Two

My sweet baby boy turned two today, and once again I marvel at how quickly time flies by.

Sweet August Huxley, what a joy you are. You haven't slowed down since the day you were born. You try so hard to keep up with your older siblings, not an easy task when there are eight and eleven years separating you from your brother and sister, but you're doing a pretty good job of trying to close that gap. You are quite the ham. You love to sing and dance, and you don't like to share the spotlight. You are independent and can protest loudly when help is offered. You jump over, on top of, around, off of anything in your way. Every time we leave the house, you have to jump over the threshold. It makes me smile every time. You love your brother and sister so much, and mimic them every chance you get. You talk as much as any other Roeder (which is quite a lot), and you have the sweetest little voice, especially when you sing. You make us laugh everyday.

August, you have us all quite smitten. 

Happy birthday, little man.

 I'll eat you up. I love you so.

xo

Mommy

Yellowstone: Part 2

The morning of our second day in Yellowstone was spent hiking steep trails, gazing down immense canyons, and standing atop 300 ft waterfalls. Needless to say, I was a bit nervous. The views, however, were spectacular. The waterfall was absolutely amazing. The sound of thousands of gallons of water crashing over a steep cliff was deafening.

It's not very obvious from the pictures atop the waterfall, but we were pretty darn high. Here's some perspective...

 The afternoon brought a string of good luck in terms of timing. We happened upon Yellowstone Lake when the ice had just started to break up. The locals informed us that it took only about 30 hours for the Lake to go from completely frozen to completely thawed. In the 30 minutes we were there, we saw a huge portion of the ice disappear.

Then, as we rounded the park, we stopped at the Old Faithful grounds for a restroom break, knowing we had missed the estimated time for the geyser to blow by 20 minutes. However, we noticed a huge crowd of people still surrounding Old Faithful, and we parked our crew just minutes before he blew. I like to think he waited for us that day. 

Our final stop was at the Fountain Paint Pots where the wind, lighting, and geothermic activity combined forces to create a beautiful display. Oh, how I missed my camera this day.

Well, it's back to work for me. I hope I can soon show you some sneak peeks of what's been eating all of my time.

xo

nessa dee

Yellowstone: Part 1

Over a month after we went to Yellowstone, I'm finally posting pictures on my blog. I've been harboring a lot of blog guilt lately. Every week, blogging goes on my list of things to do, but as life with kids can be busy and unpredictable, and with three art related jobs currently underway, my list slowly shifts from 'things to do' to a triage of 'what has to get done,' 'what can wait,' and 'who was I kidding.' My little blog has had to be very patient with me lately.

Yellowstone was quite an adventure. I didn't know such a landscape exists. I've seen pictures, but actually being immersed in this awe-inspiring place is completely different. You can be driving in a meadow one minute, turn a corner, and suddenly you're on the side of a cliff. You happen upon a frozen lake, and within the course of a half an hour, the ice has broken up, and water runs freely. I'm not joking. The landscape changes that quickly. It was amazing and at times, terrifying. [I'm not one that is too comfortable with heights.]

Our first morning there, the power went out in our cabin before most of us had taken our morning showers. We thought the problem stemmed from the newness of the cabin. We were the first guests to stay in the cabin, so we figured there were a few kinks that needed to be worked out. As it turned out, a transformer blew and knocked power out of all of West Yellowstone. Apparently this never happens, so we packed our bags back up into the van, and headed for the park, thinking we might have to stay elsewhere in case the power wasn't fixed in time for a hot evening shower. Hey, when you're glamping, hot showers are expected. Thankfully, the power was fixed before the day's end, so after a full day circling the north side of the park, we were able to return to a nice warm cabin heated by a remote controlled fire that we found could be easily operated by a one and a half year old.

I was pretty bummed that I didn't have my good camera in tow. Most of the pictures we took with our phones, or our video camera. The quality is not great. Thankfully, our Aunt Susie shared her beautiful pictures with us. I have about a thousand more pics to share, hopefully before another month goes by.

xo

nessa dee