Glacier National Park!!

     Cara and I are wild adventurers. Just the other day, for example, we went to Costco on a Sunday around 1:00. Two summers ago we loaded up our minivan, and with her parents headed off to Yellowstone National Park. We decided this summer to hit Glacier National Park, so Myself, Cara, Wyatt, Lincoln, and Duane and Connie (Cara's parents) all squeezed into a minivan and started driving. Here are some words and pictures:

Wyatt loves to camp. He loves sticks and rocks and streams and dirt. It turns out he loves to pee right by the picnic table too.

And he seems to love sticking his tongue out.

Here's a picture of not Wyatt's tongue, and this picture was taken moments before Link slid out the bottom of his jacket.

Fun hike to a cool mountain lake.

Some bighorns in their natural habitat.

Duane gets Lincoln absurdly close to that one.

Me on a hike, packing Link and carrying Wyatt. Like a boss. Cara is sipping a cool beverage I'm sure.

We took a fun boat tour of a couple lakes. This boat was called the drowning eagle?

Here's the fun story. Why did I wait until the end to share it!? I am bad at this.

On a trial about 400 feet from our car, Connie, Wy, Link and I were heading back when we saw a bear. A small grizzly bear, like the one you see above. In fact, it was that one. We stopped, it was crossing our path. Cara was walking towards us from the other direction, probably with a cool drink in hand, and doesn't see Smoky there. I tell her to stop, she doesn't. She looks at me like "why on earth would I ever listen to anything you have to say?

She keeps walking. If she doesn't stop, she'll smack into its bottom. Connie yells "Bear!!" and Cara stops, with a look that says "Yeah, you're my mom, I'll listen to you." That women needs to work on her submission.

Luckily, the bear didn't care about us (cara bout?) at all. It went about its business, meandering along the trail. So we followed it and Cara snapped the above photo, along with others. It doesn't look very big here, and that's because it wasn't very big. We actually saw four bears that day, the other three from our car. One of them walked alongside our car for a little while, in fact. I am pretty sure it respected me.

People ask me if I was scared at all. It wasn't scary because the bear literally couldn't have cared less about us. It didn't once look our direction. Had it, I would've wet myself, thrown the mother-in-law towards it, and ran with the kids. She would've wanted it that way too.

This is the longest caption in caption history.

   We had a wonderful time. Cara's parents are great to travel with, and not just because they pay for everything. Lincoln got a little sick of being in his carseat, so the lest leg of the drive home was a bit fussy. In fact, when we got to a hotel and he had space and carpeting, he had an enormous grin. The tent full of gear and back of the car just weren't enough for him, I suppose. The driving is where Cara was the hero. She had to take care of the hungry baby, entertain the bored 3-year-old, and deal with her fussy husband. What a trooper.

My mood: going to clean the house
Listening to: Stevie Wonder

Dancing Wyatt!!

Wyatt is holding his grandma's brush/mirror thing. He calls it "rocket" and pretends it's a rocket. Lincoln is very unhappy. Note: If you put the two of them together, you have a whole outfit!!

     Cara and I are losers. I need to make this very clear, from the start. Now, I know this comes as a shock to you, because you've been reading this blog for the last 18 years and have seen nothing but cool, cooler, and awesome, but it's true. One way that we are losers is that we have always thrown dance parties at our house, without inviting anyone. We'll turn off the lights, put on some kickin' Big Willie Style, and go nuts. When little Wyatt was a baby, we'd put him on the floor and dance around him. Sometimes we'd do this to African Dance music, other times we would sing our own dance music. Like, from our mouths. He liked it, but could also tell that we were losers and had fear in his eyes for his future social engagements.
   Well, it's caught on. This is one of my top 4 Wyatt videos, where you get to see what happens in our house nearly every day: (In case you were wondering, here are the other three)

     Oh gosh, where to begin?! Obviously, we begin with that shirt, amirite?! And that awesome somersault that wasn't! Did you see him not step on Lincoln?! Nice work, Wy! What about the fact that he was laying down to avoid going poop go to sleep, hears the music, and without any prompting, speaking, or indication of any kind, immediately stands up and starts dancing?! That's outrageous!! He does this all the time. He can be anywhere in the house, I'll turn on music, and he'll walk into the room, clean off the couch, and start dancing on the couch. Without saying a word. Ever. It's like the music takes control of him.
     I suppose the song I play tends to say "everybody, move your feet and rock your body," so maybe he is just following orders?
     He's not bad!! I noticed once that when he dances, it's all arms. No feet or hip involvement, just arms and spins, just like I taught him. So lately, during our dance parties, I've been working at using my feet a lot more, just to get him to move. But that gorilla thing he did at the beginning, that's all him.
   Cara isn't so much a dancer as she is a Marching Band Conductor. She pretty much just marches and moves one arm in the air, like its a baton and like she thinks she is wearing one of those top hats with the feather in it like the generals in my Stratego game.

   I know that Link hasn't gotten a lot of press around here lately, but he doesn't do anything. He eats a ton, is super happy all the time, loves his brother, and puts things in his mouth. He can scoot around the house pretty well, and is starting to stretch his vocal chords by making sounds like that of a velociraptor announcing it's ready to mate. But he's still pretty darn cute.

It says "Little Dude," not "Little Nude" or "Little Rude" or Little Vude." That last one doesn't even make sense.

There you have it folks. Come back soon for updates on our trip to Glacier National Park, Uncle Garrett's Wedding, and Wyatt's potty schedule.

My mood: glad to be free

Wy's mood: stress dancing

Link's mood: falling over a bit

Cara's mood: wants to sleep through the night

Listening to: Junior Senior