Sunday, April 9, 2017

New Territory

On Monday, we had planned to walk to the park but were derailed by some unexpected snow (OK, unexpected because I hadn't paid any attention to the weather forecast and just expected MOTS) and gusty wind that made the expedition not very Kaleb-friendly, despite my attempts to shelter him in the stroller. So instead, we took a walk around the block to give Oliver and Max a chance to realize that adjusting our plans would be wise. They decided it would be plenty of fun to build a snowman in the yard. the Montana winter was not wasted on these little boys--they showed their independent snowman building skills as they rolled those snowballs across the yard and successfully enjoyed the snowball effect in the wet spring snow.
Oliver rolled that middle section all by himself. But he had a hard time getting the ball up there because it just kept collapsing every time he grabbed and lifted with those short little arms. After rerolling the midsection a couple times, he was willing to have my help in placing it atop the bottom snowball.

In the sun he melted, melted, melted, by the end of the day, but he was fun while he lasted. We enjoyed milder Montana spring days for most of the week. Friday the wind got so crazy gusty it was reminding me of contact adventures in Blackleaf Canyon with Melayna.

Saturday we decided to drive 80 miles northeast to support Xander in his first track meet in Cut Bank. (His first track meet would have been last Saturday, conveniently at the home track, but Xander chose to participate in General Conference instead of track or going to a big scout Merit Badge college that day. I could see the track meet going on out my bedroom window as I changed diapers during conference.) Not even Aaron had been to that exact bit of Montana, and we enjoyed exploring new territory, even if it was even windier up there and felt a bit like a test of endurance at times.

Watching a kid in a track meet was also new territory. It's not at all like watching him play hockey or basketball or even tennis, because there are all these different events going on at the same time, and you're constantly asking, "where is Xander?" and looking at this approximate schedule and trying to figure out where they're doing the mini-javelin throwing or triple jump. We had the most fun cheering for him in the 100 meter dash. I think Xander was kinda confused by the whole experience, too, with no coach telling him when to be where. They don't baby these big kids anymore. It was a good out-of-your comfort zone kind of junior high experience for him at times, but he enjoyed it and we were really proud of him for stepping up. We convinced him to come home with us rather than on the Bulldog Bus with the promise of letting him pick any fast food restaurant in Cut Bank, since Choteau has no fast food restaurants unless you count the gas station. I was pretty pleased when he picked Subway over McDonald's or Pizza Hut. We took it to the park for Oliver's benefit--that kid cannot get enough of the great outdoors. When Xander showed Dad how his toe was popping out of his running shoes, Dad suggested taking a significant detour to Great Falls, especially since Elodie hadn't had any luck in finding a suitable Wax Museum costume in Choteau and the deadline was approaching. After a couple thrift stores and just one store in the mall, everyone had what they needed and we hauled a very tired gang back home, arriving just after 7:00! It was a busy but blessed day all together as a family.

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