I see the moon

I see the moon and the moon sees me, and the moon sees the one I want to see. God bless the moon and God bless me, and God bless the one that I want to see...

God looked down from up above and he picked you out for me to love. He picked you out from all the rest because he knew I would love you best...

ADDIE: Daddy was the one who picked me! When I was in your tummy Daddy picked me out for you to love. He did a good job of picking me out because he knew you were the mommy who would love me best! Daddy is a good day that way!

Commercials

I'm kind of proud of the fact that it has taken nearly 7.5 years before Ellie discovered commercials. We started watching So You Think You Can Dance and unfortunately we can not fast forward past the commercials. It didn't take Ellie long before she was hooked. There was a shampoo commercial that claims to de-tangle your hair for 7 days! Ellie thought that was simply incredible because that means you only have to brush your hair once a week. After I explained to her that commercials are meant to trick us into spending money, she admitted she was tricked. She admits that she's having a hard time believing it's too good to be true. Hahaha.

God said "Let there be eggs"

ADDIE: Daddy, are witches for real?
DADDY: Uh... There are a lot of different beliefs...

(in all honesty, I don't know... if someone practices Wicca, do they also consider themselves a witch?)

DADDY: Some people who find power in the world around them. They believe that the moon, sun, trees and animals have certain powers that all work together. I don't know for sure, but I think these people might call themselves witches.

ADDIE: What do other people believe?

DADDY: There are others who believe that God made us...

ADDIE: God didn't make me! My mommy and daddy made me! But maybe God made eggs because I don't know how **THAT** works!

The science of hugs

With great big tears in her eyes, Addie tells me "Day told me to give you a hug. " She proceeds to give me a hug then breaks down crying.

I ask her,  "Why are you so sad?"

"Because now I don't have a hug! Daddy gave me a hug and then told me to give you one so now I don't have a hug to keep!"

Oh sweetness.  I had to explain the science behind hugs and how when someone gives you a hug it is yours to keep forever, but that it has the power to fill you up with so much love that you can give anyone else as many hugs as you want and you will never give away the one that was given to you.

With a relieved smile she wiped her tears from her face and said "Thank you, Mommy."

Do you know the story of Pinocchio?

ELLIE: Tell us a story, Mommy.
MOMMY: Do you know the story of Pinocchio?
ELLIE: Yes.
MOMMY: Well once upon a time there lived a man named... Umm.... There lived a man named Gelato.
DADDY: Uh... Mommy, do **YOU** know the story of Pinocchio? Did you mean Geppetto?

Silly Daddy. I knew better than him and stuck to the story about Gelato and his wooden spoon who wanted to be a REAL spoon one day. In order to be a REAL spoon the little wooden spoon knew that he would have to brave the dishwasher, as everyone knows that wooden spoons do not last in the dishwasher.

As I'm sure you're familiar with the story yourself, you know that it ends with the brave little wooden spoon turning into a REAL silver spoon and Gelato was able to eat his ice cream after all. Though he did get a brain freeze.

Sometimes as a parent, you have to save face and carry on with grace and composure, as if you know exactly what you're talking about. Thank you very much.

Tid-Bits

ADDIE: Until next time, I bid you "I Do!"

I love Ellie's poses. She'll put effort into her outfit and strike a pose to show off how grown-up she looks. It makes me chuckle every time.

I love how Addie doesn't hesitate to try new foods. Her "No Thank You" bite is usually the first to be gone from her plate. She has discovered some items she loves and others that she doesn't but she's not afraid to try. After years of struggling (and still dealing with it) of picky eaters, I can not express how nice this is.

I love how Ellie helps her little sister without giving it a second thought. She's so caring.

ADDIE: I like to use my brain! My favorite thing to play is Brain Games!

For all her act, Ellie struggles sometimes with the concept of growing up. Most of the time she'll say things to try to look or act older, but every now and then she admits to wishing she was still little. It's an ageless problem for us all, isn't it?

What are baby frogs called?
According to Addie, "taddle-poles."

I love how the girls have started pointing out all the hearts they can find. It started with searching for heart-shaped rocks but now they point out things like heart-shaped toast, shadows, puddles or even leaves. The world is full of love and I love how much they make it a point to make sure I see it all.

I absolutely loved the girls' reactions to driving through the waterfalls in Glacier National Park (weeping wall). Ellie pretended like it's all cool but when it was Addie's turn, she squealed with delight. Her giggles are priceless.

