George is into passive resistance

He is not a huge fan of family photos lately. This is my new favorite. Can anyone spot George?

happy birthday ashley

the birthday wishes just keep rolling in here at pulsipher ad.

i like this picture of ashley. it captures a lot of the things i love about her.

1. that she is so beautiful.
2. that she loves being around people and goofing around
3. that she is the life of the party

ashley is a fantastic mother, wife and best friend.

happy birthday babe.
i love you
sincerely,

orlando bloom.

Happy Birthday girlfriend!

Despite what the title may imply, this post is written by Ashley, not David (David's favorite thing to do is pretend to be me on gchat and say things like, "hey girlfriend, let's get margaritas tonight") to wish Kimber a happy birthday! Wanted to hit up a few of my favorite Kimber moments-- wish I could be there to celebrate our bdays together!

recap 3/3 - Big Sky residency

For those of you who've made the long e-trek with us, we've finally made it. We're in Bozeman, Montana.  We officially arrived in Montana August 31st, staying the night in Billings before we were able to move into our new place September 1st.

Apropos, a little background on the reasoning for moving.  We loved Los Angeles, but it's long-term viability seemed highly questionable with out a severe career change for me, or a severe commitment on Ashley's part to work full time.  Toss in the iffy-schools and house sizes that could negatively impact the size of our family, and it just seemed like LA might not be our resting spot - though there are so many things to absolutely adore about it. I have to admit, the contrarian in me loves the fact that so many people have negative associations with LA.  It makes me want to love it anymore.  But honestly - it's the second biggest city in America for a reason people. It's a great place to be.

So after a co-worker and I cooked up a scheme involving working in Montana - the idea of moving to a place where we had never been seemed pretty intruging.  On paper it seemed to make a lot of sense. More space, more house, better schools, comparable to our wholesome Colorado upbringing... it seemed like a win-win.  After a long deliberation process wherein a lot of logistics where hammered out, we packed up our belongings and moved to a city that we had never been in.  Transitioning from a city of 9M+ to 40K shouldn't be that big of a change, right?

From here on out I'll let the pictures do the talking.

This is the front of our little "complex."  Four town-houses in a row.  We're on the North end (far right).  Nice because that means we don't have neighbors on one side.  Not that having neighbors is a bad thing.  Our neighbors are really nice.  They let us borrow internet for a week until we were up and running, and have a little boy about 6 months older than George.

This is a closer look at our place.  We are practically all moved in.  We just have a few pictures and paintings to hang.  My goal is to have us completely moved in by the time the weather gets nasty.  I want to be able to park our car in our very own garage.  Super exciting. What's more, you can see that the previous tenants installed some bike hooks for us, just the right amount.  Talk about destiny.

This is the side view of our place.   The "alley" doesn't get much sun, and we've gotten quite a bit of rain lately so that little channel is kind of like a swamp.  We are loving having so much room for George to run around in.

This is the EXACT look on George's face that he makes when he's about to jump off something, e.g. kitchen table, church stage, a cliff, a bridge, or our back patio.  He gives no other warning other than a few jubilant stomps, this face, and then he plunges forward whether you are ready or not.

This is a better view our our back yard.  All the houses empty out into the cattle farm.  We spend practically every night out there (gotta take advantage of the warm days) watching the sunset, seeing what the cows are up to, and just enjoying the stunning panorama.

This is what Bozeman looks like.  Green.  Lots of parks.  Montana State University is here.  Population (approx.) 43,000.  Ashley took this picture while on a day hike with George.

George is becoming incredibly familiar with rain.  While its been very warm, we've also had some pretty torrential downpours.  He likes putting his hand out, palm up, and looking up into the sky to see if it's raining.  This is George and I playing in the rain, out front, after work.

I'm also becoming familiar with the rain. I've gotten hit pretty hard a couple nights, on the way home.  I'm finally making incredibly good use of my fenders.  Ashley took this picture after she happened to see me on her way home from the grocery store.

The weather is very unpredictable here.  One day blazing sun, the next day it's... well... cold enough for us softy-southern California imports to put on our coats and warm hats.  We've already had to explore the nether-regions of our wardrobes, and it's only halfway through September.  Ashley's picked up an awesome set of boots, and I'm scouring ebay for just the right winter coat.

Our first weekend we went up to Hyalite Reservoir.  Really nice place.  We've since been up three times.  There are dozens of hikes, waterfalls, historical sites and camp sites to explore.  George and I threw rocks in the reservoir for a while.  In the winter they open up cross country ski-trails.  We are really looking forward to getting into all kinds of adventures up here.

