Brushed off

The other day Sam invited the oldest boy to go to work with him. Usually he jumps at the chance and most days begs to go with dad, but this time he wasn't interested. With a comb in his hand he informed dad that he was "brushing his hair." and wasn't interested in going. It may have been the first time anyone's used that excuse on Sam.

Moving on up

We made a new ladder for the bunk beds. See.

July family outing: Danger on a High Rock.

 Saturday we decided to take a little hike to the Indian caves. The hike was a little longer than we expected since the road was not as passable as I remember it 25 years ago. The kids were troopers and did great going up the mountain.

 We enjoyed the scenery and looked for arrowheads on our way to the caves. Susan was visiting from Texas, so she joined us on our little adventure.

Mary and Susan rested with the baby while I took the older kids and scouted out the caves. It was a nice relaxing family outing, until Mary decided to try out her free-climbing skills. I heard Mary whistling for me, so we headed back to bring the rest of group to the caves. When I got back Mary was gone,. Then I heard her call out "Sam, I think I have a problem. I may be stuck." Her voice was coming from back up by the caves, and I wondered how I missed her on my way down. 

This (below) is where I found her.

You might want to blow up the wide angle shot below to see what kind of pickle she was in. She had come around the back side of the rock, and free climbed to the top thinking it was a short climb down on other side. What she found instead was a good 50-foot drop off. Of course she had climbed about that far coming up, and free climbing down is a lot harder than going up. So I told her she would have to go across the top of the rock to a place where she could easily get down.  Easier said than done. Mary couldn't move. The top is only a few feet wide with a 50-foot drop off on either side. If you fall down one side, you'll scrape across the sharp granite on your way down. On the other side there is only air between you and the ground. But let's not think about that right now.

Mary was able to get up on her hands and bear crawl across the top. I went up to the top end of the rock to help find the best path down. At least we got a nice shot. You can see the drop off is not straight down, but cuts under. Our 3-year-old was pretty nervous and was crying when he saw his mom up on that rock. Then he got even more scared when he tried to follow me up the rock. He climbed up about 10 feet, and then he was stuck. I was able to lift him down. Then we watched nervously as Mary shimmied her way across the rock until she could safely get down.

 On the way back down the mountain we decided to wade through the creek. Here's our 3-year-old enjoying himself after the adventure.

 The whole family got in on the fun.

And Susan was the only one to find an arrowhead! Beginner's luck I suppose. Sam and the kids found a few chips, but nothing this exciting.

Unexpected Morning

We had big plans for our morning, but they changed drastically during breakfast. The Boy loves to stick his fingers in things, today it was a water bottle lid. No big deal, he does it all the time. However! Today mom wasn't sitting at the table to tell him to get his finger out of it, so it stayed, for who knows how long, until suddenly it wouldn't come off.

I did all that I knew to do with my EMR training and then called the local EMT for advice. He told me to do what I'd already done. He then said he had a ring cutter and he'd bring it down. It took about an hour, a broken ring cutter, a dash to another EMR bag that was at another one of our fire stations for another ring cutter, and some love and understanding. We had the dremel out to cut it through if things got really desperate. 

It was silly when it was red, starting to get concerning when it was purple, and when it started turning white I had to remain calm and get the thing off! It ended up taking 4 cuts with a ring cutter to get it off. There is still a small laceration on his finger, but he seems to have survived without any major damage. 

When asked if he wanted to stick his finger in something else to practice with the ring cutter more he quickly shook his head no. 

 Waiting for the EMT to come and wondering if he would bring the fire truck (he didn't).

 The first cut was very fascinating. 

 This was after 3 cuts. The finger would just swell into the open spaces we were creating.

This was at the end of the process, I believe the last cut before we got the thing off. It was hurting and scaring him. For the most part though he came out with flying colors!

Start of July

We had a lot of fun in the beginning of July. We started with the family reunion 5k on the 1st. 

 The girls raced ahead and finished in 33 and 34 minutes. Sadly the bike pulled ahead of the mommy at the starting gun and stayed that way the whole race!

 The boys had a good race. 

 The best part was picking a prize at the end of it all! And the popsicles that were waiting at the finish line.

 These two pictures were from the 4th of July Fireman's Picnic that is hosted by our VFD. This was at the end of a long audition day for The Girl's play.

 During some of the play practices that The Girl was in the boys and I went across the street to play at the park. 

Peter and Wendy with Cloud #11

We undertook a crazy week this last week. There was a production of Peter and Wendy from Missoula Children's Theater that came through a town close to us this last week. So on the 4th we went in and had auditions, then Wednesday - Saturday we went in every day for practice. The Girl had a very fun time being "Cloud 11". She didn't have a speaking part, but she hammed up her part at the end of the "Cloud Burst Ballet"!

I'm sure she would love to tell anyone who is interested ALL about it! She is the smallest cloud, last one on the right.