Corn on the Cob

Had our first taste of corn on the cob and cucumbers the other day. Katelyn isn't too enthused eating it off the cob because it gets stuck in her teeth and that doesn't not sit will with her. So for both our sanity, I cut it off for her. Cucumbers, we've got to dip in ranch to make them go down.

Sobering

Jason started with the police department on July 18th. August 3rd rocked the whole department. Sergent Michael Chretien was coming home from camping with his family, when his trailer started to fishtail on the highway. Losing control, the truck and trailer flipped landing on the driver side killing Mike. His wife and 3 kids were hurt but not badly. That afternoon, our hearts sank to hear of the news. Mike had been in charge of the training program for the new recruits. Jason got to spend some time with him and did a couple of ride-alongs with Mike before he was even hired.

3 weeks into this new vocation, Jason makes the front page of the Powell Tribune as an honorary pall bearer at a police funeral. Mike was cremated, so for the procession, the whole force were pall bearers. Because he and Reece (on the left) are the rookies, they were at the end of the line. This was the front page picture.

A police funeral is unlike any other. Other agencies in the state, send up representatives to attend the funeral. Unfortunately the first week in August had a couple of other officer funerals. Some of our guys headed to southern Wyoming to attend a Sheriff's funeral who drowned while trying to save a girl in a flooded river. That happened on a Monday. The next day in Rapid City, SD there was a deadly shooting of two cops and one badly injured. Then Wednesday, we get the news of Mike. Just not a good way to start off a week.

There were probably up to 30 different departments represented there, plus the ambulance and dispatchers. The local sheriff's department helped out our guys a lot the day of the funeral. Their dispatcher came to take over so the girls could attend and their patrols were out so the guys could all attend. There was a processional of all the duty cars which was lead by Mike's car with a wreath on it, that wound around town and ended at the ceremony site. That's a long processional when you add all of the out of town cars too. (Jason is in the middle and back. He doesn't have a car yet, but drove an officer's that was out of town and unable to make it)

The ceremony was very somber. Many still in shock and disbelief that this was happening. The gospel message was presented by his friend who happens to be a pastor and friend of ours. That was probably the hardest part for us, we didn't know where Mike stood with God. From what others have said, he was asking a lot of questions, but we don't know if he believed. Somehow, that just puts a damper on a celebration of a life.

Because Mike had also been in the military, after we moved outside, a 21 gun salute was given as well as playing of taps and a flag presentation to his wife. Then the police department added the police element. They did what is called a Last Transaction. The dispatcher calls Mike's number over the radios. When on duty they have to respond, but of course there was no response. He was called again and then the news of his death was announced. "Your job is done. Thank you for serving your community and your country. Rest in peace" It is a very emotional thing to hear. That radio is a cop's life line to his where abouts and his safety. For a dispatcher, you never want to hear silence on the other end.

They then loaded up all the cars and drove to a reception for officers and families. It was a chance for me and Reece's wife to meet the other wives. We've been told that this department is a pretty tight family that we have entered into. It will be fun getting to know more of them, hopefully, in an off duty way.

Rock Thrower

One Sunday after church, we drove up to the east entrance of Yellowstone, for a birthday wiener roast with some friends. The North Fork River was finally lower and clear enough for the guys to try their hand at fishing. The run off from the mountains has been a long process making the rivers chocolate brown for too long into the fishing season. The day was hot, the water was cold and the hot dogs were sizzling.

Katelyn loves throwing rocks in the water. When our friends picked the spot, they had her in mind. There were some small pools of water she could trudge through and not get swept away with the river. The bank in spots were shallow and she stayed close to us. After the first couple of walks through the water, the pants were soaked, so off with them and she went around in her pull-up.