Speaking of adventures, did we tell you this is how we bathe George?  As a matter of fact, this is how everyone in Bozeman washes their child because we don't have running water or electricity.  I'm getting dial-up internet from one of those AOL cd's... life is pretty simple here.   Or... Ashley and George were just having some fun.  One of those.

Ashley took this picture today.  It pretty much sums up what we love about our new adventure out here. It is so scenic, it's hardly seems like real life.  We keep reminding ourselves that winter is looming and frankly we are a little scared, but as Ashley's dad said the other day, "you just have to own it."  So that's what we're gonna do.  We are gonna get big into winter fun and not let it keep us down.

In the meantime, we are enjoying the new adventures and the warm days.  We extend a heartfelt invitation to any of you who are curious about "Big Sky" country... come and visit anytime.  Especially in the winter.  : )

recap 2/3: farewell party and "we be road trippin'"

First off, let me say that the title of this blog entry is accredited to none other than Ashley, who wanted to capture the most embarrassing way to say "we are going on a road trip." It turned into kind of a joke and now we kind of say it semi-regularly.  I honestly can't think of a more uncomfortable way to say you are going on a road trip, other than "we be road trippin'."  Heinous right?

But before we get to the road - a little step back.  Why are we going to Montana in the first place? My company was getting tons of work in the rocky mountain area.  We have an office in Bozeman, Montana.  This office oversees work in Utah, Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho & Alaska.

The Pulsiphers and southern California had sort of hit a major fork in the road in terms of family planning and environ - and we were starting to look at alternatives.  When my company's work started to grow and additional help was needed - me and my co-worker concocted a plan that would get us out there.  After a few months of waiting and logistics to figure out - everything fell into place.  No we had never been there.  No we didn't know anything about it.  All we had to go on was a handful of pictures, a wikipedia entry, and a dash full of optimism.   So in late August we packed up all our belongings (more on that later) and headed to Montana.  Before we left, our friends threw us a raging party.

Now on to the photos...

The conversation flowed like the Henry Weinhard rootbeer

George and his godmother, caretaker and "aunt" Kimber who he loves very very much.

Babies on the way, George's girlfriend Greta and all our favorite people were in attendance.

Ashley is usually the life of the party.  We caught her in a rare moment without the lampshade on her head.

This is George's buddy Clark.  Clark is such a loving, sweet guy.  Every Sunday Clark would look for George at Church and say hi to him.  Clark always shares his snacks, but is less giving with his Buzz Lightyear.  That's ok, it's a pretty sweet light year.

After the party everyone had the pleasure of participating in the most efficient 2 bedroom apartment move of their lives.  We started a smidge before six and were done at 6:36.  Everything was in boxes, no corner was left unturned.  We even had room to spare for the couches we'd be picking up in Colorado Springs.  After that, the pizza and soda pop was enjoyed by all.

George and his best buddy Abe share a final hug while the truck is being loaded.

That night, August 24 - we packed up everything and drove to Barstow, Ca.  I wanted to get a jumpstart on the move and this seemed like a good idea.  We slept in a grungy, loud motel but the price was right ($37 bucks!).  In Vegas we stopped at the outlets and just happened to snag George some $10 crocs.  He loves them.  We love their functionality for a little person.  Every kid we visited coveted George's crocs.

The next morning we headed to my friend/mission companion Clyde's house.  Clyde lives in St. George and he and his wife had a baby boy the exact same day as George.  George and Myler are only 40 minutes apart from each other.  They had lots of fun in the sweltering heat of St. George.  It was 104 at like 6:00pm.   Crazy.

After all their hard work they cooled off/cleaned up in the tub.  The Behunins were great hosts and it was so much fun to catch up.  We wish that it was possible to live near all our friends.

After St. George we headed up to Salt Lake/Provo to visit more friends.  We had a delicious lunch with Ashley's mission companion, Ashley Thalman and her beautiful babies.   George has always had a soft spot in his heart for blonds and it was no different with Harper.  They had a few pretty awesome kisses, but we didn't capture them on camera.

Speaking of cameras... Ashley Thalman is a photographer and took a few snaps of George.  Thank you for sharing your talents with us (and food, and delicious bread, and cds!)

Most people will want to know (in the imaginary/rehearsed conversations in my head), "How did did a 1 1/2 year old do on a 1,700 mile road trip?"  All I have to say is, look at that face.  If that's not the face of a little powdered sugar angel then I don't know what is. Also, donnettes are George's favorite food of all time.  Nothing even comes remotely close.  Though he's only had three (and probably wont' have more anytime soon), I can tell you that the 37 seconds it took him to eat three donettes was the best 37 seconds of his life.  Ever.

