We brought back colds from Lac du Bois - all 4 of us. Aimee and
Holden have the worst of it. Aimee's not feeling well at all. Holden
and Grace and I spent the afternoon at the Como Park zoo and
conservatory to let Aimee get some rest.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Dignity Watch
Speaking from experience, it is extremely difficult to maintain your adult dignity while simultaneously pretending to be a chicken perched on pretend eggs in a nest of sticks and grass atop a children's play structure.
Banff Update
This is an update from Nelson's brother, Eric:
Here's an update – just spoke with Mom. The fix-it shop in Banff found one place in Kentucky that has the part needed. The part is very specific; it must be for a two-wheel drive Toyota pickup with cruise control, made between 2002-2007. The Kentucky shop will ship it to Montreal, and then it needs to be shipped to Banff, but due to holiday and customs, this means the truck will not be repaired until Thursday, September 6 th. In the meantime, it appears they can rent a car for the duration of their stay (hopefully), however, they are losing the cabin they've been renting tonight, and must find a campground to stay, probably until early next week.
Their "vacation" is being extended a full week, and will be back the weekend of September 8th/9th – they must be having fun! And I must housesit an extra week for them. Thankfully, I do enjoy the company of cats as well as the hot tub perk.
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
An Adventure In Banff
You might recall that we had car trouble in North Dakota last month, and that not two weeks later Nelson's brother, Eric, also had car trouble just outside of Glacier National Park. Undissauded by these stories, Nelson's Mom and Stepfather, Katie and Milt, pointed their truck North on a trip to Banff in Canada ( http://www.banff.com/). They left Sunday. Yesterday their Toyota Truck broke down somewhere outside of Banff. After waiting four hours for a towtruck, their truck was towed to Banff. There they were told that the throttle cable had broken, and that it was extremely rare for this part to break, so rare in fact that there wasn't a replacement throttle cable available in North America. They can get the part in 1-2 weeks. Katie and Milt have rented a car for the time being. But the rental car is due back tomorrow, since the upcoming weekend is Labor Day Weekend. Everyone is having their last vacation before school starts the following week. This also means the area hotels are booked. And Katie and Milt were planning on camping, so they don't have any reservations at hotels. After tomorrow, they don't have a car, or accomodations. That's as much as we know for now.
Monday, August 27, 2007
Housing Update
Well, it appears we won't be moving into our 3-bedroom apartment for six weeks. The family living there will be moving out by September 30th - and then Luther Seminary Housing will need a little time to paint, make some repairs and updates, etc. Until then, we will have access to another 1-bedroom apartment, where we can unload our moving pods. Unfortunately, the moving pods can't be delivered to the Seminary until September 6th.
Holden Crawling Update
For the last couple weeks, we could set Holden down and he would remain within about a two foot circumference as he learned how to crawl. Today, something seemed to "click". He was crawling around the living room and anything he could reach was fair game.
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Dancing at Lac du Bois
There were lots of opportunities for dancing, and the staff were very good at getting Grace involved with the other villagers.
Click here to go directly to the video.
Click here to go directly to the video.
Back from Lac de Bois
We got back yesterday from Lac du Bois on Turtle Lake, outside of Bemidji, Minnesota. French immersion camp was exciting, exhausting, and refreshing. Grace didn't hardly seem to pay attention to what was going on sometimes, since her attention wandered often - and yet it was very clear by the end of the week that she was picking up everything. We have some photos of the trip posted that you can see by clicking here. I have some of the photos below.
Would we go again? Absolutely. Aimee brushed up on her French, Grace got her first experience, and I finally developed a foundation in French. By the end of the week, I was understanding something new every hour. It was amazing how the immersion experience worked. The staff was outstanding - including native French speakers from Morocco, Canada, Cameroon, Switzerland and of course France.
Paris in the center of all action in Lac du Bois. This is where meals are served and where everyone congregates for activities.
Twice per day, we broke into small groups, divided by our ability to speak French. Here an instructor helped us practice speaking French. This is Nelson's group, led by Josephine from Cameroon, who was fantastic.
