Late Summer Months at Home

We spent two lovely months at home. We fell into a nice routine of all things wonderful about summer: biking around town, going to the weekly farmers market, slack-lining in the park, hiking. Isaac and his fellow homeschool friends started the school year with a bang with a two week Shakespeare intensive led by amazing Shakespeare directors where they delivered a stellar performance of As You Like It. Set in the 1940's West, they performed in an amazing outdoor setting at a local barn. Isaac also started a computer programming course at the local university. I love that homeschooling allows for such cool experiences like attending college courses so young. We also organized a homeschool computer programming class so our friends can learn to program too. Both boys are busy with piano and guitar lessons and soon we start our homeschool physics course as well as writing. We are super thankful for all of the talented people who teach our kids and friends.

Both of our boys celebrated birthdays while we were home. It was the first time in four years that we have been home to celebrate their birthday with friends. Aaron had a Dungeons and Dragons party where uproarious adventures were had. On Isaac's birthday we took a sunset hike with friends. We celebrated with candles and chocolat petits pots de crème on top as colors faded across the sky. Our trip down the trail, in the dark, without flashlights, was both exciting and memorable.

We also managed to squeeze in a couple of camping trips. Our first camping trip turned out more exciting than anticipated. When we checked into the campground we saw a sign saying that a momma bear with her two cubs had been in the campground that day. We shrugged our shoulders and went for a hike. This is Montana after all. When we got back a couple of campsites had weird gadgetry and had been police-taped off. Hmmmmm. After dinner, Jason and I were walking to the garbage can to dispose of our garbage so there were no yummy smells coming from the camper van, when we ran into the camp host. She informed us the bear and her cubs had been there for the past two weeks and the momma bear had put her head into someone's tent that morning. Not good. She said that if we saw someone shooting the bear, not to worry, Fish and Wildlife was in the campground trying to trap her and the bullets would be rubber. Gulp. And we should be aware of our surroundings. At this point the camp host is totally oblivious to the crashing noises that are coming from the wooded hillside above us. I was like, "Ummmmm, you mean like crashing noises? Like the ones up above us?" The camp host whirled around in surprise and started blasting her air horn to scare the bear. Meanwhile, we had left Isaac at the picnic table in the campsite. I had warned him about the bear and told him to get into the camper van if he heard any noises. He rolled his eyes and continued playing his guitar. Jason and I hurried back to the campsite and told Isaac he should get into the camper van because the bear was just above us. Again, he rolls his eyes. No, seriously. The. Bear. Is. Right. Above. Us. Really? As we start to climb into the van, with thoughts of leaving in our brain, the Fish and Wildlife guy shows up so we talked to him for a while. He said the bear was really sweet and had a good disposition. No, he didn't think the bear would eat us if we stayed the night. If we saw him shooting at her, it would only be to try to move her back down to where he had the traps set up. Feeling reassured that we probably wouldn't be eaten, we stayed the night. I can't say I slept very well though.

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