Girl time!

For the past two weeks (with one more week to go!), my mom has been visiting, keeping us company while Ben is gone. It's been a special time, as we don't get this chance very often living far apart, so we've been enjoying every minute of mom-daughter-granddaughter bonding :)

First thing that had to happen according to my mom was to finally get me a real tea pot (we've noticed that a lot of Americans get this confused with a tea kettle - used for boiling water - and very much a different thing from a tea pot ;) ), so we can have our tea and treats every afternoon. We also went shopping one day in FtCollins - mostly old town - which was so much fun! Unlike when I go shopping with Ben, I could finally take my time trying things on (over and over and over again ... ), and even ended up with a dress! In the evenings we've been having fun cooking tasty dinners and eating together. I even tried my hand at grilling antelope steaks (we all know that the grill is a man's realm), which turned out delicious - yes, I'm pretty proud.

Last Monday through Thursday morning I had booked us a cabin in the snowies, and we planned to explore the snowy range area and hike. However, we all know now that winter decided to poke its head around the corner at that time, and with it being especially windy, snowy and cold at higher elevation, we just enjoyed a few days of relaxing, reading and having more tea and sweets :) We did get to see three big moose on one of our little walks though!

Our cabin. (On one of the last days, when the sun had returned, and most of the snow had started to melt)

My mom in the snowies (Bryan family, we can explain how my mom ended up in a Huskers coat :) ..... )

Grandma and Andi snuggling in a little chapel on a hill.

Mom and Andi in the cabin.

I guess the only bonus for Andi now that her dad is not here is that there is room in her Mom's bed! Lately I've been having to get up with her several times a night, and in our small one-room cabin it was just more convenient to have her sleep with me. Pretty cozy too if you ask me! :)

My mom (and Andi too I'm sure) has also been enjoying watching Andi every now and then while I go out for a walk with Sage, or take a nap, or whatever else. Thursday night, my mom watched Andi while I went to the ladies bible study, and even though my mom and Andi had a lot of fun together singing songs, and playing and cuddling, when I came home and Andi saw me, she got so excited, and smiled and stretched out her little arms at me and was just wiggling! This had never really happened before, and I admit, it made me feel pretty special :)

Some more Andi updates: like I said in my previous post, I've been working on teaching Andi how to eat :) First up was more of the rice cereal, but that started to make her gag, and I don't blame her - that stuff tastes like walpaper paste. Because I didn't want her to become a sweet tooth from the start, I figured I try vegetables next, starting wit carrots. I thought we were off to a good start, but soon she would frown even at the sight of her bib (does she know what's coming?), and would gag, really gag after the first tastes. We have since tried squash, and sweet potatoes, and though the latter is slightly more appealing to her, she still doesn't think much of this veggie thing. This morning I finally caved, and gave her some sweet bananas - she sure likes those alright! I guess it's in her genes, and she is destined to become a sweet tooth like her mom! (I asked my mom to bring my baby book along, and pretty much every entry in there it says things like: "Wiesje likes her sweets, and wishes she could have lollipops and candy for breakfast" ... oh boy)

Andi is so excited about eating solid food.....

Talking with my girl.

Andi is six months old!

Our little girl is 6 months old! That's half a year!

Here's her 6 month picture with Slungel:

We visited Dr. Horst this morning, and here are her stats:

Height: 25.5 inches (65 cm), about the 40th percentile, up from the 35th.
Weight: 17 lbs 2.5 oz (7.770 kg), about the 75th percentile, up from the 70th.

Head circumference: 42.7 cm, about the 55th percentile, down from the 65th.

She is still doing great, currently getting over her first cold. She been such a trooper, smiling through all of her draining boogers. She's still not really rolling over (she's only done that once), but is really starting to get sitting under control. What we'll be working on this month is learning to eat solid food! Yes, our little hippie baby is pretty much exclusively breastfed at 6 months (she's had a taste of cereal twice now). Haha. Not that I necessarily believe that is best or anything, but it has just been so convenient with all the travelling, hiking and other activities over the last two months!

Anyway, her latest favorite thing to do? Hanging out in the Johny Jump-up! I really like it as well, because whatever room I'm in, I can hang it from a door post so she is close by. She loves more interesting places like the bedroom closet next to where my computer is:

But I think her favorite must be the pantry door - so many interesting things in a pantry!