This girl has feet of steel. That or she doesn't think about it. She walked faster on those river rocks than I could. I looked like an old woman. I was looking for the sand to stay on but not my girl. Into the water with her. This is what I would hear, "Hum, mummy, Hum!" ("Come" is "Hum" sometimes) She walked and threw rocks the whole time we were there, with a short break for some food, of course.
A couple people brought their dogs along. As I was making a video, I was told later that one of them hiked his leg up on me. I didn't feel anything so he must have missed or wasn't as close as they thought. The rest of them got a good laugh out of it though. I couldn't hear them yelling at me because of the river. Oh well. I'll boot the dog next time.

Friends

This is Sam, a.ka "baby". She is our neighbor girl and Katelyn's friend. Sam is 11 months younger than K but that doesn't stop her from keeping up. We can hear Sam when she is outside and K perks up, "Baby, pie baby!" meaning Play with baby. We have many impromptu play dates or just drops in when some errands need to be run by either mom, which is so handy. One sad thing though, their house is for sale. It will be a sad day when they move.

Taking the Oath

Monday, July 18th, 2011 was a momentous occasion for Jason. With the mayor of Powell and a fellow friend and now officer, Jason and Reece Maclain took the oath to serve and protect and were sworn in as Officers. I didn't think it would be a long ceremony, but regardless myself, Katelyn and Reece's wife Amy and 2 girls got dressed up for the occasion.
On this first day, they were driving around with a community resource officer when a call came in that someone had run out of the hospital with an IV. Everyone on duty started driving around close to the hospital and couldn't find him. Leave it to the rookies, first day on the job to locate him. Jason had a feeling that since it was hot, if it were him he would head to the grocery store for a drink. They start driving that way and sure enough they found him on his way to the store. The officers found him near the pop machine. Not to bad for the first day.

Their first week required them to wear shirts and ties all week. So the previous weekend we had a shopping trip in Billings. We bought Jason probably his first tie. His dad showed us how to tie it since it's been a long time since I tied one at the mens shop I worked at out of high school. We bought a charcoal color and good thing we did because we didn't know it was going to be dress for the whole week. So it matched a lot of other shirts he had to wear. This second week they were given polo shirts with the force emblem on it and they had to buy tactical pants and boots. They also got all their uniforms, jacket, and gear they need to carry, minus the gun and taser. That is to come.

Last friday they had some tactical driving which they had fun at. Yesterday they started going over policies and procedures for fighting back if you get into a bad spot with someone. So really, they're just beating each other up and having fun with it. He comes home with stories from the other officers and what they did. He's having a good time at it. It helps that the guys are fun guys too and like to have a good time and joke around with each other. Sunday morning on our way to church, we found one of them with his hood up, so we gave him a boost. Nothing like helping out or sucking up to the guy whose going to beat on you all week :)

Camping

We haven't gone camping in ages, more like since before Katelyn. So that's been at least 2 years. Jason surprised me one Wednesday and called to tell me to pack up and think about what to take for food for camping. An added extra bonus was taking our Pastor's camper. We were planning to go with friends and meet them at Lily Lake in the Beartooth mountains on Thursday night. Jason completed his last day at the Cody hospital on Thursday and took off friday. So we packed up, had to make a few stops and borrow a friend's canoe and finally got up to the campground before it got dark. The mosquitos were unforgiving. The worst I've seen since living here. It brought me back to my Manitoba days. We spent our evening in the camper, swatting at the bugs so we could sleep without the constant buzzing in our ears. This wasn't a regular campground with designated spots with utilities. You park where you want and bring your own utilities. Roughing it with a camper. Thankfully we had a camper to retreat too. A tent just would not have been any fun.

Friday, we ventured to the lake in hopes of going for a canoe ride with K. We bought her a life jacket, which brought on a crying/temper fit that last for probably 20-30 mins. A lot of spankings later and some time in the truck finally brought that to an end. We went for a quick ride around the lake until someone got restless again.
There was still a lot of snow in the mountains which makes the rivers really bad for fishing because of all of the melt off.

After a nap, our friends arrived with their daughter and son-in-law and a couple of their friends. Everyone brought steaks for supper, so we had some serious meat grilling over the fire.
The bugs were bad so our friend Quin brought his fogger and fogged. It helped a lot. Everyone had their dogs along, so they were all kept occupied by playing fetch down the hill from the trailers.

