Montana Vacation - Day 9 - Wilderness Survival & Jeopardy

Alex had another class today, Wilderness First Aid for Kids.  Here he got to learn improvised first aid skills, and even how to transport and injured comrade to safety over flat ground (drag them on a tarp).  Alex came back with a red stripe painted on one arm as he got to play one of the injured kids.  We tried to meet for lunch after my morning lectures, but a storm blew in and disrupted our mountain picnic.  We still caught up at a table in the resort's coffee shop before I had to go back for my wilderness survival workshop.  One of the neat things about this entire conference, was that many of our lectures were taught by people who had written or edited my wilderness medicine textbooks that I bought last year.  Gary Kibbe was among the best teachers here.  I'll get some of his bio wrong if I attempt it, but I do remember that his is a former Navy SEAL instructor.  He taught them how to survive in the wild, now he had to do it for a bunch of doctors and nurses.  He showed us how to collect and find water, how to navigate using the sun's shadows.  We learned how to find food, including a log full of ant larvae that were packed with protein.  They don't taste like much, but the story was good for grossing Becky out.  We built improvised shelters and practiced lighting fires with flint and steel.  We even learned how to make our own twine by weaving together long blades of grass or other long fibers.  Easily my favorite course and one of the main reasons I wanted to come.  I hope I never have to use these skills, but I'll have them for life now.

We topped off the day and the week with a banquet that included a Wilderness Medicine Jeopardy challenge.  We were the giraffes, and Aaron volunteered to be our mascot for part of the evening.

The questions were pulled from topics from the weeks lectures, and a few random trivia facts thrown in.  Our team was victorious, thanks in no small part to me standing on stage and demonstrating how to move quickly from side to side when urinating in certain rainforest streams to avoid a having a parasite travel up my stream to lodge in a very bad place.
After the banquet we got to hear from Jim Whittaker, the first American to summit Mount Everest.  This was the first highlight of his career, but not the last.  He got to climb to the top of the newly named Mount Kennnedy in Canada with Bobby Kennedy to commemorate his brother John. He led a team of American, Russian, and Chinese climbers up to the top of Everest to show that if they could climb up to the top of the world's largest montain together, then their nations could come together to make peace.  It was an inspirational lecture and a great capstone to the week.
Tomorrow we have to pack up and fly back to Ohio, hopefully arriving with our luggage this time. 

Sprinkler Fun

It's hard to beat a cool sprinkler on a hot day - complete with soccer shorts and Crocs

So Glad the Pool is Indoors

After breakfast at Kalahari we got this rhinocerous to hold still long enough for us to snap a picture in front of him. Good thing that stick fence was there to protect us in case he decided to stampede.
Today we swam until we were waterlogged. This pool was a favorite for the boys because there was enough room to practice their swimming moves from their swimming lessons.
There were also basketball goals set up to slam dunk some water basketballs. The favorite was still the wave pool and we spent much of our day in there.
We picked a good day to come to an indoor water park as it was one of the most bitterly cold days of the year, especially since the wind was blowing hard, creating below zero wind chills. I've dressed for colder weather in warmer clothes and done fine in the past, but today was different. Because we checked out of our hotel room, I hauled almost all of our gear into the van, but since we had to cram our day's necessities into a pool locker, I was wearing sweatpants and a windbreaker instead of my heavy winter coat. Because it was a popular weekend and the parking lot was far from the entrance, I think that was the closest I've ever come to frostbite. I warmed up quickly when I got out of the wind (the hot tub helped also). Day 2 of Aaron's birthday was a lot of fun.

Icicle the Snowman

We got a big snow last night which shut the schools down. I had already taken the day off from the office. This afternoon Alex and I went out (Aaron was napping and has a cold) and shoveled and played in the snow. (I did the shoveling and Alex did most of the playing). Alex built a small snowman by himself (fallen down to Alex's left in the picture), then he rolled an enormous snowball that looked perfect for the base of another snowman. I rolled the middle and Alex rolled the head. We used our snowman kit that we keep reserved for such occasions to place the decorations on and Alex named him Icicle. Unfortunately it warmed up a little and started raining and Icicle fell over a few hours later. Good thing we snapped a few pictures.

Hottest Apple Butter Fesitval EVER

We try to his the MacQueen's Apple Butter Festival every year, but this year it was blazingly hot. It topped 90 degrees by this afternoon. Thankfully we decided to pick apples first and filled our half-bushel bag with honey crisps, golden delicious, and these red delicious apples nearly the size of their heads.

Then we took them down to the play area for overpriced tickets and inflatable playground equipment. The boys got a little dizzy on the spinning dragon ride but they had a great time. Unfortunately by that time, we were burning up. We bailed and had lunch at a Mexican restaurant.

Even though it was a short trip, we'll be eating apples for a month. Yummy!

Tiger Cub Acheivement 5F - Watching the Weather

Today we completed another Tiger Cub achievement toward his badge. We took some time after sweeping up to sit and make observations about the weather. Alex noted that it felt warm with the sun out, but it was windy enough to blow blossoms off our tree in the backyard. The day was bright, but he couldn't see the sun because of the clouds. He thought the air smelled fresh and that it might rain later. I had made up a fill-in-the-blank page for him to complete about the weather which is pictured above.

Playing in the Big Snow

Today the temperature warmed enough that we could get out and play a little in the big Valentine's Day snow. When we shoveled the cars out that day, I went into the backyard and made this snow mound and a path to it for the kids to play on. Good thing too, because the snow had drifted high enough in places that Aaron couldn't even walk through it.
Aaron made an attempt at making a snow angel, but since he couldn't walk in the snow, he had to improvise. He stood at the edge of the track I had shoveled for him and fell back into the snow to make his design.

Alex wanted to be buried in the snow mound, so he laid on top and I shovelled even more on. He wanted me to go all the way, but I stopped here. Unfortunately, this snow wasn't sticky enough for a snowman this year, but at least we had a big snow to play in.

Snowed In On Valentine's Day

The winter blast that hit yesterday brought Toledo to a standstill overnight. The area is under a "Level 3 Snow Advisory" which means that the roads are extremely hazardous and that travel is only permitted for emergency vehicles. Of course this means that the schools were closed, but it also meant that we had to close my office as well. This provided us with an unexpected snow day, but it was too cold to get the kids out in it - may be this weekend will be better.
Estimates range from 8-10 inches of snowfall but all of the wind piled up drifts that were several feet high in places and made the roads difficult to clear during the storm.

Becky and I braved the winter weather to clear the sidewalk and driveway in front of the house. We've learned the hard way in the past that we need to dig as wide a swath around the cars as we can as soon as we can. Otherwise if we just scoop out the minimum to get the cars in, it freezes that way. Then if we get more snow, we have to move it over the ice mounds and pinball our cars into the ice canyon that becomes our driveway. It was good exercise but it wiped us out. The forecast says we'll likely get back to normal tomorrow.