Grandma & Grandpa (Tippin) Are Here!

The weekend has already taken us by storm. Jon and Ruthie came in on Thursday night and we've been hanging out, shopping, celebrating Seth's birthday, checking out Buffalo Bill Days (parade, bbq and Wild West Show), touring Kendrick Mansion, walking to the park for ice cream and taking a Jeep ride up Red Grade Road. Ellie's been a trooper! She loves having her grandparents here. And, the other set get to come for a visit next weekend!

Yay for Garage Sales

We've had a lot of fun garage sale-ing the last couple of weeks. Ellie has gained a whole slew of new toys, books and stuffed animals. But, my favorite purchase was this cute little table and chair set:

I am so excited about it and Eleanor loves it. She sat down on it in the gal's driveway and refused to get up. She didn't understand in the end that we were taking it home, so she screamed as we pried her off the chair. Now that it is home she sits on it, climbs on the chairs (although we're desperately trying to wean her of this habit) and pushes the set around the dining room.

Talking on the phone.

Reading.

Hi y'all!

Messy Activities Part II

The Rice Box

In a flash of desperation (or brilliance, it depends on one's perspective), I grabbed a large, empty plastic tub we had downstairs along with the remains of our 20 lb bag of white rice and a few buckets, scoops, funnels, etc and let Ellie play. She LOVES this tub! We played together happily for half and hour the first time. I'm hoping eventually I'll feel comfortable letting her play alone in the tub, but right now I'm afraid the whole thing would get dumped onto the floor...

It's great how easily rice sweeps up.

It's not so great how loudly Eleanor screams when it's time to clean up and close up the box.

My favorite part of playing with her here was her fascination with the funnels. She hasn't figured out how to use them herself, but she wants me to hold them for her while she holds her hands and other objects underneath the flow of rice. It's so cool to see her little mind at work.

Messy Activities Part I

Finger Painting!

We broke out the finger paints again (homemade - using cornstarch, water, a few drops of dishsoap and food coloring). Eleanor loved it even more than last time. She made a great, wonderful mess. And, she had blue-stained skin in random places all day. :)

A Myriad of Faces

The "no fair, no way" face.

The "I'm so cute" face.

The "excuse me, what are you doing?" face.
The "I think I'm funny" face.
The "happy" face.
The "I'm really concentrating" face.Can't you just see her little brain working away? And her attitude!? What a funny girl.

Any Ideas?

Have any of you with little ones had any problems with them and rashes around their mouth?

Eleanor has had bumps on her chin that occasionally spread to her upper lip for weeks now. They come and go after she eats, so I'm pretty sure it's a reaction to some food, but I'm not sure what. I was careful to introduce foods slowly, watching for allergy signs, but this now is a mystery and showed up after whatever culprit's 5 day wait period. Anyway, this rash just got suddenly worse over the weekend...

Does anyone have any ideas about what it might be?
I've kind of decided it is most likely tomatoes, citrus, melon or dairy... ???

The Garden

Gardening in Wyoming is frustrating to me. Hopefully July and August will win me over, but June is hard. When we finally reached the end of May and thus the go-ahead for planting most things in our area, I was already feeling way behind the spring vegetable game. I thought I'd surely missed the appropriate time to plant lettuce and peas... until a full week into June the soil still hadn't warmed up enough to sprout beans or cucumbers and we got a hard frost that turned the potatoes black (luckily they've come back), killed the grapevine and would have damaged a whole lot more if it hadn't been for a kind neighbor with some extra-large plastic planters she loaned us to place over all our flowering annuals and seedling veggies.

Anyway, the middle of June brings, finally, the first bean sprouts. It also marks the week when my cucumber seeds decided to germinate (after planting cukes 3 times). The lettuce is doing fabulously and we were able to have fresh salad from the first early planting a few days ago. The peas are really starting to grow, too. My tomatoes and peppers, however, look incredibly sad and therefore I bought a couple of established plants from Home Depot the other day and added a few pots to the south side of our house. I'm still crossing my fingers that we'll have some carrots - the first planting germinated quickly and look healthy, but subsequent plantings still haven't sprouted.

So, all you Northwesterners, thank God for the beautiful, green bounty he's blessed you with this growing season!

Still pretty sparse...

Finally some beans!

Beautiful lettuce.

