September 2017

I’m a little late in writing this, our busy life style and my workload at the office have been keeping me from updating our little slice of the internet on a regular basis but; here we are better late than never and man what a month September was.

We had some great adventures the best was probably go ape, a zip-line tree climbing obstacle course recently built near our house. Both of the kids and mama did great, Evan literally has no fear I spent most of the time with him trying to keep up. Brenda did great especially with all of the balancing obstacles and the fact that her babies were 15 feet up climbing around lol. Sissy did perfect, a few times she would psyche herself out and get a little nervous of the height, distance, difficultly etc. but, she was always able to refocus and not only try but complete the obstacle. It was a really fun day we hope to go back again when the weather is warm.

Another weekend we took Evan to Hidden Pond Nature Center, what a cool place. They had a few different species of turtles, snake and bird exhibits. Then there was a huge pond with a walking trail around it, the pond was filled with turtles some small some as big as a manhole cover. Evan had a great time, what I particularly enjoyed was the kids corner in the main building, man that thing took me back. You see in Montana there are a ton of “kids’ corners” in every nature exhibit from Big Mountain to Glacier National Park; they all have a little space with crafts for kids, some hands-on treats, and a lesson about the importance of wildlife. The Hidden Pond kids corner look, felt, and even smelt like the ones I had enjoyed so much in Montana, I was great to be able to share something similar to that with Evan.

Brenda has been super busy putting the finishing touches on the kitchen, planning/creating sissy’s bday party extravaganza and taking car of all the daily odds and ends that would fall apart without her. She’s the driving force behind all of these weekend activities, she ensures we all get out of the house together and experience something together, new or old doesn’t really matter it’s the togetherness that counts.

The biggest news of the month? We now have a 3rd grader and she is 8 years old! When did that happen? Where is the tiny, well tiny for Maddie’s size, 2-year-old? The little one who would ask “did ju bring ju bulldog?” almost every time I would see her lol. The one who would scream heavy metal ABC’s lol. Well I guess I know the answer, she’s still there just now inside a 75lbs 4 ½ foot body lol.  What a treasure she is and what a treasure it has been to watch her grow up into the spirited, smart, even sassy, loving young girl she is today. After we did the go ape obstacle course I was able to get a few minutes with her to talk about it, tell her how impressed I was with her ability and to explain that life is sometimes like this obstacle course.  Sometimes you’re going to get psyched out, sometimes things are gong to seem impossible but, all you have to do is focus, breath and put one foot in front of the other. That approach will help you dominate life just like you did the obstacle course, she got it :) she always does she’s smart as a whip and sassy enough to trick you into wondering if she’s listening at all lol, she always is and she’s always watching always learning and always growing up.  It has been one of the greatest pleasures of my life to watch her grow up, even though it breaks my heart a little bit too. She will always be our little Maddie bear, even when she is as tall or taller than me :)