Living with the Bakers: Father-Son Time in Montana

The day before we left for Arkansas, Blaine had just gotten home from Montana. His dad works nights for a week and then is off for a week, but his mom still has to work. And since Blaine was on break from school, we sent him home to Libby, Montana for some Father-Son time before his own son is born!! I wasn't there, so I can't share too much, but I know he did a lot of outdoors stuff (his FAVE!) They did lots of hiking and fishing and looking for bears. They also rode the fat cat/big wheel thing that his dad just bought for lots of fun with his grandkids... especially the boy on the way in 6 weeks ;) Blaine said they tried to ride it together across a river and tipped it!!

Blaine wished Jake could've come so bad because he would've LOVED exploring and running through the woods. Hopefully next summer all 4 of us can take a trip out there. (Blaine, Alayna, Baby, & Jake=4). Montana really is beautiful- mountains, waterfalls, forests, animals. We went to Glacier National Park when we were living there in the summer of 2009, but only got to spend a day there and there was sooo much we didn't get to see and do.

I reminded Blaine to take pictures everyday, and he did pretty well. He's no me, but thats ok ;) I SnapChatted him probably 8 pictures a day, most of them being of Jake. I felt so bad for Jakey. I joked about it before, but this week apart with him only having me confirmed it. It is no joking matter. Jake loves Blaine so much. I am his nurturing, cuddling mama but Blaine wrestles and plays a LOT better.

It's hard for me to take him for walks alone because his walks are pretty much a sprint when I move slowly and am ready to wet my pants after 2 minutes. So I took him to the dog park every single day while Blaine was gone to try and get his energy out running around and playing with other dogs. He prefers Blaine, but it went ok. He even went swimming one day, which he LOVES.

So here's Blaine's pictures from Montana and Jake's pictures from being home alone with boring mom.

Blaine's mom modeling the... thing (I really don't know what its supposed to be called?)

Blaine modeling... the outdoors

Blaine's dad... probably looking for elk :)

long range shooting

Blaine modeling the bow his dad gave him

Blaine modeling the horns from his elk he shot. Once we've settled into a more permanent location, he'd like to get it mounted with a face and stuff. And while I'm all for showing off his horns and taking pride in his accomplishment, I'm thinking maybe his office or study would be a better spot... We'll see...

His dad keeps all of his elk horns even though he could get a good amount of money for them. He told Blaine that when he was a little boy, his dad told him about all these cool hunting stories and about all the antlers that his dad (Blaine's dad's grandpa) had and Blaine's dad was so excited! So then they went to his grandpa's house and asked to see all the horns and he hadn't saved any. (That was probably hard to follow). Anyways, thats stayed with him and so Blaine's dad has kept all his horns to show his grandkids. Its cute to see how excited both of Blaine's parents are for our baby boy to be born! He will be the first grandchild on both sides since Blaine and I are each the oldest children in our family. That means he'll get a lot of attention, but I worry he might be lonely or not as interested in cousin activities since he will have no cousins his age.

Well, back to Jake pictures...

We both enjoy the box fan and bring it with us in every room. Here is is enjoying the vent in the floor and the fan... it was soooo hot.... for a day. And then it poured. Besides that first day he was gone, it rained every single day, which made it extra extra extra hard for me to take care of Jake by myself. Before letting him in, I'd have to wipe off his feet and then go rinse him in the bath tub. And in my current state, its a lot harder than it sounds. Especially when I had to give him 4 baths a day, which happened for 5 days...

The first 2 nights he slept by the front door waiting for Blaine, but after that, he gave up and accepted that I was all he had, so then he started sleeping with me