Aimee was in the more advanced adult group, led by Yani, from Cameroon.
This is the Swedish language village for immersion into Swedish culture and language. All of the villages owned by Concordia Language Villages are constructed in the style of the country.
They have all sorts of creative ways to get everyone speaking French. Here, at the Crocodile Cafe, the children pretend to be waiters taking orders in French from the customers.
During fencing, I was unbeatable!
(Actually, I duelled with the two instructors.)
The food was excellent, and all food served was traditional food in a French-speaking country. Beacoup du baguettes. They had an espresso machine for the adults available all day long. And before every meal they took 15 minutes or so to talk to us in French.
Speaking of baguettes, Holden loved them. And they were an ideal distraction to let us eat.
And of course, Turtle Lake is beautiful, and excellent for canoeing.
Staff perform skits at various times of the day to help teach French. One of the staff studied acting in Paris, so the skits were often quite funny with pratfalls and other humor.
They pull out any trick they know to get and keep the children's (and parent's) attention.
The staff don't see any babies all summer - so Holden was very popular. The staff would pass him from staff person to staff person, and we would see Holden being carried all over the village.
Here's a slideshow of all pictures:
Would we go again? Absolutely. Aimee brushed up on her French, Grace got her first experience, and I finally developed a foundation in French. By the end of the week, I was understanding something new every hour. It was amazing how the immersion experience worked. The staff was outstanding - including native French speakers from Morocco, Canada, Cameroon, Switzerland and of course France.
Paris in the center of all action in Lac du Bois. This is where meals are served and where everyone congregates for activities.
Twice per day, we broke into small groups, divided by our ability to speak French. Here an instructor helped us practice speaking French. This is Nelson's group, led by Josephine from Cameroon, who was fantastic.
Aimee was in the more advanced adult group, led by Yani, from Cameroon.
This is the Swedish language village for immersion into Swedish culture and language. All of the villages owned by Concordia Language Villages are constructed in the style of the country.
They have all sorts of creative ways to get everyone speaking French. Here, at the Crocodile Cafe, the children pretend to be waiters taking orders in French from the customers.
During fencing, I was unbeatable!
(Actually, I duelled with the two instructors.)
The food was excellent, and all food served was traditional food in a French-speaking country. Beacoup du baguettes. They had an espresso machine for the adults available all day long. And before every meal they took 15 minutes or so to talk to us in French.
Speaking of baguettes, Holden loved them. And they were an ideal distraction to let us eat.
And of course, Turtle Lake is beautiful, and excellent for canoeing.
Staff perform skits at various times of the day to help teach French. One of the staff studied acting in Paris, so the skits were often quite funny with pratfalls and other humor.
They pull out any trick they know to get and keep the children's (and parent's) attention.
The staff don't see any babies all summer - so Holden was very popular. The staff would pass him from staff person to staff person, and we would see Holden being carried all over the village.
Here's a slideshow of all pictures:
Friday, August 24, 2007
The news from Concordia Language Villages
The weather in fair and the children are all above-average. We're having a great time in French Immersion camp. I'll post pictures and highlights later. But my favorite conversation so far happened on the first day, on the way to camp:
Grace - When will we get to see the Statue of Paul Bunyan?
Aimee - We're driving to see it now.
Grace - Driving to see what?
Aimee - The statue.
Grace - What statue?
Grace - When will we get to see the Statue of Paul Bunyan?
Aimee - We're driving to see it now.
Grace - Driving to see what?
Aimee - The statue.
Grace - What statue?
Sunday, August 19, 2007
French Immersion Camp
We're leaving tomorrow morning to spend the week in French immersion camp at Concordia Language Villages in Northern Minnesota. You can click here to see information about where we'll be spending the week. We are registered in the family program - learning to speak French. I think we'll be out of email and phone contact until Saturday, since they ask us to preserve the integrity of the immersion experience as much as possible. (For instance, we're not supposed to bring in books written in English.) We return to Saint Paul Saturday evening. The food is supposed to be good. For the Swedes in this family - do note that they also offer Swedish immersion. No charge for mosquito bites.
