Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Back to Glacier!

After getting a week of school out of the way, I headed back up to Glacier Park with my buddy Lynn! The road up to Logan Pass is open only until the 16th of September, so that is where we chose to hike while we still can. This fat fella greeted us as we hiked up above the visitor center at Logan Pass:
Marmot--he/she is about the size of a VERY big house-cat.
Down lower in the Park, the flowers are finished and going to seed quickly as the weather turns cool and dry.  But up where the snow has only been gone for 6 weeks, the flowers are still persevering!
Fringed Grass-of-Parnassus
Lewis Monkeyflower
Tiny blue Alpine Speedwell
Monkeyflower and Arnica
Indian Paintbrush
The animals up there are preparing for autumn also, and are enjoying the flowers in a different way than we do!
hungry marmot
hungry mountain goat
Lynn and I sat on some rocks and let these goats work their way up to us--what a treat to see them up close! 


Mother Marmot and her young, sunning on a rock.
Almost as cute as teddy-bears!

More mountain and floral beauty

Yellow Monkeyflower

Friday, August 24, 2012

Family Talent Night

Well, talent may be pushing it a little.  Entertainment and fun is more like it.  This silliness has become a tradition of our get-togethers, some of us dreading it and others embracing it.  This year Mom and Duane outdid everyone with their 15-minute version of the radio-show, Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keilor.  They sang, told stories and generally hammed it up.

Michael, our story-telling historian, teamed up with Ingrid to continue the saga of Mikel Bad-Eye, and his adventures at sea.  Their "act" included audience participation, with all of us singing rousing sea-chanteys and cracking up over Ingrid's black tooth!

Warren and I, being teachers of course, had to share a little Norwegian lesson, pointing out some of the words that were hard for us to say like kjott (meat) and sjofart (seafarer).

Larkin had Mom and Alli try to re-create the story she had supposedly told us, by asking questions of us to get clues.  This one is a little hard to explain, but it was fun having Alli in the "hot seat."

Alli was going to teach Colter to be a "broom master" by imitating her every move.  She had Warren ready to put a wet sponge in Colter's chair when we wasn't looking and he ended up with wet pants; from the look on his face, I think he kind of knew it was coming!


We had a wonderful evening of laughs and fun together, followed by chocolate brownies and ice cream!

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Family Fun

I had intended to show you the photos from our talent show, but forgot that they are not downloaded to the computer I have with me here in Oregon.  However, my sister sent us this one in an email to cheer up my Mom.  This is from our Norwegian lesson.  Passing gas is a significant achievement after abdominal surgery!

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Oregon Coast Trip

I wish I could say I am home from my trip to the Oregon Coast.  Actually I am still in Florence, but instead of lounging on the beach, I am waiting in the hospital with my Mom!  On our last evening together, she began to have an upset stomach and went to bed early; we were all packed up, ready to head back to Montana, but delayed our departure Thursday morning in order to help Mom and her husband Duane get to the hospital 30 minutes away from our rental house.  They determined she had an intestinal blockage, similar to what happened to her last summer.  My sister Ingrid was able to stay with Mom, so we headed on home.

They waited through Sunday to see if things would resolve on their own, but she ended up having surgery and another bowel resection.  I flew back out here, so my sister could get back to her job in California.  This is my last week before school starts, so we'll see how things go.  We are praying for quick healing and no complications so she can return to Houston before too long (medical transport would cost $26,000!)

We did have a wonderful week together prior to Mom getting sick.  Here's the family that was able to be there:
Duane and Mom
Ingrid and Michael

Colter and Alli--my future daughter-in-law!

Warren, Larkin and Anna
We had cool windy days (just like June in Norway!), but the sun was shining most of the time.  We explored tide-pools, went to Lincoln City for a sand-castle festival, to Newport to visit the Aquarium, picked blackberries, flew kites and walked on the beach just below our rental house.  Here are some of my favorite moments:
Hayhurst House on Searose Beach; we had to climb up and down the steep walkway from the house to the beach. 
Alli and Colter at the top of the walkway in our backyard; we had a beautiful view of the ocean from the house.
We even saw some whales out at sea the first evening we were there.

the girls out for a quick shopping trip in Yachats

Colter and Alli inspecting the sand sculptures

Ingrid, Michael, Colter and Alli in front of Mo's, our lunch time restaurant

the lovebirds dancing on the sidewalk

Warren flying his kite

Ingrid helping Warren out

building our own sandcastles

Mom in a rocky nook out of the wind

beach sculpturing


Mom and Larkin picking blackberries
Tide-pool finds:
purple sea urchins
green anemones
starfish orgies
friendly natives
I'll post this for now and share our "talent show" fun with you when I get another chance to blog.
Thanks in advance for your prayers for Mom.

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Waterfalls from Lynn

I just got some photos from Lynn so I'll post a few more shots of what I did last week.
Thank you, Lynn!
Rest stop before the climb to Shangri-La;
Warren, Dell, Gail, Anna
Anna and Warren on the climb to Shangri-La
Anna and Gail in a Shangri-la flower meadow
Anna tackles the scree slide down to Iceberg lake;
notice the telemark technique!
Warren on the scree field
Happy hikers by Iceberg Lake
Waterfall on Swiftcurrent
Waterfall below Mt Wilbur
Apikuni Waterfall
Waterfall below Grinnell