Three

December 31, 2024January 22, 2025Leave a comment

My baby is officially three years old! Continuing our cherished tradition, we celebrated with $300 worth of fireworks, a beautifully decorated cake, a feast of Rost’s favorite foods—both homemade and ordered—and welcomed the New Year surrounded by some of Rost’s favorite people, including Gimmy and Pappy!

Turning three on New Year’s Eve,

A night of magic, you won’t believe!

Balloons and cheers, the countdown’s near,

A birthday wrapped in festive cheer.

Fireworks light up the sky so bright,

Celebrating Rost and the year’s last night.

Goodbye to two, hello to three,

The spotlight’s mine—it’s all about me!

Go Pack Go

December 16, 2024January 29, 2025Leave a comment

Brian has been a die-hard Green Bay Packers fan ever since the team played for the Super Bowl title on his 9th birthday back in 1997.

Fast forward to May 2024—the Packers’ 2024-2025 season schedule was released, and we saw they’d be playing in Seattle. An eight-hour drive? Totally doable. We snagged two tickets, booked a two-night hotel stay with reward points, and promptly forgot about it.

The trip nearly snuck up on us. We almost forgot to remind Brian’s parents they’d be watching Rost while we took this quick getaway. Honestly, we love our little third wheel, but we weren’t about to shell out the outrageous price of an NFL ticket for a two-year-old. Even the nosebleeds cost a small fortune.

Saturday morning, after a goodbye breakfast with Rost, we hit the road. The weather was perfect, the roads were clear, and six hours into the drive, we were already looking forward to dinner and drinks with Brian’s Army buddy, Scott. Then—my little blue trucklet shuddered. A slight drop in power made me glance at the dashboard just in time to see the oil light flick on. [Insert expletive here]. I immediately pulled over and killed the engine.

We stepped out to investigate and were greeted by the sight of oil pouring out of the bottom of the trucklet. [Insert second expletive here].

I called a tow company while Brian frantically searched for a mechanic who’d actually answer the phone on a Saturday afternoon. Long story short, we were saved by the kindness of an amazing mobile mechanic and a little bit of luck. The tow truck hauled us 30 minutes into the nearest town, where Conan, our hero of the day, met us in the AutoZone parking lot.

Turns out, Brian had gotten the oil changed the night before we left. Since it was a last-minute decision on a Friday afternoon, our usual shop wasn’t available, so he went somewhere new. Big mistake. They installed the wrong oil filter. Thankfully, it didn’t destroy the engine—or our weekend. Three hours later, we were back on the road, rolling into Seattle a little later than planned but grateful it wasn’t worse.

Sunday before the game, we played full-blown tourists with Scott and his beautiful family, exploring Seattle with fresh eyes.

And the game? Even this die-hard Pittsburgh Steelers fan had to admit—it was a blast. Now I’m already looking forward to catching more NFL games in the future. It turns out, football is a pretty great excuse for a little adventure.

Cow-O-Ween

October 31, 2024January 18, 2025Leave a comment

In the moonlight’s glow, on a Halloween night,
A toddler dressed as a cow gave quite a fright.
With spots of black and a tail that swished,
They wandered the streets where shadows hissed.

Little hooves pattered on the dark, cold ground,
While eerie winds howled their ghostly sound.
Candy bags rattled, a spectral scene,
As the toddler mooed, “Happy Cow-O-Ween!”

Candlelight Date Night

October 23, 2024January 15, 2025Leave a comment

Brian and I enjoyed a much-needed date night, immersing ourselves in a Halloween-themed Candlelight String Quartet performance. It was such a unique and memorable experience!

While we were out, Rost had his own special evening at a friend’s house—a playdate complete with dinner and flowers.

Taco Family

August 14, 2024November 24, 2024Leave a comment

The curse has finally been broken! First, my Seester’s trip was canceled (something about her having Breast Cancer & a double mastectomy), then my parent’s trip was canceled (something about helping said Seester during chemo), and lastly, my cousin Amanda was going to visit, but her trip was canceled thanks to the CrowdStrike Outage stranding her in Texas. I was convinced 2024 was doomed to be a year of no visitors.

Thankfully, my cousins Heather and Kris had a wedding in Bozeman to attend last week. From Bozeman, they traveled to Kalispell and spent the last few days letting Rost and me tour them all over Glacier.

I had two full days to show them why I am so in love with this place & needed to make the most of our time. Since they’ve had the pleasure of touring Alaska with us before, they knew to expect full days on the road.