Floods in MN
No, we're not floating away in Saint Paul. It did rain as hard as I've ever seen it rain, though.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Apartment Update
We're still in base camp, we still haven't received clearance to summit. We don't know exactly when the party that is currently encamped on the summit will finally break camp and descend. There is much confusion, rumors, and lack of communication. Next week we're going to French camp, and hopefully when we return we can move in to the 3 bedroom apartment and setup house.
Highlights, 1st week in Saint Paul
We went to Comotown with Aimee's cousin Jessica.
Grace was very brave about wanting to try all the rides. Grace and I rode the Hopper.
After the first drop, she gripped tightly.
Grace loved the bumpercars and laughed maniacally as we hunted down other cars to bump.
She was impressed with how fast the rollercoaster went.
But she preferred the teacup to the rollercoaster.
We also visited the Minneapolis Zoo (again, with Jessica, who is on a break for a coupe weeks from her regular teaching gig).
Grace was very brave about wanting to try all the rides. Grace and I rode the Hopper.
After the first drop, she gripped tightly.
Grace loved the bumpercars and laughed maniacally as we hunted down other cars to bump.
She was impressed with how fast the rollercoaster went.
But she preferred the teacup to the rollercoaster.
We also visited the Minneapolis Zoo (again, with Jessica, who is on a break for a coupe weeks from her regular teaching gig).
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Eric & Anne - Roundup Update
Eric & Anne, not content to merely copy our itinerary, driving from Seattle to St. Paul via Glacier NP and Roundup, MT to Anne's Mom's house (which is located a few blocks from the Luther Seminary campus), are now copying the particulars. Coming out of Glacier today their car broke down - a flat tire, and it turned out they didn't have a lugwrench or an inflated spare tire. (They did have the spare tire; it was missing the rather important and underrated condition - inflated with air.) Total delay time on their drive to Roundup: 2 1-2 hours. The same as our delay time for our breakdown in North Dakota.
Cousins
We've spent much of our first few days in St. Paul visiting with
Aimee's cousins - this was a big reason why we chose to come to St.
Paul for seminary rather than another Lutheran seminary. We're happy
we have family living so close. We notice nearly every hour something
that we don't have that is currently in storage in the moving pods.
(i.e. candles in case of power outages due to thunderstorms, towels,
wine opener, basic spices, knives, etc.) It has become an ongoing
joke. Aimee's Aunt Sara came to the rescue by driving up to the Twin
Cities bearing towels, dishes, and a couple pots and pans to cook in.
We also borrow stuff from our friends Natalie and Brian who are living
in an apartment next to us.
Aimee's cousins - this was a big reason why we chose to come to St.
Paul for seminary rather than another Lutheran seminary. We're happy
we have family living so close. We notice nearly every hour something
that we don't have that is currently in storage in the moving pods.
(i.e. candles in case of power outages due to thunderstorms, towels,
wine opener, basic spices, knives, etc.) It has become an ongoing
joke. Aimee's Aunt Sara came to the rescue by driving up to the Twin
Cities bearing towels, dishes, and a couple pots and pans to cook in.
We also borrow stuff from our friends Natalie and Brian who are living
in an apartment next to us.
Monday, August 13, 2007
A Quick Note On Comments
Hi. All of a sudden a few people have started to leave comments on
our blog - and I just wanted to assure everyone that we automatically
receive all comments and read them. So keep the comments coming!
our blog - and I just wanted to assure everyone that we automatically
receive all comments and read them. So keep the comments coming!
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Base Camp
We have now setup base camp in the 1-bedroom apartment. We are told by Luther staff that we may perhaps possibly begin our ascent to the 3rd floor next week, but we expect we won't summit for a couple weeks.
Holden celebrated the occasion by figuring out how to propel himself forward on hands and knees (crawling).
Holden celebrated the occasion by figuring out how to propel himself forward on hands and knees (crawling).
