two sofias

It has been a long time since my whole family was together. Logan and Katrina moved to Boston a year or so ago (which is the perfect excuse for that trip to Boston that I still haven't been on!) so that he could attend the Berklee School of Music. I still love bragging about that, about having a brother attending the prestigious Berklee (and I have to say "prestigious Berklee," of course). There may be a little bit of a pianist in me that's vicariously living her dreams through him. Or just jealous. Take your pick. Anyway, I was very excited to see him and Katrina, especially with that adorable baby bump. Seriously, have you ever seen a cuter baby bump? To say that I am excited about getting another niece is probably the world's greatest understatement.

Anyway, since it is so rare for the family all to be together anymore, we took a trip to Jackson, Wyoming, which is a favorite family destination. We always go to the Bar J Wranglers cowboy show and then take a hiking trip near Jenny Lake the next day. Sadly, I spent a lot of this trip NOT socializing with my siblings, which made me sad. Lina was horribly cranky (thrush, I think), and doesn't like to nurse covered. I know it makes several of the family men squeamish to see her nurse uncovered. And, so, I spent a lot of time tucked away in a room at the cabin (not ours, but glorious, nonetheless), trying to keep her happy and/or catching up on sleep. Oh, well.

The hike went off without a hitch, though. I have been looking forward to this hike for weeks. Lately, my soul has needed to see a forest, and my booty has needed a good walk uphill, so this was a perfect day for me. We bought a boba carrier to add into the rotation with the boba wrap, mostly just so we would have a place to put Sofia during the hike. Turns out the boba carrier is not super compatible with Ryan's long torso, but we made do. Next time, we will switch. He can wrap Emmeline and I will backpack Sofie. In any case, it was a good day. I love Jenny Lake. The hike isn't hard, but it's gorgeous. Even on a crowded labor day weekend, the trail had plenty of space and the other hikers were friendly. And the lake... Oh, I wish I had taken a decent photo of the lake. We somehow ended up on the mountain with nothing but an iPhone camera. Probably a good thing, as we had plenty of other things (kids) to haul, but a photographic loss all the same! I bought an annual pass to the national parks, with the optimistic thought that maybe we can come back again soon.

We partied for Sofia's second birthday party. Lately, I've been trying to teach Sofie the right answers to all the common questions. "What's your name?" "Sofia." "How are you?" "Fine, thank you." "How old are you?"

Well, the typical response to this question is, "I'm two Sofias!" Funny girl. How are you two already? I'm in love with her. She is my little sunshine.

first day of school

 

First day of school, 2013, where there were several tears shed (by both children and a certain troublemaking German Shepherd puppy) over who did and did not get to ride the school bus. Matt is a fourth grader this year and is mostly excited about getting lockers (the intermediate school used to be the old high school). I hope he has a good year.

emmeline grace

 

 Welcome, my beautiful girl. Emmeline Grace arrived early this morning, via C-Section (still the awesomest way to have a baby, in my opinion--I did great with this one). She is seven pounds even, and I'm not sure how tall. I think at least a half a pound is just hair. She is cuddly and likes to be wrapped as tightly as you can manage. I am in love. Also, I am really happy I'm not pregnant anymore.

that lame first post

Well, hey there.

(There is no way for a first post on a new blog to be anything but lame. I know this because I’ve been sitting here for twenty minutes, and I’ve written fifteen different paragraphs and then erased them, and I’ve given up on this post being anything but lame. But here goes...)

We just planted our family in a beautiful farmhouse on a completely untamed patch of land that is part of a big farm near the Snake River. Our front yard is a gravel driveway and a decrepit orchard that was destroyed by goats several years ago. Our backyard is a brambly mess of trees, both living and dead, that includes a little old brick house that is nasty and needs torn down. Our property includes a cute little red barn, a half-finished chicken coop, and a whole lot of mud. (SOOO much mud...) Our house is so new that I can’t even bring myself to hammer a nail to hang a painting. (And, since I have kids and pets, it is also full of mud.) We are completely in love with the whole place. Everything in life feels like a blank canvas right now.

There is a lot of taming that needs done around here, and I am, frankly, a little overwhelmed with everything that needs to be done. But there are great possibilities.

Since everything else is new in life, it just makes sense to also start fresh with a blank canvas here. I could go back to an old, well-established blog, but it feels like going back to the old town. There’s nothing wrong with it. There's some great history and a lot of great memories there. But I don’t live there anymore.

So, welcome to Wild Dirt (a fairly literal title, but also somewhat representative of the chaos that comes with living with my particular mix of children and animals). For the moment, I am looking at this as an experiment in whether I want to keep up with a blog or not, so I hope you will visit the way my friends in real life visit—with a full awareness that life is a little wild and unpredictable and that I can’t be trusted to stick with anything. But I will do my best to chronicle the ups and downs of life on an Idaho farm, particularly as we have NO idea what we are doing, which I figure is always fodder for some good entertainment.

My next post will, hopefully, be less lame.