hanging out

Dessi on her reading chair, in her reading room, waiting for me to stop all my foolishness and read her a story! To our chagrin, she is just kooky for Elmo's Duckie Day. I have read it at least 90 times so far. We also have listened to "Elmo's Song" about as much -- la la lala, la la lala, Elmo's song ... (have you had the pleasure?)

Whatever. Who can argue with this face?

Choteau, Montana

Eric's mom, Alison, treated the family to a fabulous weekend retreat at a Nature Conservancy ranch in eastern Montana. It rained, it was cold, it was stupidly beautiful, and the wine was free.

Dessi LOVES her Grandma Alison. Can you see it?



And here's Eric, telling Dessi to keep her voice down so she doesn't scare the bears away.



We also had a good time at the backyard creek, where Eric and I had many stone-skipping competitions (ultimately, it was a tie)



along with many, many group hugs. Dessi loves those.



We also took lots of hikes and one night walk to the top of a cliff in hopes of a grizzly bear sighting down below. Someone did spot a far-away buck elk through their binoculars, but no grizzlies (or I would have lead with that!)

Here's a photo of grandma with Dessi and our fabulous new neice, Neva, and nephew Aksel (whom Dessi calls 'Akel' and whom she's still asking about).

Glacier National Park

Eric's family visited us in Whitefish last week. We drove to Logan Pass at the top of Glacier National Park. I never make the drive myself (it's about 2 hours from our house to the top), but it's really so beautiful. For example:



Here we are on the Highline Trail



And here we are at our lunchspot, off the trail a bit by a pretty little creek:





To our delight, Dessi loves to hike. She would walk for miles if we had the time, and we try to make time and to foster a love of the mountains as much as possible. On this particular day, the trail got kind of exposed after half a mile -- too narrow for a toddler. So the others walked on while Dessi and I stayed behind and hiked back and forth along the trail, taking our time but also she can be pretty task-oriented at times. For example:



There were also two mountain goats and a goatlet on the trail with us.



Here she is taking a well-deserved break:



Good stuff.