Idaho continued...

Standing on volcano cinders:

Paddling down Silver Creek:

The Captain:

The moose:

I know I'm not gonna win a photography prize, but we found that moose is fast...and shy.

Craters of the Moon

This was post-puke. Notice her nice new Craters of the Moon hoodie Granddad bought for her. You can't see here that her legs are bare.

Dad and me climbing the lava cinder mountain to a panoramic view.

Jogging back down. See our car? Caroline was zonked out in it.

When I got back, Lynn headed up.

See Dad at the top?

Arriving in Boise/Hailey

Caroline was pretty excited about her plane rides.

But her 4 a.m. wake-up call soon caught up with her.

We think this is the Sawtooth Mountains leaving Boise.

Dog is Caroline's best friend. You'll see a lot of these. She'd rather stay home and play with Jaxsun and Daisy than go on adventures.

But we coaxed her out.

This is a gravel road through a valley I forget the name. Caroline's heading b ack to the car.

I have a word or two about Dollar Rental and it ain't as picturesque as this shot of my fine economy-size.

Isn't the west often defined by their wildflower fields below striking mountains in the background? Well...these are all dandelions!!!

Girls' trip

Caroline and I are going on a plane trip tomorrow...to Idaho of all places. It's where my Dad and Lynn live, just outside of Sun Valley. As I type this, Caroline is in her bed down the hall (our Nashville house) rolling and fretting and anticipating me getting her out of bed at 4:30a. Our flight is at 5:50a, and she's pretty dang excited about it.

I've got her backpack all stuffed with goodies and activities, her bagel waiting on the counter for her favorite strawberry cream cheese. Nana-of-the-Year is driving us to the airport, then she'll likely go home and back to bed.

Once we get there, we've got an adventure-packed 5 days of hiking, biking, touring, climbing and paddling. Pics to come...

Night night.

A year ago today...

...this is what we were doing.

What do my son and the oil spill have in common?

They both refuse to be contained. I confess, when he escaped earlier in the week from his bed, he was in a Pack n Play. So logically, we, like BP, were hopeful our next solution would work: move him into Caroline's room (which was the original plan that got delayed) and put him in her crib now that she's in a big girl bed. Yes?

NO!

Apparently, falling 3 feet didn't deter him one bit. Caroline even was hopeful. "Don't worry, Daddy," she said as Dawit howled from his crib. "I'll calm him down." So for an hour, the sequence of events went like this: Dawit crying, Caroline saying, "It's okay." Thump. Feet, feet, feet. Caroline at top of stairs, "Owie got out!" Dawit right behind her, preparing to descend the stairs. Scoop 'em up. Back to bed. Repeat.

After about the 30th jump, he finally quit coming into the hall. He'd jump, stand by his bed with a defeated look and wait for one of us to plop him back in bed. We're calling it the extinction plan. It's one of us standing quietly in the hall waiting for the thump so we can make a quick intercept. At some point, it became me sitting at the top of the stairs with my laptop, googling crib tents.

Praise joy! It's nearly 7 a.m. and not a peep from either of the roommates.

One year ago, this very second...

...we were on a plane to Ethiopia to pick up this fellow.



Look how far we've come.