Baby Gift Suggestions!

Ok folks, if you really want to get baby gifts for our new baby, here is what we suggest:

• Anything hand made is awesome and always welcome!
• Toys of any kind. We love the more creative and learning-type rather than mechanical and battery operated--but anything is fine
• Books--seriously you can never have too many books
• Anything that would make it easier for us to camp with the kid--for example one of those co-sleeper things that you use in your bed--sort of defines the baby space.
• Diapers--not very exciting, but we've heard great things about Bum Genius brand of cloth diapers. They range from $9-$16 each and we'll need quite a few of them--so if you want to get practical, that would be a great choice!
• Washable baby wipes--especially organic materials
• Any kind of memory book or baby book--to record moments--we don't have anything like that
• Picture frames or any other kind of neat nursery decoration is great
• If you really want to buy baby clothes--we won't refuse, but we have gotten SO many hand-me-downs from friends that we suggest that you pick some of the larger size clothes. We have tons of 0-3 month outfits, quite a few 3-6 month outfits, but not so many above 6 month old. We know its not as much fun buying the older clothes, but we are running out of space for the little stuff! Just as a guideline, she will likely be in the following sizes at the following times: 0-3 months for the months of March-May, 3-6 months in May-August, 6-9 months in August through November, and 9-12 months in November through February (Just in case you're tempted to get her a 3-6 month old snow suit!). Again, if you really can't refuse the itty bitty outfits, we certainly won't turn up our noses!

Here are some larger items that we don't have yet if you find them used or wish to give gift certificates (please do not attempt to purchase these new on your own--way too generous!)

• high chair (we might just get one from Ikea for $20, but we haven't decided yet)
• jogging stroller (we've been given a regular stoller--for when she's older, but it would be nice to have a jogging one to get Marguerite back in shape!)
• bike trailer??
  
• One of those more substantial backpack-type baby carriers for longer hikes
• We still don't have a crib--we do have a bassinet though.
  

Here are the things that we have already either been given, purchased, or promised (just in case it gives you some ideas or you want to get accessories)

• Britax infant car seat is allegedly on the way from Isaac's sister
• Two types of slings for newborns
• Bumpo chair
• Baby bathtub
• Medela breast pump
• Arm's Reach type bassinet
• first aid kit for babies
• diaper changing pad

Ok I think that does it for now. We'll update as we think of other things!

The end of the pregnancy adventure

We haven't been writing about our latest adventure--the adventure of pregnancy--but most people who read this blog know that Isaac and I have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of our yet-to-be-named baby girl. Her due date is coming up fast and we are starting to accumulate lots of baby accoutrements. We are extremely fortunate to have some really great friends and neighbors (Will and Emily Baldwin, our neighbor Dave, our neighbors Jen and Eric, Megan and Reid Swan, Allison and Derek, our friend Jamie Brown's sister, Isaac's sister Sarah, and my friend Steph to name a few!) that have children of similar age that have given us an amazing amount of stuff. We are ever-so grateful!!!

However, we have other friends, most of whom do not yet have children, who have been asking us about our registry and what kind of gifts they can give us. This support is overwhelming and our first instinct is to politely refuse--but we know that baby things are really stinkin cute and it is really fun to buy stuff for someone else's baby! So our next post provides a list of "suggested" baby gifts. We decided not to formally register because we didn't want to limit people to one store or another. Another issue is that here in Flagstaff, the choice of baby gear stores is quite limited--which makes the internet the best option. Everyone knows you can always find better deals by doing a google search than by just going to one store--so we welcome bargain shopping!

In addition, we are not opposed to gently used gear--so if you have access to a good thrift store or craiglist--by ALL MEANS use it!

Washington to Oregon

Seattle forcast:
90% chance of rain before 11 and then rain showers in the afternoon. In the evening 80% chance of rain with rain continuing overnight.

So we left Seattle in the rain and drove down to Portland to see Isaac's sister, Sara. We took a small tour of gelato shops in Portland (just sampling this time!). We think we finally found a shop that made some of their own bases in house. We're not sure as the woman working in the store seemed kind of like she didn't know what she was talking about (but she was very nice). We then left to pick Sara up from work and headed out to her new house near Tigard, OR.

