Something to Make You Smile

Helen learned to laugh this week. I taught her myself. All it took was a startling noise and a baby in a good mood and the result was a case of the giggles. - Ryan

Here are a few recent pictures as well.

This is how we got Helen to enjoy tummy-time. I think she's going to be a bookworm like her mom.

The Great South Dakota Tour

Ryan got a few days off work last weekend, and we used it to escape to scenic South Dakota. We were too late this year for the Sturgis Rally (and we don't own a motorcycle) but we managed to find a few exciting sights. Our first stop was Mount Rushmore, which was Ryan's favorite attraction. It was a cool rainy day, so it looked like our founding fathers were crying, as you can see for yourself.

We camped two nights at Custer State Park, a short drive south from Rushmore down a white-knuckle road. The temperature dropped down into the 30's at night, and Helen, in her pink marshmallow suit and multiple blanket layers, was the only one with toasty warm feet. The rain found its way into our tent overnight, as you can tell from our full clothesline in the picture below. It's definitely time to invest in a new tent. I'm thinking of one with no seams that hovers about 4 inches above ground.

We had the company in our camp of many wild turkeys, horses, deer, birds, and some mischievous squirrels. One even had the gall to run into our car while Ryan was making peanut butter sandwiches. Then, when Ryan went to shoo him out of the car, the squirrel made a dash for the peanut butter jar!

We strapped Helen into the carrier for a hike up to Little Devil's tower. The trail was rocky and steep, but not very long. Ryan and Helen had to stop before the summit because it was just too steep for their high center of balance. I went on to the top, as you can see if you click on the picture to get to our Picasa album. The view was spectacular.

Custer Sate Park has a large wildlife preserve that you can see from your car as you drive on the Wilderness Loop road. It's the closest thing to an African safari that we've been to in the USA. We sighted lots of pronghorn antelope, deer, bison, and burros on the beautiful grasslands.

We spent our last night camping in Badlands National Park. This is maybe my favorite park from my childhood. We saw lots of prairie dogs and one fast moving coyote. We're sure there are more coyotes out there because we heard them howling at the full moon all night.Our last stop on the way back to Nebraska was the world's only Corn Palace, in Mitchell, SD. They've been decorating this building with the fruits of the South Dakota harvest (corn, grain, grasses, wild oats, brome grass, blue grass, rye, straw and wheat) nearly every year since 1892! This is a must see, especially for individuals with a taste for fine culture.

Applesauce Anyone?

A few weeks ago I got a Victorio Strainer 200, which I think shows that I have really come of age. I love being a stay-at-home mom; you can get anything on ebay without the go-to-work dad knowing about it until there's an open package on the table and he says, "What's this, honey?" A couple of friends and I found an itty-bitty apple orchard where they let us pick all the apples we want for free. It was then up to us to convert the apples into applesauce. We made 50 quarts - that represents a lot of worms cut out.


Once I recovered from our last batches of applesauce I thought it would be fun for Ryan and I to go apple picking. That leads me to the next topic: I am not allowed to choose what we are doing for our date night for a couple of weeks . . . Earlier this summer I knocked on the door of a houses in the neighborhood where I walk to ask if I could have some apples from their apple tree. He told me that I could take the whole $%?& tree. I took this as a positive invitation to come back and get rid of the apples for him. So then last Friday, I got Ryan all excited* to pick apples and he asked me if they knew we were coming. I danced around the question by referring to the previously mentioned conversation and then I thought I would make Ryan feel better by telling him that I thought the people were gone on vacation or moved out or something. This did not improve Ryan's overall impression of my date idea. I think that he might have used words like illegal, trespassing, breaking and entry, and vandalism. I responded by telling him that we were actually doing our neighbor a favor and protecting his lawnmower from running over all the rotten apples, but he was not convinced. We drove by and I knocked on the door, but no one answered. This was the about the time that Ryan suggested that we just go out for ice cream and call it a night.

This is a portion of our garden, the part that is taking over our porch. We took this picture a couple of weeks ago. The tomato plant now reaches the top of our porch and has over 40 tomatoes growing on it. Our swiss chard that you can see in front of the tomatoes is doing really well, probably Ryan would say that it was doing too well. He has not acquired a taste for the deliciousness that is swiss chard. We planted snap peas and lettuce for our fall harvest and they are doing great. It is amazing how much you can get out of a little space with good planning and miracle grow.

Helen is doing great. As you can see, she loves chewing on my shoulder and taking baths. One of her newest tricks is to fuss when she's alone on her blanket until someone comes over to talk to her. Most likely she will end up being a social butterfly like her father (ha, ha). She also likes forcing her entire fist into her mouth to suck on. Good thing she is not a snake, she would probably put her whole arm in there. Ryan's favorite daddy-daughter-time activity these days is to put her in tummy time and then show her how to roll over again and again. If Helen could talk she'd probably call it daddy-daughter-torture-time; she's really not a fan of rolling yet.

*by excited I mean, willing to participate if forced to