Christmas Eve

Santa came to visit this year. We were a little worried, due to Sylvia's fit of hysteric screaming at Santa last year. It seems to be improving.

Soon, they were old pals, and she was excited to start into her Santa gift. Yes, Santa does resemble one of my sons a little. :)

Sylvia was thrilled to get a play farm, and wanted to know if Santa would keep coming back every day.

After Santa left, we read the Christmas story. With so many seasoned actors, it went smoother than ever. No complaints even about singing carols intermittently. It was a very nice time.
Noel played all the wildlife (donkey, sheep, etc.). Asher doubled as Joseph and a wiseman. Mattias played a wiseman and Inn keper. Deb filled in as all the angels and King Herod. Sean was exhausted from making a tastey Christmas dinner, and sat relaxed on the couch, reading the story aloud.

Sylvia played Mary, and was amused at all the costuming.

Sylvia and Maya think it is about time for bed. Christmas can be a tiring holiday. You need to pace yourself.

Maya, living the good life.

So, when our dog (Maya) isn't stealing gourmet cheese off the counter tops, she can usually be found curled up on the couch. Unless the dishwasher is being loaded, then she helps with the pre-washing.
Initially we weren't going to let her on the furniture, but when I felt how good it felt to tuck my cold toes under her warm body, we loosed the rules.

Snow Baby Sylvia

Sylvia thinks she is king of the winter world. She will stay outside forever, digging like Clifford the Dog.
We look for mounds of snow the snowplows pile in parking lots, and then let her climb them, to wear her out. (Sneaky parent trick #203)

It is a little funny though when she gets stuck. She dug herself down into a hole in the corner of our front yard. I taught her the trick of kicking her boots into the snow for footholds, and she hasn't been stuck since.

Winter events

December started out with the State Lego League Competition. The team did great this year, I was so impressed with what they accomplished. My two boys are at the bottom left of this picture.

It was looking like a pretty mild winter, and we were wondering if we would have snow for Christmas. We got hit with a mega-blizzared and suddenly found ourselves with 18 inches overnight. Tree branches were down all through the neighborhood, and other areas lost power. The schools and university closed, which meant shovelling for Sean, but play time for the kids.

Asher and Sylvia had a good time making snow forts under the snowy bushes.

We have a very tolerant dog, Maya. Sylvia likes to try dressing her up, and just before this picture was taken, she looked like a beautiful princess. When I tried taking the picture, she shook the crown off, and called it a day.

Sylvia loves arranging our Nativity scene. Often there is a "My Little Pony" and several zoo animals (elephants, zebras, etc.) lined up along with the wise men.
This morning though, it looked normal, until I inspected it closer. The smallest Russian stacking doll was laying in the manger. When i noticed Baby Jesus was missing, I asked Sylvia where he went - fearing he was lost! She said she had put him in the Matryoshka, in the place of the baby doll.
Well, it certainly gives the scene a little international zest.

Logan Pass

Sean left the day after to go back to Wisconsin. Logan Pass was the first item on the agenda with mom & the kids camping. Here's a little slideshow of the beautiful views they found.






Asher was up to his hinkypunk tricks, trying to slyly make a snowball and thwack Mattias the cameraman with it.



Luckily Asher was having an off day...



Sylvia thought it would be a nice time to try out her (very narrow) snowshoes.



Besides the wild boys, there were also some other wild animals. Mattias assures me that the marmot pictured below kept moving to different positions along the ground and turning to pose. Apparently a glory-hound in marmot guise!




Everyone enjoyed their time exploring at a pace that didn't include getting to Raymond before 4 PM for dinner =)

At the end of the day, Deb had the best seat in the house for spotting wildlife... or maybe she was the best seat in the house?

Glacier - Avalance Lake

After Missoula, it was on to Glacier National Park. This is an area of gigantic mountains, beautiful vistas, and dangerous archers!



We were lucky to get one of the few campsites available for a week, at the Avalanche Creek campground, and then headed off to its namesake: Avalanche Lake.

Avalanche Creek is aptly named...



...looking like an avalanche just happened. It was a very well-maintained trail, though, and had a lot of traffic on it, so for a while the going was pretty easy. We also found a couple of cute kids stuck in a tree along the way, and decided to bring them with us up to the lake.



