Grizzly Man

This weekend Nanny came to stay with Junior while Ed and I went whitewater rafting for the day on Saturday. We had promised that we would take Cissie and Kieran rafting, and thanks to his AWESOME grandma, I could go along.

I was pretty nervous. I haven't been on whitewater since I was just barely pregnant. That is almost two years ago. Suddenly something I had done hundreds of times seemed very frightening to me, now I have so much more to lose. But anyway, I knew that as soon as we hit the water all of my fears would wash away, and they did. I got a pretty sweet ride in the back of Fash's cataraft. Ed took the college kids down safely. All in all, it was an amazing day. Man did I miss my baby and we got home in time to put him to sleep.

Junior had a spectacular day with his Nanny. They got socks, went to the farmers market, played in the back yard, napped and snuggled lots. He likes to swing in the bench swing with her and sing songs. She said that he was sweet and totally mellow all day.

She stayed most of the day on Sunday so I could hang out with her too. So nice. Thank you Nanny!
The other exciting news of the weekend was the new addition to the family, Moe. I have a tradition in my family to name my pets after the Simpsons, so we tried on all of the names until we found one Junior could pronounce. I was lobbying for Bart, but Moe seems to fit much better. Moe came in this tiny cup, and he looked pretty sad, but now he is happy and swimming around his nice bowl. He likes his little Buddha buddy too. Junior loves to say "HI!" to Moe.

And finally, and I hesitate to even mention it, but last night was another big night for the Coleman family. Bears V. Broncos. Cissie babysat while Ed and I went out for a big night on the town to watch the game. Even though the Bears beat the Broncos, I just want it to be noted that Kyle Orton, a total dud of a QB had a better rating than Mr. Fancy Pants, Mr. Totally Overrated, Mr. Keg Stand Frat Boy Jay Cutler. Congrats Chicago on a fine trade. Oh and FIL, your $5 is in the mail. You didn't even need the 2.5 points. The other significant event here was that Cissie put Junior to bed. This is literally the 3rd time someone other than Ed and I put him to sleep at night. He slept really well and only cried for a few minutes when she put him down. In fact, he slept and slept and slept and finally I couldn't stand it any longer, I snuck in and brought him to bed with us sometime after midnight because I missed him so.

Thanks Cissie.

Thanks Nanny.

Oh and please enjoy a video of Junior's new GROWL!

Miles' Funeral

Last weekend we celebrated what would have been Miles' 15th birthday and Grandpa Bill's 59th birthday. We had a big ole party down on the Missouri River where Miles loved to go hunting.

Ed tossed his ashes in the river and Miles floated away.

Junior partied his ass off. He loved playing in the Missouri and was pretty brave until it came to his momma floating him in the river. There were some kids there netting minnows for Junior and his new friend Vance. They were a big hit. You know that we need to get him his own fish for his room.







What should we name our new fish?

Use Your Words

Junior is talking like crazy. Below is a list of words he says. Now, they don't sound perfect, but we can understand him, so those count right?

Momma, Daddy, Selma, Dog, Ball, Bike, Airplane, Truck, Apple, Dip It, Neil, Fish, Outside, Spike, Elk, Duck, Done.

Oh there are so many more, but I can't think of them now.

He is also the king of high fives and fist bumps. He is also climbing EVERYTHING! Dangerously climbing everything!

He is also doing so much better with daycare. I can't say if it is going in later or if he is just getting used to being with Aimee all day.

Life is pretty sweet right now for little men.

Here are some cute photos of Jr. and Carter last week. I watched him while his parents ate some dinner baby free. Jr. and Carter are such great friends.

Sun River, Rocky Mountain Front

Ed Sr. is guest writing this blog...so bare with me. Anyhow, the weather forecast for the weekend was pretty crappy to say the least. It was supposed to be high in the low 60's with wind and rain. Due to the weather forecast, our plans changed from camping in the Tobacco Roots up to the Rocky Mountain Front on the Sun River. Even after shifting from south of Helena to north, Autumn and I tried to limit the camp out to one night because of the weather, but Kim and Neil were hearing none of it as we had planned this weekend a month ago. So the Pattersons arrive at our house almost 5 minutes early on Friday (a Christmas miracle), we packed their stuff into the camper, swapped a small cooler for a larger one to accommodate the beer, and off we went. It didn't really rain much until Sunday, and it seemed to rain hardest once we got the rain shelter down and started loading up.

Kim and Autumn said they had been to this area as youths, but neither remembered it well. I had been up on the Sun River for work and knew that I wanted to come back with a fishing pole and a little more time. It was a great weekend. The wind blew like crazy, the evenings were chilly, but the fishing was great and the scenery spactacular. Great company and great food and Jr. had a great time as always. He is a camping fool.

Autumn even powered up and overcame her concerns about being in hard core griz country. We cleaned up well every night and even stored the beer/pop cooler in the camper at one point while we all went fishing. I had no fear since Selma and Maggie were there to protect us. Well, there might have also been a 357 and a can of bear spray.

We all caught fish, except for Selma and Maggie, who did their best to ruin the fishing for one and all. The Pattersons had better numbers on the fly rods, but we were happy throwing spinners when the wind was blowing.

Jr. did something wrong, so he was forced to wear a Denver Broncos hat and look sad. I'm not sure what he did, but clearly it was bad considering the punishment.

Kim and Neil searching for the monster trout.


Not a bad view from the campsite. The photo below is what we were looking at the other way.

What can I say. I was out for a stroll with Selma, and clearly in my happy place. Cheers, and wish you all could have been there with us.

**It is me. I couldn't let Ed have all of the glory. There are more fantastic photos here. Please look at them, print them out and live in their beauty, they cost us $40. I accidentally deleted them from my camera without copying them all to the computer - YIKES - so I had to download software that magically recovered them from our camera. Was it worth it? Yes. The lesson alone was worth it.

CORN!

Junior enjoyed some tasty corn for dinner.

Tomorrow he will enjoy sleeping in with his mom, breakfast with his mom and his morning nap in his crib. I switched my work hours to 11 - 5 so that he can spend mornings with me. He wasn't doing too well at daycare from 8-4. Hopefully 11-4 will be easier on the little man. I know it will be easier on his mama.

This change was just as he was starting to get a little better at daycare, BUT today Aimee took them on the Gates of the Mountains boat tour and Friday they went to Exploration Works, so he was out and about for the day and maybe bonding more to Aimee.

Pioneers

Pioneer Mountains are south of Butte, north of Dillon. Ed and I have always had a special place in our hearts for the Big Hole River and now we have fallen in love with the mountains in the heart of the Big Hole valley.

Junior loves to camp.

Here are some of my favorite photos from the weekend.Beautiful wildflower, it is probably my new favorite flower ever.

In Coolidge Ghost Town. Jr. was anti ghosts.

He also didn't like rock climbing at the ghost town, but he liked hugging his mommy!

Meadow with a view of the Pioneer Mountains.

Trying to keep the milk cold. Cheers to Beers.

Junior posing in front of the lupine.

The most handsome men ON THE PLANET.

Cute photo of Junior, less than desirable photo of me.
Isn't this one of the quintessential photos of a dad and his baby? It is going in my office.
Junior running along behind us.
Wino baby.

And Junior entertains himself with an axe.

It Is Time To Laugh!

Please enjoy this video of Jr. getting tickled at camp this weekend.