Gotta Love Visitors

This weekend was lots of fun, we were ultra spoiled because my sister and her kids and my parents came to spend the weekend. We only had a few days together but we got in a lot of shopping, good eating and game playing. We even got to watch a bunch of base jumpers. (For those of you who don't know base jumping is jumping off a super high bridge and parachuting to the bottom. We have a very tall bridge over the river canyon and it is one of the only places in the US where bridge jumping is legal without a special permit so we get people from all of the world here. We usually see novices but this weekend there were some pretty experienced jumpers who were doing flips, jumping doubles and other cool stuffs. I got enough of a rush just watching them. Unfortunately I forgot to whip out my camera while all the fun was here.
The weather has been so gorgeous here so we snuck out to take a hike around the falls and little lake. It was awesome to get out and enjoy a sunny, crisp autumn day. Jake liked the slide quite a bit, but I am not sure who was having more fun, dad or Jake :)

lil' stinker

My brother's son was a skunk last year and it was the cutest costume I had ever seen. Thankfully they were nice enough to pass it on down to Jake. So we had a lot of fun this Halloween with our lil' Stinker. I wasn't anticipating how entertaining Halloween is with a kid. We took Jake trick or treating to a few of our neighbor's houses. At the first one Jake just smiled at the guy, the guy would try to give Jake candy but Jake just kept smiling back. BUT then he caught on. One of our neigbhbors gave him a sucker, which Jake immediately dug into. For the next few minutes he alternated between sucking the sucker and saying yummmmmmmm, yummmmmmm. The funnest was visiting the grandmas and grandpas. One adorable elderly couple oohed and ahhed over Jake and then asked if they could carry Jake over to their friend's house next door so they could see Jake too :) Needless to say Jake loved that attention! In contract of course there was the teenage boy dressed up as Kiss that didn't know quite what to do when he saw a one-year-old skunk on his doorstep. I think his response was something like dude here's some candy, which he handed to us. After a lot of fun trick or treating we brough Jake home to eat some candy. I am not sure how, considering how much of a sweet tooth his mom and dad have, but Jake really isn't much of a chocolate fan. He would take a bite of chocolate then stick out his tongue. He does, however, very much enjoy painting with melted chocolate.
So Anyhow there is a play by play of our Halloween. Lots of fun!

FINALLY IN!

Sorry for the long time with no posts but life has been crazy moving in to our new house. We are so excited to finally be in...now we just have to get all the pesky boxes unpacked and walls decorated. Erich's mom and sister came up and spoiled us the first week and helped us get settled in so that gave us a good start, but with both of us working full time and playing with Jake at night it is one slow process. The place is not really put together and decorated yet but here are a few pics of the main floor and part of the outside. I'll try to post some better ones later.

Can't believe it has been one year

Last Sunday we celebrated Jake's first birthday. I can't believe it has already been one year. The one thing I know is that he is changing way too fast.

We had one very fun birthday. Erich's parent's and a few sisters came up to help celebrate. I bought Jake a bunch of presents thinking they were more for my entertainment than his, but boy was I wrong. We must have spent almost an hour laughing at Jake opening/playing with his gifts. There was no mistaking that Jake knew there were toys in those gift bags. He spent a lot of time exploring each toy we got him--most of which were cars as that is his most recent craze.

I even impressed myself by making a German chocolate cake from scratch in the trailer--let's just say I haven't cooked much this summer considering our living arrangements. To my pleasant surprise the cake actually turned out (Thanks to the Petersens for the awesome recipe!). Jake was easy on us though, he hardly made a mess at all. He was much more interested in eating the candle then the cake and he had more fun with the plate than the cake...that's Jake for you!

Anyhow we had a great time and were very appreciative that we had some family around to join in on the fun. Now if Jake would just stop growing so fast....

Labor Day Fun

Surprise, Erich was gone on a fire assignment to UT for Labor Day. He was actually very lucky, he got sent to Richfield which is where his parents and sister lives. While there he met his nephew, Isaac, who was born in July, and got to give the fam a tour of the helibase. While Erich was busy working, Jake and I went to Island Park for a weekend of camping with my parents. It was gorgeous and the perfect relaxation after a fun, but very busy first few weeks of work. Here are some pics from the trip. Can I just say that I LOVE having parents that are retired and so willing to vacation with me :) The weekend was gorgeous, we saw a cool bull moose, we woke up to elk bugling, we rafted down the river, grandpa spoiled Jake with ice cream and pizza (he's officially American now), we drove up to a lookout point, and we visited the headwaters of the snake river. All in all quite one great Labor day Holiday.

The summer goes by too fast!

Life has been crazy busy lately. I decided to take one last vacation before starting work. As usual my trip involved Montana and boating! It is so pretty in Montana, I don't seem to want to go anywhere else.



(I am one happy girl in this pic; there is just something so peaceful and relaxing about boating at night)


(we were laying on the boat catching some rays when I looked over and saw this moose eating...it was pretty fun watching it).

Jake adapts just fine to my vacation style. He definitely loves the boat. His favorite spot is on the back where he can watch the tubers/skiers.

It is nice to get Jake around his cousins and grandparents. My brother has a boy who is only 1 year older (Leyton) and the two of them are already trouble!



(Jake playing with his cousins' fishing rod)

After MT I met up with some good college friends in Pallisades. One of my friends' has a cabin there. It was an awesome weekend of relaxation, a perfect way to live up my last weekend before starting work. We had so much fun boating, staying up playing games, cooking dutch oven, etc. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pics, which is a shame because it was gorgeous.
So that covers the PLAY part of my life...now for the WORK part.
My first week of work was awesome! It is really fun to be back at work and the firm is as great as I was hoping for.
And speaking of work Erich has been traveling for fires, hence the all Kara/Jake post. Thankfully summer is winding up and we'll be seeing more of Erich here soon.

And It All Comes together

Life in the Gleckler household has been full of change and anxiety so far this year. As thrilled as Erich and I were about moving to Twin, it has taken awhile for all the pieces of our life to settle into place. After months of waiting and anticipation things are finally coming together. I was telling my family that it felt like my birthday everyday of this week as I received good news after good news. We finally got the offer on our house in Grangeville, we made progress towards getting Jake on a routine/schedule, we locked in interest rates for our new house at a summer low (for those of you following interest rates you know that they have been swinging around like crazy the last several months), and last, but certainly not least, I got a job offer at a small law firm here in Twin. Our family has certainly been abundantly blessed and I am very grateful and humble. I feel sheepish for fretting so much when I should have had faith that all would work out. At any rate lots of prayers answered and hopes fulfilled in the Gleckler home.

And to top it all off I got to spend my birthday with Erich, a first in our marriage since he is typically off fighting fire this time of year. Now most of you would expect us to have done something adventurous to celebrate but this year the thing I wanted most was just to have dinner and a movie and time at home with my family so that is what we did. It's so fun watching Jake with his dad, he gets so excited to see him he squeals and flails and it's pretty darn adorable. And although he doesn't show it as much, Dad likes to be with Jake a whole lot too; they are pretty good buds those two.


As for Jake he now has two front teeth and two bottom teeth. He's not walking a whole lot yet but he is awefully energetic and curious, definitely my little explorer who doesn't care for kid toys as much as the other stuff he finds.