Babymoon

 Earlier this Fall Dusty was able to take a few days off and so we could sneak out of town for a little while. We took the opportunity to make a trip to Glacier National Park in Montana. It was a new and great experience for both of us. We love an excuse we can get to go camping in our fifth wheel! Here are some pictures from our time traveling around the park.

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The first night we stayed at Apgar Campground just inside the West entrance. Our camp site was beautiful with all the trees around turning bright yellows and reds.

 

We drove around and explored the area near our campsite. Then before settling in for the night we went down to the see the lake. We couldn’t not have timed it any better! It was a gorgeous view of Lake McDonald. Can you believe how calm that water looks?

 

 

The next morning we explored a few more spots nearby, talked to the visitor center, found some goodies at the gift shop and then decided to move to the other side of the park. I was so happy about two adorable outfits we found for our little one to wear next summer! 

On our way to our new camping spot we found some of the park locals. This was a seriously big bear and I was very glad I noticed him from our truck, not hiking on a trail!

 

 

Here we are setting up in our new spot on the other side of the park in Many Glacier Campground. One of the perks of camping in the fall is there are no crowds like summer. It felt like we had the whole campground to ourselves.

 

Next we took a drive up the Going to the Sun Road. Although there wasn’t much in the way of crowds, there was still road construction. That meant we couldn’t go from one end of the road to the other like we would have liked, but we were still able to get to this visitor center at the top and look around there. It started looking like it might rain and it was already fairly late in the afternoon so we decided to come back and do our hiking in this area another time. We were able to still see some great views and take a few pictures before heading back to our site for the night. 

 

 

 

In the morning we took our vacation international and went to see the adjacent park in Canada. We had a lot of fun exploring north of the boarder. We enjoyed seeing more mountain views, the Prince of Wales Hotel (where it was ridiculously windy) and the shops of Waterton.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a perfect sunny warm fall day and we had a few places that we wanted to try to hike around while the weather was nice so began our trip back to the south to see try out the trails. First we went to a Canadian Lake. I decided this was not a place I wanted to hike. It was stunning but I had just finished reading an informational sign bragging that the meadow a little ways down the trail was regularly frequented by grizzly bears and there was hardly anyone around (there is safety in numbers) to cross paths with while walking. Dusty was supportive of my irrational fear to hike this area (aka become a juicy snack for a bear) so we drove on to our next spot. 

 

 

Maybe it was the fact we had been up to the visitor center at the top of Going to the Sun road they day before so I knew what to expect. Or it could have been there were no signs boasting of grizzlies along to wooded trail. Or… well the list could go on but whatever the case the trails leaving from the visitor center were much more appealing for hiking, despite their longer length and higher elevation. We decided to try hiking to the Hidden Lake Overlook. We took it slow and steady up what seemed like a never ending set of stairs and boardwalks. I was glad we stuck with it once we got to the top. The view was dazzling. Dusty and I concluded while hiking that this set of pictures should be called “bump hikes the continental divide!” That is a name that was definitely earned not just given away on this hike.  

We even got to see mountain goats, which were wonderfully willing to stay put and be models for pictures. On the way down the path we saw a big horn sheep which scampered off without letting us get a good shot of him. I suppose that is why we have mental pictures!

 

 

Before we made it back to our site we spotted another creature, a BIG bull moose. He was very comfortable with us watching him but was far to content with where he had bedded down for the night to stand up and let us get a full view of his size.

In the morning we looked over our maps and made sure we had visited all the places in the park on our hit list then packed up to head back home. Just to prove our amazing luck in spotting animals here is one more look at another bear we saw as we headed out. It was a bit farther away but still clearly a good sized bear.

It was a fantastic trip and I am very thankful we were able to take the time to go! But what trip would be complete without an incredible sunset? Here is the one we got as we drove back through Post Falls on our way home.

A Little Space to Call My Own

At the start of summer I came across a Better Homes and Gardens special publication magazine that had some great garden ideas and adorable ideas for rethinking the traditional garden shed. At seeing my interest spark with the amazing designs for turning a shed into miniature versions of an office or an art studio or a book nook or a comfy sitting room, Dusty decided we should have a neat space. So he set to building one himself, designed just for me! Isn’t he sweet?

Well that was in the beginning of May. As you may know, that time of year means lots of spring farm work, getting our garden planted and hay harvest just around the corner. So while progress started out great with designing/ideas, picking up supplies and getting the construction phase underway, things slowed a bit as June showed up.

We had a plan for our shed to just be a fun place to hang out on the little porch and enjoy the yard, unwind inside in the shade on a futon, or cozy up with some pillows to read a book up in the little loft. Its sole purpose was for lounging and relaxation. Any thought of working practicality or storage use was an afterthought at best. At that point in our thought process we had no reason to need the space the shed could provide for anything other than fun!

