.
So, 5 kids, 15 adults, and a few hairy friends here and there... What did we do for 3 days?
We ate lots of food and did lots of visiting.
We brought out the 2010 Holiday Family Pajamas and enjoyed time as a family. Matine of course, ate lots of toast (with "butter"). She must be drunk off her toast here... Cut her off!
We laughed and drank in equally large amounts. It was a treat to see Loni and Marni and their sweet men.
Apparenlty there were moments of stir-craziness and Matine just played in a box. She's kind of a wierd kid. Marni thinks she's going to be an eclectic artist like her.
Sally got to kick up her feet and do some reading, while her darling kiddos played. It was great as a parent because there were 15 other people to keep an eye on your child! We had no injuries, fights or children falling down stairs! Success!
Sweet Audrey looking like the angel that she was. Audrey is 2 weeks older than Matine. And she is literally a doll. That could be a hair model.
Occasionally, Matine would share Baby Jhett with me and I got to hold her and see her darling smile that seems to be permanently affixed to her face. This is one happy baby!
Pete, Jim and Brian (and apparently Annie the dog) spent lots of time playing pool, drinking whiskey, and doing manly things like assessing snow conditions and even some hunting (yes, they managed to get their trucks out on highways that were closed to go hunting in Gardiner on Friday).
Big tub = LOTS of bathing kids. They LOVED the jacuzzi tub and the ability to all be in there at the same time. "Sit still Cash, I am just going to pour this on your head."
Did I mention we ate? That's a pretzel in case you were concerned.
Amy and her boy - they sure look alike here.
Amy and her gal - she looks like her dad.
Nona and JimPa didn't have trouble relaxing and enjoying the chaos.
That huge mound of snow is not usually there. This is a flat driveway with no "hills" in it. This is after the cars were removed and we called in a snow plow to plow the roads so we could get out!
I just love this picture of my mom here... so beautiful.
Snuggle bugs! Loni has her hands full with Camille and her little shadow, Matine.
It was pretty great, on Turkey Day, the meal is served and without prompting, all the super-dads were down at the kids table, making sure the kiddos were all fed and doing well. They fixed their plates and sat and monitored it all. The moms were quite impressed with their men at this moment. And actually got to eat an entire meal without a kid on a lap!
more bathtime... hey, it was fun and the kids couldn't go outside. It looks like poor Audrey is drowning here.... oops.
Everyone did their part in keeping everyone fed and happy. Wednesday night was elk popper night!
Here's our plow to the rescue! Finally after making about a dozen calls to everyone within 100 miles. Hank arrives!
Holy Thanksgiving snow!
It was a blast. I was so very thankful for my family, my friends and the ability to be together. We were so sad to not have Micca and Josh joining us. They were supposed to be there, but fate had other plans. We love you Micca and Josh and are so thankful for YOU and your family this holiday.
Well, it's official. Matine IS an international woman. And a party going, large and in charge, never say die one at that. I apologize for my delay in posting. It's been a week of trying to recover, get Matine back on a schedule and well, catching up on some sleep! I have also been weaning Matine off of screaming "Isla" every morning or running through the house looking for her new favorite friend.
We went to see Christina, Jackie and her baby girl and Matine's friend, Isla. They were here in August and we had so much fun we just had to see them again. They recently moved to Vancouver, B.C, so what a great opportunity to see some cool stuff and visit our friends. Pete couldn't go on the trip because of hunting and I thought it would be fun to make it a "Mother-Daughter" trip too, so my mom came as well.
We flew into Seattle and Christina drove down to pick us and up and make the "short drive" (her words, not mine) back to Vancouver. If you know Christina, she is so sweet and SO accommodating. She really should have told us honestly, "it's a really long ass drive from Vancouver to Seattle, so buy your *%$#@# ticket into Vancouver!" But being the sweetheart she is, she truly didn't mind driving down to pick us up. We did get the fun experience of "border patrol" and some good visiting in on the drive. Thanks Chris.
Matine was an angel on the plane an slept the entire flight... We did get her up at 4:30 am to get to the airport I guess. She's becoming a pro. Thank goodness she loves to see new things.
Jackie and Matt Farrer .... awe, how cute!
