Happy Halloween, continued

Georgie had a very happy halloween! First we went over to the Dupuyer Cache for free coffee and halloween candy (for me). While there we saw some school kids come in and I was reminded that the school was having a little party. So Georgie and I headed over to Dupuyer Elementary School. Georgie loved seeing all the kids running around and screaming from the haunted house. I elected not to actually take her in the haunted house though. I thought several of the kids were dressed up as cowboys, but then realized that that was just their normal apparel. But Georgie did see Spiderman, a rodeo clown, and Chewbacca.

When Nikki got home we all went to Conrad for flu shots. We want to be as protected as possible on our upcoming cruise. Then we stopped over at Frontline Ag to see Grandpa. In case you can't tell, Dale is dressed up as a center pivot irrigation guru.

The goats got to participate in Halloween as well. I gave them a white pumpkin that was loaded with pumpkin meat inside. They go nuts for pumpkins.

Happy Halloween

New teething toy

Two Medicine

Nikki didn't have anything to do at school until the afternoon today. It's been an unseasonably warm week so we had to take advantage and pop over to Glacier.

We drove all the way up to the lake without seeing a single other car. We did see two moose though -- a cow and her calf. We weren't expecting that and didn't even realize they were moose at first. We thought horses, then cows, then I guess we realized where we were and it clicked. They saw me get out of the car and ran along the lakeside, behind the store. We followed them in the car to the campgrounds and got this picture:

Suddenly the rest of our trip became a wildlife viewing drive. We mostly stayed in the car because of bears.

But Georgie didn't mind.

On the way back we stopped in East Glacier for lunch at the Two Medicine Grill.

Then we went through the main reservation town and went to the Obama office looking for car magnets. They didn't have any but we did get a yard sign in exchange for a promise to help canvass in the town where Nikki is doing her research.



I ended up giving the yard sign to the trading post in said town, figuring more people would see it there.

The get-out-the-vote effort on the reservation was pretty impressive. The Indians seem really proud of the fact that the Obama campaign is treating them as an important demographic.

**For the record, Georgie is not wearing a bomber jacket. The inside of her winter coat is fleece and is turned inside out. She would make a very cute 7.5-month old pilot though.

A Walk

Georgie and I did one of our old pastimes today -- no, not prank calling .... going for a walk together. It was warm today (70s), and still warm when I got home. So we were out for about an hour while Aaron took a nap. We walked down to the creek and then to a little park. I showed Georgie the water at the creek, then she sat on the picnic tables until we saw a rabbit to chase after (there are 2 domesticated rabbits around our block; you can't get close enough to catch them or anything, but they will let you get 15 feet or so from them). Here are some pictures (taken with my cell phone).







Update: Aaron just told me it looks like I was dangling G over the water in the third picture. I was not (for that picture or for any of them. I just took the pic so the water was behind her.)

Georgie's first phone call

Georgie made her first phone call this evening. Unfortunately, it appears that it was to 911. A little while after she went to bed, and while I was on the phone with the satellite radio company, there was a loud knock at the door. I told the customer service guy to hold on and got the door. At the door was the county sheriff and two deputies. I quickly realized that they weren't just dropping by to say hello. They searched the house and store and made sure Nikki was OK before laughing it off and chalking it up to kids being kids. God what scare though. Oh, and I mention that I was on the phone because it seemed like I made the customer service guy's night. He was on hold for a while, then I told them I had to call him back. Very worriedly he asked me if everything is ok, as though I was being busted by the cops and still trying to update my credit card info.

For the record -- Georgie likes playing with the cordless phone for some reason and I always unplug the battery when she does. But Nikki saw how much she was enjoying that the numbers beep and light up when you push them so she indulged her.

New laugh

Georgie has developed a new sort of sniffle/scrunch laugh. At first we thought her nose was clogged and we were using the aspirator like crazy. Then we realized that she just had figured out how to breathe rapidly through her nose. The other thing she has been doing a lot in conjunction with this laugh is babbling. Actually, if you are married to a linguist you are required to say that this is canonical babbling.

Sunset

I tried to capture a bit of sunset in Dupuyer. Our camera's 'sunset' mode didn't do the greatest job but this is something in the vicinity of how nice it looks.

Chores With Papa

It only lasted a few minutes until Georgie wanted out of her bear suit ... but Georgie had fun helping Papa with the goats this evening, now that we have them back. (Thanks again to my parents for watching them for 2 weeks!!)

Sunday

Today Georgie tried spaghetti squash for the first time and really liked it.

Also this morning, Georgie got to meet her only great-grandparent on Nikki's side -- Grandpa John. She was somewhat interested in him but mostly fascinated with his sticker-covered homemade PVC pipe walking cane.

Today also marked the return of these guys:It's good to have them back, even though they haven't gotten any quieter in the last two weeks.

Meanwhile, Georgie and I are continuing to celebrate the Longhorns' narrow victory over OSU yesterday.

And Nikki made Georgie laugh with her monster sounds:

A Saturday at home

For the second or third time since we've been here, we've had a free weekend. So today we decided to run down to Choteau to get some errands done. We stopped in at Mountain Front Market to pick up a few things. They had just gotten in a lot of fresh Montana apples. Above is Nikki and Georgie enjoying a McIntosh. Georgie is of course only sucking on the juice, not eating any chunks or anything. She's not quite there yet, though this is threatening to change that:

Because it wasn't a school day, Nikki decided to debut these new socks that she got in Portland:

More pictures from Portland (taken by beloved Aunt Darla)

I can stand up

Now I am going to try reading

Also I had to throw in a picture of our dinner cooking.

Georgie Bear

Georgie and I went over to see Grandma today. We also picked up the cats that they were nice enough to watch. I was a little worried about the solo drive but Georgie slept the entire way there and back. The timing was perfect. We went to visit the goats in the barn so Georgie got to dress up like a bear to stay warm.

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