Digging

Mommy planted sage, oregano and parsley seeds a few days ago. Eleanor found the pots. Mommy wonders if she'll get any plants...
Mommy is trying to be patient with Eleanor's need to "get into" everything. This whole "I'm learning an amazing amount about my world in a very short amount of time" thing is incredible, daunting and frustrating.

Dirty Feet

Lovely, chubby, dirty, baby feet. Amazing!

Thank You,

Katie, for mentioning one day during Bible study about McKinley's old daycare and the kids "washing up" after lunch, playing with bowls of bubbles. This is seriously the most ingenious idea ever. It's the only way I get even a fraction of the dishwasher loaded while Eleanor is awake. She loves to play with measuring spoons, plastic bowls and bubbles. She also loves to dump it all down her front... but I can live with that. A few minutes of happy playing instead of listening to whining or high pitched screeching really makes my afternoon.

I Don't Know Where to Start...

The last couple of weeks just slipped by me. I guess I don't think they rushed by, but new routines, the joy of parenting a toddler and a general sense of fatigue got the best of me. I've recently received a couple of emails wondering if we're okay and commenting on the fact that I haven't blogged. They pulled blogging up on the "to do" list. To be honest, I hadn't even checked my email in 4 days.

So, what have we been up to?

Well, Eleanor is getting the rest of her 12 month molars. She is also growing like a weed (I swear she's gained another 2 inches and 2 or 3 pounds). Along with this growth spurt, Ellie's decided she doesn't want to take 2 naps a day anymore. She's still happy with the morning one, but the afternoon one's a bear. This makes our 5 o'clock "happy" hour even more "happy" (not to mention 6 and beyond)! And, she's learning tons of new words every day along with getting quite an attitude. I always knew I'd have to deal with temper tantrums some day, but I have to say, I wasn't expecting them quite so soon. We have a really strong willed one on our hands!

We've also been running, gardening, playing at the park, playing with Kayli (who got her bottom braces this week - poor girl) and teaching piano lessons. I decided today that it's the piano lessons that have really gotten to me. I'm loving the teaching, but I'm struggling with the parenting-teaching combo. I'm also struggling with the fact that I have a child who needs more of my attention than ever while I suddenly have a much busier schedule than before.

Also, Seth had his 28th birthday!

Now, I feel like I could go on and on about any one of the previous mentioned people/activities/issues, but I'll spare you. :) Keep in tune and I'll get you some pics of our recent days/weeks/adventures.

Our Soggy, Foggy, Adventurous Trip

Our trip was good, but it was nothing like any of us had expected. Not even close.

The drive out to SD was good. We had easy travel conditions and all were in good spirits. We arrived in Deadwood around dinnertime, found our campsite and set up the tent. Unfortunately, however, in that particular part of Black Hills National Forest, no open fires are allowed. Thus, we were stuck camping in an RV park without picnic table or firepit. This made my dinner plans fairly impossible. Plus, it was threatening rain. So, we packed ourselves up, jumped on the cute, western-style trolley and headed into town to find some food. Unfortunately, my stomach was hurting and all we could find were gambling halls serving pub grub and buffets.

Eventually we found a place, ate and headed back to our tent. Before we arrived I got very sick. After a lot of discussion regarding finding a hotel room, we finally made our way into the tent for the night.

Eleanor didn't seem to understand "nigh-nigh" without her crib... She wasn't bad, but she wouldn't sleep. So, Seth and I huddled under our sleeping bags, let her cruise the tent and eventually she lay down with her blanket between us. At that point I was able to transfer her to her own sleeping bag. She slept amazingly for the rest of the night (despite noisy wind and rain whipping around our tent).

Saturday dawned foggy. We made our way out of town, back to a coffee shop we'd noticed on our way in where we enjoyed a leisurely meal in warmth. Then we headed off to Keystone and Mount Rushmore. Here's what we saw:

Isn't it beautiful? Amazing, huh? Well, we didn't have anything else planned for the day, so we decided to hike up closer. We encountered a Lakota, Nakota, Dakota Indian Village.

We also climbed lots and lots of steps. This was Eleanor's favorite! We made it all the way out to the lookout and waited, straining to see faces emerge from the fog...

