The Gypsy Lacroixs and this poor blog!

A view from a day at work for me here in Montana.... pretty big change from DC!

Even at the height of my dissertation work I didn't let the blog get this far behind!! From Feb - May I don't have too much of an excuse, except that we have been spending too much time adventuring and not enough time recording for posterity.  From May on my excuse is a bit better... we've been living in Montana with no cell or internet.  As I type now, I am sitting in the laundry mat in town :)  I'll start filling in the blanks in the missing months over the next few weeks, but first I'll give an update on the here and now!

For the past two weeks the girls have been at camp and camping. On our way out to drop the girls off at Girl Scout Camp at the southern tip of Lake Coeur d'Alene in Idaho, we camped out ourselves about 45 minutes from our home at a campground where the Yaak River meets the Kootenai River. It was a great little campground with a fabulous host who gave the girls homemade bird houses to paint. Unfortunately on the way to the campground we lost Izzy's sleeping bag off the top of the car... fortunately about 10 minutes from the campground was a hardware store that had exactly one sleeping bag for sale :)  Patrick has gotten very into fishing this summer, so we spent some quality time by the river at dusk.

Kootenai River near the confluence with the Yaak River at dusk

After we dropped off the girls at camp Patrick and I took the long way back to Libby so that I could see Wallace, Idaho.  A town that was the center (of sorts) of the 1910 fires and that is discussed in detail in the book the Big Burn... so I nerdily just had to see it.  We had a few beers, ate some bbq and "stood at the center of the universe" Aka a manhole cover in the middle of the street that they have labeled as being the center of the universe...

For Izzy, Girl Scout sleep away camp was the Busy Bees, which was an intro to sleep away, so Patrick drove back to Idaho and picked her up on Tuesday.  She did a great job! She said she got a little homesick every day but got over it pretty quick. Her counselor reported that she was really only homesick once, and was easily diverted by the counselor asking questions about her gargantuan sparklie eye stuffed animal that she brought to camp with her. She got to stay in cabins called singing pines and came home with a necklace full of beads that mark all of the things she did at camp.

Evie continued her tradition of two weeks at camp, so come Friday we all piled into the car (dogs too) and drove out to get her.  Being that the camp was 3 hours away from our Montana home, we decided to camp for two nights nearby and then drop her back off at camp for her second week on Sunday. Her first week at camp was a hit. She was at a camp called Camp Outside the Box and, among other things, participated in the polar bear plunge -  a 6 am swim in the lake; a two night sleepout in hammocks, archery, and singing/acting out tennessee wiggle song while on a paddle board.

Home for the weekend was Heyburn State Park. A beautiful place on the lake, complete with a swimming area that had floating logs for the kids to play with. We (of course) also did some fishing, both from the dock and then on Saturday on a tributary to the St. Joe river.

 The St. Joe was super pretty and we, once again, ran into some great hosts at the area who gave Patrick the skinny on where to fish. While he hiked upstream, I hung out with the ladies while they fished and hunted for rocks. We also spent some quality time in Saint Marie on our way to the St. Joe river on a patio eating pizza and staying in the shade (it was super hot out!). On the way back to our campsite we saw a beautiful (and huge) moose crossing the river... unfortunately I didn't bring my real camera with me so no pics.

In the mornings at camp Patrick made gourmet breakfasts of pancakes and sausage (and the girls hung out in their new matching emoji pjs :)

 Before we dropped Evie off on Sunday we took a little walk into a marsh (where Patrick kept imagining more moose hanging out) and then swam some more in the lake. Evie's camp this past week was Go Jump in the Lake... I haven't gotten the full skinny on it yet (I just drove out to pick her up yesterday and she was exhausted) so I'll have to add more on that later!

It has been a great two weeks of camping but I tell you what, I am happy to just be around home this weekend and in my own bed!!