Montana trip, part one...

Mountain sheep! Mountain goats! Mountain children!

Snow in July (at the top of Logan pass) is always fun. We spotted a herd (?) of mountain sheep and a lone mountain goat, and amused ourselves by sliding around in the snow. On the shuttle bus ride down, we saw a family of mountain goats, with shaggy, slightly grimy adults and cute, freshly-issued kids, which made me laugh. The shuttles were really cool - we brought lunch with us and ate before riding to the top of Logan Pass, then had quite a comfortable (and free!) trip to the top and then back when we were ready. Much nicer than driving.

Upcoming: we tie dye! we swim! we fish! we run although there are no pictures of the actual half-marathoning so we will illustrate with post-practice-run photos from the park!

Initial Montana photos....

Somehow we misplaced the cable that attaches the camera to the computer and allows for the magical downloading of pretty vacation pictures. But luckily I took some with my phone... here's a sampling of Fun Summer Stuff.

Grace and Peter at lunch in Bigfork... some flowers in a planter at UM, in Missoula... and most fun of all, a tree sporting a knitted cozy. Like a tea cozy, designed to keep one's tea warm in the pot during a leisurely afternoon of tea sipping. Only for a tree. I think this is fabulous and hope it catches on, that trees everywhere rise up and demand to be cozied.

It might have had something to do with the tree's proximity to a yarn store, but we'll leave things open for interpretation...

Mamas run wild!

We're in Montana for our annual vacation that I'm hoping, over time, gives my kids a powerful sense of place and a deep connection with the outdoor world. But in the meantime, they are learning to appreciate that mamas run fast.

About a year ago, my friend Kara and I tossed around the idea of doing a marathon this summer. We decided in the spring that the half marathon was more our speed (pun alert! pun alert!) and have been training for it for months. It required some logistics (registration, hotel reservations in Missoula, wrangling of three generations of each of our families to meet at the finish) and we left to the end some of the important details, like how fast we might run, and whether we would even run well together.

Happily it only took one four-mile practice run to determine that our paces were compatible (this after I disclosed over the phone a few weeks ago "I can't possibly run faster than ten minute miles!" and Kara responded "Thank goodness!") We met up the morning of the run, and in my coffeeless state I was so glad that Kara was thinking things like "Is this the right bus?" so that we didn't accidentally get dropped at the full marathon finish. The pep talk at the start was typically annoying, but the other runners, especially the ones dancing to the warm up music, had us giggling, and the day was gorgeous - clear and sunny, but not hot.

And the run was amazing! Several miles of rural roads, and then a slow turn into town. As the houses got closer together, more and more people were out playing music (sometimes live, including some great kids on violin and oboe) and showering us with their sprinklers and - amusingly - having cookouts.

Kara's so fun to run with, and she's smart in a way that I am not smart. She planned race strategy in a way that meant we pushed really hard at the end, and - in her words - had a "strong finish." My usual m.o. is to try to keep an even pace throughout, and then inevitably slow down near the end as I tire out. Her way is more fun and more energizing and I don't think I could have done it without someone to show me how. We had a 5 minute lag at the portapotties near mile 5, but otherwise ran faster than our target pace, finishing with a very respectable 2:16:15. If you enter either of our last names in the finish cam engine (link below), you can see us at the end - she's in the sunglasses and brown shirt, I'm in the navy blue tank top, and we split up and zip around a guy in a red shirt right at the end. I've *never* run faster than anyone at the end, but we were passing people from about mile 10, and it felt really, really good.

http://www.runwildmissoula.org/index.php/fuseaction/missoulaMarathon.main.htm

Other things that were new to me: lots of people had temporary tattoos of the race logo (see image above), and lots of people had special tape on various hurting parts of their bodies (mostly knees and feet). It seems like a gamble to tape yourself up for race day, but it seemed to work. There are also a lot of tattoos in general in Missoula, more per capita than in Omaha, and I had fun looking at people's ink as we ran.

Next year we're going to do the full, and Kara's doing a half and I'm doing a half later in the fall. It was a New Year's resolution for me to get back into half marathon shape (after time off running last fall to get some physical therapy on my IT band) and stay there, and I'm really happy about how good my knees are doing and how much fun it has been to run this spring and summer.