Eric and Anne
from Seattle to St. Paul, stopping in Glacier National Park and
Roundup, Montana. Sounds familiar. Their first update:
All,
Anne and I made it to Kalispell tonight, Saturday, after leaving Seattle
around 10am this morning. We spent 10 hours on the road with about one
hour of stoppage time.
We're going into Glacier first thing in the morning, and will camp
tomorrow night and possibly Monday night in Glacier -- at least that's
the plan.....and then on to Roundup.
There have been some forest fires that produced some interesting photos,
but nothing newsworthy, other than spotting a bald eagle flying parallel
to us down Clark Fork. Then there was this little prairie mouse that
hid by the gas pumps. That's all we got - it was a pretty drive but a
slow news day. =)
Talk to you soon.
-Eric and Anne
Saturday, August 11, 2007
St. Paul, Day 1
To herald our arrival, a thundering storm swept through the Twin
Cities, ripping trees out and knocking out the power to Luther
Seminary. We are staying in a hotel tonight. Tomorrow we'll be
staying in a 1-bedroom apartment that we will temporarily inhabit
until the other family moves out of the 3-bedroom apartment (the
apartment is located in the building adjacent to our promised
apartment - so we won't have far to move).
Cities, ripping trees out and knocking out the power to Luther
Seminary. We are staying in a hotel tonight. Tomorrow we'll be
staying in a 1-bedroom apartment that we will temporarily inhabit
until the other family moves out of the 3-bedroom apartment (the
apartment is located in the building adjacent to our promised
apartment - so we won't have far to move).
Scenes from Roundup
We stayed for 6 days with Nelson's Dad and family in Roundup, MT, on their farm:
Grace was in absolute animal nirvana.
She was a willing participant in certain chores, such as feeding the animals everyday.
She went on a 4x4 with Wilbur, Loren's friend who owns a ranch, to go herd the horses and to go out into the field to look at the baby cows. Grace never stopped talking the entire time she was on the 4x4.
We all enjoyed the visit - but Grace had an especially good time on the ranch playing with her aunts and being surrounded by animals. To see more photos, just click on this link - http://picasaweb.google.com/nappell/MovingTrip.
Grace was in absolute animal nirvana.
She was a willing participant in certain chores, such as feeding the animals everyday.
She went on a 4x4 with Wilbur, Loren's friend who owns a ranch, to go herd the horses and to go out into the field to look at the baby cows. Grace never stopped talking the entire time she was on the 4x4.
We all enjoyed the visit - but Grace had an especially good time on the ranch playing with her aunts and being surrounded by animals. To see more photos, just click on this link - http://picasaweb.google.com/nappell/MovingTrip.
Bismarck Adventure
On Thursday, driving to Bismarck, Grace commented that, deprived child that she is, she had never ridden in a towtruck before. On Friday, this changed:
We smelled gas as we left Bismarck, so we pulled over - we assumed it was on our shoes from the gas station. But we discovered that our fuel line was cracked and leaking. Since we are AAA members, we got the car towed a couple miles for free, and after quickly installing a new fuel line, we were on the road again after 2 1/2 hours.
We smelled gas as we left Bismarck, so we pulled over - we assumed it was on our shoes from the gas station. But we discovered that our fuel line was cracked and leaking. Since we are AAA members, we got the car towed a couple miles for free, and after quickly installing a new fuel line, we were on the road again after 2 1/2 hours.
Friday, August 10, 2007
Thursday, August 09, 2007
Bismarck, North Dakota
We're safe in Bismarck, North Dakota, tonight. We made good time
today - we could go faster than we expected. Cruise control was
invented with Eastern Montana and North Dakota in mind. We were going
to take 3 days to drive to St. Paul - but now we think we'll get there
tomorrow evening.
today - we could go faster than we expected. Cruise control was
invented with Eastern Montana and North Dakota in mind. We were going
to take 3 days to drive to St. Paul - but now we think we'll get there
tomorrow evening.