We got a nice tour of downtown Vancouver from Christina as we made our way in. Gorgeous buildings (and lots of them), interesting people from all over the world, gorgeous harbors, boats, ferries, trains, buses, and mountains. It is really an amazing city. Christina is an expert at navigating it already and even has some good ol' big city road rage!
Isla Rose... Oh such a sweet gal.
We got to the Farrer/Thompson house on the first day, ready to chill a bit and let the little gal play with her friend. Sweet Isla, about 3 months older than Matine didn't have a clue what was about to "rock her world!" Isla might be the SWEETEST gal on the planet. Don't get me wrong, I think Matine is a very sweet and kind kid, but let's just say that Matine is MUCH more rowdy and rambunctious than Isla. I felt like Matine was bouncing off the walls and talking non-stop compared to this sweet, calm little gal. I am not real sure Isla was prepared to have a Howell/Cottongim on her own turf. Watch out toys, snugs, dolls, and food - Matine WILL try to take it!
their view from the Sea Bus
They live in North Vancouver, which means that when we went into the main part of the City, we could either drive over the bridge by car, or take a "Sea Bus" to the train station and get around using public transport. The Seabus and Trains were so fun ... and the gals thought so too! They could climb, run around and see what was going on. It came in handy with all our sight-seeing outings.
Isla and Matt - a daddy's girl for sure!
We went to the Science Center one of the days and the kids loved the insanely chaotic and overcrowded kids exploration area. Matine loved this peg board ... drug her away (almost had tears). We also got to see the Body Show that was exhibiting there... You know the ones with the real human bodies, showing all their bones and tissue and muscles... It was very cool. I don't think Matine has had any nightmares about it yet....
beautiful Vancouver skyline... we took the Water Taxis!
We did some walking (strolling for some).
I think kids love Matt.... It must be that British Accent.
All kids love Isla and Jackie too... how can you not with those faces?
One of the bigger "Markets" in the city... Very fun... lots of people. I think I paid about $10 for some raspberries.
Busy day... we must stop for some Gelato!
Are there any words, really? Is this really my kid?
So, it was great to come back to Jackie's house each afternoon and let the kids be kids, nap (sometimes), and play as they usually would. As I mentioned, Matine seemed to be on hyper-drive and played with some extra exuberance that even I have never seen. As seen from this picture above, she learned to play with markers! Thank goodness they were washable, as they were used mainly as "chapstick" on her lips and face!
I love my mom. I was so glad we got to take a little vacation together. It has been years, and I was really reminded how easy she is to travel with, how willing she is to explore and do ANYTHING, and how much I enjoy her company. And, she was a BIG help with Matine (it took two people to rein in the beast this week).
The gals at Deep Cove... Beautiful little inlet in North Vancouver.
oh, we got wet! and there were rocks. and mud. and did I mention water?
beautiful place!
Totem Poles in Stanley Park ... Very cool
Can you guess which twin this is???
So, everyday we packed as much in as we could with two toddlers and a carload of people. One of my favorite days was when we went to the Vanheusen Botanical Gardens. Smack right down in the middle of the city, there is a beautiful growing Oasis... It was nice to walk and look ... and chase Matine.
yes, my child decided to take a break in the middle of the sidewalks. no tantrums or yelling. just quiet refusal to move.
Bridges, flowers, rocks, mazes, crazy looking trees, caves and so much more! The botanical gardens are a great place to take a family! Seriously... it rocked! And, as anyone who knows my mother can attest... she was in HEAVEN!
hi mom... i'm absolutely crazy!
I think we needed to take a left to get to the waterfalls....
Ladies night out to the Canucks game!
The ladies went out and had a great time at the Canucks hockey game... I think it was the hats (and making fun of Canadians and hockey fans) that made it extra fun.
Take another one... there's something not right about this picture... maybe it's the hat?
If you are still reading this post... thanks. There's more... Hey, we were there for 7 entire days and we did a lot....
The aquarium was awesome... Even got to touch starfish.
Christina showed us the University of British Columbia, where she works, and drove through the sidewalks where no driving is allowed! Go Chris....
More aquarium... Big fish, whales, birds, snakes, frogs ... We saw it all!
Thank you Jackie, Isla, Christina and Matt for welcoming us into your beautiful home, family and life... I know we were a lot to handle, but we sure enjoyed our time and will never forget Vancouver!
To see ALL our pictures of our trip - you can see them on our Picasa Web Albums HERE.
