Bridger Ridge Run

He did it!! Not that any of us doubted his natural talent, but it is still impressive that Jeremy has completed his first (and last??) Bridger Ridge Run. After a grueling 15+ hour drive back to Bozeman, Jeremy completed the 20 mile race in just over 6 hours. He was shaky and sore, but came through in good spirits and without injury, which made me happy, so he could drive us home! This crazy race takes place along the ridge of the Bridger Range just outside of Bozeman. The very first peak of the race I've done previously as a day-hike, worthy of the Cochrane clan McCall days. The race ends at the parking lot below the "M". Many of you may remember the hike to the "M" from Sara's wedding - we carried giant umbrellas up it and many of us stopped only about a third of the way up. Well, that little hike that did us in was just the home stretch of this race. Jer said the race was more difficult than he anticipated, with much more of it being uphill than expected. He came through better than I expected, though. It's hard for me to imagine that anyone could go that far, in only 6 hours, and still be able to walk at the end of it. Jer never ceases to amaze me.

We're back in Omaha now, for our last few weeks here before returning to Bozeman in mid September. Our big challenge now is to come up with a baby name before he arrives. We had a difficult time with Alex and are having an even harder time this time. Alex says we should name him Alex Kingma. He thinks that's a great name.

I'm starting to slow down, feeling the strain of carrying this growing baby everywhere. It's been wonderful having the pool just out our door here to take the weight off for at least a little while.

We still haven't decided where to go from here. Life seems so much more complicated now than it did when Alex was born. Strange the difference that a few years can make. It's an exciting time, with lots of possibilities, though. Can't wait to see where the next few months lead us.

Settling In

After much anticipation, Alex and I have arrived in Omaha, and are settling in. We've already had quite an adventure. Alex has joined the Polar Bear Club at the Omaha Zoo, and has weekly meetings to learn all about different creatures, last week was bats. He was excited to learn that bats sleep while hanging from their toes. His favorite part of the zoo, however, may be the metal sculptures of animals that he's able to touch and sit on.

We have an arboretum a few blocks away from our apartment, which Alex often insists on visiting. He likes to hear me read all the names of the different trees. We're getting more exercise here that we have since living on the beach last fall.

Today we all visited the waterfront downtown, and had a nice walk next to fountains and swans.

So far, Omaha seems like a great place to live, except for the wind, humidity, and car accidents. Yes, I had my first accident the first time driving here myself. Ugh. I basically drove off the road at 50 mph, and did a 180, stopping inches from a concrete wall (we're all fine except for the car). Alex thought the whole thing was great fun, and enjoyed the police cars and riding in a tow truck. I'm getting to relive it over and over as he reenacts it with his toy trucks and asks me every time we get in the car if we are going to have an accident this time. This will probably turn out to be his first memory, and I'll never live it down.

I'm at the library and time is short, but hopefully I'll be able to update this again soon.

Hugs from Nebraska!

Alex Imagines Omaha

In a great fit of artistic energy, Alex created the following drawings of what he imagines Omaha to be like. The swirly blue line going up the left side of the page is an escalator "going up to all the toys". The light pink swirl at the top is one of the toys, a choo-choo-train. In the middle of the blue page is the swimming pool, with Alex wrapped in a towel, and his blue rubber ducky, complete with a head, eyes, a tail, and feet. I'm sure this is quite visible to you.
The yellow and green drawing features another escalator also "going up to all the toys". Omaha also has green trees and bushes. As you can see, he has a very detailed idea of what Nebraska will be like. Just a few more days, and we'll see it for ourselves. Note:inspiration for this art came from "The Third Anti-Coloring Book" by Susan Striker, provided by my personal librarian, Mom. Thanks Mom! This is a really neat book!

Golf - a Contact Sport?

Alex and I had the good fortune of a visit from dad yesterday as he passed through town on his way to Colorado. With the crazy hours dad keeps, he arrived here with plenty of time to go to the Museum of the Rockies in the afternoon. Alex kept him safe through the dinosaur exhibit, and dad kept Alex safe through the costume exhibit, featuring original costumes from Star Trek and Star Wars. Then they battled against each other through the Lewis and Clark Challenge outside. I've never seen mini golf played quite like this before.

After an unusual treat of pizza hut delivery for dinner, we headed to our backyard for dad's fireworks show. He brought hand selected fireworks for Alex , including snakes and the little pops that you through at the ground or step on to make them go bang. Alex even stayed up until dark for a show of fountains and assorted other ground blasters. Dani was home and did us the favor of lighting the scarier ones. Alex has been begging for more snakes all day today. Luckily dad left a box for him to set off on the 4th when Jeremy is home.

Thanks Dad for such a fun visit! It was a perfect summer afternoon.

Grandma's Helper

Alex had a weekend of helping Grandpa install an irrigation system for their new lilacs and helping Grandma water by hand.

He also decided that he likes to climb. Here's a picture of one of his first attempts to climb a "tree". He wasn't very successful, but was very cute to watch attempting to scale the nice smooth pole holding the live trees up. Perhaps he'll try to find a tree with branches next time.

Julie's Big Day

Alex and I are back in Bozeman, and enjoying looking back over the pictures from a wonderful weekend in Portland. After a few days in transit, Julie and Ryan are finally off on their honeymoon to Mexico. These pictures highlight some of the many special moments of the wedding weekend, from Julie and I getting our nails done for the first time to Jeremy escorting Mom down the aisle at the start of Julie's ceremony. And of course two of my favorite moments: Eric catching the bouquet and Julie sweeping up after the reception.

Julie is Gartered.

Jeremy coaches Alex before his walk down the aisle.

Eric catches the bouquet.

Julie cleans up after the reception.

Stuffing Julie in the car.

Off to Mexico!

Weekend Festivities

We've just concluded one of my favorite time in the year - two days that are Father's Day, my birthday, and Jeremy and my anniversary. Cathy came for the weekend, which made it even more festive. Strange spending Father's day and my anniversary away from Jeremy. I'm sorry he had to spend them alone this year. At least we'll finally be together again on Thursday.

Summer is really here and we were able to picnic on the beach, complete with sunburns and seagull feedings.

Dad celebrated father's day by making himself a feast. He's certainly the King Crab!

Yesterday we celebrated my birthday by heading for Spokane for a girl's day at the mall.

Julie had a glamorous makeover, and we were given instructions on applying her wedding makeup.

After two hours of cosmetic fun, we headed to a cute little neighborhood straight out of the 50's to visit The Ruby Slipper - a little tiny upscale shoe boutique, a little artsy shop, and a used clothing store, all right in a row. We were too late in the day for milkshakes, but the cute little restaurant was fun just to visit the outside of.

The Milk Bottle

We headed home, leaving Cathy in Spokane, and came home for another feast by dad, presents and a tiny little chocolate brownie cake (perfect!!). Cathy gave me an art set that included items of interest for both Alex and I (toddler safe scissors, water colors, crayons, and oil pastels, to name a few). Mom and dad gave me a wonderful knitting bag filled with supplies to make a couple of really cute little baby hats. I've been wanting something I can accomplish in a room with Alex, and he seems to be letting me knit in peace, so maybe I'll actually be able to finish them!

Alex has decided that he's a puppy dog since Jeremy's uncle Fred put a leash on him a few weeks ago, and now we have to feed him dog food, give him bowls of water, and take him on walks. Here he is with him mommy puppy dog.

Alex feeds his new friend, Mr. Squirrel.