Then in the middle of June we got some news (much much sooner than we had expected to receive it) that we were going to have a baby. This meant we would need the second bedroom in our house, which we had been using as an office/craft supply storage room, for a nursery! After letting that information settle in a bit we were left with a big question, where were we going to put all the stuff that was in the currently occupying the bedroom to make room for baby? Despite its half finish status my “fun place” shed seemed like the only logical answer.

Realistically it wasn’t such a bad answer to switch the shed’s purpose to more of an office or craft studio, given that the shed had already been designed with big beautiful windows to let in lots of light and close in proximity to the house. Once we started rethinking our design and tweaking it a little for less lounging and more paperwork and crafting, the storage and workspace opportunities seemed delightfully plentiful.

Towards the end of October construction was finished! It is true that many full scale houses have been built in the same amount of time it took to finish a little shed but they didn’t have wheat harvest smack dab in the middle of their foreman’s work window. Needless to say I was eager to move in my things starting with the desk out of the bedroom along with my scrapbook papers and such. We dug out the work bench which Dusty had in his room growing up and it was a perfect addition to the space. The loft provided a great place to tuck away some of the vases and buckets that I use with the garden in the summer.

Conveniently, most all of my craft goodies were already in plastic totes and plastic stacking shelves to protect it from occasional bug or dust that could find its way into the mostly sealed shed. The one drawback to the shed design could be that since we originally planned to use it mainly in the nice weather months we didn’t insulate it. We did fill any minor gaps in the tongue and groove siding to seal it up from the elements and icky critters but not the cold.  I am hoping that utilization of a good space heater will help me to extend the time each year that I will be able to use my space for crafting.

Once we got everything tucked away in the shed we realized we have way more useable work space and storage for materials than the previous location in the little bedroom in our house could possibly provide. Before moving things to the shed this lack of workspace led to me working mostly on my big kitchen table or the coffee table by the couch and having materials scattered everywhere in between. I am so excited to be able spread stuff out all over my desks and tables in the shed and just be able to walk away and come back to it as I have time without getting annoyed at how my mess is cluttering up my house for the sometimes lengthy duration of my project.

Really, I think the shed will be more fun to use this way than the original plan would have been. I am so glad Dusty decided to build it for me and became even more so once we found out we would be in need of the extra space. It was a blessing in disguise that is how it happened. If we had known we were going to have a baby we may have chosen not to spend the money on the originally frivolous shed, but then we would not have had any easy solutions for how to conveniently relocate and still be able to use the office/craft stuff.

Now the only question left is what to call it? It is clearly doesn’t fit the standard definition of a “shed,” since that creates the connotation of rakes, shovels and other typical tools hanging from the walls. I am going back and forth between the names “Craft Cottage,” “Hobby House,” or simply “Erin’s Happy Place.”

Keeping Secrets

I think now most people know we have been keeping a BIG (and getting bigger every day) secret for the better part of the summer. However, for posterity’s sake I wanted to mention it here on our blog so when I look back some day and read old updates and remember what was going on in our lives. Just in case you have been out of our circle of communication via either Facebook or in person, here is picture of our recently declassified covert operation.

Yes, that is an ultrasound picture and we are having a baby! We found out last week that it is a girl, although you will have to wait until February to know her name. We are still keeping that a secret until we meet her and make sure it fits her.

So far, I have had a fairly easy pregnancy by most standards. Early on I was absolutely exhausted (as in moving from the bed to the couch was a big accomplishment for the day) and had bad headaches more often than I would have liked. I was lucky in the fact that while I was regularly nauseous I never actually got sick from the feeling. Once I got into the start of the second trimester things really started improving.

Now I am about 20 weeks! It is hard to believe that we are at the half way mark. I think I may make 23 weeks my own unofficial halfway point though, as that would be the actual middle mark from when we found out until full term. I feel like counting the first six would be cheating since we had no idea I was harboring a little stowaway human.

I have just started to feel the baby move around in the last week or so. I had felt some fluttering prior to that but never anything I could be sure wasn’t a bit of my lunch talking. At our ultrasound I was able to clarify that distinction between baby and bubbles, when the tech told us she could see a kick on the screen and I could match that up with the feeling I was getting on the other side of the magic ultrasound wand thingy. It was pretty cool!

The next thing on our baby to do list is a camping trip to Glacier National Park; before I am so gigantic I wouldn’t enjoy a lengthy road trip. Then when we get home we will be starting to work on repurposing the room that is currently our office into a bedroom and of course decorating it with lots of pink!

Camping again!