Sara and Pete have a beautiful new house and an even more beautiful new baby, Lucas. (And a charming new pup, Bowser). We hung out with them for a few days just sticking around the house on Friday and then taking the pups to the most awesome dog park on Saturday. I should say, it wasn't just a dog park, it was a system of trails on which it was legal to have your pup off leash. The trails included a beach on the Sandy river. Oh man, did the pups have fun there!

On the way back we stopped at Multnomah Falls (I think that's how you spell it) and joined the crowds for a look at a really beautiful waterfall. It was a spectacularly sunny day in Oregon which was a welcome treat for us!

On Sunday, we said goodbye to the family and made our way down to Bend with a brief detour to Vancouver, WA to see an old friend of mine, Sarah, and her family. We had a nice lunch with them and I got the grand tour of the place from Audrey her four- year- old. Then off to Bend!

Bend is a cute town--reminds me a lot of Flagstaff. We had dinner at the Bend Brewery (one of several in town) and made our way out to the camping spot for Smith Rock State Park. The next two days we spent exploring Smith Rock. Unfortunately I had an attack of the migraines on Monday which limited my activity, but Tuesday was super fun. I should say it was really hot in Bend. Daytime temps reached 85 degrees which was about 20 degrees warmer than Portland. I, for one, wasn't expecting such a huge difference! We hiked a lot and climbed a little. We met some really nice people and enjoyed the beauty of Smith. The one big downer to Smith is their strict policy on dogs. Dogs must be leashed and they can't be left tied to anything. So if there are two people climbing, I guess the belayer must hold onto the dog and the rope? Kind of stupid, but oh well. Luckily we have the greatest most well-behaved dog on the planet and we escaped without a huge fine!

On Wednesday we left Bend for Boise, ID. We stopped at the Sierra Trading Post outlet and spent a few hours shopping (this time it was Isaac!) Our camping options near town weren't looking so good so we got ourselves a hotel room and found some Indian food. Boise is much more metropolitan than I had expected. It's quite a large city and even on a Wednesday night, downtown was hoppin'! We hope to see a little more of it today.

After this it's off to Salt Lake City and then Flagstaff. Kind of sad to be ending our trip!

Montana to Washington

Hello all!
Sorry we haven't posted in a while. We left Whitefish, MT and headed for the coast. We decided to take the scenic route through the northern part of Washington taking Highway 20 through North Cascades NP. The drive was beautiful, albeit pretty wet. We stopped along the way first to camp, then to get some fresh apples and other fruits from a Washington orchard, and then to take a gander at the Shafer Museum in Winthrop, WA. Shafer being Isaac's last name (although he spells it with two fs), he was curious as to what the museum had to offer. Unfortunately, the museum proper was closed, but we cruised around the grounds a bit. They had a pretty amazing collection of turn of the century artifacts for a po-dunk little museum in the middle of nowhere. Winthop itself was a museum of sorts itself. It looked like it was straight out of a wild west movie set.

We made our way through the Cascades to the I5 which would take us down to Seattle. Our goals in Seattle were threefold: visit my brother, Paul, and his family; go over to the Olympic Peninsula; and see some gelato shops in Seattle. As soon as we hit the I5 I was reminded of why I don't ever want to live in a big city. Ughh the traffic! The difference in the time it takes to travel from north of Seattle to south of Seattle with and without traffic is about 1 hour. A whole hour of your life because of traffic! Of course we hit it just at rush hour too which didn't help matters! Welcome to the city!

The first of our goals proved to be the most difficult as Paul, his wife Jennie, and their youngest son Kyle lead really busy lives. We managed to get in some hang out time in the evenings though. It was nice to see some family and meet the family dog, Boomer. Rizo wasn't as thrilled with Boomer as we were, but by the end of the first evening, even she was warming up to him!

We went to the Hoh Rainforest in Olympic National Park on Tuesday. Unfortunately we left at a rather late hour in the morning and weren't able to do as much hiking as we would have liked, but it was beautiful all the same. The trees and moss were amazing as was the giant elk that just appeared out of the mist about 15 feet in front of us! We saw signs everywhere warning us about the elk and we had a good laugh at them (every park has to have its dangerous animals--Yellowstone has bears and bison, Glacier has bears and moose, Olympic has....elk). After seeing his ability to hide in such thick brush, however; we began to understand the warnings! We ended our day at the beach with a beautiful sunset and made the long drive back to my brother's.

