camping/rafting

Last weekend we went for an excellent adventure with our friends the Christensens.  We combined a night of camping with a full day on the Gallatin River.

I don't mean to rub it in... but the summer up here really has been glorious.  We are getting to do all of the things we dreamed about doing.  The weather has been phenomenal and the long days make for absolutely spectacular weekends/sunsets.

We headed down towards Yellowstone and camped in Gallatin National forest.  Free camping right by the Taylor Fork River.  Spectacular.

Here are some pictures and light commentary.

Scott and Ashley enjoying the scenery.  The river was flowing a little quick so we had to be on alert with the little ones running around, but the setting was just so perfect.  Once you settle on the fact that car camping is the only way you'll be camping for the next foreseeable future, there are just so many great places that you can go.

Here's another view of the campground as we got set up with the Christensens.  We miss our friends in LA dearly and nothing can replace them, but we've also been blessed with great friends here in Bozeman.

Ashley and our skipper, Scott - ponder the best way to attack the Gallatin River the next morning.

George - sometimes has issues with other kids his age.  Frenemies is the best way to describe it. Not with Abram.  George loves Abram... he thinks he is hilarious.  Here is a picture that Celia took of the two little guys yucking it up.

In addition to the the busy river next to our campsite, there was also a very calm streamlet right next to us as well.  The kiddos loved playing in it. I think some people might be reticent to take their kids camping.  If you give up on the notion of getting an "awesome" night's sleep, camping with kids can be a lot of fun.  We have been camping with George since he was about 5 months old.

Here we are all gathering around... singing a few lines of "Michael rode the boat ashore."

The Christensen's treated us to some home made, deep dish, brick-oven, coleman-warmed personal pan pizzas.  We made flapjacks for breakfast topped off with Ashley's delicious buttermilk syrup.  Camping in style!

Celia & Scott are great camping companions.  Family camping can be so fun if you go with people who totally know what they are doing... not that we are imbeciles, but after a few anecdotes about grizzly bears Ashley was definitely considering moving the tent a little closer to their tent.

We scoured for wood to burn, and Ashley was amazed at my camouflage techniques.  Can you spot me?

A lovely fire was topped with smores in the Rocky Mountains.

 

Family picture.  Pulsiphers, 2011.  Still waiting on a winning name for baby #2.   From some angles Ashley is deceptively pregnant.

Picture of our campsite in the morning.  Much to our relief, there were no grizzly sitings.  I tend to be a worrier about these kinds of things, but if you follow all of the rules (keeping a clean camp, storing all smelly things inside the car) you really are doing about as much as you can. Scott brought a can of bear spray, but after a few stories about its misuse I wasn't sure which I was more alarmed by, the potential for a bear encounter or the likelihood that the bear spray would end up being used on myself, somehow.

The Pulsipher family all together on their first rafting expedition.  We had previously braved the Madison river on inner tubes, but this time we were on the Gallatin river in an actual, sea-worthy vessel.  Scott is a very skilled raftsman and I tried to do my best to impress the group with my mastery of nautical terms via Whale Wars.

George enjoyed rafting so much, that he wore himself right out.  Towards the end of the trip we had another Montana highlight, our first moose sighting.  It was so cool.

I was very proud of Ashley pulling all of this adventure off while 8 months pregnant.  We may have discovered another secret to car-camping.  The inflatable mattress.  It makes a significant difference in your comfort level. I used to... scoff at the notion.  But really, if you aren't "light backpacking" and hiking/biking into your campsite, you might as well go all out.  Portable satellite dishes, inflatable swimming pools, coco lattes, foot spas, and every other comfort you can squeeze into your car - all fair game I say ; ).

it's boots and straps and cowboy hats

Saturday Night we went to the Livingston Rodeo.  Livingston is the next town over (east) from Bozeman. We haven't spent any time there, but cruising through it the other night confirmed to us that we'll need to go back.  The downtown area looked really cute and the main boulevard is right by the train tracks, so that is a huge bonus for George.

Livingston puts on a bona fide rodeo.  As you can tell by the clientele in the picture below, there was no fooling around.  We tried to blend George in with his cowboy hat.  Though the crocs might have been a tipoff that we weren't exactly seasoned rodeo goers.

The rodeo kept George's attention pretty much through out the duration of the night.  It went over three hours, and George didn't squirm or have a need do to any prolonged sprinting.  Our general admission seats weren't exactly the best, but the action was good for a toddler audience.

There was all kinds of things going on at that rodeo.  First off - let me say that if you are easily offended the rodeo might not be the best place to go.  We had the unfortunate experience of falling into many of the demographics that served as the butt of the announcers jokes.

• Californians
• People who voted for Obama
• Democrats
• Utah
• Bill / Hillary sympathizers.

