Back once again

Yellowstone National Park holds a very special place in my heart. Ten years ago (wow!), I spent the summer living/working/playing there. It was one of the best summers I've had. I made friends, had good times, spent a lot of time outdoors, and gained a deep appreciation for the park.

Saturday, Jason, Sierra, and I made our first trip (of what I hope will be several more) to Yellowstone of the summer. We left mid-afternoon, hoping to avoid some of the mid-day crowds at YNP (and also because Jason wanted to watch the US vs. Ghana World Cup match) and possibly be there late enough in the day for some wildlife viewing.

We arrived at YNP a bit after 4:00 and spent some time wandering around Mammoth Hot Springs, near the north entrance of the park, and the closest point to where we live. Because of Jason's thermal biology class he took last week, he had all kinds of new information to share about the hot springs, what sorts of organisms might live there, how you can tell the pH by looking at the color, etc.







Just a little bit south of Mammoth Hot Springs is a little horseshoe pull-out from the road. Here, there are two rock faces called the "Who Dos" (I don't know if that's the official name, or a colloquial name given by the people who climb there, but I know them as the Who Dos). This is where I learned to rock climb. I haven't climbed since we've lived in Virginia, and being there took me back to the summer I learned the sport and made me realize that I really miss it. It is a profound experience to be intimate with something so elemental natural as a rock face. In order to succeed in climbing, you must be one with rock, feeling out all of its intricacies and surfaces. It is elation to finally find success at a rock problem that had frustrated you over and over ... and over again!
And for old times' sake: (My husband took this photo for me, even though he exclaimed, "Em! You don't have climbing shoes and you're pregnant!" Details, details ... )

My next generation rock climber, of course, had to try out her moves.

Sierra didn't want to leave. She kept saying, "I need to climb! I need to climb!" when we told her it was time to go. That's my girl!

But we did leave, and we drove out along the road toward the northeast entrance in the Lamar Valley.

This is the best place in the park to see wildlife. We were hoping (Jason especially) to see some wolves, and though they remained elusive, the other residents of YNP did not disappoint.

We drove by a total of five black bear. A couple were off in the distance, but others were right next to the road. We drove right by one on the roadside and nearly missed it and another walked right behind our car as we were stopped in the road.


There were, of course, bison, but that's pretty much a given in Yellowstone. This time of year, the bison are ug-ly! (Well, they're never really pretty, but in spring/early summer when they're shedding their winter coats, they're quite a site.) Still, they are interesting looking animals, and the babies are cute. I wish I would have thought to take a picture of the size of the herd. It was huge, spreading out on both sides of the road.


On our return trip toward the entrance of the park, we saw two pronghorn. They were young, as their horns are barely visible, but when I zoom in on the photos, I can just see their horns emerging.

We caught a couple glimpses of elk with small-ish antlers, including this guy, who stopped to gaze at us.
But a little farther down the road, we were surprised by these two beauties grazing on the side of the road. I couldn't believe the size of their antlers, and they will get even bigger!

We headed out of the park as the sun was setting (8:45pm) and got home about 90 minutes later. It was a great day, and I'm looking forward to next time. We're hoping to do very early trip (like 4:00am departure) for our best chance to see wolves.

Down at the farm

I am fortunate enough to have an online friend who lives in Bozeman, so just one week after we arrived, Sierra and I were invited on a farm field trip with the local Attachment Parenting group. I am so happy to have this connection and so grateful to Cindy for inviting us out. Her kindness in reaching out to us has already made our 6 week stay in Montana better than if Sierra and I had to fend for ourselves during the day while Jason's in class. (Not that it would have been a huge problem, there's plenty for us to do between the playgrounds and the pool and the dog parks and the trails; it's just nice to have that social interaction as well).

The farm we visited is outside Belgrade, about 30 minutes from where we are living, and Sierra had a great time looking at all the animals.

Sierra headed right up to the front of the group of kiddos to listen to the owner of the farm talk about the huge turkey and to check out the lamb. (The lamb became less favored later on when it bucked Sierra because it was trying to play. Some of the other (older) kids thought it was hilarious fun to be bucked by a little lamb, but Sierra cried. Only for a moment, though, there were other things to see!)

Huge Turkey had to be confined while all the children were running about the farm. Apparently, he can be a little mean sometimes.
It was okay, though, there were plenty of smaller, friendlier farm birds to see!
Sierra was very curious about the sheep, but after a few moments, she decided this one was just a little too close. "Mama pick you up!" she called to me. "Mama pick you up!" I told her just to back up a little bit, and she felt okay about that plan.