Lotsa time in Wyoming.  Big state.  Cowboy country.  We stopped in Casper and had Subway.  On an ill-advise impulse, I had the sickest sandwich known to man.  Fortunately my stomach survived.

When gas stations become your playground - you'll take anything you can get.  We went really heavy on the Diet cokes.  Our U-haul chugged gas, we chugged diet coke.

I think this was in Laramie. Home to the University of Wyoming Cowboys.  I think this was the sheriff's car.  They take their cowboy thing really serious.

Still in Wyoming.  Rest stop.  George was so glad to be out of the car.  He loved looking at the big rig trucks.  He still calls everything with wheels a "caaaaah".

To kill time George kept up on the celebrity buzz. His favorite section is the celebrities are "just like us" section.

The golden arches... the respite for the road weary traveler.  Also, with huge parking spots meant for people hauling all of their earthly belongings and a child who needs to play - you really can't say no.  The thing is... it always sounds like a good idea but the food just isn't that good.  Give me a fatburger or In-n-Out any day of the week. 

"Some people just weren't cut out for a life on the road."  (Name that movie)

After 1700 long miles... we finally entered into Montana.  Big Sky country.  We left our good camera at our friends house in Utah - so we had to settle for a lot of iPhone pictures along the way. This is the best we could do as we entered the "Treasure State."

We've now been in Montana just over a week.  Lots of things to discuss... all to come in part three.

recap 1/3 - a camping miracle

Hey guys.  So we haven't officially got the internet, we're borrowing (legally) from our neighbors until we're dialed in next month.  Despite rumors to the contrary, Montana does have the internet and graduated from dial up many moons ago.

So much has happened since I last posted, and to really do justice to what was going on we need to start at the beginning and the end.

Our very first camping trip was with our friends the Nelsons.  We had only been in the ward for several months (as a married couple), and Chad and Kimber took a big gamble on us and invited us to join them on their memorial day hike/camp to Mt. Anderson in the Sierras.

We'll always remember that camping trip as the genesis of our dearest friendship, and we'll always remember it because of my altitude sickness, and me wearing shoes that were too small so on the decent it felt like I experiencing foot binding.

To commemorate our time together in Los Angeles, we decided to have "one last hurrah" camping trip.  Chad picked an awesome location north of Santa Barbara called Jalama Beach.  We had no idea, but we would soon find out what a huge deal Jalama Beach is.

We left Los Angeles around 7:30 ish.  The boys were slowing our escape so Ashley and I stopped by Primo's Donuts (our favorite Donut shop in LA) and got way too many donuts. I was sick before we crested the Sepulveda pass.

Anywho - as we made our way to Jalama (about a 2-3 hour drive) our spirits dipped a little as we saw a "camping lot ful" sign 14 miles out from the campground.  Kimber texted to me, "oops."  We hoped for the best as we approached the ranger station.

Once we arrived, the ranger informs us that the lot is full, but that we can get on the waiting list and find out later that day how many campers would be leaving, and that maybe we'd get a spot.  Not a bad idea right?  So we got on the waiting list... #25.  25 freaking people in front of us, and there were only 98 total spots.  Chad said that the ranger said our chances were "slim."

We decided to make the best of it and had a nice day at the beach.  At 3:00 pm everyone circled around the ranger as he ran down the names on the waiting list.  As names were called, we wondered how many more spots were vacant.  A couple from SD told us that they woke up at 3:00 to get there by 6:30, only to be number 21 on the waiting list.  Insane.  They also told us that they had counted 18 vacant spots.  Our chances weren't looking good.

A handful of times, he'd call a name and no one would come up to claim their spot.  The ranger quipped, "it's ok to clap."  With each vacant name, I got more and more excited.   Finally our name was called.  We got the last spot!  A camping miracle.  Ironically, because we had the last spot that meant that we didn't get to choose where we were camping, but we got one of the best spots in the campsite.  Some of the campsites were bordered by campers at every direction, whereas we were on the outskirts of camp so only had one pretty courteous neighbor and a good view of the beach.  We could not believe our luck.

The rest of the camping experience was pretty grand. I'll let the pictures do the talking:
(sorry about the slideshow - the new blogger photo-upload interface is really buggy)

sans internet

hey guys.
we've moved to montana.  we're about 70% moved in.  we are without internet and will be for another week or so.  pictures and stories about the move and our new digs to come.  stay tuned.