I'm sure if they found out we were wearing chacos and drove a CR-V to the show we would've been put in their volunteer rodeo-clown program.

Most of the people in the audience were laughing pretty hard at the Obama jabs... makes me wonder what the left-leaning equivalent of the rodeo could be, any ideas?

The sight seeing/people watching was fantastic.  Check out this zoro dude in front of us.

Another key factor that may have contributed to George's enthusiasm for the rodeo, could have been his introduction to cotton candy.  Do you think he liked it?

Methinks that's a yes.

Despite the... questionable comedic repertoire/color commentary of the announcers, it was still really really cool to see a completely new (to us) athletic competition. The crowning event of the rodeo is the bull riding.  It is so fun to see the cowboys try to ride the HUGE bulls.  George loved every second of it.

Here's an action shot of the first event of the night, bare-backed bronco ridin'.

As with most events in our family, George looked the coolest.  I'm sometimes jealous that George looks about 10,000 times cooler than me every time we're in public.  Ok, not really jealous, but I wish I looked as natural at the rodeo as he did.  I think he was even laughing at the bill & hillary jokes.  What a chameleon!

All in all it was a great night.  George loved it so much that in his half-sleep state, he proclaimed "Bulls!" as we put his pajamas on.  A ringing endorsement from the coolest member of our family.  We hope you are all having a great holiday weekend.

softerthan a lullabye...

...rocky mountain high!

Last week Ashley, George and I got back from a two week extravaganza in Colorado.  We were all over the state visiting our family.  We love going back to Colorado to visit our parents, grandparents, nieces/nephews, aunts/uncles, brothers/sisters and cousins.  It can be a tricky feat to balance all of that in one vacation schedule - but we pulled it off decently this last go around.  I had to work here and there throughout our stay so that made scheduling tricky.  Between "the Springs" and the Mountains we had a great stay and were so happy that George got to spend so much time with grandparents and cousins.

Here's Ashley, George and Grandma Potter in the front garden.  One of the Saturdays, we spent the entire day outside, mowing the lawn, pulling weeds, and watering the flowers.

George is really getting into the "cheese" phase with picture taking.  This is his cheese face.  I love it.

We also discovered a new treasure trove source of toys for George... garage sales.  We picked up a few toys that George immediately glued himself to.  He stayed outside and played on the porch, undisturbed for nearly an hour.

George got lots of cousin time. It was cousin Scarlett's birthday so we went out to a Japanese restaurant and.... I'd love to say that George's palate is distinguished enough to appreciate Japanese food at this time, but he was more interested in the fish tank than the cuisine.  Here's George with my sister Blythe's kids (left to right), Duncan, Abigail, Finn & Scarlett.

After city time we retreated to the mountains to meet up with my parents and my brother Ian and his family.  Here is George with his cousin Serena.  They were completely riveted by a documentary on the French and Indian War.  Our little history buffs!

Grandma Pulsipher has some serious wooden train tracks.  The transportation planner in me got a little carried away.

Look at this masterpiece.  Have you ever seen its equal?

We also got a lot of trampoline time in.  George is really good on the tramp, and one of his better abilities is to fully commit to a jump whether or not he has control of his body.

I like the mid-air shots... he was battling a little bit of a cough, we think he might have some sort of Colorado-induced allergies. It seems like every time we go back home, he starts to get a runny nose and other maladies.

I wanted to include this picture because its equal parts despair/cute.

On the trampoline, in the Rocky Mountains with cousin Serena, Uncle Ian, Grandma, and cousin Eva.  Pretty much the best place for a kid to jump on the tramp, in the world.

Our trip was a great success and it made us feel the pull of wanting to live near our family and friends who love us and George so much.  We hope you are all having a wonderful summer full of adventure.

father/son campout.

Last weekend George and I went on the Bozeman Stake's annual Father Son camp out.  Ever since I was old enough to think about being a father, I have wanted to do this. I was so excited to take George camping. George has been camping 4-5 times now, but every time is a new adventure because he's older, and capable of so much more.  Our campsite was out in Greycliff, right off of the Madison River.

Ashley warned me several times to keep an eye on George... and I heeded her counsel.  Though I will admit that more than once I temporarily lost track of him while he was under the supervision of one of 20 older kids who were very nice to play with him.  George had fun from the get go.  First things first, setting up the tent.  We went out with our neighbors, Jackson (pictured) and his dad Tyler.

Ok, George's pose here reminds me of a famous album cover, or a famous poster.  It is some sort of mo-town record or something. Will someone please end my suffering and tell me what pose this is reminiscent of. I know I've seen this before somewhere. Help me!

George loved the tent... loved wrestling around and jumping on the sleeping bags.  It was supposed to be cold that night so I put his "Cars" sleeping back inside of Ashley's sleeping bag.  It seemed to be a pretty good system for keeping him warm.

