Road Trip - Ogden, UT to Yellowstone

I have a soft spot in my heart for yellowstone. As a child, we would go to yellowstone almost yearly with my grandparents, so it felt fitting to show my girls yellowstone in the company of my grandmother. Above are the girls waiting for dinner with old faithful spitting in the background. My grandmother guessed she's seen that geyser spout about 100 times, and i'd guess she's probably right.
The parks did a good job of giving the girls educational coloring books and rest stops, but many of the jr. ranger programs were aimed at kids older than amelie. No matter, she loved smelling the 'stinky' pools and mudpots and saw lots of animals including buffalo and elk.

The last time i was in yellowstone, we read the book "Death in Yellowstone." This left us with a fear of the children (or dog) running into a boiling mudpot.

Above is dinner at the lake yellowstone lodge. The food was generally good. The only complaint i had was they seemed to think my grandmother could walk all the way to the end of the dining room for our table. She tried it a few times, and would stop every 10 steps and grab her chest which would cause the nearest 4 men to get up and ask her if she's ok. She'd smile and nod, and take the youngest one's arm for the rest of the walk.

Road Trip - Meadowview to Ogden, UT

We made it out of meadowview, UT, but not before gma tried to start a conversation about politics with the local folk. I can tolerate her stories about how she heard a world war would start the day we got a black president, or how she heard this morning that obama is going to bomb the whole middle east, but when she starts spouting these stories to strangers? I rudely interjected and got her out of there!

Ogden, UT is a very charming small historic town known for being a railway hub. We got take out sushi for our family and turkey sandwich for gma (Raw fish?! What next.)

Road Trip - Zion to Meadowview, UT

After checking out Zion during the day, we took a short drive to meadowview, UT, which was between zion and bryce. The "town" looked good on paper, with a few cafes, but it was completely abandoned. We stayed at a 4 bedroom cabin for two nights and ate at the only open cafe for 4 meals in 2 days. Although it was nice to stay at a cabin for sleeping arrangements, it was way too secluded. Above is the deck, where we watched movies on the laptop.

Above, amelie does tree pose next to a tree.
And here we are on our family hike. We left gma at the lodge with the paper and a coffee and forgot to tell her when we'd be back. When we returned, gma had the authorities on a search for us. We did not make that mistake again.

Road Trip - Grand Canyon to Zion

We started the day with the continental breakfast at the hotel, where gma talked about the dirty swedes who made fun of her growing up. She gave a few strangers her address in MT in case they drop by, which seemed to be a daily occurance on the trip. We drove to zion nat'l park, which my gma wasn't familiar with, and i can only figure the reason she overlooked this beautiful park (my favorite nat'l park) in her approx 100-200th trip from/to AZ/MT was her fear of heights. On the drive through the park, she often looked over the edge and said, "I can't look!"

We stayed at a lovely cabin in springdale, UT just outside the park. The motel owner came out to say hello upon our arrival and gma made him guess her age, and guessed 20 years her junior, which 'ticked her pink,' as she'd say. My husband and i put the kids down and drank beer and watched the laptop outside with the the mountains of zion in the background. Lovely.

The next day, we found a doggy day care for gma's dog and spent the day in zion park. This may be my favorite nat'l park and we did get a few mini-hikes in while gma drank coffee and read the paper.

Road Trip - Tucson to Grand Canyon

Last saturday, the LissyJo clan flew to tucson to pick up my 94 yr old gma to drive her and her minivan and dog to sidney, MT. Highlights of our short visit to tucson included grandma and grandpa's pool and a newly sewn princess dress, below. Grandma was prepared with her cough drops to stay awake so she could tell my husband how to drive, and her nyquil to "help" her sleep at night.

After 2 short days in tucson, we drove "old grandma" (often corrected by grandma to be 'great grandma') to the s. rim of the grand canyon. On the drive, gma had much advice including taking a shower if she felt she was having a heart attack and walking backwards for altitude sickness.

Amelie was not too impressed with the grandness of the canyon. She guessed it was only "twenty ten" feet to the bottom and was more interested in climbing trees, which made gma nervous.

What a NP/Lactation consultant can do for you

Amelie's new obsession is to ask me about the patients i see at work. Keeping HIPAA in mind, i give her a quick run down of the interesting medical cases i saw that day. Yesterday, i was telling her about a new baby i was seeing for a lactation consult. She asked me, "What did you do for the baby?" I told her, "I helped the baby breastfeed." She considers, then asked, "Did you give the baby some of your breast milk?" A valid question. I didn't, by the way.

All of God's Creatures

Edited: No comment. I neither confirm or deny anything related to squirrels. Period.

Weekend Activities

Spring has sprung here in mpls, and it is the season that i am most thankful for. I can almost feel the heaviness of winter lifting off my shoulders as the days get longer and the ground gets greener. Amelie has also been enjoying spring, as seen below. Here, she is wearing a dress sewn by my mother adjusting for amelie's particulars (NO buttons), the cross necklace of my gma, and the new ducky socks sent by ducky stickered package.

Spring also brings the May Day Parade, which has become a yearly tradition for our family. I appreciate the left-leaning political humor, and amelie enjoys the puppets. I think next year, she'll be old enough to participate. The parade always begins with the ceremonial tree of life, seen below. We did not see the float that could have been the touch of death.

This year, they had a clever swine flu section--One of the more impressive puppets below.

And here we are enjoying an icy pole watching the weird and wonderful parade before us.

Mommy's Adopted

Amelie and i were talking about the (imaginary) twins she is growing in her tummy (they come and go), and she asked me who all came from my tummy. I said her and her sister did, and then she asked me something unexpected: "Did you come from grandma's tummy?" I carefully told her that i was adopted, and that meant i came from someone else's tummy. Of course, she asked, "Whose?" I told her my other mommy couldn't take care of me (cringe) and grandma wanted to take care of me so she is my mom (more cringing). She considered this, in all her 4 yr old-ness and asked me who this other woman was. I told her i didn't know. She let me off the hook.

2 days later, we were reviewing the relatives. I asked her, "Who is daddy's dad?" She answers, "Grandad!" I ask, "Who are mommy's brothers?" She says, "Uncle scott and uncle andrew!" Then she adds, "Isn't it funny how uncle andrew and uncle scott sort of look the same?" I thought her little brain was considering the previous adoption discussion. I asked her, "Do you think mommy looks like uncle scott and andrew?" She says, "No, mommy! Of course not!" I said, "Why not?" She says, "Because you're a girl, mommy!"

Touche.