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It’s a day of farewells. Johanna is staying with us today and leaves for corvalis tomorrow. I have got to experiment what it’s like to be Claire in 3 yrs. Getting 3 girls to 3 different places in morning is not impossible, but a litle more complicated.

I got to do water aerobics this morning. That was blissful during this heat wave and after watching the girls at swim lessons for the past 2 weeks (where I can’t get in the pool). Sara and Johanna did a sports club (gymnastics) while I worked out.

At swim lessons, Johanna got completely wet even though she just sat on the edge. She seemed to have a good time. I’m enjoying the mommy fellowship a lot.

We stopped at johanna’s to say goodbye to ailidh and Nat before Portugal. Hammers were going. We ate plums off their tree and blueberries off the bush. Phil stopped hammering and painting and fed us quesadillas to my surprise. It was a nice goodbye to a house with so many memories.

The house is not so bad right now. Mostly laying low, letting the girls rest. I had a nice nap.

Just this weekend, I noticed calendar entries that Karen put into her iPhone where not ending up on my iPhone. Strange I thought, MobileMe has been consistently working for nearly 6 whole months now, A NEW RECORD! So I logged into the MobileMe website and was met with a cryptic page on the calendar tab that stated my data was unaccessible and that I should contact support.

Amazingly Apple support is available via chat at 8am in the morning. The nice support guy walked me through all the standard reset your data on MobileMe steps (believe me after all the problems with MobileMe last year, I am more than familiar with how to jumpstart MobileMe). Sadly he leaves me hanging with the instructions on how to reset the sync history.

After trying that and meeting with no success, I contact chat again later that afternoon. This time I have to repeat the whole story over again, because the support chat app never emailed me our first chat transcript (I asked it to) and the first support guy never logged it for the next support guy to pick up. Anyway after going through all the steps with the second guy (this time being less patient), he decides to escalate it to a specialist.

I get e-mail from the specialist pretty quickly. I change the MobileMe account password to give the specialist access (BTW: NEVER forget your MobileMe password, if you do, you would have to abandon the account). Then I wait. In the meantime none of our calendars/contacts are available on the phones, so I had to manually sync them via iTunes (it worked, but ICK, everything would get out of sync so I just told Karen to change NOTHING in calendar or contacts).

24 hours late, I get another e-mail from the specialist that he “reset” my account. Sure enough after a few hours of resetting passwords, resetting mobileme cloud data, and then resetting phones and all our laptops, I have everything up and running again.

In the meantime I have explored Spanning Sync — given that I can do this for free with Google Contacts and Calendars (with some significant caveats over MobileMe!) however when it comes time to renew, I’ll think it will finally be time to cut the cord from what I consider the worst value for the money of any Apple product I have every bought.

We have lots of unpacking left to do. It’s not getting done today. I chose to engage with summer and go to Bite of Seattle. I sent out an invite and my friend Amy agreed to met me. After complex negotiations about nap schedules (4 girls, 5 months-5 yrs), we figured our timing would off a little but we’d get atleast an hour overlap for the girls to play.

I got a lovely morning of exercise. I caught the tailend of my pilates class. We did an errand, changed into swim clothes, and left our neighborhood around 11am.

I found a parking space near the Seattle Center for free, but limited to 2 hr parking. I figured we’d be ready for naps by then. We met a cute Pomeranian dog on our walk there. Lex got lots of girl loving at the stoplight. The girls stopped and danced infront of a stage where the band was setting up. One of the singers started performing extemporaneously.

I think I’ve gotten my act down after going to this festival after all these years. The best part is the Bite Cooks, a plate of 7 bites of food cooked by top restaurants like Dahlia Lounge. The $10 goes to support lifeline. Tom Douglas was at the head of the line supervising. There was not wait since I got there early. The girls didn’t eat any of it even though there was ice cream.

I felt like I’ve finally gotten my groove down at this festival. I found parking for free, but closer for walking. I’ve also found out what the girls like best about the Seattle center, the fountain. They had a blast playing which you can see. If only we’d had some playmates it would have been perfect.

Both girls walked home without a stroller which was impressive after they played so hard. Ironically, we met Lex and her owners on the way back. The girls loved on her and Sara asked me if we could get a dog tomorrow.

Wy day 16

Left cda (coeur d’alene) at 7:30am. Enjoyed brft at comfort inn. They’ve added belgium waffles you make yourself.

