Oh Give Me a Home Where the Buffalo Roam...

...and the deer and the antelope play.

And the grizzly and black bears and wolves too, don't forget.

A bison herd in Yellowstone's Lamar Valley.

That doesn't matter much to me though. You can still give me a home in bison country out there in Montana or Wyoming. Funny, I never would have thought of myself as someone who'd have any inclination to live in backwoods-cattle-ranching Wyoming of all places, but now that I've been there I'm in love. In love with the mountains and the unimaginably deep blue skies, rivers so sparkely you have to squint your eyes, and of course Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. Even in love with the crisp dry air, which wreaked havoc on the inside of my nose but made for the most pleasant hiking days of my life. Hiking with no humidity must be what its like when hiking in heaven. At least, I think it would be like that.

As someone who has lived on the east coast of the country her entire life and very rarely travelled anywhere off it, and never to the Western part, I was in some ways unprepared for the differences in climate and scenery. Mid July. Temps soared to 105 back here in the Old Dominion, with humidity making it feel like a roasty 130, I'm sure. While in Montana, a day's high of 80 degrees was considered surprisingly warm, and even on those days sitting in the shade for any period of time required a light jacket. Without humidity, shade is actualy cool. Will wonders never cease.

Sure I woke up every morning with my nasal pasages crusted over and my hands nearly screaming for an entire bottle of moisturizer, but that was a small price to pay for being completely comfortable all day, even on our more strenuous trips. We did learn the hard way, though, that we did not carry nearly enough water and juices with us the first day. And some learned the hard way, despite my loud insistance about reading warnings before hand, that the sun is much stronger at higher altitudes due to thinner atmosphere, and therefore skin burns more quickly. Well, there's only so many times I can say "I told you so" without sounding like a jerk (okay, maybe one time is too many, but I DID tell them so), but my kids and I, at least, were not in the burned-party list.

I think what most surprised me, though, was the landscape istelf. And I'm not only talking about the wonders of Yellowstone, spectacular as they are. It was the wide expanses of flat valleys and sagebrush plains suddenly giving way to mountains jutting up with little to no foothills to ease the eye into them. Mountains so rugged that often times greenery stopped about half way up, and snow was still cradled in their sheltered jagged peaks. The sweeping abyss of vibrant blue sky and occasional puffy white clouds created the perfect backdrop to take my breath away with every glance out of the car window. Everywhere you looked, it seemed like a snapshot from a postcard was right there in front of you. Amazing and Incredible are words that still do not do the scenery justice.

I felt so free and at ease everywhere we went. The wide open spaces were not just limited to the flats and valleys. The lakes were open and sprawling. The rivers were shallow and usually with wide, gentle banks. Even the forests, which consisted mainly of lodgepole pines, seemed more open and airy than our thick Virginia lanscapes. The town of Big Sky, Montana certainly got their name right. The sky is huge, and the sence of the vastness of the world is like nothing I've ever experienced before. They say everything's bigger in Texas, but I'm inclined to think that Wyoming should have gotten that slogan first. From the ranches and fields of horses to the towering mountians to the biggest land animal in North America, I think Wyoming might give Texas a run for its money.

It was an eye opening experience for me. Even more so than my trip halfway across the globe to experience China on our honeymoon almost 10 years ago. Somehow being immersed in a completely different culture and history wasn't as life changing as seeing a 'foreign' part of my own country. I repeatedly told myself that I would look for a way to move and live out there, where heaven meets earth, but then I would suddenly be reminded of the 400 inches of snow they recieve each year, and how fleeting the Yellowstone Country summer actually is. Although I do love a good snow or two in Virginia, I don't know how someone can shovel snow off their car day after day and not have a mental breakdown. Or how a human can actully function in temperatures considered 'normal' even at 20 BELOW zero. At those temps I don't think the buffalo are roaming as much, and there's certainly no playing by the deer and the antelope, if they're even still around by then and the wolves haven't gotten them first. Hmmmm... Ah, well. Perhaps just a summer home is in order. Maybe even in Big Sky.

Summer 2010: A Dream Come True

Yes, Summer has officially hit its middle month. I can tell because I haven't had much time to breath, much less blog! Between Cub Adventure Camp and Fourth of July festivities and the pool and hiking and preparing for the Cub Olympics it has been a whirlwind the last two weeks. Not to mention initital stages of Project: Pack and Fly the Family to Yellowstone. Yeah, lets not forget to mention THAT piece of incredible stress that I'm trying hard not to get over excited about!

I had wanted to write a full post about Cub Adventure Camp, but every time I'd start one I would realize it was about to turn into a short novel instead of a blog post. I can sum it up in one short word: FUN. Fun for my son, who experienced his first time at resident camp, and possibly even more fun for me, who got to experience camp from whole new perspective and see all our boys having the time of their lives. I am so incredibly pleased with the quality of the program and the staff at camp. In many ways it was better for OS and myself than many vactions we've gone on. No plnning, little down time to be bored, and lots of friends to keep us both well engaged. Its something I am very much looking forward to doing again next year!

So this week, since returning from camp, we've been on a self-induced whirlwind schedule of outdoor activities and home preparation for upcomign events. I'm amazed when I remember past summers that I've looked back on and wondered where the summer went. That I recall thinking I really didn't get to do as much as I had wanted for that particular summer. At least this year I know that will decidedly NOT be the case. Instead I will be looking back in September, wondering how in the world we managed to fit so much into just a few short months.

