Well here it is! Our dream home in Vermillion, 230 N. Yale St.. We started the offer process yesterday at 11:15 am MDT, and by 1:30 pm MDT we had a price and conditions where everyone was happy! We do not close until August, so that gives us plenty of time to sell our house. Keep your fingers crossed for us! In the meantime, Dalen and I are already strategizing and dreaming what we want done before we move in. I already am thinking about Christmases, July 4th pool parties, yummy Thanksgivings, watching Westin learn how to ride his bike in front of the house. Oh, it makes my toes tickle!!
Westin is still taking his morning nap (he stayed asleep during a trip to the post office to mail our earnest money-typically there are NO running errands during nap time, but I felt this was a good exception.), so there are no pictures from today yet.
I will continue something that my friend Jenny started on
her blog: Seven Random Truths about Me (I know this is totally NOT as good as pictures of West, but hopefully somewhat entertaining):
1). I am a huge Jane Austen fan, yet I have never been able to finish her novel
Persuasion. I have started it at least 6 times and never make it past midway through chapter 3. In contrast, I have read
Pride and Prejudice at least 16 times and always manage to feel nervous about whether or not Elizabeth Bennett will get together with Mr. Darcy.
2). I secretly want to retire on the coast outside of Charleston, SC and become a turtle lady. There are these ladies that when the sea turtles come ashore to lay their eggs, they help protect the habitat and count eggs to keep track of all the baby turtles.
3). For the most part, I am deathly afraid of riding bicycles, but Dalen got me a cruiser bicycle for my birthday a couple of years ago and I LOVE it! I do wear a helmet, just in case...
4). If I weren't a scientist, I would love to be a football analyst. I would have to watch football all the time and get to know the coaches and players. It would be so much fun!
5). West Virginia was one of my favorite places to live. Not only is it where I met my husband, but I have so many fond memories of the cute house that we lived in and driving up to Ohiopyle, PA to whitewater kayak. Those times were so care free and happy!
6). I am tired of the Tea Party people. Really tired of the Tea Party people. I want to make my own sign at their next rally that says: "Not every piece of legislation is trying to take away your guns! You idiots!". They (at least the Bitterroot Valley chapter) have somehow managed to turn the Health Care Bill into an example of how the government wants to take their guns. Now, I don't care if you are for or against the Bill, but I don't remember gun rights being one of the sticking points in getting the bill passed. Just sayin'
7). My favorite present for high school graduation came from my cousins Jack Cumbee and Judy Collins..they sent me some dried wild flowers from the Cumbee family farm in southeastern Alabama and one of Aunt Hilda's old salt shakers to act as a vase for the flowers. They sent me these things to remind me where I came from. To this day, I still treasure these items.
Happy weekend everyone!
Dinner started out innocently enough. Yummy, familiar rice cereal. MMmm tasty pants.
Then something went spectacularly awry. They fed me these things called organic sweet peas.
Healthy? Nope, not even possible. Definitely poison from the inside out. I really don't know what I did to deserve this. I promise that I will 
I guess I am learning what Monday's are all about.
Can you believe it, 5 months old?!
Dalen and I can't believe it! Westin is just pure magic (even though right now he is screaming at the top of his little lungs because he is tired, but doesn't want to fall asleep :))! Aha, there are the teeth..both of them! 
You can see them best when he is crying...and since bedtime is going ever so smoothly, there you go! And yes, the shiny thing at the corner of his eye is definitely a tear. Poor little Bean.
In honor of his 5 month mark, we went to Chapter One Bookstore and picked up some new books. One is a reiteration of the Tortoise and the Hare story, and one is called Sir Charlie Stinky Socks and the Really BIG Adventure by Kristina Stephenson. Both were super fun to read to West tonight before bed.
We saw this little duck and didn't know what was wrong with his wings, but one thing is for sure, he probably has had better weeks. Hang in there little buddy!
And we are so excited! West wowed Dalen with some new skills. West is very into faces--he grabs and laughs and screams with delight. He is also tugging on hair. [Note to Aunt Shannon: wear ear rings and necklaces at your own risk! :) My baby has mad grabbin' skills!].
West finished all of his rice cereal tonight, and for "dessert" he got to play with balloons. Hooray!
So far bedtime is going smoothly...which makes me look really good. No, no, I never went in and picked him up if he was screaming and not wanting to go to bed. Why would I jeopardize our finely tuned bedtime routine? Thank goodness Dalen is home!
The scary one is a dragonfly nymph. It is amazing to me how gross it looks before it become something completely extraordinary. Okay, so we both are kind of dorks. Admittedly, Dalen is the cooler of us two dorks, so West probably has a chance. Good luck, kiddo! :) [Please note the beautiful hyacinth in the background...our first blooming bulb!]
Hope that you have a fantastic day!
Love,
Then, Wednesday night found us enjoying rice cereal with such gusto that we even wanted to eat the bowl.
Yum. Yum.
Today we started West on some 'semi-solid' food....which means yummy rice cereal! Originally we were going to wait until after Dalen got back from Casper, Wyoming (Dalen 
It is hard to say if he liked eating the rice cereal or if he just like chewing on the rubber spoon...and just like that, the novelty wore off and he was ready to be done with it. I am convinced that we got more food on him than in him.....
He didn't stay sad for long...not with Daddy and Willis on the case!
Hopefully, the rice cereal will go down much easier tomorrow. Wish us luck!
Last night we met our friend Dennis McIntyre (a retired Guide whose flies always produce fish and whose knowledge about the River and Life we rely upon) at the Brewery to enjoy fly tying night, and because Denny told us that he had a present for Beans. When we were on our way to Vermillion, Dennis and his wife Carlotta (who is running for her second term as County Commissioner; Go Carlotta!) were on the same plane to Minneapolis. Their final destination: sunny beautiful Florida. Denny loves Beans and always makes him laugh. In fact we think that it is because of Denny that West loves men with beards. In any case you can guess what Denny brought back from Florida for West.
It is a true spring in the Bitterroot..wet, cold and wet. Did I mention wet? On our way home from daycare, we got caught in a 'snow storm'. Well not really, but it was a lot of snow for April. We got about half an inch in the yard in about an hour. The best thing about spring snow is that it all melts when it hits concrete..no shoveling! We need this moisture for a great summer, so lets hope that it keeps coming! The weather guard for our B.O.B came in today..there's nothing stopping us now! However, I would like to put in a request for warmer weather. There is a point during every Spring, in every northern dwelling individual (well most of us anyway), when you are just sick and tired of feeling cold all of the time. Well that time for me is almost here! Seriously. I see you bulbs peaking out of the ground, you chives coming up out of the earth, you lilac with your fresh green growth...I'm pulling for ya!