On Wednesday we lazed around the house playing with the pups and then made our way into Seattle to conduct some business---ice cream business. Our first stop was Molly Moon's ice cream in Wallingford. Molly Moon's had some impressive flavors--Balsamic Strawberry, Honey Lavender, and Sweet Corn to name a few. The ice cream was good. They have their base made for them at Snoqualmie Dairy (I think). So still not exactly what I had in mind as far as homemade, but pretty close I guess. We then walked down the street to the Fainting Goat gelato shop. This shop is owned by a delightful Turkish couple. They were so friendly and helpful when we asked them about their business. Eating their gelato re-affirmed our belief that gelato is the way to go. It is just so much tastier than ice cream. Unfortunately for me, they also have a pre-made base that they use for their product. The same one, in fact, that the folks in Grand Junction were using. Apparently it is unreasonable to think we would be able to make our own (at least that's what folks tell us). Our final stop was D'Ambrosio Gelateria, but by this time, my belly was telling me that I had eaten too much! Isaac and I didn't plan this research very well. We both ordered single scoops of ice cream at the first two locations (kiddie cups at Molly Moon's), but the scoops at these places were enormous! I had to pass on the third, but Isaac was a trooper and managed to get a taste. Never again! We had ice cream hangovers by the time we got into the car to return to my brother's place. We didn't get to speak to the owner or gelato maker at the last stop, so we're not really sure of their ingredients, but I'm going to guess they use the same base as the rest.

We ended our stay in Seattle with a nice dinner at Salty's with my brother. I felt that Isaac needed to get some seafood while we were here and they actually offered vegetarian fare. Today we'll pack up our things and head down for more family time (and more gelato) in Portland. Isaac's sister and her family live not far from Portland in Newberg, OR.

Oh yes, and we added more pics to the Picasa site, so click the link in the previous post to see a little of our Olympic NP trip.

Links to Photos

Here is a link to some more photos on Picasa. Enjoy!

Sept Road Trip Web

Glacier

The past two days have been spent in Glacier National Park. As the picture indicates, we had kind of a "rough break". We arrived with a storm that dumped some snow on the mountains. On Friday, we attempted to drive the "Gone to the Sun Road", but were shut down in the alpine regions. The scenery was still amazing and beautiful--we just couldn't really see too much of it. On Saturday we were able to complete the whole journey (btw, Dad, you probably don't ever want to drive this road!). It was stunning, but again, very foggy and visibility was somewhat limited. I must confess the cold, rainy weather "dampened" (pun intended) my spirits somewhat. Glacier is really a park that warrants hiking and backpacking. The weather discouraged me from really wanting to aggressively pursue this path.

After the Gone to the Sun road, we went over to the Many Glaciers section of the park. The purpose of this venture was to try to see some actual glaciers. Well, once again, the fog thwarted this plan, and we didn't think an 11 mile hike leaving the dog in the car sounded like much fun. So instead we settled for a visit to the Many Glacier Lodge--an enormous "swiss chalet" style lodge and looked at pictures of glaciers then and now. Wow pretty dramatic! We were also pleased to once again see a mama bear and two cubs along the road to the hotel. Apparently, another tourist told Isaac he had seen a bull moose at the same location the previous day--we were not so lucky. Oh well.

So we vowed to come back to Glacier another time without the dog during a warmer season. It is certainly a gorgeous place.

After all this rain, we decided to splurge for one night and get a hotel room. We came to Whitefish, Montana, ate at the brewery, and are now enjoying the luxury of sitting up in bed!

Tomorrow we will travel to the west and head for the Seattle area. Hopefully, we will find some distractions along the way.

Laundry Day!

Today we drove up through Montana to Missoula to stop at the Big Dipper Ice Cream shop (and do laundry). The Big Dipper had good ice cream, but once again, the definition of "homemade" was slightly different than what I expected. I guess I'm just old fashion, but I think that if you are going to call something "homemade" you shouldn't get your base delivered to you on a truck. We'll keep looking.

