Bonks and Babbbyyyyy

Over Memorial Day weekend, we drove to Washington to visit Mike and Emily and meet our sweet new niece.  Overall, we had a great trip, except for a 24-hour period we could have done without.  After driving two days to get there, on our first morning in Wenatchee, Isaac took a grand fall that left him with a fractured skull, a concussion, a beauty of a shiner, and 24 hours in the hospital.  That was stressful!  After recovering from that shake-up, we still got to enjoy a couple of days with Mike and Emily.  It was fun to see them as new parents.  They seem really happy, and we are happy for them.  They are such a sweet little family.

Enjoy the many pics....

on the road.  Doogie even got to make the trip

Hello Montana (and I thought Wyo was the land of never-spring!)

spent one night in Missoula with friends Brian, Mary, and baby Mia

Isaac and Mia were fast friends--he's pretty fond of anyone who shares his love of dump trucks

hospital play--not exactly how I'd planned to spend our time

swollen eye, bruised forehead

he thinks that since he's had his first concussion, might as well start playing football

Isaac seemed to misconstrue the mood of the occasion

that's more like it

hard headed

taking a break

my poor, sweet boy

back at the house, happy to be reunited with his cars

"ooouuuiiieeeee"

finally soaking up some much needed baby time

cousins!

proud papa

brothers and their babes

happy family

they can be a serious bunch

baby goodness

there was A LOT of this

back in the car for the looooong trip home

Kindle to the rescue (thanks Kari!!)

yeah, driving, all day

15-hr travel day and this crew did awesome!

Old Beater

This is our new wood-gettin', dirt-haulin', rough-road-ridin', huntin' pickup.  Ain't she a beauty?

When we drove it home and parked it in front of the house, all I could think was, "How quickly we've become Wyoming!"

April 22

This happened.  Today.

Happy Earth Day

Update:  8 pm, still snowing.  Heavily. 
Update: 10:30 pm, still hammering.  4-5 inches on the ground.

Trek to the Lek

Saturday morning we got up really early (okay, not that early) to drive out to a sage grouse breeding area to watch the male grouse strut their stuff. At sunrise, the males gather in one area, called a lek, and display their mating prowess to one another (not sure why it's effective for them to show off for one another.  Shouldn't they be impressing the ladies?).  The lek is about 30 miles south of Pinedale in remote sage land with views of the southern Winds.

The lek is about 400 yards off the road--see it??  It's the large open area in the distance.  And the dark specs in the open are the birds. 

Here's a closer look:

That's about as well as we could see them, even with the binocs.

Although we couldn't get a super close-up view, we could see them strutting and pulsing their chests, and that was pretty cool.  I think the whole thing was lost on Isaac, though.  All the way there, he was excitedly anticipating seeing the "Beep Beeps!" (apparently, birds and trucks sound alike).  Once at the site, he lost interest pretty quickly.  I'm sure he wasn't impressed that Mom and Dad didn't come through with the beep beeps. 

We managed to convince our friend, Ann, to get up at 5am and come with us.  She's a wildlife nerd, so we didn't have to try that hard.

The sunrise over the mountains may have been the best part.

By the way, if you are not familiar with the sage grouse's display, google it.  It is impressive.  I'm glad I've seen photos so that I know what I was seeing was cool.