halloween

First I need to say Happy Birthday to my oldest brother Ben. Real nice of you to stop by while you were in town. He is quite a slacker, but did just pass his certification test and is now a physical therapy assistant, so I have to cut him some slack. We're thinking about going into business together with my brother Jake who is in med school. Still working on a name though.

Now to the fun. It's that time of year again and for us Halloween is kind of a process. First finding the perfect pumpkin, then carving the pumpkins, and finally dressing up and trick-or-treating. This was Emma's first year actually getting to participate in the carving and trick-or-treating, and I must say she loved every bit of it! First off, a look back. This was Emma a year ago.

At the pumpkin farm in North Carolina

Our lil pumpkin

Hello!

The first part of our week long Halloween extravaganza was a trip to a pumpkin patch here in Billings. It would have been a beautiful day if the wind wasn't blowing so hard. The farm is a real working farm with lots of other vegetables besides pumpkins. Unfortunately because of the early snow we had, most of it froze. On the hayride out to the pumpkin patch, we past fields of rotted tomatoes that the driver warned us not to eat or steal because they have botulism. Enough warning for me! There were plenty of pumpkins though and we each walked away with our own.

Acres of pumpkins

Emma found her pumpkin

Fun at the farm

Peek a boo

The next step was carving our pumpkins. I always find it frustrating to try and put a perfect pumpkin face to complement the perfect pumpkin prize. No matter how much effort I put in, I can never seem to get it quite right. I also don't enjoy getting all the junk out of it. The spoon never seems to scrap enough of it out so, inevitably, you have to use your hands. Emma luckily didn't seem to enthralled with the mess and it all stayed in the bowl. She had her spoon to mix and "cook" it though, so that kept her occupied.

Preparing the pumpkins

Cooking pumpkin goo

The pumpkins at their new home - our front porch!

Now the best part! Emma was a bee this year. Luckily Halloween wasn't a few weeks later because her costume hardly fit! Nate and I thought it would be fun to dress up as bee keepers but I didn't quite have my act together this week to pull it off. She of course was adorable even without bee-keepers and loved going house to house. She couldn't quite get the phrase "trick or treat" down, but did say "thank you" at almost every house, which I was very proud of. She seemed more interested in the other kids that were out than the treats she was getting until she got home and realized they how sweet her treasures were. She is definitely a candy fiend, just like daddy. Enjoy the pictures and Happy Halloween everyone!

Momma and Emma

Emma the super bee

Emma and daddy

Daddy and Emma checking out the loot

Watching the kids arrive

A tired little bee

topography

For those who aren't familiar with the Billings area, I wanted to fill you in on what our new city looks like. Billings has a population of just over 100,000 making it the largest city in Montana. It is situated in the southeastern part of the state, about 3 hours from Yellowstone. The Yellowstone river runs through Billings and Billings is in Yellowstone county. We're crazy about Yellowstone around here. Here are some other interesting stats about the city.

Billings somewhat sits in a canyon as the rimrocks (called the "rims" by the locals) enclose the city on several sides. I've always felt more comfortable in areas that have geographical limits, like Seattle. There you have the Cascades to the East and the sound to the west, so besides stretching north and south (which the area does substantially), growth is restricted by these boundaries. In Minneapolis and North Carolina, there was nothing but farmland to conquer as the cities expanded, and for some reason this unnerved me.

View of the rims from down below

View of the city from the rims

The glory of Billings

The rims rise about 500-1000 feet above the city. On top of the rims sit million dollar homes and nice walking trails. Across the street from the houses and trails are the airport and wheat fields. There something comforting to me about wheat fields. The alternating gold and earth patterned lines seem to set all my thoughts straight. Plus to me wheat = Montana = home.

Montana wheat

More wheat

We live on the west side of Billings which has seen tremendous growth over the past several years. Before moving here, it had been nearly ten years since I spent any significant amount of time here and I couldn't believe all of the places I didn't recognize! Most of this area, before it became residential developments, was farmland, and there are still some farmers that are holding out on their land - either because they don't want to give it up or because they are waiting for the right price. Just a few blocks from our house, there is a farm still in operation and it's right across the street from a Walgreens. They have hay bales and cows and everything. Crazy! I think they did sell some of their property a few years ago and it was developed into a golf course, so this is also right next to the farm. Only in Montana!

Haystacks-you can see the stores in the distance

Haystacks #2

Thursday night the scene started to change as a premature winter storm blew into the region. By the time it was over early Sunday evening, we had nearly 2 feet of snow! They haven't gotten this much snow at one time in several years here. Being that it was so early in the season, the snow was very wet and heavy and broke many tree branches. The downed branches caused sporadic power outages and made roads nearly impassable. I knew there was something I was forgetting when I thought it would be fun to move back.

Winter in October - our newly dusted front porch