This is Ashley's favorite shot from the weekend. He was certainly putting on a show.  When he's in his element, he does all kind of silly things.  Making stinkfaces is one of his fortes.

I like this pose because it reminds me of a famous photograph with disputed origins.

At night we had a campfire and George was hamming it up as usual. This is his "cheese" face. For dinner we had hot dog, chips, delicious ginger ale and smores for dessert.  The night time festivities included some fun poems, stories, a campfire, and the older kids played a few rounds of capture the flag.  George didn't seem too interested.

George was however, extremely interested in throwing stuff off the bridge.  Him and Jackson probably dropped a metric ton worth of debris, rocks, and driftwood into the river.

George relentlessly scoured the area for things he could drop into the river.

One of the few pictures of me and George at the camp out.  You'll see what I mean shortly.

By the time George's sugar rush and raw excitement wore off, it was about 11pm.  He woke up around six due to the light, and birds.  So that put him about 4-5 hours short of a typical night's sleep. Still, you don't really go camping to get a good night's sleep.  George only woke up once and was easily pacified, fell right back asleep.

In the morning we had all the muffins, juice, and sugary cereal a boy could ask for.  George plowed through about 1.5, huge costco muffins.

Here's the man, up close, contemplating his next move.  The whole time I kept asking, "George, are you having fun camping?" He would often reply, "camping... fun!"  Warmed my heart after a chilly chilly night.

As promised, the picture of me looking like an idiot. I don't know what's going on in the front there...

Afterwards George watched the father son tug-o-war. He wasn't much help.

Over all the campout was a great experience, I can't wait to go again. I think you have to keep your expectations low when it comes to sleep, but other than that it was great.  Due to the lack of sleep, George was a little bit of a basketcase the next day and had a serious melt down. But after that, he busted out a personal record, 5 hour nap and after that he was pretty much good to go.

Hopefully we can sneak in a few family camping trips before #2 comes in August.

a camping we will go...

Forest Service cabins are sprinkled throughout Montana.  Most of these were built during the New Deal and were places for members of the Forest Service to live while in the field.  Now they are places for us common folk to rent out (year round) to rough it a little bit and enjoy the outdoors.

Several weekends ago a group of friends rented one out for an evening.  Fortunately the weather cooperated and we had an amazing time.  Here are some of the highlights.

First things first, we had to ford a river.  Fortunately, there was a nice bridge that made the crossing quite convenient.

George spent all day out in the sun and was starting to get a serious base coat for his summer tan.  He and mom celebrated a successful crossing of the river.

We had to "hike" in about a 1/4 of mile from where we parked to where the cabin was. I carried some of our gear on my back pack. I look like a big nerd, I realize this.

Ashley, Chelsy and Abby.  Apparently, if your name doesn't end in "y" you weren't invited to the cabin. (I had to go by "Davey"... j/k).

Yes, I was the founder of the fire.  There is something still so fun about creating a fire, even if you are using one of those coleman fire wands... or whatever they are called.  We were seriously roughing it.

Tyler made the 1/4 mile trip back and forth between the cabin and vehicles to truck some of the gear in, and he was very dismayed that he had to bring his motorcycle up.  The boys each took turns riding with Tyler.  George was in serious heaven.

Here's a shot of the cabin. About 20 yards behind it was a babbling brook.  To the left were the firewood sheds and storage units.  The inside of the cabin had two rooms with three, two bunk beds each.  There was a kitchen with a fire stove, and a main room with a wood burning stove.  If some people were comfortable sleeping on the ground with sleeping pads, I don't see why you couldn't sleep 20+ people in there with relative ease.

Ashley and I pause for a moment to reflect on fine big sky living.  Just prior to this we saw a small herd of big horn sheep.  Very very cool.

A family photo that started off as a joke and ended up looking pretty nice aside from George's tongue acrobatics.

George & Jackson had so much fun with ample room to explore and play.  It is such a nice feeling to be able to let your boys wander and explore. I feel like it must be overload for their little brains.

Although Tyler and I are posing for this shot, I can assure you that the awe our sons had for us was very real.  It was fun being able to chop wood for the fire outside and inside.  It awakened the deep urge in me to revisit my high school vocational dream of being a lumberjack.

George hangs out by the campfire, we had a delicious meal of hot dogs, beans, sausage, cheese, crackers, and smores.  Hot dogs really do taste 1000 times better when cooked over a fire.

Here we are with our next door neighbors and friends, the Barnwells.  We totally hit the neighbor lottery when moving to Bozeman. Our experience would be completely different if we didn't live next door to them.

I must confess, there is a hidden agenda to many of our posts about the Montana adventures we get up to... we're trying to sell you on the excitement that awaits you if you come to visit.  Want to rent that fire service cabin with us?  C'mon up!

We hope you are all having a splendid Memorial Day weekend...