Stopped at 9:15am for 15 min @ schrag rest area. Read nyt article about states closing rest areas due to budget woes. Sad. Been enjoying rest areas on this trip. Ate cookies and lemonade by Masonic organization at rest area. Worthy $5. Little sugar, instant grandparents cooing over yellowstone tales.

1100 got gas in ellensburg. Ate at DQ. Nice fries. Tagalong blizzard.

Wy day 15

July 4th

Left my parents this morning. Very sad. We’ll see them in a few short weeks.

Stopped at rest area just before the exit for anaconda. Nice rest area with windmill.

Lunch at Missoula ar mckenzie river pizza (chain, cheese pizza with thin crust best).

Found the river side park carousel and dragon play structure. Carousel went at 8 mph (fast by my sense). Built 15 yrs ago. Community effort.

Arrived at comfort inn in cda around 1600. Unpacked & Gawked at pool. Drove to downtown. Pulsing, hot, mariner martigras in full swing. Ate at cda brewing company. Wayne liked beer. Kid friendly though few kids. Many sunned boaters off the water. Didn’t like my chx sandwich.

Walked longest floating board walk. Sara sad. Got us close to the celebration. Headed home to swim. Nice to have Wayne join us. Fun. Sara can swim on her own with just floaties.

Wy day 14

Rained last night. Fighting future mildew on tent as we pack it up. Girls played with new friends, alexandra and Mariana from El Salvador via Minnesota. The horses attracted the 2 and 3 yo tow haired boys from the neighboring campground. For awhile, it seemed like we were running a daycare. Laura appreciated having kids her own age as the 3 older girls had made her the enemy of all the horses. She even shared her animals with the younger boys.

Just had best calzone at outlaw pizza in gardiner, montana north of mammoth. This is definitely country I love. Sage, craggy cliffs, rougher weather. Just soaked by rain shower touring upper terrace of mammoth hot springs. We got out with rain gear but cotton civy clothes in anticipation of Bozeman. Laura stayed the driest being bubbled in the mclaren stroller. She stuck her shoes out to get soaked. Sara did pretty well claiming the sole umbrella. Sara stayed with me and I was able to take some photos under the umbrella. Nice lighting in the rain. I also appreciate the quick dry pants I was wearing. Wayne got chilled with cotton pants and cotton socks. We wanted warmth and food. We stared longingly at Mammoth, the place we fell in love. The parking was impossible so we moved onto Gardiner.

Before Mammoth, Wayne had the highpoint of the trip. We spotted an animal jam and then saw a grizzly bear lumbering on the side of the road in a brief glimpse.

The fam was sceptical about outlaw pizza. Sara loved it. They had saddles everywhere, a real Frederick Remington bucking bronco statue, and the bathroom labeled “cowgirls, keep the seat down”. Sara was excited that the bathroom had two toilets side by side, one girl sized and one mommy sized.

Calzone was better than deceased Pete’s pizza. Not what I expected. Nice salad bar to get some veggies in the kids.

Bozeman.

Arrived at comfort inn 3:30pm. Unpacked. Wayne dried out tent in parking lot.

Went out to visit ken and Sharon (my parents friends) on there ranch. Another generation was introduced to horses. Sara immediately wanted to see the horses, two Arabians- galaxy 18 and ally 28.
Mom, Sara, and I tried to get Galaxy to eat our apple. Galaxy was shy of the electric fence. She finally acquiesed and Sara got to feed her several times.
Laura came up and started to eat the apples, competing with Galaxy.

We watched galaxy fly through a pasture when she was released to eat grass. A running Arabian will stay in my mind.

Sara played with Tilly, the Australian sheperd. Tilly was overly enthusiatic and stole Lamby from the car. Sara was afraid of her at first. Then she became more enthusiastic once she found she could play fetch with Tilly.

We ate ar famous Dave’s, a place we enjoyed in Nashville. Good cole slaw. Get spare ribs.

Drifted to Picklebarrel, nice ice cream place, serving wilcoxian ice cream.

Retired to the comfort inn.

Wy day 13

Slow day. Last day.

Tried to politic for chocolate chips in pancakes. Rejection. Next weekend.

Started at biscuit bay. Nice geyser basin. Kids did well.

Went back to old faithful for a picnic tAble. Kids fell asleep before we got there. Wayne slept with them while we ate slim pickings.

Went to black sand basin after kids woke. Wayne and dad hadn’t been there before.