Anyway, I thought I would talk a bit about how its going living out of our truck. I'm attaching a few pics too.

So first things first. Isaac made a sweet little platform bed for us in the bed of the truck. The frame is welded steel with a plywood top. Under the platform, he made us some storage drawers. One drawer is shorter than the other to accommodate the cooler. In addition we have a separate "hidey hole" compartment toward the front of the bed accessible by two doors. We keep our clothes in the hidey hole and all our camping and play gear in the drawers. On top of the plywood we have a memory foam pad and our sleeping bags. Isaac also added some super efficient LED strip lights to the front and back, a converter and outlet for our computer to charge, and some adapters to charge our cell phones.

So how is it? Well the storage areas are working out really well. At first we had a little too much food, so stuffing everything in was quite a puzzle. Now that we have eaten much of it, we have no problems sliding the cooking/food draw in and out every day. The climbing, camping gear drawer is heavier and a little harder to slide, but still it works just fine. Getting to our clothes can be a pain. It is worse for me because I like to get up early and Isaac --not so much. So if I forgot to set out clothes for the next day (or for running in the morning) I am kind of stuck because the hidey hole is under his head. Once I recognized that though, I have been more prepared. Sleeping is extremely comfortable (I love memory foam!). The only problem is that it is really narrow up there. Getting in and out or changing clothes can be quite an exercise in contortionism. It is certainly not for the claustrophobic! The real problem is that once you're in, you don't really want to get out. We tend to sleep in a lot due to this fact. It is easier just to keep sleeping than to try to extract yourself! For me this is especially hard as my "delicate condition" makes is so I have to pee during the night --or at least early in the morning. What a drag to have to move around with a full bladder!

Other than that, I have to say, our set up is pretty sweet. It is great when we just stay in a campsite for one night not to have to set up a tent.

Well that's about it. Hope everyone is doing well. Next stop---Glacier NP!

Yellowstone!

Ok, so we headed out of tensleep and headed straight for Cody, WY and Yellowstone National Park. Our plan was to go into the park the first day and check out the backcountry camping situation and take a look around, then we were going to go back to Cody and find a kennel for Rizo for a few days and head back into the park.

The best laid plans.

Well the guy at the backcountry office recommended that we drive around the park before deciding where we would like to hike. We spent the first day checking out the geyser area. Soooo amazing. It is so hard to describe the steaming landscape. Every where you look the ground is just steaming up! We arrived at Old Faithful just in time to see the eruption ending, so we decided to stroll around for a while to see it in its full glory. While waiting, we were treated to an eruption of the Grand Geyser which was actually way bigger and better than Old Faithful--and rather than 90 minute intervals, it only goes off at 12 hour intervals. We were pretty lucky!

We also did a little bike ride and a small hike to the Grand Prismatic Spring. Wow! It looked like a giant blue eyeball with orange tears. This was one instance that we were happy to have the Lonely Planet that we picked up at a used bookstore in Moab. The author advised us not to go to the pull out for the Grand Prismatic Spring, but rather to take this little side trip. It was so worth it. Probably the most beautiful thing we'd seen all day.

So we made our way back to Hayden Valley where we were told many tourists had seen wolves and bears. We did manage to see some wolf pups--waaaayyy far in the distance. Also that day, we'd seen lots of bison, elk, deer, a coyote, bald eagle, ospreys, and some very greedy ravens!

We left the park late and tried to find a campsite in the rain and dark. Uggh. Not so fun. The distances in Yellowstone are also not so fun. On the way we decided that we really needed to get up to Glacier National Park fast if we hoped to drive the Road to the Sun (or whatever its called). We made the split second decision to skip out on backcountry camping in Yellowstone for the time being and spend another day exploring the park before high tailing up to northern Montana and Glacier NP. So we finally found a campsite and went to bed without our supper :(. We made a plan to awake before dawn with the hopes of seeing more wildlife.

