We had a cookout with Keith, Heather, Heather's dad who is visiting from Michigan, and Hannah last weekend. The girls had fun - although at this age they still pretty much ignore each other, except to occasionally rob a toy from the other, which induces a round of crying.
Here's a few pictures taken this past week. Greg and I were part of 'Team Neighbors' in the Glacier Challenge. It's a 10K, kayak, road bike, mountain bike, canoe, and 5K race. I did the 10K; Greg did the mountain bike section; Jessie was the relay baton. She was a real trooper, but we had to leave before the last Neighbor came in. It was a big day for her.
Cheryl sent us the rocking horse Greg's dad made for Chad (Greg's nephew) when he was little (1984). She really likes rocking and climbing all over it. She loves her pool now and wants to be in it all the time.
Tomorrow Jessie and I head to Mobile and Gulf Shores for the week. Everyone please cross your fingers that the flight goes smoothly. I already feel bad for our fellow passengers!
We spent the 4th with Billy, Tia, and Tia's sister, Tara, at a condo on Flathead Lake. Jessie swam a bit and enjoyed watermelon for the first time. She crashed when we got home after the long day of fun. Saturday morning we got up and hit the road to Tuchuck campground. It's way up north about 6 miles from the border down a long, washboarded road. We lucked out and got the last campsite. Jessie had a great time exploring around and went down for the night easily around 7:30. Everything went smoothly until about 10:00 when she woke up screaming hysterically. We finally got her calmed down and went to bed too, but she would only be calm sleeping next to me. Let me just say that sleeping on a cot with a toddler is NOT comfortable. She had another fit around 3ish that I'm sure woke up the whole campground. All we can think is that the tent freaks her out at night and she can't figure out what is going on. This is unfortunate because we were planning a 6 night camping vacation in Idaho in August. We decided to nix that in favor of a Forest Service cabin somewhere for not quite as long. Hopefully, she'll get over her tent phobia next summer.
Yesterday we went to the concert series in the park downtown for the first time this summer. We had to leave early because it began to rain. By the time we got halfway home (walking), a tempest of biblical scale unleashed upon us. I heard that it rained 1.25 inches in less than one hour. That is pretty rare in these parts. It was pretty cool. Jessie stayed dry - her stroller has a rainproof fly that works like a charm. Sharon and I did not stay dry.
This morning while Jessie and I were playing in her room, she found a pair of rainbow tights in her 'too small' clothes bin. She insisted on me putting them on and was very content when I finally did. She wore them all day- good thing it was a little cooler today. She's becoming quite the little girly girl.
Not much to report. We headed back to the Westside State Park this weekend and the water has warmed up considerably. Next time we will be wearing our swimsuits. We are on a campaign to whip our dogs back into shape and there's nothing like swimming to give labs a workout. I took them on a 5 mile trail run last week and had to keep stopping to wait on Lucy. She's too young for that, so it's boot camp time for them. We had gotten bad about leaving them and going running or biking by ourselves.
I also made my prettiest pie yet. It was dang good too- cherry- made from last summer's Flathead Montana crop that I pitted and froze. I froze a lot of fruit last summer in anticipation of making pies all winter, but didn't make hardly any. I was never in the mood for them, so I guess they're a summer thing. But they're great right now and I've almost used everything all up. Check out this month's Cooking Light if you need a good, easy, and pretty cherry pie recipe!
Mom got Jessie these shoes shown in the videos a while back when a children's store was going out of business. Unfortunately they are too big for her, maybe they'll fit next year. She thought they were the bee's knees though. It was hysterical to watch her stomp around in them, but she kept getting tripped up.
Today I seemed to have stumbled upon a good bribe to get Jessie to behave- fruit cookies. My friend Heather made them last week and Jessie scarfed them down. They're awesome, no sugar or white flour, filled whole wheat flour, wheat germ, apple juice, raisins, and dried apricots. Plus we still have dried apricots leftover from our tree last summer!
I made a batch this morning and then we went walking the dogs at Herron Park. Halfway through Jessie ripped off her hat and did NOT want me to put it back on. I had brought a cookie with me and I told her that if she let me put her hat back on she could have a cookie. Well, she quieted right down and let me put her hat on! I hope they keep working for a while.
Jessie's had a fun filled past few days. We met Hanna and Heather at a state park on the east side of Flathead Lake on Thursday and then we went to another state park on the west side of the lake this afternoon to swim the dogs. This morning we got up bright and early to help out with the 1st annual Herron Hustle run. Jessie was the cutest volunteer by far.
Greg found out the hard way that swim diapers don't work as well as regular ones. Jessie peed while he was holding her and it just flowed right on out all over his shirt. His response, "oh well, pee's sterile." I guess after a while a little pee doesn't phase you anymore. Poop however, is a whole other story.
It was a great Father's Day. I hung out with Jessie all morning while Mom suffered through her tri. Then I took a nap, went for a walk, took the dogs for a swim, and rode my bike. The day was capped off by grilling some bratwurst and eating dinner out on the porch.
Here's a video of Jessie showing pretty much how she spends her days: wandering back and forth all over the place doing seemingly random things. But she has a definite purpose as she goes about these tasks, I just haven't figured it out yet. She will spend 30 minutes putting blocks in one box, taking them out of the box, and them putting them back again, over and over again. She's constantly making sure everything is in its right place.
My first triathlon was this weekend and I was able to finish the open water swim and complete the race. Two weeks ago, I wasn't sure that was going to happen, but I did it! When I got in the water for the first time 2 weeks ago and started to swim, I had a sort of panic attack once I got a little away from shore. I got in 2 more times after that and practiced staying calm and thinking happy thoughts. So I was rather nervous about the swim portion. The water was 60 degrees on race day. They changed the course at the last minute to keep the swimmers closer to the shore and had a ton of emergency people and boats in the water, but everybody did fine (with the help of the full body wetsuits!). The swim was the longest 19 minutes of my life with maybe the exception of the last 19 minutes of Jessie's birth. I was so glad to climb out of the water and onto shore. My bike ride was great and the run seemed to drag on and on. I finished 26th out of the 79 women at a time of 1:33:08. I'm pretty happy with that seeing as how it was my first one. I believe there will be more tri's in my future. I forgot the camera so unfortunatly there are no photos to document my big event.
Jessie's daycare sent home a CD today with some pictures they've taken over the past few months of her. She's adjusted to it well finally, and has started just waving goodbye to Greg when he drops her off. Since she only goes one day a week, it has taken some time to make it a routine.