Wordless Wednesday

Yellowstone

On the way home we decided it was worth taking the time to see a bit of Yellowstone too...

Grand Prismatic Spring

Grand Prismatic Spring

Sunset over a random river

Old Faithful at Dusk

We didn't stay long but we did manage to see enough to know we want to return!

Hiking Glacier

Just in case the previous set of "Purty" didn't entice you into going, let me share some of our hikes with you...

My Little Family got to go on a couple of hikes during our stay in Montana. The first one, to Avalanche Lake, resulted in mixed reviews. Avalanche Creek was as stunning as ever but we didn't make it up to the lake. Our guess is we made it about 3/4 of the way before we had to turn around because we were meeting the Big Family for a tour bus trip (which ended up being a flop since the pass hadn't opened yet).

The next hike more than made up for it. Round trip it was close to 4 miles, which may very well be the longest the girls have every hiked, but it was a fantastic hike. From beginning to end there were 5-6 waterfalls to keep the girls motivated and moving. Just when they were starting to get tired, BAM! There's a waterfall! It's like the park designers planned this trail just for families like us.

Addie won the prize for being the most entertaining on the hike. She started to tell a story full of grandparents, princesses, knights, queens, kings, babies and all the interactions between them. There were tid-bits about various silly relationships between key characters and even a point in which the kingdom had asked Addie, herself, to become the queen of all the fuzzballs. She described in great detail the pros and cons of such a great decision placed upon her shoulder, and ended up deciding that the fuzzballs were worth saving after all. With all the detail she put into the story line and even pointing out where various characters lived, worked and played, you'd think that she was talking about a kingdom of fairies but you'd be wrong.

She was talking about a kingdom of plants. She fell in love with the little tuffs of grass along the trailside and created an entire world around them. WOW. I've always known she has quite an imagination, but THE. GIRL. DID. NOT. STOP. TALKING. UNTIL. WE. REACHED. THE. TOP. OF. THE. TRAIL. at which point she politely asked me if it was ok for her to stop now because she's tired. HAHAHA.

The girls made it all the way until the very last hill up to the parking lot before they complained too much about being tired. Quite honestly, we could not have expected more from them. It was a long but good hike. I highly recommend the hike to St. Mary's Falls and Victoria Falls.

Just in case you didn't get the hint... Glacier was definitely infested with waterfalls. It seemed that they were everywhere. Did I mention that I love this place?

PURTY

It's no wonder why Glacier National Park is one of my favorite places. Let's go again!

Glacier National Park

In case you didn't notice, we recently went on a trip. We took the little family up to Glacier National Park. In fact, it was a Big Family trip. We met Pappy & Grammie up there, along with all of their children and grandchildren (Two grandparents, 8 parents, 1 uncle and 6 grandchildren). It was a lot of fun to see Pappy & Grammie again and I got a kick out of watching the cousins play together. Alas, I've reached a point in my parenthood where taking crazy amounts of pictures just no longer happens so I have nothing to show for the fun we had but it included going to Whitefish for the alpine slide, building forts and playing games outside.

I was surprised, though, at how much Little Family time we managed to sneak into the trip! Maybe this was because every Little Family had their own agenda and many people wanted to do something different like shopping, swimming or playing golf. Heck, there was also those who tried to sleep in. Maybe it was because we showed up a few days after everyone else and they had already gotten their Glacier fix in. Whatever the reason, we found ourselves with many half-day hikes through waterfall infested green mountains.

We collected smooth rocks and even found a couple heart-shaped ones. Ellie learned how to skip rocks, which is always a fun way to pass some time. The Big Family went on rafting trips. We stuck with the scenic one while others took to the white water. Grammie apparently fell out of the boat in their first encounter with a rapid, so that was a little scary. Other than that the rafting trips were huge successes.

I must say, I'm always surprised at how amazing my girls are... specifically to one another. They're really fantastic sisters and though they were overwhelmed with sleep deprivation (fun times and a late setting sun can do that to you), they still managed to look out for each other and be... well, just what they are... good sisters.

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

No Thank You Bites

It really is what you think you're seeing. Somehow we ended up buying crickets and worms. Yes. Crickets. And. Worms. The rule is to have at least one "no thank you" bite. Blech. Surprisingly, Addie liked the worms so much that she finished the entire bag.

Did I mention "Blech?"

On the bright side... I think this girl is ready for some worldly traveling!