Emma Goes Tracking

Emma, assisted by her friend and photo documentor, Tomas went tracking last weekend. Emma has quite a few books now about tracks and animals. We've been telling night-time stories about searching in the woods for various "wild animals".

Tomas, being the great kid he is, was happy to go along with Emma's vision for their tracking outing.

Doing the Downhill

Because winter is typically from early December to April (a full 4 months or more), living in Montana dictates that you become some sort of winter outdoor enthusiast. Else go insane from the cabin fever. Something I've referred to in previous blog entries.

We've done the cross-country ski thing with Emma. Which is enjoyable. But, getting her out of the sled and on her skis makes me feel like something akin to a drill sergeant. That, or a tired broken record.

Now that Emma is 3.5, we decided she (and we) were ready for the next life-in-Bozeman-with-kids step: going as a family to Bridger Bowl. This entails $5 (for adult) passes on the Snowflake lift and lots of cocoa in the lodge. We've gone three times now. Sunday was our friends' Lucy's birthday, which we celebrated together at Bridger as well. Super fun!

The weather has warmed into consistent 20s and 30s and the snow is falling. Yah! We like this kind of MT winter. Here are some pics to document.

From Saturday.

Emma skiing solo. Fat, wide skis enable this. When we graduate to Alpine (the big kid lift for the lower mountain), I believe the snow plow will have to be employed and/or learned. They make harnesses now so that you can give them more freedom, but still are able to halt their speed (when necessary). I noticed parents using hula hoops, which I thought a pretty ingenious, and inexpensive, teaching option.

From Sunday (the birthday day). Notice a lot of pink ski apparel? It looks like a girls only birthday, but there were boys too. Just not in these photos.

 Birthday happenings in the upper floor of the lodge. Including a rousing game of pin the tail on the snow bunny.

Notice Emma has her ballet leotard, OVER her ski thermals. It was very important that she be wearing both....

 Emma and I drove up with Emma's friend Lucy B. and her mom Abigail. So great to carpool with moms and friends; even if it is only a 20 minute drive.

 

Gettin' Out

My friend Sarah has been flying solo for 2 weeks while her husband travels for work. So, last week Emma and I made the trek over the pass to visit her and her daughter, Freya.

Cabin Fever is a definite concern during Montana winter months with little ones. Especially vulnerable are the adults! Since it is always warmer in Livingston, we went on a little winter romp/adventure to their neighborhood park.

Pretty cute.

Emma does Ballet

Okay, it seems apparent that Emma is just like many of other girls, she loves Tutus, Pink, twirly skirts, fancy shoes and BALLET!

So, possibly like mother like daughter on this one. Though I am not sure when I found tutus and ballet. I don't think it was at 3 years old, was it? Well who knows.

She sure does love to dance though. And she definitely has her own style. Which seems to be fitting in pretty well with the Montana Ballet School. She is enrolled in "pre-ballet" and will be part of an upcoming performance. In May. More on that in upcoming months.

Here are some ballet shots and a video. I was stuck with only my smart phone for documentation. Alas, the Palm Pre is not quite up to par with the Nikon D70; they are of pretty poor quality. But you get the idea.

New Years in Memphis

After Christmas we headed down to Memphis to celebrate New Years with the Williamson/Trotz clan. We had a very nice time. Emma greatly enjoyed her cousins, cooking with Neena, drinking cocoa (with whipped cream!) and walking the dog, Pearl.

Here are some photos:

Winter Greetings

Happy 2011! Sorry it has been a while since I last posted photos. We had a very nice and mellow Christmas in Bozeman.

Here are some from Christmas day:

 This is Emma in her free-spirit wear.

 Sid actually got the bass guitar for his birthday. But, the stand was a Christmas present.

Here are a few pictures from our post-Christmas day outing. Once the weather warmed up.

 Sid got the snow shoes for Christmas.

 I got the Canon S95 camera which took these pictures. :-)

 We also got Emma some little-kid cross country ski gear. But, she still prefers to be a rider. Who wouldn't with a ride that includes snacks and a sleeping bag?

 We did get Emma out to look at animal tracks and for a ride on her dad's shoulders. But it didn't last very long.