We made our way back into the park on Wednesday and found it covered in a dense fog. Not so good for viewing wildlife. Luckily, however, we happened upon some tourists parked precariously where there was no pullout. Knowing that this meant something good, we quickly pulled over and were pleased to see mama Grizzly Bear and one older cub and one --probably this year's cub! Right by the road! How adorable! We drove on hoping to find some wolves. Unfortunately, the fog in Hayden was too thick for any more viewing, so after a brief stop to view the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and the lower Yellowstone Falls--quite spectacular, we made our way to the famous Lamar Valley.

Aside from wildlife, we were also on a mission to find a campsite inside the park. We wanted one near Lamar Valley so we could wake up early and see more wildlife, but we were disappointed to find that all of the campsites were full already. Bummer. This was quite frustrating for us. Maybe planning isn't so bad after all? Anyway, we were lucky enough to come across a big group of people with some wolf biologists who directed us and our binos toward 4 wolf pups (although I only saw 2). The pups were howling at one point which was really cool. While we were there, wolf daddy came strolling in and took the pups up the ridgeline. How thrilling! A little while later, someone pointed out another Grizzly Bear (in the same valley) strolling toward us. Wow! Finally, mama wolf came trotting over to meet the rest, got put off by some fisherman (we think), and turned around and went back the other way. This was disappointing, but what happened next was almost as fun as watching the wolves. So she crossed back across the road in front of some lucky tourists who decided that wasn't good enough. They along with this professional photographer guy (who had formerly been with our group) ran after mama wolf up the slope. Oh man did this make the wolf biologist with us MAD! He went tearing off in his truck after the suckers. Later on as we were driving by, we saw he had called the Park Enforcement Rangers to come and give them tickets. Ha ha!

Anyway, frustrated by not finding a single campsite, we decided to hit Mammoth Terraces and head out of the park. Mammoth Terraces were a bit disappointing after the Old Faithful area, but there were still some cool sites (most of the springs were dry--we're not sure if it was the season, or just a dry spell).

Whew. I'm sure I missed a bunch, but it was a busy two days! We enjoyed Yellowstone, but didn't really enjoy the camping situation and the distances between things were kind of a drag (not to mention the distance from the towns to the park attractions). We will certainly go back and try to get in some backcountry travel at some point.

Ok, off to bed!

P.S. Isaac just reminded me that we also saw some big horn sheep today--no moose though :(

Mount rushmore and tensleep canyon

As I mentioned before, we couldn't resist the urge to visit Mount Rushmore. I don't know if it was a brief moment of patriotism or just plain old curiosity (I'd go with the latter). First let me say that the area leading up to the monument, including the town of Keystone just outside, is like a mini version of .Gatlinberg, TN. That is not a compliment by the way. It is full of the worst things about America--t-shirt shops, fudge, and exploitation of wild animals. After getting through all that, I was pissed off to find that our $80 National Parks pass is no good in Mt. Rushmore! F you NPS! Anyway, we had driven all that way, so we paid the $10 "concessionaire parking" and went in. Yep there were the heads of Ex presidents. The work is amazing, but even more fun was this guy we met there. He was a photographer, Tom Storm (www.tomstorm.net), and his whole gig is getting pictures of cool places in the reflections of soap bubbles. So Isaac and I spent some time blowing bubbles for Tom. We certainly attracted a lot of attention and Tom says we'll be part of his video blog in a few days. Blowing bubbles is hard when you're under pressure like that!

South Dakota was beautiful, but we soon returned to WY. We couldn't resist the draw of climbing in Tensleep Canyon at least one day, so we camped there for the night and had a good day climbing today. Sorry no pics. That place is just so massive with tons of incredible climbing, its hard to capture it all.

Incidently, this couple we met from Rapid City told us that they used to allow climbing at Rushmore until 2 years ago when Green Peace snuck up there and unfurled a huge banner encouraging Obama to stop global warming. I'd never heard of it, but there is a pretty funny video on their website. Too bad, the rock is pretty cool there.

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Sorry about the pics!

Hey all, a number of you have been requesting more pictures. Here is the thing, I've been making most of my posts via my super cool Android phone. This way all I need is phone service rather than WiFi. To make it simple I just post a pic from my phone. To be honest, we haven't taken too many photos. When there are only two people climbing, its kind of hard to take pics. Until we teach Rizo how to use the camera, you'll just have to wait until we get back or get reliable internet access! Sorry!

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