Grandma: "and then an angel came to the shepherds and do you know what he said to them?"
Are you like me and haven't even thought about Christmas cards and Christmas is next week and you are wondering if you should even try? Well here is a great option:
The past few weeks have been strange. I started eating mayo, I wet my pants, I dreamt I was re-doing my freshman year in college (but maintained my status as wife, mother, etc.), and planned a trip to Disneyland (in real life, not in a dream). I feel a little as if my mind has left early on the California trip and left me to manage alone. I haven't made any huge mistakes in it's absence which has me even more worried. Did I use it before? Did I even use the 10% of brain capacity that an average human uses? Close friends would argue not. However, throughout this period of weirdness I have had one reason for comfort. There is one, solid explanation for all of the strange happenings (except maybe the Disney planning) and perhaps I should have opened with it. It would, at least, explain the incontinence. But then I couldn't end with a punch like:
Sewing has taken a turn for the economical worst in the last 20 years. It is now more expensive to sew than to buy. Sad. I think I may have found a loop-hole, however.
I beg, borrow and steal.
My sisters give me all of their DI clothes, which becomes the bulk of my fabric stash. Then, an old Young Women Camp sweatshirt of Tori's (adult size M) finds new life as a quirky little sweater for my 3 year old's preschool photo shoot. Total cost: $1 for fancy button
My BFF gives a flat of cutesy squirrel fabric which I save and save and save until the perfect occasion. Total cost to me: $0. I am not counting cost of thread or needles since I stole most of my mother's supply.
More RRR projects to come.
I have been so busy with preschool but loving every minute. Thanks to the talented, beautiful, Mindy for the pics. I love them.
Check it out, my friend, Angi, is amazing. How she finds the time and sheer energy to be as amazing as she is remains a mystery. However, it does make it fun knowing her! She recently opened her own etsy shop and I wanted to let everyone know about. . .just in time for Christmas. I personally own the first apron here and LOVE it. I try to wear it when I know people will be seeing me. I feel so Martha. So domestically chic. These are just my two favorite that she has but you really should jump over to her shop cutstitchlove.etsy.com and pick out your favorite for an easy and adorable Christmas gift (maybe for yourself).
It is hard to start back at something you have left for so long. I have so many pictures, stories and funnies to share from the last 6 weeks but, in the words of a once great TV show, "I don't wanna". I just don't have the energy to back track. At least not now. That is partly why I keep procrastinating my blog. Oh, that and the fact that I have been teaching preschool everyday since my sister-in-law gave birth to her third little cutie.
Queen of Hearts and Alice in Wonderland Costume Set GIVEAWAY!!!!
Gross National Product?. . .NO. . .Glacier National Park!
Logan's Pass. Gorgeous yes, but a bugger to get up there. We had been in the car way too long and I was hungry. Let's just say I would have appreciated the view and hikes up here a bit more if someone had a nice bowl of cream of asparagus soup for me up there. Is that too much to ask? With bread and butter please.
We went on a great hike in Glacier. Lily hated the backpack and spent much of the time whining and crying on the way up there. Then, just before we got up to the lake she fell asleep. She was asleep the whole time we were at the lake and then woke up just in time for. . .
. . .BEARS! We saw a mother bear and a baby black bear. I guess that they are rarely seen on this hike because it is a heavily used trail. We ran into a couple from Germany on the trail who said that they had been told there were bears coming up so we kept a sharp eye out and low and behold. . .BEARS. It was so cool. Mostly because the German couple had bear spray and the other couple that caught up to us had a gun so I felt 100% safe. We stopped and watched them for a while and then they slowly crossed RIGHT OVER THE TRAIL! We kept waiting for the screams of people coming up the trail but miraculously no one came up at that time. There was a steady stream of people the whole day, I just couldn't believe that no one came during the bear crossing. All I can say is that I am so fulfilled by seeing a bear in the wild in Montana.
We finally made it to Whitefish and boy were we glad to be out of that car!
The second night of our trip, we camped just outside of Bozeman. (Yes, we camped in Yellowstone, just for one night).
. . .where the men are men and the women are too. At least that is what I had been told. I didn't find that to be the case, but the least populated state (by area) did live up to every rumor of beauty, splendor, and scenic magnificence that I had heard.
All packed up and ready to go!
Potty break in the woods.
Buffalo!
Our first stop was Yellowstone. I had never been there before and decided that I could not, in good conscience, go another year without seeing it. I loved everything about it. The wildlife, the incredible views, the geysers. I think my favorite part was just how diverse it is. Around every corner was a completely new scene. It was wonderful. I can't wait to go back.
I love this sign at the entrance (that we went out of) that reads "For the benefit and enjoyment of the people".
This is Yellowstone falls. It was so magnificent, it looked fake. Really, it was amazing. They call this the grand canyon of Yellowstone. No wonder!
We brought our bikes along and were able to do a nice little ride in the park to a natural rock bridge. It was a perfect little bike ride, not too long, not too steep, not crowded, and of course, gorgeous!
I have almost a hundred pictures of these pools. There are millions of them, in all colors, sizes and temperature. The really blue one is 700 degrees. Yikes! They were so captivating and beautiful in that dangerous sort of way. Like a black widow. It was amazing to see our earth moving and changing right before our eyes! It made me feel very close to the planet and very aware at how minimal I am in comparison to the whole power of the earth. It was surprisingly humbling.
Stay tuned for Bozeman, bears, glacier, Whitefish and more!
I never liked parades, until I had kids.
