our section of our neighborhood
was built within an apple orchard,
so everyone gets together annually,
picks apples, and presses all of them into
cider.
this year there was an unusual
cold snap (so they say),
so the apples were frozen, turning a
3-hour process into more like a
10-hour process, but it was oh so yummy
and we have plowed through four gallons in
two weeks.
hutch thinks the coors made it, which is funny
because he was apart of the whole process,
but after every sip he gives kudos to aunt rebecca,
uncle shane, acey and the big boys, and jb. (i am not exaggerating)
all that to say we have one gallon remaining,
in our freezer, and it will be thawed just in time
for turkey day because
THE TROTTERS ARE COMING FOR THANKSGIVING!!!!!!

we like to move it, move it

i'm pretty sure alex is brainwashing hutch,
because the only music he claims to like is
guns 'n' roses and kings of leon.
however, give he and elsa an up-tempo pop song,
and they are both ready to groove.
we've started having nightly dinner dance parties...
i'm not gonna lie, it's a good time.

four years ago....

lots have happened in the following days:
two kiddos, three different states, three different houses.
hutch captured my feelings on alex perfectly today when he said
out of nowhere:
"i love my daddy. he's a nice and good man."
such a wise sage that boy is to speak such true words.

tonight, our ritual anniversary dinner: wings and beer. yum yum.

the day hutch's life changed forever

all it took
was one trip
to the missoula county fair's
demolition derby/motocross event
while cotter was in town
for hutch to see his true calling.

i wasn't able to get a good, un-fuzzy picture of him,
because he was far too busy cheering and
clapping with his hands above his head.
and now, all he does is talk about/play with motorcycles.

i was also suprised how much elsa loved dancing to the arena rock and
playing peek-a-boo with unsavory characters. that's my girl.

for the record, i am not comfortable with
how fearless hutch is on his scooter now,
let alone any potential motocross antics.

first visitor: kelly cotter in the house!

about a month ago, i think,
we were lucky to have cotter,
or Miss Kelly the Kayaker as she's known in our house,
in town for a visit, making her our first
official visitor
to sleep on our comfy air mattress
in an otherwise empty guest room.

cotter's great, up for any outdoor activity,
and fully able to laugh at nuances
in any situation.
Miss K.T.K was also willing to
spend quite a bit of time
figuring out what
smitty is up to these days,
an important quality in any friend of mine.
we definitely
got off to a great house guest start.

in the words of warren g....

'back up, back up, 'cause it's on.'

hmmm..guess it's time to play catch up.
we finally had our internets hooked up on monday.
prior to that, we were, ahem, borrowing from an unsecured
network in the area (thank you, dogsbreath, whoever you are),
making our connection spotty at best, and making uploading more than
one picture at a time nothing short of impossible.

so here we are. i present to you a misceallaneous slideshow of our happenings
in the past few months. there are more to follow of our slew of visitors: cotter, our parents, the coors, as well as other standout events, but i figured this would be the easiest way to get a glimpse of our life here, at least prior to alex starting work a couple of weeks ago.

i am in love with missoula. every day has involved hiking, biking, throwing rocks in the river, visiting the local farm, and going to the farmer's market. the beauty of it all? the farmer's market is the only thing not within walking distance, and even that is just a fifteen minute bike ride downtown. our time here has been great. we have found a church, found new friends, and hutch starts saying,
"today has been a great day" or "sure is a pretty day today," every day around dinnertime.

reality set in a bit when alex started work, and i'm sure january-march/april will prove to be a strong dose of it as well, but it is so fun to get settled in a place where you know you won't be moving in a couple of years. and even more fun that i have a view of the mountains out of every window in our house.

happy birthday to this guy

off we go
to glacier
this weekend
to celebrate the birth
of one
alexander brockman jehle.