Fall Fun

Beckett with his Great Uncle Tad (Jill's brother) in Colorado...


Well, Beckett and I are holding down the fort this weekend while Kyle and Natalie are in Laramie for a Cowboys game. Go Pokes! They left this morning with Grandma and Grandpa to meet Karrie and Madison. It should be a lot of fun. Beckett still doesn't travel all that well, despite our many road trips, so I stayed with him to catch up on some things around here (beading along with cleaning). We'll make it to a game next fall.

The last two weeks have been busy with a trip to Colorado to visit the McMillan side of the family and then to Pinedale less than a week later to visit some good friends of mine. Beckett just fusses the whole time unless he's asleep, but I actually got pretty used to it by the end of the Pinedale trip. He can definitely wear on the nerves, though. When I told Natalie we were going to Pinedale she asked if Beckett was coming, and I said yes (Kyle was up hunting for a week). She then politely said she doesn't like it when he's in the car! I'm glad our friends got to see my kids before they head east for the winter, and the drive was beautiful with changing leaves over the mountains.

After Daddy got home from a week of bow hunting (he wounded a tree, so all live animals were spared!) I headed to Billings by myself FOR TWO DAYS to visit my college mommas and do some birthday shopping for Natalie. Well, we had so much fun and I ended up getting all the Christmas shopping done too! It was great to be able to catch up on things with Suzi and Lauren and visit with their cute babies. I got home in the evening and Kyle said he had fun with the kiddos (this was the longest he'd had them by himself) and was glad I got to go...but he just needed to go have a quick beer to get away from the kids for a while! I laughed so hard and he gave me the cutest sheepish grin...he said now he understands how tiring it can be to be a single parent for more than a day! I told him next time I was going for a week...

Anyway, not much else is new...fall nights and chilly mornings are here, and I love them. Definitely good chili and soup weather. A funny note on Miss Natalie...she was outside playing today and Kyle noticed he hadn't heard her in a few minutes, so he called out for her. He finally found her in our cabin THAT WE HAVE RENTED OUT eating Ted's chips! I guess the back door wasn't locked and she let herself in...wonder how long she's been pulling that? Here are some pictures of our travels. Have a good weekend!

Uncle Tad with Grandma Jill and the cousins
Uncle Tad and Aunt Deb's family...

They have a new litter of kittens that Natalie was so happy she could pick up. They were actually very tolerant...I guess Daniel is a bit bigger at 18 pounds. She can only get his front end off the ground.

Nattie with my longtime friend Grant. He and his wife Abie used to have kids out every summer to their ranch, and it's a big part of the reason I wanted to move to Wyoming. They always made it feel like home to me, and to this day the ranch still seems like part of my childhood fairytale.

Grant and Abie with Natalie and Beckett. Their last name is Beck, so I immediately liked the name Beckett because it reminded me of them.

Me and the kids at the ranch (Wind River Mountains in the back)

Beckett playing the greeter at my good friend Emi's bed and breakfast in town.

Emi and her friend John who helps run things for her (Bird the dog, too). Emi and I met at the Beck's ranch when I was 11 and she was 10. We have been faithful pen pals and friends since then. She grew up in Boston and ended up living in Pinedale after college.

And here is proof that crossing and moving one's feet at night is genetic! My dad and sister do it, as do Natalie and me, and now Beckett.

Beckett's First Birthday!

Well, Beckett is not officially not a baby anymore! His first birthday was Friday and we celebrated with family Saturday at our house. It was a nice time. He got some cool new clothes, coveralls, toys and money for his savings account. Thank you to everyone! We wish you all could have been here, but we know you were thinking about him. Anyway, here are the birthday pictures plus a few more. The first one is him licking the beaters from the frosting. Mandy helped me make a cool football cake...which would have been perfect had I not screwed up the icing! Oh, well, it's all a learning process, right? I'm pretty sure Beckett didn't care!


Playing in the balloons before the party got started...

The runny-icing football cake...it did taste really good.

Here is his cake to "get messy" with...

And here he is not wanting to get messy! He didn't like the way the cake felt or something...very unlike his sister who dove right in! I even had Nattie take a piece off and show him it was OK to dig into it, and he still didn't want to...

So, he was happy to have Daddy feed it to him with a fork...

Then slowly warmed up to the idea of eating it with his hands.


Playing with toys...

The family we were lucky to have join us...three great-grandparents included! I just think it is so great my kids know so many of their grandparents and great-grandparents. Here we have GG Chauncey, Grandpa Guy, Grandma Jill, Kyle, Nattie and Beckett, Great Uncle Nick, GG Eddie and GG Pyllis. Thanks for coming!

Momma with her birthday boy...

And here are a few from earlier this week. Natalie getting a slobbery kiss from Bella and Daddy on opening day (Sept. 1). He is bow hunting this year and gets to start in September instead of October. It seems a little more challenging but also a lot of fun...he went up for a few nights this weekend and was nearly trampled by three moose who were charging and did not see him! He had his camo on and had to stand up and yell and scream to get them to divert heir path!

Well, Natalie starts preschool again tomorrow, still 2 days a week. She is so excited! We're also really excited to head to Colorado for a baby shower and family gt together this weekend. We'll get to visit with a lot of the McMillan family and Aunt Karrie and Cousin Madison. Road trip...again!!! We're getting to be pros. I've also been canning garden goods like crazy...three batches of salsa, zucchini-corn relish and a new zucchini relish recipe tonight. It's really a lot of fun, though very time consuming...which means it has to be done at night after the kiddos are in bed. My back is doing much better and am back to exercising with no problems. Hope you all are happy and healthy (wash your hands TONS to avoid flu. Lots of friends and family already getting sick). Hugs to all.