Hanging out with the broom and mop.

Andi also loves to watch Sage (our dog) come run by - it cracks her up every time - so cute!

So, this girl household is doing good. I sure miss Ben, and evenings can become pretty quiet, but I don't feel like I have anything to whine about compared to those wives that have their husbands overseas for much, much longer! It just stinks that we can't really communicate at all (yet), something we were able to do when I was gone in Antarctica three years ago, and Chile last year.

In the meantime, Sage has taken over the role of protector of the house, and barks at everybody that comes by. This usual jolly gentle giant of a dog can be quite the intimidator with her stature when all her hair is raised! This is a somewhat comforting feeling I guess, although she almost ate the guy that came to read of the gas meter the other day....

My two favorite people :) - Before Ben took off.

Next up on the agenda? My mom is coming to visit for 3 weeks! More girl time!

Family vacation to Glacier NP, Montana

Before Ben had to leave for bootcamp this past monday, we were able to take a week long family vacation! Destination of choice: Glacier National Park in Montana. It was absolutely gorgeous and the weather was awesome! We spent the week camping, hiking, sitting by the lakes and campfire, eating way too many granola bars and chocolate (me) and beef jerky (Ben), looking for and keeping out of the way of wildlife (depending on their size), hiking some more, and .... hiking some more.
Since Ben was the photographer, most pictures are of Andi and I. He also took about 700 of them, and since I can't fit all those on this blog here, I've tried to make a little bit of a selection. Because there were so many however I didn't put them in correct order - so they're sort of in reverse order.

Our last day in the park we wanted to do a small hike to a lake, then spend the day lounging by the water. However, a grizzly was on the lower trail we were hoping to take, leaving only the upper trail that led to a glacier (Grinell Glacier - see top of picture). Of course with me there we couldn't just hike a little bit of the trail but had to go see what this glacier looked like up close :) Needless to say, our lounge day turned into a not-so-much-of-a-lounge-day. hihi

It ended up being one of the prettiest hikes we'd done there so far though! Endless gorgeous wildflowers, and lots of pretty water falls ...

Weeping wall.

View from a up a little higher.

At the glacier! Pretty cool looking glacier, but we both agreed we have been pretty spoiled after seeing Alaskan glaciers!

One of the moose we saw.

Beautiful country, handsome man :)

Lower part of the trail. Some nice bear bushes right? I like to see bears, but only from a feel good distance. There were definitely some spots where I made Ben lead :)

We saw three bears on our trip - all three black bears. Luckily we never ended up seeing the grizzly that was on the trail we meant to take.

Black bear on the lake shore below the trail.

Another black bear that we watched swim across the lake!

Enjoying some downtime at a lake.

Andi got her baths in the dish tub :) Look at her rolls!

Andi playing with her Daddy during yet another hike. (btw. that red dot on her head is a mosquito bite :( )

Goose Island at sunset.

Andi getting some tummy time, looking at the river during yet another hike :)

Taking a break. Andi would usually stretch out on one of our shirts while I would plan the next hike :) (I'm so much like my mom :) )

Ben and I at a waterfall.

Andi and I watching the sunset by a lake.

The family on yet another hike :)

After a summer of lots of camping and lots of time hiking, Andi has already become quite the outdoor girl :)
....

Dragged from mountain to mountain in the babybjorn, she also got to enjoy meals with a view :) ...

... and diaper changes among beautiful wild flowers :)

Goat :)

Little dude.

Another goat, relaxin'

Another shot of the fam.

A more typical shot of the fam :)

Man we sure took a lot of these!

Look at that little face!

One of our goals as a married couple is to visit every national park in the country. We have already crossed off many of our list, in a bunch of different states. To keep track, we always take a picture at the entry sign:

Ben and Andi

Andi and I.

This was Andi's second national park (we visited Rocky Mountain NP when she was 6 weeks old), so I thought it would be fun to get her her own "national parks passport", so we (and later she herself) can keep track of which ones she has visited. They sell these things in every park, and it has a page for every national park on which you can collect the parks' stamp and date you visited it!