Unfortunately the going got a little rough after we realised it wasn't the little 3/4th mile hike we had thought. But at least Sylvia still found things to smile about!



Finally, after much tribulation and soul-searching about why we started on this blasted hike, we made it! The views were pretty spectacular.



A kind stranger at the edge of the lake offered to take a family picture, and we couldn't turn her down.

On to Missoula!

Our wanderings led us next back to our good olde hometown, Missoula. We stayed in a tent encampment in Brad & Liz's backyard, which was great fun except for the windstorm we set up in!



A hike up the M showed us that Missoula hadn't changed all that much since we left... and reminded us that the sun is a lot brighter out west!



We went to visit friends at my old office at the University, then went to Out To Lunch, the Carousel, the Acropolis (our favourite Greek restaurant), and many other old favourite stops around Missoula. The Rattlesnake area was one of our major stops, since we spent a lot of time there when the kids were younger. Noel, Asher and Mattias had a great time enjoying the beautiful area.

Lost Creek and Georgetown

We left Anaconda and this is where my brain gets fuzzy. I thought we went straight to our Georgetown Lake campsite, but we have some pictures in-between of a park we visited called Lost Creek. We had great fun hiking in an area with gigantic cliffs on both sides, a river that was mostly waterfalls, and a giant bear cave! Deb was in her element.



The boys were in their element to once we set up camp. Fire-building became an art form over the summer, and our fire at Georgetown was a work of art -- not to mention being an exciting play-toy!



The last place we went together before moving to Wisconsin was this outlook over Georgetown Lake, with the Pintlar mountains in the background. It's a beautiful place, and it was wonderful to be back in our homeland and see that not much had changed since we left.

Anaconda

After our adventures at the mountain stream, we finally made it to Georgetown Lake. Sylvia was thrilled to be out of the car finally!



After setting up camp at Georgetown, we went to visit Deb's aunt Linda, and uncle Bob, in Anaconda. We had a nice visit with them and Lianne who happened to be there... and then Bob offered his wild off-road adventure machine to us!



Soon were were up in the mountains, and Noel was taking pictures of the views. For those who don't know, the first is a view of Anaconda from West Valley. The tall spire in the distance is not, in fact, a wizard's tower. Instead it's the smoke-stack of the Anaconda Copper Company. The second picture is of Mount Hagin, looking South from West Valley.





Our next stop in Anaconda was the fish hatchery, where they breed tens of thousands of fish every year and release them into nearby lakes and streams. They have a couple of pools in front of the building, where some of the largest fish reside. A couple were almost as big as Sylvia!

The Start of the Summer Trip

We began our adventure by driving from Wisconsin to western Montana. If our camera were with us for this, the pictures would have involved a lot of concrete (in the midwest) and asphalt (in the west), yellow paint road lines, setting up tents in North Dakota, and visiting some interesting US Plains parks like Fort Abraham Lincoln and a Mandan village. There would also have been pictures of Dan & Claudia in Rexburg, Idaho and the 4th of July parade there, along with many explorations of the Nature Park there.

But we don't have any pictures of that, so you'll just have to imagine. The first pictures we have are of Crystal Park. For those who haven't been there, it's a park made for people who like finding pretty rocks. Basically, you drive up with your shovels, dig, and take home whatever you find.

Sylvia insisted on getting to work right away!



Noel, Asher and Mattias were more serious, long-term miners.



The mosquitos, however, were nearly as big as Sylvia so after an hour or so we retreated and headed towards our favourite campsite, Georgetown Lake. This led us through some mazy mountain paths and we discovered a little stream that turned out to be very cold, clear and fast-running. It was very refreshing to see water doing something like that, after living in Wisconsin for two years and seeing warm, algae-ridden, sluggish water constantly. So we had to stop and play in it.



The more adventurous among us change into their swimsuits even! Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of that.

Lots more to come...

Asher's Birthday

Birthday season is upon us, with Asher leading off! He received a gift card to Barnes & Noble and decided that, instead of just buying a book and reading it, he'd buy a book and write it. Note the fancy cover - real metal!


The silly face is doubtless a warning of things to come. He's currently undecided what he'll write in it, but we'll certainly let you know as the novel unfolds.


Deb outdid herself again with a wonderful Quill And Parchment cake (chocolate, of course!) which was enjoyed by all, with ice cream.

We'll have more pictures soon, as we catch up on the past few weeks.