Despite wind chills well below -30 degrees, Piper and I enjoyed a lovely walk this morning. Feels like a metaphor for Minnesota right now… we are undeterred by ICE.
Undeterred
Tag Archives: pictures
Oliver’s Ninth Birthday Party
On our last warm day before winter, Oliver invited some friends over to celebrate his ninth birthday. We got to enjoy playing games in the yard, including a nearly invulnerable piñata, followed by gifts and cake. It was wonderful!
First Fall Morning at the Cabin
We also spotted the otters playing in the lake, but they were too elusive for the camera.
Looking Sharp!
Griffin and our Spanish exchange student, Irene, went to the homecoming dance in style.
Maggie at Ren Fest
First Day of Third Grade
First Day of 8th and 11th Grades
It’s that time again! Maggie enters eighth grade today while Griffin begins his junior year. It’s an orientation day at both grade levels, so there won’t be any real classes until tomorrow. (For the teachers, orientation is far more work than a regular class day, so I’ll definitely earn my meager keep today!)
Road Hazards
After a fantastic morning hiking the north rim of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone (that post will have to wait for better bandwidth), we headed back to our cabin via the longer route along the shore of Yellowstone Lake. We encountered multiple natural obstacles along the way.
First, a bison crossed the road near Canyon Village. This brings traffic to a stop not just because people don’t want to injure the bison, but because everybody wants pictures. Including me.
Shortly thereafter, we stopped again for an elk with an impressive rack of antlers moseying across. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get a picture. It’s the closest view I’ve ever had of an elk.
Then we were hit with a sudden thunderstorm. The temperature dropped more than 20 degrees in ten minutes and the wind picked up dramatically. The waters of Yellowstone Lake were whipped into whitecaps.
Shortly after Maggie took that picture, we were stopped because a large pine fell across the road about five cars ahead of us. It fully stopped traffic in both directions. A group of road heroes managed to tow it to the side with a large pickup. This only cleared one lane, but it was enough for people to squeeze by.
When we finally returned to our cabins, Old Faithful welcome us home by erupting as we pulled in. Pretty amazing.
Fairy Falls
We hiked up past Grand Prismatic Spring and Fairy Falls to Imperial Geyser. Although it was a relatively easy route, the sun is intense at this altitude, so we were flagging a bit by the time we got back to the trailhead.
Baby Birds
Next to our garage, we have a ramshackle clematis. Hidden within the leaves and flowers is a sparrow nest with some just hatched babies. Meanwhile, a robin has gotten busy with a nest on top of the light fixture containing two bright blue eggs.