I used to daydream about the things we'd do when my son was older. People always told me not to wish your children grow up too fast because time passes too quickly as it is, but I couldn't help thinking about the cool things that lie in store for my sweet baby boys. While its great when kids are little flailing and cute chubby monsters, I was definitely meant to be a parent of slightly older children. The realization of all those previous daydreams has already begun, and I am loving every speedily passing minute. From hiking out to search for beavers to learning about rocks while working on the Cub Scout geology pin, THIS is the reason I wanted to have children. Lucky me to have this opportunity to spend so much of this important year with my suddenly growing-up kids to really experience this turning point in their lives. It really is a summer for some of the closest dreams to my heart to finlly start coming true.

Great American Backyard Campout

This weekend I hosted our first-ever Great American Backyard Campout. Originally we were going to get a group of friends together and go to a campground to camp, but after getting little interest from friends and realizing that we’d be camping two hot summer weekends in a row, I made the decision to just do a campout/sleepover in our own backyard. Both the kids and I were so extremely excited in the days leading up to the big event, though my dear husband kept mumbling something about my confirmed insanity.

If anyone has the yard to host an event like this, I think we do. Our ¾ acre yard is wooded in the rear of the backyard with a large cleared section towards the house. Not to mention my large tri-level deck and firepit area. We set up four tents in the woods behind our playset, and camping in our yard was just about the closest you could get to the real thing! Of course, the boys would have had a blast even in a regular suburban yard with a makeshift sheet for a tent, but (me being the overachiever that I am) I felt a nice sense of pride from being able to give the kids an authentic experience.

We had a total of nine boys sleep over (including my own two). I had made the invitation “parent optional” but planned to use the BSA guideline of 1 parent per 5 children, so I wanted to have one other parent there with us. Luckily, two parents ended up coming to stay, and in hindsight two or even three ‘extra’ parents would have been the ideal number. Not really because the boys needed that much supervision, but because at this age (mostly 3-7 years old) they still need a lot of help with things like serving themselves food and getting their things laid out in the tents. The two three-year-olds especially needed a lot of my assistance, so I was glad to have the extra hands!

Contrary to my usual philosophy of keeping kids busy as much as possible, I did not schedule any real activities for them to do. GASP! It was a hard decision, but the right one, I think. I did, however, let the parents know to have their kids bring all sorts of artillery, including squirt guns, Nerf guns and lightsabers. The one complaint I hear from my OS about our Scout meetings is that he doesn’t get enough time to just PLAY with his friends there, so I figured the boys would enjoy the uninhibited free time. I think they really did. The late afternoon after they arrived was spent playing in the sprinkler and slip-n-slide, and their constant battles and duels afterward were enough to keep them all busy all evening!

We did a simple dinner on the grill of hot dogs and hamburgers. The boys all got to shuck corn and slather it with butter and I wrapped the ears up in foil and threw them in hot coals for some yummy roasted corn on the cob. Later that night I started a fire and they all got to roast marshmallows and have s’mores. In all the commotion of getting kids marshmallows on their sticks and breaking up chocolate and graham crackers, I somehow didn’t get a s’more for myself. This makes two camping trips in a row where I didn’t get a s’more, something that I think will need to be remedied very soon!

The most difficult part of the entire campout was bedtime. I had the brilliant idea of letting all the older boys all sleep together in one tent without an adult, knowing full well there would be some talking and playing around, but I figured after so much running around in the heat all day they would all pass out soon enough. But by 11pm I began resorting to threats to get them to quiet down, and it was midnight before most of them were asleep, including the three year olds in my own tent! I’m not entirely sure I would let them sleep alone again, but I know they really did think it was fun to be together in there. For almost all of them this was their first-ever sleepover away from a family member, and I think having their buddies together and the novelty of the sleeping in a tent helped keep them occupied enough to not think of being homesick. I guess that is enough for me to put aside my own sleep deprivation… this one time at least.

As I predicted, the boys were up bright and early despite their late night, grabbing their Nerf guns and lightsabers on their way out of the tent. Breakfast was a sort of omelet made in hallowed out orange peels, wrapped in foil and baked on the grill. I had found the idea in a kids camping cook book, and it was somewhat successful but didn’t go over that well with the boys. My backup plan of cereal did the trick for anyone still hungry though!

The kids all got to take home goodie bags, complete with Adventure Journals and Ranger Rick stickers, courtesy of the National Wildlife Federation who sent me a box full of goodies as a thank you for hosting a campout. There were even cute little tote bags for the grown-ups that participated (and I’m a big fan of tote bags!). I would call this campout as much a learning experience for me as a fun time for the kids, since I got to test out their interests and my own limitations. Over all it was a highly successful event. Sure, there were some tears from hurt feelings or water squirted in the face, and there were a few times they yelled at each other for wanting the same gun, but it was nothing that didn’t pass in a few seconds, and everyone left with a smile on their face.

I am so glad I decided to change my plans and share my yard with all these kids. It gave many more of them a chance to spend the night outside and have a lot of good friendship-building time with their buddies than we would have had if we’d camped elsewhere. And besides, the event IS called the “Great American BACKYARD Campout.” I’m thrilled that we pulled it off without a hitch and that the boys had so much fun. We will definitely be hosting the event next year. Luckily, I get an entire year to recover from the experience before I have to do it again!