Did you see him? That was George Washington's face! The fog did lift slightly a couple of times while we were out there. It was actually kind of spooky to see the outline of huge faces come in and out of focus above us. We were disappointed that we didn't get a good view, but the fog itself was beautiful there in the forest and like I said, Ellie loved the stairs. :)

Then we hit up the Artist's Studio:




Eventually we gave up on the fog lifting and headed into Keystone to walk around, wait to see if the sky would clear and find some lunch. We walked, checked out the touristy shops, ate, watched the rain and saw this very cool train:

The fog didn't lift. So, we headed into Rapid City. There we hit the mall and Cabella's since they were warm and dry. After dinner we headed back to our campsite.

Eleanor had trouble getting to sleep again... and mom probably wasn't so much help because I was tired, still didn't feel great and really wanted to get all my stuff together for my run. Anyway, she finally went to bed when Seth and I again closed ourselves in our sleeping bags.

Sunday I rose crazy early in the morning, got ready to run, tried to ignore the cold, rain and fog and jumped on a bus that took us (1400 runners in the half marathon) up into the mountains to the trail where the race took place. There we all milled around, trying to keep from freezing while we waited and hour and forty five mintutes for the start of the race. I overheard runners talking about the snow last year... it helped give me good perspective.

I ran the half. It was good and bad. I ran amazingly for the first 6 miles, then my stomach sickness came back and I had to really pull back the pace. The trail was beautiful and running with so many people was fun. Luckily, the first half of the race was good enough to allow me to PR even though I had a lousy second half, but I was disappointed that I missed my time goal by quite a bit. (It makes me really want to find another half to run here in a couple of weeks!) Anyway, I finished - and that's what really matters. :)

Since we were unfamiliar with the area and trail, Seth and Ellie were unable to see me at any point in the race. In fact, because they were trying, they even missed me at the end.

After the run, we headed back to the campsite to get cleaned up and packed for the trip home. We were hoping for a nicer day so we could head back down to Mount Rushmore, and although it was less foggy than the day before, it didn't look promising. So, we just headed home. Before we left SD completely, though, we found a wonderfully ecclectic coffee shop deli for lunch. It was really nice to sit and talk, eat and let Eleanor wander about in a relaxing and fun environment.

We arrived safely home yesterday afternoon and today we've attempted to get things cleaned and unpacked. Today is sunny, and Ellie and I decided to take full advantage of that fact. We went for a long walk and then met some friends in the park. It is nice to be home.

Bath Tub Expressions

Eleanor continues to practice a variety of skills and expressions in the bathtub. She gets in and talks and talks...

Peek a Boo!

This takes serious concentration!

"Whooaaa!" (said in kind of a growly voice.)

Just playin'.

Off We Go!

Today we're off to Deadwood, SD for a weekend of camping, hiking, sightseeing and running. We're praying it doesn't pour down rain on us the entire time. But, just in case, the tent's been waterproofed 2 extra times and we're taking the duck coat. :) We're excited to see how Eleanor does on a weekend of always being outside.

We're heading off early this afternoon, plan to leisurely set up camp and take in our surroundings. Tomorrow we'll head off for some scenic driving, a visit to Mount Rushmore and whatever else strikes our fancy. Sunday is my half marathon after which we'll have a quick lunch and head back to good ol' Wyoming.

Thanks for your prayers in advance. We'll let you know all about our adventures when we return.

Rainy Days...

Rubber Ducky made an appearance at our house yesterday! Eleanor was so excited that daddy took her outside to play, even though it is wet, muddy and rainy. (We are very thankful for the rain, it has been very dry here lately as well as unseasonably hot. The drizzle has been difficult for Ellie, though, since she hasn't gotten to be outside nearly as much as usual.)

Grins

She's becoming quite the ham!

Serious Eating

"Up!" Ellie points to the fruit basket. "Open!"

I let her lean forward in my arms. Out comes a pear.
"Okay, but you must sit in your highchair to eat it," I say, sit her down and wash the fruit. I hand her the pear. She seriously digs in.

"Ooh. Look what my teeth did...""So yummy!"

Red Grade Road

Saturday we headed out as a family in the Jeep to explore a little bit of the Big Horn Mountains. Since we've had so much hot weather recently, the snow has melted early and Red Grade Road was open. The views were amazing, the air pleasantly cooler and the drive a great way to get Eleanor to take a good, long nap. Here are a few pics of the afternoon. Not what you typically think of when you think of Wyoming, huh? Gorgeous.






We look forward to many more trips up into the Big Horn Mountains. I'm itching to hike and Seth can't wait to get out on a 4-wheeler.