21 July 2005
We went to Yellowstone twice during our time in Montana. The second day that we went back we saw many cool things including a bear (verdict is out on whether it was a grizzly or a cinnamon colored black bear, it was pretty far away), a moose, buckelk, bison, antelope, bald eagle, opsrey and baby.
This was called the paint pots. It is actually boiling mud. It was pretty cute.
Okay, so I had to include a photo of Old Faithful. Not because it was the most spectacular thing we saw, but because we waited nearly two hours to see it. We arrived just as it was finishing, so we decided to wait until the next erruption. So, here is a shot of what we saw. There were only a few people watching…
We drove to the canyon at Yellowstone. It was gorgeous. There are two waterfalls, and the ranger explained how the lower waterfall used to extend out 20 miles from where it was now. Nature is so powerful.
We hiked down to the top of the lower falls which plummets 304 feet down. I wasn’t expecting this magical site. It was really mystical to see the rainbow and the mist from the waterfall. I could have stayed all day, but the hike up in the high altitude was going to take a while, and there was a little babe waiting for me in the car (with Oma of course, not alone) who would be hungry soon.
This was a really amazing site. We drove to the Mammoth terraces near the north entrance to the park. You can tell from the shadows that it was rather late in the day. It was worth the stop.
We had some food before leaving the park and didn’t make it home until midnight or so. We had a couple Kayla stops on the way home, and saw some serious lightning storms. Sometimes there was just a flash of light, other times we could see the bolts themselves. We managed to miss the downpours somehow, but really enjoyed the show as we don’t get much of that in Seattle.
20 July 2005
Oma and Opa Haswell invited us to join them in Montana for a week. We flew out to Bozeman then they drove us to Big Sky. This was Kayla’s first plane ride. She did pretty well. Coming down was hard for her until she figured out that eating would help her ears. The plane was a small prop plane so I doubt anyone could hear her crying anyhow.
This was a hike we took near the top of the ski mountain, Lone Peak I think it’s called. Kayla had her first gondola ride to the top, and Oma kindly wore Kayla for the hike.
This hike we are on was a trail to Beehive Basin. We didn’t get all the way to the lake, but we did enjoy what we covered. You probably can’t get a good sense of the wildflowers, but we were continuously walking through fields of wildflowers. All kinds and colors. It was so beautiful.
Coffee anyone?
While in Big Sky, we decided to attempt a game of golf. Mom and I shared a spot as Kayla was quite fussy today and not real pleased to be away from her place to lie down and kick. She did eventually fall asleep. Tim turned out to be a real natural. He claims he only played once when he was a kid. I was impressed. Overall we were quite a slow bunch and stopped after nine holes. The golf course was in a valley surrounded by rolling hills and mountains. One really can’t complain about that. Just look at Tim’s form…
Kayla turned three months old while we were there. She is more amazing all the time. She did have more fussy times then usual, but we also had her in the carseat quite alot during our trips to yellowstone, etc. She is reaching out to touch our faces now, and also using her feet more to touch things. Tim and Kayla really seemed to have done some bonding on this trip (and his paternity leave in general).
Kayla also is drooling more and beginning to put everything in her mouth. She can grab a hold of things but often flings them as she doesn’t quite have the hang of holding onto things for very long. She is super alert and takes in everything.
Mom and Kayla on her 3 month birthday.
14 July 2005
We haven’t put up many photos recently. Here is one of Kayla in cute sleep mode in the bjorn.
We went for a walk in the woods today at Tiger Mountain. We saw lots of huckleberries, I mean lots of them. We seemed to go on a few trails that didn’t get much traffic. We saw Oregon grapes, blackberries and salal. We were also attacked by a tribe of bears. Ok, not really. But we did hear something go crashing off into the woods while we were walking. Gorgeous day, nice walk.
Tomorrow we will be starting our latest journey. We will be heading out to Jay’s cabin out at lake cushman for some waterskiing and hanging out. This will be Kayla’s first time skiing, so we don’t really expect her to get up. Then we are off to Montana for a while. See you all soon! -T
5 July 2005
We had another exciting Taft family weekend. Kayla decided to help Tim out with the front lawn. She put on her fancy sunhat and cheered Tim on as he worked.
On the 4th itself we decided to have a picnic at Carkeek park. We didn’t head over there until 5pm or so after a day of errands. Since Tim was born and raised in this state, and since I’ve lived here 11 years, you would think we’d have a handle on the weather around here. It seemed to have slipped our minds that hot and sunny in the wind protected backyard is no corrolation as to how it will be by the Sound. It was super windy and cold. Kayla was pretty unhappy and we lasted about 45 minutes. It was a valiant effort, and maybe next time we’ll be prepared with more clothing and blankets.
I joined Erin and Leo at the wading pool on Tuesday. It wasn’t a super warm afternoon so I didn’t stick Kayla’s feet in the water. Maybe next time.
2 July 2005
Kayla has started to prefer looking out while in the bjorn. She is also really beginning to notice her hands and does something that looks a lot like waving hello, and making the okay sign with her hand. Her grabbing continues to improve as well, and she was actually grabbing the bell (sun?) thing on the activity center mat. You know, that thing hanging from the rainbow. She finds her thumb more often, and I almost got a shot of her with thumb in mouth, but it looks as though she has some other fingers in there too.