Getting some firewood for the fire

Saturday was slated as "Adventure Day". The guys wanted to go fishing and cave exploring. The girls headed to the bank of the lake for some Craw-dad fishing. Craw dads or Crawfish are like super mini lobsters. It takes a lot of them to make you feel full. Lily Lake is the only place these things live and everyone local that knows about Lily lake says "you gotta get some craw dads."
Bacon is the bait of choice, or hot dogs. We took the bacon root. Tie it onto your fishing pole, put it in the water and wait. Wait until they get a good grip on the bacon and slowly lift it out of the water and into your net. They usually let go and then they go into a cooler of water. Katelyn had fun for the first half hour. Once you start seeing them it becomes quite the goal to hook the big ones. She would see them and say something like "Gottem Mommy" and I would scoop them into the net. She would put her bacon back in the water and wait. She caught quite a few before she lost some interest. We were there all morning. The guys came back and got in on some of the action. We got quite a lot and then Quin and Tracy's son and some of his friends showed up and got some more. So for supper they put them in some beer to soak and then boiled them. They turned red like lobsters. We caught so many that with all of the people we had there, I don't think we made a dent in the pot.

A nutritious meal of mac and cheese. Perfect camping food

That night we opted to stay in the camper for our meal of sausages, beans and baked potatoes. It actually got quite cold during the night which lead to sleeping 3 in the king size bed. It also helped K to fall asleep since it was a strange place. The poured during the night too which made us extra thankful to be in a trailer. We did have a few problems. We lost all of our water because of a loose plug and we couldn't use the bathroom, so we had to go in the grass which led to bites on our "cheeks". Not the most comfortable. I let K use our friends bathroom since it was just easier for everyone involved. Oh well, it made for an adventure.

Sunday morning was breakfast and loading up. We still got home only at 2:30 pm and we didn't stop cleaning up and laundry until 8pm. Somehow the clean up takes longer than the packing.

We had a great time even with all the extra people. Tracy is always prepared and brought enough food for the extras.

July Long Weekend 2011

This last week and weekend have been quite a busy and exciting time. I turned the big 3-0 on the 28th of June! So I enter into a new decade and leave my youth behind, or so I'm told. Now I'm 30 as my husband has repeatedly told me. It's only a number and you're only as old as you feel. I don't feel or think 30, but 30 is the new 20!!!! I was spoiled by my hubby. Since I'm an awful, critiquing person to buy a gift for, he went safe and bought me flowers and had them delivered to the house after he left for work. Later that night, the 2 of us went to the Lamplighter restaurant, one of the nicer restaurants in town for an expensive dinner of steak and shrimp and tuxedo cheesecake. Happy Birthday to ME!

Thursday my parents dropped in for a couple of days to visit for my special, momentous birthday. We started the night off with homemade pizza with help from Chef Katelyn.
We spent Friday in Billings, shopping up a storm. Katelyn did as well as can be expected considering she started teething for her 2 yr molars. What fun those are. It was nice to have her take a sleep in the stroller in the mall. It was greatly needed by all of us.

Saturday turned out to be pool day. We finally got some heat at the start of summer and the weather had been phenomenal and the wind has been at bay for the last week which is amazing. Katelyn started off in some water that was for Tucker to drink outside.The pants got wet so they were soon disposed of. Then we got out the pool and filled that up. Plunked the slide into it for our own water slide.
We had a bbq of sausage burgers from home and the bbq fixin's. After the great news that Daddy got the officer position, it was back to the pool and pail. Being the great mother I am, we forgot the sunscreen so K got a good farmers tan.

Yesterday was just a relaxing day. We went to the park nearby before lunch. Headed home for freezies and movies just to stay out of the heat since we had so much the day before. For dinner, kabobs were on the menu along with a fire and trike riding.
We had some awesome weather for my parents stay and some good memories.