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
Roundup - Leaving Tomorrow
We're leaving Roundup tomorrow. We've had a good visit with Nelson's
family - Hannah-Banana, Lindsey-Papaya, Suzie-Mango, and Loren-Apple.
Tomorrow we leave for St. Paul. We plan to arrive in St. Paul on
Saturday. Grace is having a great time feeding and playing with the
animals. Holden is getting lots of attention from everyone. Aimee is
studying her New Testament Greek. Nelson went out on a call with his
Dad to investigate a farmer who had 8 bulls with suspected broken
penises. It turned out only 1 had an actual broken penis - the other
7 had various stages of lacerated penises. (Which brings us to an
important safety tip for our male readers out there - if ever you find
yourself walking through reedy, tall grasses in Central Montana, keep
your pants on. It's just not worth the risk to take them off.)
In other news, the moving company called to ask if they could deliver
our boxes earlier tomorrow. We have left them a message to the effect
of, earlier or later doesn't matter since we asked them to deliver the
moving boxes on Saturday. Hopefully we'll hear from them before they
attempt a delivery tomorrow. In still other news, the family that was
supposed to vacate our apartment at Luther Seminary have not vacated
yet. Apparently they are having some problems leaving campus with
their next destination. Luther Seminary staff are busy trying to
resolve the situation, since we are arriving on Saturday. So the next
leg of our trip already has some interesting complications.
family - Hannah-Banana, Lindsey-Papaya, Suzie-Mango, and Loren-Apple.
Tomorrow we leave for St. Paul. We plan to arrive in St. Paul on
Saturday. Grace is having a great time feeding and playing with the
animals. Holden is getting lots of attention from everyone. Aimee is
studying her New Testament Greek. Nelson went out on a call with his
Dad to investigate a farmer who had 8 bulls with suspected broken
penises. It turned out only 1 had an actual broken penis - the other
7 had various stages of lacerated penises. (Which brings us to an
important safety tip for our male readers out there - if ever you find
yourself walking through reedy, tall grasses in Central Montana, keep
your pants on. It's just not worth the risk to take them off.)
In other news, the moving company called to ask if they could deliver
our boxes earlier tomorrow. We have left them a message to the effect
of, earlier or later doesn't matter since we asked them to deliver the
moving boxes on Saturday. Hopefully we'll hear from them before they
attempt a delivery tomorrow. In still other news, the family that was
supposed to vacate our apartment at Luther Seminary have not vacated
yet. Apparently they are having some problems leaving campus with
their next destination. Luther Seminary staff are busy trying to
resolve the situation, since we are arriving on Saturday. So the next
leg of our trip already has some interesting complications.
Saturday, August 04, 2007
Roundup, Montana
We drove from Great Falls down route 87 to Roundup today. We arrived
shortly after 1pm - our shortest day so far. Nelson's Dad has many
cats (about 10), a couple dozen chickens, 2 guinea hens, 3 horses, 3
dogs, a guinea pig, a bird, a duck, 2 teenage daughters, and goldfish
in the horse's drinking trough. Grace has been in animal heaven and
is drinking up every moment of farm life. Dad insists this is not a
farm, since they don't have crops - but I have told him that, since he
has horses and chickens and lives in the country, Grace think he lives
on a farm and isn't likely to change her mind soon about that. We'll
be here several days before we leave. Tonight, Grace is going to have
a "sleepover" with Aunt Lyndsey and Aunt Hannah in the movie and video
game room.
shortly after 1pm - our shortest day so far. Nelson's Dad has many
cats (about 10), a couple dozen chickens, 2 guinea hens, 3 horses, 3
dogs, a guinea pig, a bird, a duck, 2 teenage daughters, and goldfish
in the horse's drinking trough. Grace has been in animal heaven and
is drinking up every moment of farm life. Dad insists this is not a
farm, since they don't have crops - but I have told him that, since he
has horses and chickens and lives in the country, Grace think he lives
on a farm and isn't likely to change her mind soon about that. We'll
be here several days before we leave. Tonight, Grace is going to have
a "sleepover" with Aunt Lyndsey and Aunt Hannah in the movie and video
game room.