Other vacation stories, which will likely come out of chronological order: We visit sheep! We go fishing several times without catching fish! We swim and hike and play in the park! Mama learns to kayak (which turns out to not require much skill if one is on a sunny, placid lake)! We go on a treasure hunt and are delighted with with results!

It has been a nice vacation.

One of these things... is not like the other.

In which we do some delicious cultural/religious anthropology and determine... Swedes and Italian's ain't identical.

First, as avid readers of our blog will remember, we are quite fond of the Swedish Santa Lucia tradition in our household. (It is the inspiration for our Christmas tree topper, several elementary school presentations, a regular December home celebration, and our tattoo.) We noticed last year that local Italians also have a Santa Lucia festival, which happens in June. Naturally, we've been wanting to go, and today was our chance.

The Swedish festival, to recap: usually happens in church; involves a flaming crown; has a great set of traditions like lussekatter (eyes on a bun!) and Starboys (little brothers in choir robes!) and is scheduled for the darkest night of the (Gregorian) year.

The Italian festival, if the local one is any indication, is like this: a carnival! In summer! With awesome Italian food! And beer! And a tiara from the 1950's! And a statue who gets paraded around! And karoke!

I had an Italian sausage and [red] pepper sandwich that was - really, really good. A longtime festival-goer recommended it, and she did not steer me wrong. Grace had fried ravioli, and if that sounds odd, it ... was odd. Still decent. Peter had a hot dog, that being his default Kid Food. And the kids had some ice cream. We also chatted up the reigning Lucia Festival Queen, who was as lovely and polished and friendly a young person as I have met in some time. And y'all will remember that I teach college, so those are words of high praise indeed. She mentioned that as her gift to the festival, she had the tiara professionally restored, which I found just delightful.

So it wasn't totally clear to me what any of this had to do with Lucia, the (possibly fictional) young woman martyred in the third century of the common era. There was an organ transplant advocacy organization sponsering the festival, and Lucia did allegedly have her eyes taken out, so there's that... but it was fun and yummy and the kids enjoyed it, so what else could I ask, really?

Sample of Spring

Spring is here, and even overtaking us. We have hydrangias looking good, seedings growing inside, tomatos accumulating inside and waiting to be planted, things blooming everywhere, and some very odd-looking little baby birds, whose thoughtful parents have housed them in a pretty wreath I got at Marshall Fields (RIP) several years ago 75% off. Yeah, I'll be washing it carefully when they're done.

Recently the kids counted 20 trees in bloom visible from our back deck. Running in all of that scent and petal confetti is like a funny fairy tale. It is spring, and we are glad.

Egg hunt win!

Today, the Easter Bunny managed to do her thing before the kids woke up (sometimes the Bunny comes while we're at church, but not this year.) So first the kids made pastry under Papa's guidance (Nutella plus puff pastry equals yum) and then while it baked they hunted for eggs (hence the chocolate smears on some participant's faces.)

It was fun, all the eggs were located, fancy chocolate pleased one and all, and contrary to what you'd expect the kids were extraordinarily well-behaved at church. Perhaps chocolate acts as a sedative under certain circumstances? Must investigate further.

Easter fun

Temporarily postponing Peter's birthday pictures to blog our Easter preparations. The Easter china gets its time in the sun starting today, which Grace and I, at least, find great fun.

We did the standard egg dyeing, plus one sock that Peter turned pink, and the colors seemed especially pretty, including a couple of eggs my very, very favorite shade of blue. One egg got cracked so there was an uneven number, and the kids compromised by taking turns writing on the last egg with pencil before dyeing it. Grace picked a quiche recipe from a kid cookbook, which seems to have turned out well, and we've got a grownup quiche with suspicious vegetables like.... ... mushrooms as well. Papa has a pastry plan for tomorrow, and so it all seems as it should: nice brunch on the pretty dishes we've used since Grace was a baby, and church on Easter, and an egg hunt with our beautifully dyed eggs afterwards, plus a metric ton of good chocolate. Mmmmm.... resurrection!