So here I am realizing that I have once again gotten behind on my blog updates. I am going to pretend that it was intentional and I would appreciate if you would play along. Just think of it this way, instead of posting right after a fun event when I am already on a vacation high, in my lack of timeliness I will say that I am pleasantly reflecting on recent events. In a way this spreads out the excitement, making it seem to last longer. As opposed to posting immediately and crashing back to reality upon noting that we will have to go back to regular life with work and laundry. Or if you see through all that smoke and mirrors, you will know I am still a procrastinator with things that don’t have a hard and fast deadline, such as this blog! Whatever side you feel may be the truth, here us an update on our camping trip from a few weeks ago.

The bulk of hay harvest was wrapping up, finally! Dusty and I were hoping to sneak in a few days in our favorite local camping spot before he got wrapped up into wheat harvest. However, since finishing up hay is sort of an intangible thing and there were a lot of factors playing into when the guys would call it quits for a few days, knowing when exactly we could go was a bit of a mystery. With farming there is always a long list of things that “should” be done but could wait if they are less of a priority to other things on the list. We knew we would take the 5th wheel and go camping north of Sandpoint for about three days. We didn’t know exactly when those three days were going to start.

At the time we were working through all of this information (or lack there-of) we had some friends from our church mention they were planning to go camping too. They had a location in mind but didn’t have it set in stone. Dusty and I thought it would be fun if they came camping at our spot and since our friends are very patient people they waited around to hear word if our camping timeline would line up with theirs! By some sort of farming miracle, and Dusty working more hours in two days than I thought humanly possible, everything timed out perfectly.

We all caravanned north and set up our site. There were eleven big kids, nine little kids and two dogs all running around in the woods. It was a busy place and we all had a great time. The majority of our group (especially the littlest bunch) could be found in the creek or at the pond for a large majority of the trip. The men also worked on a dam and managed to make a pretty significant pool of water. Of course there were campfires, s’mores, and time to just relax. The kids even made it through the vigorous hike to the waterfall! I was really impressed with their endurance considering the oldest of the kids was all of six years old.

After a wonderful weekend, our friends packed up and headed home. Dusty went up the cabin to visit his Great Uncle Everett and see if he needed help with any projects. While they were working I got our 5th wheel ready to travel. Then I took a nap. Before I hit the couch I put the dogs in their kennels, which were tucked in the shade under the hitch of our trailer, so I wouldn’t have to worry about them wandering off. This is where things got really interesting. I’d been lounging for a while and had just left consciousness when I woke up to one of the dogs barking. It seemed strange because it wasn’t a bark I heard very often. Coby barks at just about everything; however the sound I was hearing was Moosey. I sat up and I saw moose… not our Moosey but a big honking mama moose! She was huge and standing just a few feet off the end of our trailers awning. I sat there frozen for a moment, very glad I had put the dogs in their boxes and even more relieved that I decided to nap inside as opposed to on the hammock outside! Then the moose darted off towards the thick brush. Her movement unfroze me and I darted too, for my camera. I watched and waited, trying to catch a glimpse of the moose peeking from the bushes. I had just given up and went back to cleaning when the pups both started barking again. I looked out the window and saw the moose slowly skirting the edge of our campground with her baby. She was much further away this time but clearly visible. It was so cool to watch her move through the trees and out of sight. A little later, Dusty came back from the cabin and we too started our trip back home, but unlike everyone else I had moose pictures!

Our yard cow...?

Yes it is true, if you drive by our house you can see a cow in our yard. No, we haven't totally lost our minds and mixed up our "vastly spacious" yard with the cow's pasture. We did have a mama cow that wouldn't "take" her calf after it was born. Why would that happen? Well, to make a long story short, their was a boy calf (a bull) a while ago that was slightly resistant to the banding that should have turned him into a steer. So while this bull calf no longer has "a pair" he did manage to sneak by with one dangler. Which is where the problem started with the calf in our yard. That lucky little not-so-fixed steer was let out with all the cows and hefers (young female cows) and managed to do the job of a big bull. Not only that but since our lucky fellow was still small in stature thought he would be best suited for the young lady cows in the bunch. That's right he is a craddle robber! This lead to Mr. Lucky fathering a calf with a VERY young hefer. In our culture this is commonly refered to as a teenage pregnancy! When that poor hefer become a mother she entered cow-hood not near mature enough to have the instincts to take care of her baby when it was born, meaning we had to do the mothering for her. So that is why we now have that baby cow in our yard. Well, I guess that wasn't such a short story afterall, but just incase it wasnt enough wordage here are a few more in picture form.

 This is our "yard cow," Gertrude. We call her Gerty for short.

Gerty follows Dusty EVERYWHERE