Friday, August 03, 2007
Photos
I've had some trouble with the Hotels' wireless connections - for some reason I struggled to get photos to upload into google's picasa, where I store photos for the blog. (I know I've joined the modern traveller when this is my major complaint about hotels. Well - except for East Glacier, where our room was a little close to the casino. We could hear them partying until 3am. For all you casino lovers, Montana is the place to be. You can't leave your Hotel and walk two blocks without stumbling over a couple of casinos. They grow like mushrooms here.)
Problem solved. Tonight it worked. You can now view photos from our trip by clicking on this address:
http://picasaweb.google.com/nappell/MovingTrip
I tried to caption them to sort of tell the story of what's going on...
Samples:
Problem solved. Tonight it worked. You can now view photos from our trip by clicking on this address:
http://picasaweb.google.com/nappell/MovingTrip
I tried to caption them to sort of tell the story of what's going on...
Samples:
Glacier View
The Highway to the Sun, visible in this panorama, is cut into the side of the mountain, with sheer drops just beyond the edge of the car. Aimee was not breathing for much of the ascent up the mountain. The views were worth it, in the end.
Forest walk
Yesterday - Aimee and Grace walking though a forest trail after looking at a waterfall. We walked quickly due to the pursuing mosquitoes. We hiked about 4 or 5 miles worth of trails, including some steep uphill & downhill - and Grace hiked the whole way herself. Holden was along for the ride, too, squealing and squawking in delight.
Great Falls, Montana
We're in Great Falls, Montana tonight, following an excellent trip through Glacier National Park, which lived up completely to the hyperbole, fire smoke and all. We had dinner at the McKenzie River Pizza Company, which was excellent - and proved the waitress wrong in West Glacier, who told us we wouldn't find a decent meal in Great Falls. Tomorrow we're going down to Roundup, Montana, to stay with Nelson's Dad for 5 nights.
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
Swinging on the Kootenai
We spent an hour hiking the trails near Kootenai falls, including crossing the river on a swinging bridge. At least, Grace and Nelson crossed the river. Aimee and Holden stayed behind and swatted yellowjackets while Grace and Nelson stepped carefully on the planks on the swaying bridge over the rushing Kootenai below (Limit: 5 people per time on the bridge). 
Having conquered the Kootenai swinging bridge, Grace was enthusiastic about reaching the other side safely.
Wolves
In Idaho, we stopped to visit a wolf recovery program. They had wolf puppies (13 1/2 weeks old) that we could pet. Grace was her extroverted self, asking more questions than everyone else combined - what are their names? Where is the mommy? Do they have Daddies? Where are the toys? Can they play with their toys now?
Kalispell, Montana in a haze
We are in Kasipell, Montana, tonight, covered in a haze of smoke from
all the forest fires. Our plan is to visit Glacier National Park
tomorrow. But with the fires in this very dry and very hot Montanan
summer, we're not sure exactly what we'll be able to do tomorrow.
all the forest fires. Our plan is to visit Glacier National Park
tomorrow. But with the fires in this very dry and very hot Montanan
summer, we're not sure exactly what we'll be able to do tomorrow.
Bigfoot Country
We talked a lot about Bigfoot and where he lives and what he does and if he is real. Grace was very interested in bigfoot. However, she completely rejected claims that he earned his living by providing room service to the hotel room in Spokane.
Spokane
We arrived Safely in Spokane, Washington - after crossing the beautiful Western Washington plains. We went out to dinner last night with Nelson's youngest brother, Ryan - a senior at Gonzaga University. Grace put on a show for him by barely pausing to take a breath in between talking for about 4 straight hours.
Holden was a little tired of the car seat by the time we arrived in Spokane, but he travelled very well on the first day. Later in the day, when we put him back in his carseat at a rest stop, he started to cry, and Grace explained: "He's saying that he doesn't want to be back in that damned car seat."
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