We spent our first day primarily on the iconic Going to the Sun road & walked about the Many Glacier area a bit. While Heather & Kris broke my 2024 no-visitor curse, they also broke my “Never been to Many Glacier & not seen a bear” streak as well. I can sadly no longer boast the fact that I’ve never been to Many Glacier & not seen a bear.

Day two required a bit of sleeping in, so we got a late start to the morning. Our first stop was the Old Steel Bridge by the house to show Heather that the colorful rocks of Lake McDonald were, in fact, present outside of that lake despite social media’s content creators saying otherwise. It was here that I was relentlessly attacked by a rogue Canada goose. While Heather was mostly concerned about grizzly bears while walking about, it was a wild goose that sent us running back to the truck – all the while holding a laughing toddler above my head.

After a quick trip through Kalispell, we headed north through Polebridge & up to Bowman & Kintla lakes. On our drive, we spotted migrating Sandhill Cranes, swimming beavers, adorable baby deer, fresh wolf tracks emerging from a stream, & the only bear we saw on the entire two days of driving – the gummy bear!

With any luck, my first visitors of the year won’t be the last, but they set the bar high. Rost & Kris are now the best snacking buds & Rost has decided to call both Kris & Heather “Taco” rather than their given names for some reason. I guess Taco is easier to remember.

Woodland Park Toddling

April 7, 2024October 26, 2024Leave a comment

It’s never a bad day to play in the muck & mud in a local park with our friend, Ava.

Becky’s Birthday Walkabouts

March 29, 2024May 15, 2024Leave a comment

One of my dearest friends happens to share an important date with me. Her birthday falls on my & Brian’s anniversary so it’s easy to never forget her special day. Since Brian & I were celebrating our 10 year (whoa) anniversary this year Becky came up the day after her birthday for us to help her celebrate just how amazing she is.

Becky, Rost, & I spent a morning wandering the streets of downtown Kalispell. We perused the local shops which in reality just turned into a fashion show of Rost trying on ridiculously cute cowboy boots & hats.

Another day Becky got to experience the joy of hiking with a toddler. I’m not even joking on this one. It’s an experience on a whole other level. Rost is a pretty experienced hiker at this point, scaling elevation & tackling up to three miles on his own – then again, sometimes we never even leave the parking lot because there are just too many cool stones to throw or puddles to splash in. Hiking with a toddler makes you slow down and enjoy the trip not just the destination.

Spending time with people & places that are good for my soul is always at the top of my list of good ways to spend my time.

Home Improvement

October 23, 2023Leave a comment

Year two of our home improvement projects is officially wrapped up. So far we’ve painted the house, garage, shed, and propane tank – which took ALL of two summers to fully complete. We fenced in roughly .5 acres, trimmed numerous bushes and trees, removed two dead trees and five stumps, installed two sets of steps, poured and cured concrete for two patios and one sidewalk, completely renovated a lean-to on the garage, installed two spotlights, installed gutters, ripped out and replaced multiple spots of rotted wood, added a trashcan storage area and compost bin, and laid asphalt millings to begin outlining the driveway and additional parking area. That covers most but not all of the projects. With me not working we’re moving at a snail’s pace, aka the speed of cash on hand to complete projects. We’ve got a list of additional work we’d like to complete on the property including eventually installing a firepit for hosting and a hot tub to bring some relief to our bodies.

Walking Missoula

August 18, 2023October 30, 2023Leave a comment

Although Rost and I had just returned home from our most recent trip to the East Coast, Brian had a work conference in Missoula this week so Rost and I tagged along.

Over the course of a week Rost and I walked more than 50 miles around the city and ate Big Dipper ice cream nearly every day we were there. In my defense, it was 100 or more every day we were there. We saw lots of friends, got to check out the Missoula library, and finally swam in Becky’s pool! I was also able to squeeze in an abdominal MRI at my old place of work, Advanced Imaging, to follow up on the masses discovered on my liver and pancreas back in July. I am happy to report they appear non-cancerous and only require re-checks every 6 months for the foreseeable future. Huzzah!

Tally Lake

July 2, 2023July 4, 2023Leave a comment

The air was filled with the sweet scent of pine as we arrived at the campsite, surrounded by towering trees and a babbling stream nearby. Rost had spent the first two nights camping with Grandma & Grandpa while I took my first vacay from momming in well over a year (48 bittersweet hours – a ridiculous amount of stuff was accomplished).