And so it begins...

the crazy season of our lives, that is. I just realized that it's about to get busy and even hard, at times, until winter comes again. Here is the upcoming events of our lives:

1. Last week: Jeff went to Helena for The Wildlife Society Meeting
2. This week: We leave for Missoula (yay) on Tuesday and get back on Saturday for Jeff's comittee meeting and time working on his proposal and studying for comps.
3. The following week: Jeff has to begin working on some stuff down south and studying for comps
4. Jeff has some stuff to work on down south and his mom comes into town for the week
5. Early April: Jeff will go to Missoula to take his comprehensive examinations
6. Later April: Jeff and David and I will head to Missoula for Jeff's proposal defense
7. May: Jeff will probably be in the field full time by now
8. Late May: My parents come into town for a week or so
9. June: Jeff may possible be doing some traveling for his project - David and I may get to go with him occasionally if it works out. He will also be in the field full time
10. July: In the field full time - possible travel
11. Late July: My mom will be flying David and I home while Jeff is in the field
12. August: In the field still
13. September: Probably in the field still
14. Late September: The National Wildlife Society Conference in Snowbird Utah - which hopefully David and I will get to go with Jeff this year. Frequent flyer miles may make this possible!
15. October: Maybe in the field still - who knows?!
16. November: David turns 1!!!
17. December: Hopefully things will be slowing down by this time and we will come home for Christmas again.

Wow- this year is going to fly by! I already can't believe David is just about 4 months old! He's doing so much now like smiling, giggling, sucking his hand/thumb, making lots of noises, rolling over from his tummy, trying to roll over from his back, grabbing toys and shaking them around, pulling things, and he loves to sit up with help from mommy or daddy.

Here are a few pictures that I took of David - more photos and videos can be found at our Picasa web album. If you would like to see our album - just e-mail me and I can give you the password to view them.

Also, I have to show you this video - his giggle is so cute!!

Don't worry, we're still alive.

Sorry we have not posted in a while. It has been a busy few months. As many know, we were back in St. Louis for 3 1/2 weeks during December/January. It was great fun getting to see everyone and introduce David. Since returning, I have been working on getting my study ready for the field season. As part of that, I had to attend a meeting in Swift Current, Saskatchewan the past few days. David and Kristin were able to go with me, so the little guy is now an international traveler. The meeting about a big grazing project that is going on in Grasslands National Park, just north of us on the US/Canada border. I got some excellent ideas for my project and may be spending a little time up there this summer. It was interesting to see how different things were even though we are spatially close by. Aside from the obvious difference between English and metric units, things were generally much more expensive and people talk and spell strangely. Their Olympic coverage on TSN was better though. It was extremely foggy the whole time, so we didn't get to see much of the prairie. I'm sure it will be better the next time we go.

We did get to spend two nights in a shady hotel. I tried to find the cheapest hotel we could and found one that was only $68/night. For $68/night, we got a window that would not close so hotel personnel had shoved a rolled up towel in and repeat, sudden power outages. It was fantastic.

Here is a photo of us at the vistor's center for GNP in Val Marie, SK. We thought about getting a photo at the border but I didn't really want to trouble the officer to take our picture.