Headed back to Madison. Had kids play in back of car while Wayne and I snoozed.

Met neighbors. 4 girls 2-10 had horse convention. Got out fire. Shared smores. The end yellowstone.

Wy day 12

Another good day. Tired though. Too tired to make a fire even though it’s supposed to rain tomorrow. Definitely feel like horses headed to barn. Tomorrow is the last day in yellowstone. We decided to have a day to Bozeman to see friends, reenter civilization, and make reaching coeur d’Lene more reasonable.

Another Latish start. Takes awhile to gather ourselves. Stopped at yellowstone canyon at uncle toms trail which is closed due to a rockslide. Supposedly a 100 yd trip bloomed into 30 min. Enjoyed views of the falls. Disturbed by 2 foot gap in the fence with sheer cliff below that my laura could easily fit through.

Decided against picnic and moved onto artists point. That is a stunning place. I spent most of my time helping Sara boulder and rockclimb. My mom came breathless reporting seeing 2 bald eagles and 3 osprey play over the canyon. I got to see 2 swallows frolic when I was my turn at the overlook. Laura liked painting with sticks on the boulders. She chose deer and wolves as her motif. Very primitive.

Picniced nearby. Laura fell asleep so I ate in the car. Drove to Hayden valley and climbed up a hillock to see spectacular wide open views.

Headed to canyon to have showers and do laundry. Went to canyon campground. Laundry complex huge. Definitely have this routine down. Girls got a wolf puppy each as a souvenir. Wolves got put in the rolling laundry carts as cages. Much more room for playing.

Had nice meal at cafeteria in canyon. Decent food. Bread was rocklike, but cafeteria meat lasagne was filling. Thankful not to eat burgers. Went next door to get amazing ice cream. Best moosetracks I’ve had in long time. Mint almost as good as baskin Robbins. Finely chipped chocolate.

Returned to Madison.

Wy day 11

Headed out to grand prismatic late. Laura slept and I stayed with her while Wayne and Sara went for a hike.

Picnic outside.

Went on scenic drive and decided to stay at nez pierce picnic area near the furehole river. Swam/waded in the river with girls. Of course, a thunderstorm started brewing. bathroom had liquid feces in it. Used creative towel cover to change out of wet bathing suit. Fun!

Returned to Madison. Wayne settled to make best fire of trip and said I could go out photoing with dad. I got to make a lovely smore before I left.

Fountain paint pots fun with great light. Got to see geyser go off in front of sunset.

Nice to sit with wayne by the fire after kids went to sleep. Embers are mesMorizing.

Wy day day 10

Old faithful

Got to see the ebbs and flows of this place. Sometimes the only part of yellowstone people see.

Arrived at peak of day. Hot. Got a parking spot by the picnic area in the back at 11ish. Later people would be fighting over parking.

Walked in the geyser basin. Thumped across boardwalks with Sara. Laura dozed in the stroller. The light was very harsh for photography. Still tried to snap some shots. Such a beautiful place. Watched old faithful go off from a far off vantage point. Watched 100s of people crowding at old faithful. Glad we weren’t part of it too.

Went back to picnic area and scored a table. There was a great log see-saw to play on. Sara didn’t like it that much. Tried to get dad to play on it with no luck.

Decided on showers. Located in far back near cabins. Dad bought at lodge front desk. Nice facilities. Toured photo exhibit in the lodge.

Started to get late. People flowing out of old faithful like a sigh of relief. Drove to grocery near snow lodge. Sara took nap and Laura took nap 2.
Ate dinner at grill. Like a homey mcds. Same efficiency, less coldness. Got tootsie lollipop in the kids meal. Sara got to buy skiddles next door for equality.

Looked at approaching thunderhead with lightning. Decided to stay and try to capture nice lighting. Started to pour on us. Hung out on porch of lodge. People started to gather for the evening spectacle of old faithful. Got lured out in open. Then heavens opened and poured water. It was fuN to watch all the people run back for the porch.

Sara and Laura just played around and had great fun. I got sara to look up to see the geyser blast. Then back to play. Got to post some blog entries since old faithful is the only place with any service. Found out I’m having a girl niece!

The light was amazing. Dramatic clouds, sunset behind streaming old faithful, rainbow over lodge.

Rick steves taught me it always best to spend evenings and mornings in busy cities befor the crowds have time to gather. Good advice.