"Hi cow!"
And baby cow, and two sheep

The turkey chick was a big hit. Sierra wanted to pet it and said, "The chick is so soft. I want to kiss it." And she did.


We got to feed the pigs some extra bread. Sierra threw this piece just barely out of reach for the poor little piggy.
But don't worry, I helped him out.
Before heading home, the kids got to take turns "driving" the tractor.
Then we had a picnic lunch before packing up and enjoying the beautiful drive home.

We've been busy

Jason started class on Monday. His program is intensive, which means we don't see him at all between 8 and 5 (or so). Yesterday, he left even earlier for an overnight sampling trip in Yellowstone and arrived home near 7:00 this evening. So Sierra and I mostly have the company of ... each other.

Monday, we took the dogs to the other dog beach. The one I thought we were going to on Sunday. Molly found a new friend to swim with and Casey was thrilled because the area was fenced, so he actually got be off leash. That doesn't usually happen. Casey is hound. His nose catches wind of something and he leaves. So he doesn't get to be off leash. He could get out if he really wanted to by going into the water and around the fence, but he didn't realize that until we were leaving and another dog did it. Perhaps he'll forget by our next trip??

On the way back to the car, we heard ducks so we ducked down a little trail to check them out. There were ducklings! So cute!

On the way home, we did a little driving of some parks I had looked up on the map, just to see what they looked like and what they had there. We stopped at The Natural Baby Company, which had tons of great baby items. Sierra was getting a little tired and cranky, though, so I will have to go back there when she is a happier camper (or ... by myself ... though, I don't see that happening).

Tuesday morning, Sierra and I headed out to find the nearest playground; it's about 8 blocks away. We met a family with two little girls who were taking a quick break before continuing their drive back to Minnesota (ah, long drive, I feel their pain). We went home for an early-ish lunch before going to my midwife appointment. The appointment went really well, and I'm definitely impressed with the birth center. I honestly wish that our insurance would cover us to stay here and have Baby #2; it was that great! Sierra fell asleep in the 3 minutes it took to get home from the birth center, and after her nap, we took the dogs to the dog park, just a couple block from our house. Casey did not get to be off leash this time because the park is not fenced. He had plenty of fun sniffing everyone who came up to him, though, and Molly wore herself out chasing her tennis ball more times than I can count.

Today, I walked my pregnant butt right off! I wanted to take Sierra to story hour at the library, which is about 1.2 miles from our house. I decided that it was a nice day, so we would walk. Well, I walked while Sierra rode in a carrier on my back! Phew! Story hour looked fun, but Sierra didn't really participate much. This was her first time at the library, so I think she was too overwhelmed by all the new books to look at. She loved the selection of puzzles they had there, and I think we must have taken apart and put back together nearly every board puzzle on the shelves. After a little more than an hour at the library, I decided it was time to go. I was hoping Sierra would make it home without falling asleep, but it was not to be. She crashed out in the carrier on the way home.

We had lunch outside when she woke up and after some low-key time at home, we went back to the playground we discovered yesterday. There were 4 other 2-year-olds that were there or came while we were playing! Just as we arrived home from the park (Sierra walked the whole way home by herself, about 1/2 mile!), Jason called to say he would be home in about 1/2 hour. Hooray!

Father's Day Fun

I love my daddy!

We started out Father's Day with breakfast at Main Street Overeasy, and we walked, which was a good thing because Jason and I both went all out with breakfast so we reeeeeally needed the walk home. The food was fantastic and this will definitely be a place we go back to (maybe next week, when my parents are in town, what a good excuse to go out for breakfast!).

We decided to take the dogs to an off-leash dog beach that I had heard about, so we all hopped in the car to go find it. And we kept going ... and going ... way farther than I thought it was ... until the street ran out. Then we saw a pond. Two ponds! And a trail. And dogs! We figured that was it, so we let Molly and Casy out for a swim.

And we hiked the trail around one of the ponds.

We climbed the trail up a little hill
to check out the amazing view from the top. Wow!

As we were getting ready to leave, Sierra declared, "I need to hike!" and then turned and headed back up the hill we just came down. Apparently, "hiking" means one must be going uphill.

When she came back down, we were standing near one of the ponds and she said, "I see a swan!" I had missed it, but she is so observant. Sure enough, I looked out on the water and there was a very large, white bird floating in the middle of the pond. But it wasn't a swan ...

I didn't even know pelicans lived in Bozeman!

Note: I checked the map when we got home, and we were not, in fact, where I thought we were going. It seems we had inadvertently found a different park that allows dogs to be off-leash!