Visitors

October 12th-19th our Pittsburgh friends, Matt and Jenny Wright, made their first Montana visit.

Tuff calls Matt and Jenny our "fridge friends," which are friends close enough you can scrounge in each other's fridges for food without asking.

At the Staggering Ox in Billings.  Matt, Goodie, me and Jenny.

We took them up to Beartooth Pass to show them the mountains but the pass was closed because of massive amounts of snow.  Good for Redlodge Mountain ski.

Matt and Jenny were fascinated by the beauty of the tributaries of the mountain which lead to the rivers below.

One of the days they were in town we drove to Crow Agency, located on the Crow Indian Reservation.  We stopped for lunch at the Custer Battlefield Trading Post, a local tourist stop located near Little Bighorn Battlefield.  In the picture below is Tuff's friend Wesley Stops, Tuff, Goodie, Matt and Jenny.

Of course we took them to our local hiking area at Zimmerman Park in Billings.

That's downtown Billings in the upper right corner of the photo below.

Long time coming, Senior Pic Remake!  We need to bring it back.

Throwing rocks off the rimrocks.  Boys will be boys.

The weather for Matt and Jenny's stay was less than desirable but we made do bundling up.

Natural stone steps along the hiking trail.

I couldn't resist this cute picture of Jenny and Grace snoozing in the car.

The day the Wrights departed for Pittsburgh, the Beckman's came to our home to spend the night. Grace loves her 'cuzzies' so.  She always asks for them to come over after they leave.

Then just one day after the Beckman's headed back home my Dad and Mom journeyed from Minnesota to see us.  The weather shaped up to be gorgeous as seen in the photo below.

Our little hiker.

See in the video below the little hiker and her little walking stick:



Tuff and my dad golfed four days in a row.  I joined in a few of those days. No kidding it was beautiful weather, hitting the 60's everyday and even 70 one of the days.

We made the road trip to Crow Agency to see Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument but were one minute too late!  As a teenager Tuff used to participate in the yearly reenactment of the battle, breech cloth and all.

Foxy lady, trying on a fox hat at the trading post.

The beautiful weather called for more beautiful hiking.

Tuff took video of the hike finish with commentary:

Yep she cries.  Maybe this time because of the CATION RATTLESNAKES sign in the background.

Of course gifts came from Minnesota to Grace Goodie.  Here she is in a skirt from Auntie Heather.

One of the days while the boys golfed, Oma, Grace and I went to the zoo.  Oops!  It was Boo at the Zoo day.  We didn't know the kids were supposed to come dressed up.  Good thing I had her owl hat on.

We took this little guy in for a week.  We thought about keeping him but found him a great home with a young retired lady instead.  He didn't appreciate Grace's play, especially since he's only around four pounds.

My parents left town on Sunday the 27th.  That same day the Beckman's were back in town for dental appointments.  More time with the cuzzies!

Sunday night and all the next day Monday the heat wave left and the snow came.  About six inches worth.  See Monday morning in the video below:

Later that day Tuff tried to drive our Yoda the Toyota up the driveway:

Monday night Tuff's brother Jay spent the night with us.  No joke, October was full of visitors!

Tuesday, the 29th, not more than a few hours after Jay left, Tuff's little sister Toni and family came to spend the night from Sheridan, Wyoming.  Amara is Toni's six-year-old daughter and such a sweetie.  So yet another cuzzie play date.

Ok are you still with me? On to Halloween.  Jeri Lyn gave us this adorable lion costume.  It was a hit.

But first our Halloween morning.  I go to a women's bible study on Thursdays and dressed up Goodie as a cute cow.

Oh no here comes the crying again.  Not so much Goodie, more like "Moo"dy.

Back into her lion costume for the evening trick or treating.

I love this picture.  She has no idea what we are about to do but is on board.

 A flower in her hair to signify she is a lioness.

The routine:  Walk up to the front door, say trick or treat, thank you, bye and see you.  Not too difficult for a treat!

No more than a few houses down the line and she had the routine down.  She boldly walked up to the doors, needing no assistance from mommy.

In the photo below its about eight pm and Grace is about to slip into a candy coma if we can get her from her loot.

After two hours of trick or treating, she is not too pleased by me taking a picture of her and her lion scat.  Notice the oreo in hand.  Haha.

Potty training update:  After a month of hard work, I can confidently say Grace is daytime potty trained.  She can even go potty when she doesn't think she needs to go.   However nighttime she sleeps 11 hours and can't hold it that long or undress herself when she wakes up needing to pee.  For that reason I would have waited longer to potty train her.  Any advise welcomed!

The video below is of Grace counting. Somehow she misses '3' and '4' in the count:



P.S. Grace Goodie turned 19 months old today.

Fall: Sort Of

Its been unseasonably cold here in Billings.  Marked October 3rd by the first snow fall of the season.

Which led to an awesome morning snow adventure with Grace.

Notice the footprints below.  I put her there, and there she stood, not sure what to do.

Also not sure what gloves are.

But she can sure eat the snow.  When it melted in her glove she got excited calling it "ice."  She's right.

This was one day prior to the snow.

And this was just a few days after the snow.  Montana can be crazy.

Tuff's dad and mom came to Billings for a visit.  I talked them into going on a hike.  It was such a clear day you could see the Beartooth Mountains in the far distance.

Grace, Tuff, Jerry (Tuff's dad) and Melody (Tuff's mom).

Grace and I went to the zoo the other day.

Notice the snack cup in each picture.  We lasted two hours thanks to the preoccupation.  As if the animals aren't enough!

She really loved the zoo (in the picture saying love in sign language).  We will go back soon.

Yep we did a photo booth at the zoo.  Grace was clueless.

Another project I've been oh so slowly working on.  I turned Grace's old crib (which was originally her cousin Finn's, Beck's then Bo's, then Soren's then Lucas' and Bjorn's) into a desk.

Here's the old crib.

I gave it a fresh coat of white paint with yellow rails and a clear satin coat over everything.  The mattress platform transformed with primer and chalk board paint into a chalkboard easel/desk.  Tuff came up with the idea to slant the platform.  Brilliant as the edge acts as a chalk ledge.

As Grace gets bigger I can raise the platform so she can fit a chair under.  Pretty fun for now.  The desk can also turn back into a crib at any time by just adding the mattress and front rail back on.

A closer look at Grace's art.

At work we got professional head shots done for personal trainer bios.  I did mine the other day and the guy was hilarious.  I was totally tempted to throw in a senior remake pose but he insisted on no hands near face.  Haha!

Its like back to school.  Anyone want a wallet size proof?

Finally today our Pittsburgh friends Matt and Jenny Wright are flying in to Billings for the week!  We are so excited.  Then just a few days after they depart my dad and mom are coming.  We are feeling blessed.

Below is Matt and Jenny helping us load our trailer in Pittsburgh, June 2012.

Jenny is the one that made me the rice krispie bar (my absolute favorite) cake for my birthday!  Those of you at Tuff's and my wedding remember we forgo cake for rice krispie bars.

And Jenny is the one that made these delightful cake pops for Kristen's and my baby shower.

It was at the Wrights house in Pittsburgh that we had Thanksgiving and the turkey juice overflowed all over the oven, smoking out the house.

We don't want that memory again but looking forward to making some this week.