Moose addendum

I walked into my kitchen to work get the boys a snack, alerted to a movement outside the window above the sink. I looked and found myself no more than 3 feet away from the baby moose, standing on our deck, munching on our trees. 20 minutes later, the boys are still running from room to room to follow baby moose as she moseys around the perimeter of the house, munching on leaves wherever she goes...

Mama moose is in the neighbor's yard again. Boone spent a long time barking at them. But when baby moose could not clear the fence to get to mama and decided to stare down Boone instead, he quieted and is currently sulking in his dog house. So, when is it safe to go outside and feed the dog?

Don't Feed the Animals

I had to bring the Link and PJ in from playing in the back yard yesterday. I hate doing that, taking them out of the sunshine and fresh air and all, BUT . . .



The chain link in the foreground is the end of our yard, standing about 4 feet high. Now, if I know nothing else of wild animals, I know not to mess with a moose. Despite their gangly, placid appearance, they can be very aggressive, and at that size, I choose to avoid confrontation. This mama and baby spent the better part of 6 hours in our neighbor's yard, lounging and munching on his aspen tree, finally clearing out around dark. I love living in the wild, wild west.

Stitch-free for over 6 months? How unnatural

I'm a little behind on this post, but it is definitely blog-worthy, even if its documentation is a bit late. Last month, the week after my parents left, we went to dinner and a birthday party for some friends who lives about 20 miles south of Pinedale. Amy and Cheyenne have 2 little boys who my children adore and as soon as we arrived, all the little people disappeared to play together. They have a lab, too, so I drove Greg's truck and took Boone along for a play date of his own.

Right as we were wrapping up inside and people were beginning to filter out and head home, I heard some screaming coming from out front. As I was heading to the front door, one of the other adults carried Lincoln inside . . . his face and shirt covered in blood. Hmmm.

Turns out that when we arrived, I let the tailgate down to let Boone out and then didn't put it back up, figuring I'd have to load him back up later. The little boys were all playing outside when Lincoln came running around the truck and proceeded to partially scalp himself on the tailgate. My bad.

This is the only picture I have of the injury, all cleaned and stitched. Unlike Porter's injury, which was smack in the middle of his face, you'll never notice Lincoln's because it was right in his hairline. He's fine. No permanent damage. I suppose it was his turn for stitches since he was the only one able to avoid them so far, but I'm really hoping we've had our fill for a while. Oh . . . and I'm being more conscious of closing the tailgate these days.

Rusty Bucket Photography

So there's this girl I know. She married my husband's brother and her name is Michelle. She is one of my best friends in the world; truly my sister, if you will. And if you haven't heard about her photography skills by now, you have obviously not been paying attention. She has a little business called Rusty Bucket Photography and is absolutely fabulous.

Shelle came up to run the 10k with me last weekend (she's the rockin' gal with me in my last post) and we did a whirlwind family photo session while she was in town. She took our pictures almost 2 years ago to the day when she hadn't really started as a photographer yet, used a semi-functioning point-and-click camera and took the best family pictures we'd ever had . . . until now. This is the only picture from that photo session that I've seen - a teaser. But my whistle is wet and I'm dying to see more!

My First Race

It's official. I survived the 10k - my first race ever! My final time was 52:49, by far a personal best! And there is definitely something to be said about the race mentality and just pushing yourself to catch one more person, and then one more. I finished 16th in the women and 34th overall, with over 250 runners! Now, I don't even pretend to imagine I'll ever win a race like this . . . but I feel great for being a newbie!

Goofing off before the race. Thanks for coming to run with me, Shelle!

Sweet success!

Sweaty and proud. Amy, Ashley (giver of the fabulous armwarmers in photo #1) and me. These are the girls who talked me into running in the first place!

Granny and Grandpaw

It's a constant in my life that wherever my parents are, I feel more at home . . . even in my own home. Mom and dad drove up last Thursday for a long weekend visit. We wandered Pinedale like tourists, ate, ran and walked the 10K route, ate, spent time in the Mountain Man Museum, ate, went to the Bar-J Wranglers show and played outside with the little boys. Yep, even Granny got on the trampoline for awhile. Oh, and then we ate some more.

Remember Porter and the banana? Well, here's the sequel.

PJ versus cantaloupe. He wins every time.

Grandpaw went with the boys to feed the horses -

but of course, he's behind the camera

Dad created portions of Michelle's and my costumes for the Halloween Half Marathon (photos to follow in October), we stayed up late playing cards and laughing hysterically about stupid things - the way you do when you're deliriously tired (which delirium sets in any time after 8 p.m. for mom and me) - and read books which led to afternoon naps on the couch almost every day. It was glorious.

Lincoln and PJ listening to silent stories at the library

I feel relatively certain that, with a little more effort on my part,

this could have been an excellent photo

As soon as the door closed behind them on their way out at 6:10 a.m. Tuesday morning, Lincoln said, "Awww. But I wanted them to stay for longer, longer." Ditto, buddy. Come back soon!

At long last . . . Kindergarten!

I kid you not when I say that Ethan was awake and in my room at 5 a.m., ready to get dressed, eat and wait for the bus . . . which of course would not arrive for over 2 hours. Ethan has been ready for kindergarten for SO long. I even showed up after his first day to drive him home, only to have him roll his eyes at me and exclaim, "Aw mom! I thought I was riding the bus home!" which he then proceeded to do while I went back to my car and drove home without him. Nope, definitely no anxiety issues with this kid.

So many moms told me I would stand around and weep after he left. I didn't. I kept telling them I was the mom who would slow to 5 mph and tell him to jump, tuck and roll. I didn't do that either. I watched him climb, excited and ready, onto the school bus and wave at me until I was out of sight. What a happy day.