I find myself ending a lot of sentences that way now. I never ate chicken nuggets, until I had kids. I never ate someone else's leftover PB&J. I never thought of Elmo as a great time saver. I never decorated my house with construction paper. I never put sprinkles on pizza and I never woke up before the sun to stake out a great spot for a local parade.
Until I had kids.
In smaller towns everything is a little heightened. The less people in a town, it seems, the more connected to the community each person feels. An easy ratio: As population increases, the amount of 'city per capita' must decrease. This concept is never more apparent than in the small town festival.
As soon as we moved to Bountiful, we started hearing about The Parade. Whispers of its grandeur and spectacle rivaled those of Macy's Thanksgiving and The Rose. When we said that we may be out of town during Bountiful's Handcart Days, we were cautioned not to miss this crowning event and promised that we would not be disappointed.
Some new friends of mine started hatching plans to stake out their prime spot for the parade. City ordinance dictates that you cannot place chairs, blankets, etc. on the parade route before 7:00 am on the day of The Parade. The Parade starts at six. PM. My friends warned me though, that to secure a spot on the shady side of the street, in full view of The Parade's magical wonder and be in position to catch candy thrown from said wonder, a certain amount of strategy would be necessary. I love grandeur. I love plans. I love new friends. I was in.
I woke up several minutes before my alarm went off at 4:45 am. I through on some pants, grabbed a blanket and stepped onto what I expected to be a quiet street. Instead, I was practically cut off by a man pushing a stroller loaded with blankets, camp chairs and child followed closely by his tank-topped wife and two 44 oz sodas. I felt like I had stepped off Platform 9 and 3/4 into an entirely different, but wonderful world where parades are the driving motivation.
My competitive nature kicked in at this point and I started to walk faster but then noticed Emily, one of my friends, coming out of her house. When we reached Main Street we were not even close to the first ones there. People were sleeping on the grass lining the street and pacing near prime spots like leopards waiting to leap on the young, unexpected zebra, aka the grass in front of the bank. Every now and then the police would come by to enforce the 'no placing of the blankets before 7 am' ordinance and everyone would jump off of the parade route and act nonchalant about the fact that we were all out there, in the dark, for no reason (especially not the parade!) holding folding chairs. Meanwhile, I could feel the tension amongst the other parade goers around us. Where we going to take their spots? Were they going to encroach ours? We had been here since 5 for crying out loud. If you slept in till 6:15 that's not our fault! Lazy! Small discourses on how many people were in each group or how far our theoretically claimed area was or needed to be floated up and down the street right along with the early morning mist.
At 6:57 someone decided it was go time and as soon as that first blanket took flight to spread itself over the greatest area of prime real estate, everyone else was in instant motion. By 6:59 every inch of the west side of the street was covered and claimed. We took precautions, as did others, against crafty "chair ruslers" by tying pink caution tape (ribbon) around our secured spot.
The weekend after The Parade we headed to Bear Lake. 
Despite the lack of cleanliness of our condo, we had a great time at the beach with my extended family. Water + sand+ bucket = happy kids. We managed to be there for the annual Raspberry Days celebrations and had fun cruising the craft booths at the fair, putting the little girls on the train and of course, attending the local parade. My dad and I rented a couple of wave runners and tore it up on the lake for an hour. Ahhhh sweet adrenaline, how I missed you.
I was nervous when we drove out to the beach in the morning of the Raspberry Day parade and there were chairs set up along one side of the street. I thought it was going to be The Parade all over again. Luckily, when we got to the parade route about 15 minutes before the start we found a spot on the sunny side of the street just as a cloud accommodated us with coverage. This was the perfect parade. It was only about 20 minutes long start to finish. The floats (trucks), though not impressive, were stocked with high energy riders, streamers, and most importantly, candy. Lots of candy. I am talking the high quality stuff, no tootsie rolls here, friends. And they weren't stingy. Just across the street from us a 30-something man was standing up holding a full size cooler yelling "hit me! I'm local!" and they did. I don't doubt that he filled more than half of his giant igloo. The candy, even the immense quantity, wasn't the most impressive. Also thrown out from floats were bags of baby carrots (we got 4), water bottles, t-shirts (mine says "Quick and Tasty" advertising a local burger and shake joint, though I wonder if it would be misunderstood outside of town), toys, hats, sunglasses and plastic rings. It was like Halloween! Only better. The candy came to us and the candy providers were the ones who had to dress up. It was perfect.
The last spectacle of the Raspberry Days parade was a group of ponies, yaks, llamas, bulls, goats and sheep. The little girls were going crazy at all the woolly wonder. One woman, leading a saddled pony saw Lily and Anna and asked if they wanted to ride in the parade. Um, do they breathe oxygen? The girls could have been in heaven. They rode a pony in a real parade. Perfection.
But what about The Parade? Was the next day of me being the Wicked Mom of the West worth it? Would I do it again? When you move to a new area it doesn't take much to get you excited about hanging out with some cool people. Waking up early to hang with Amy and Emily was worth it. They are some of the coolest. The Parade was long with long spaces in between each feature. Each float would either throw no candy or ONE PIECE to a group of twenty kids. No one would throw it down to the curb either, they made the kids run into street to collect (the ONE piece! Stingy much?) and Lily peed on the blanket. Next year? I'll sleep in and use those two hours driving up to Bear Lake during Raspberry Days. But if you're going up for shakes, stay local. Tony's Burgers in Centerville makes the best raspberry shake around, from real Bear Lake raspberries. It might be the 2 cups of real cream I saw them pour on the top of mine. Maybe not. It might just be the twice fried french fries I ate it with.
