Bathlander

My family headed to northwest Wyoming for Spring Break, spending time in Thermopolis, Cody, and Dubois. The primary reason for our trip was to visit the Buffalo Bill Center for the West in Cody. Having worked in museums for most of my professional career, I am a complete museum geek, so I was excited to discover that the Center for the West was not too far away from here (and even closer when the roads in Yellowstone are open!). This facility is amazing! It’s actually five museums in one - Cody Firearms Museum, Whitney Western Art Museum, Draper Natural History Museum, Buffalo Bill Museum, and Plains Indian Museum. It really does have something for everyone. Now before my next statement, you need to understand that my kids are 6 and 3 and generally insane. They cannot sit still, are incapable of being quiet, and completely lack patience: We spent almost six hours at the Center for the West. Six hours. Can you believe it? I cannot. Each of the five museums is the perfect size. Not so b

I turn 40 this week. Yellowstone National Park is one of my favorite places in the world, so I decided we should go spend the weekend in the park for my birthday. As we got closer, I discovered I wasn’t really looking forward to it. Both kids are exhausting at the moment, and Ophelia especially does not do well in the car. Or in the cold. Or in any situation where her indecipherable needs are not being met. When I saw that thunderstorms were forecast all weekend, I almost canceled. But we’d paid a deposit on the cabin so we decided to take a chance and see what happened.  Well. The weather worked out almost perfectly and the kids were amazing! They handled all the time in the car, they hiked, they even (mostly) behaved themselves in a fancy restaurant. Ah. Maze. Zing.  On day one, we headed up to West Yellowstone and had our usual giant pancake lunch before venturing into the park. Then we drove down to West Thumb geyser basin, where both children managed to a) not fall i

We said goodbye to the bottle tonight. Which means no more baby bottles in this house ever again! We’ve been getting rid of baby stuff for a while now. In March we donated/sold the stroller, baby car seat, high chair, and play pen, and I’ve been happily ditching a bag or two of baby clothes every few weeks. I haven’t felt sad or sentimental about any of it. I love getting rid of stuff (I am married to a hoarder , after all), and I do not miss the baby stage since I found it so damn hard. But something about the end of the bottle gave me pause. I had such trouble feeding both of them, from my breastfeeding woes with Declan to Ophelia’s failure to gain weight , that the bottle has been a huge focus in our lives for over four years. When Declan was our only child, I never understood all of the parents bemoaning how quickly time was passing. I just didn't feel it. Once Ophelia arrived, however, all of that changed. Time now flits away without a care and I feel like I'm missing

I have moved my blog over to this free Blogger site instead of using Wordpress.org and paying (quite a lot) for hosting through GoDaddy. As a result, all of my past posts from September, 2013 through December, 2018 are archived under January, 2019 . It didn't feel like I was using my blog enough to warrant paying for it, but I also didn't want it to disappear completely, so here is my compromise. If there isn't much going on over here, you can find my regular content over on the  Idaho Falls Mom's Blog .

It feels like 2018 passed in a blur. I'm not entirely sure what we did; I just know that I'm tired. SO tired! The year started with struggles. Ophelia wasn't eating and I wasn't coping. Fortunately, solids helped her, and this success combined with some therapy helped me. She then had a succession of ear infections and stopped responding to ALL the antibiotics so ear tubes went in. Life got easier after that. We did our annual trip to Yellowstone for opening weekend, Christian's parents came out for Easter, we spent a rainy weekend at Henry's Lake, we captured and looked after a giant caterpillar (Mr Happy), and Declan went to the theater for the first time to see Joseph. Summer brought gymnastics and swimming for Declan and a new venture with the Idaho Falls Moms Blog for me. Declan also attempted to bite off half of his tongue at school one day. My parents came out for five weeks in the fall and we enjoyed two wonderful cabin trips in Challis with boat rides

I'm incredibly proud to be a contributor for the new Idaho Falls Mom's Blog , which launched today! I'm hopeful it will be a great motivator for my writing, but also a way to meet local moms. I'm useless at meeting new people and this group should force me to be social - it already has once when we took our headshots (which look amazing, btw). Writing a post or two each month for the mom's blog means I will definitely be neglecting this site - so check out my posts over there. I plan to write about ARTitorium stuff, crafting with a toddler, and general parenting topics (next post - potty training!).