Finally the cake pictures I promised.  Summer has finally arrived and while Andy is slowly settling into the daycare routine we fit in another long weekend at the cabin.  This time with lots of friends and playmates visiting.  We even fit in some mountain biking with enough mechanical issues for a season.  Whats a couple hour ride without an hour of mechanical work.  Either way it was great to get to ride together for a change since we usually have to split up so that the other one of us can entertain Andy.  Andy is turning into a real character, despite being a bit grumpy over daycare illness and a slew of new molars, he loves playing on reactions.  He thinks it is hilarious and loves to do anything that he isn't supposed to do.  This results in a high speed chase for a giggling little man who wants nothing more than to be caught.

Well we are finally getting settled in our new inland northwest home and beginning to dig out and catch up on things.  Beth starts residency in Spokane soon and I already landed a job with FLSmidt and started last Monday.  So the retirement was short lived, however we did manage to fit lots of fun trips into the break.  First a great trip back to New Jersey to introduce Andy to his other remaining great-grandfather and spend some quality time with family.  Next we shot back into Montana for Audrey's 80th birthday and an unexpected extra visit that brought Noreen, Katie, and Audrey to visit us because Amtrak was under water.  This meant we spent two of our first three nights in the new house with visitors.  Finally we slipped in a quick trip to Glacier and spent a little more time with the Johnson's at the cabin.  We relaxed a lot and attempted some hikes but the combination of underwater and snowdrift engulfed trail kept us from reaching any of our destinations.  Glacier is going to have a very short season this year.  Andy tolerated all the drives and worked hard to perfect his walking skills in all the different environments.  He is even getting a handle on moving up and down stairs with a new sense of safety.  His faithful spotters now enjoy a near absence of heart stopping saves.  More pictures will come soon as Andy just turned one so stay tuned.    

Well it was a big day here in Minot.  Beth's last day of her last rotation of medical school.  So tomorrow we hit the road to jettison belongings and have some fun on the way to graduation.  There we look forward to seeing lots of family and then turning the caravan around for the big move back to Spokane.  Andy is walking more and more of the time and thoroughly enjoying every step of it.  Some of the landings are a bit rough though :)  So its good by to our favorite apartment and off into the wild blue yonder.  Someone better warn Max and Roo we are coming for them.  Enjoy the last of the Minot pictures... the Minot zoo opened and Andy really loved the otters, we on the other hand really liked his hair styling in the tube slides.

Well Easter is upon us again and for the second year in a row we met up with the Junkers at a water park.  This time it was in Fargo and with the whole state sinking under flood water this time golf was out of the question.  The swimming was fun for us and the car and the company great.  Of coarse the weather was with us as always and we drove both directions in snow storms and the news reports were full of reports of drivers sliding off icy roads only to be rescued from the flood water later by the local dive team.  Only in ND.  Upon returning to Minot the weather took a turn for the better this last weekend and we decided it was time to shake some of the rust off the mountain bikes.  The weather was great and the views of the still frozen Lake Sakakawea from the Indian Hills trail were amazing, however the ride was short because all the north facing sections of trail were still under drifts of snow and It was a it much to pull the Burley through.  Andy is loving all the trips to the park and is choosing walk more and more.  He now routinely catches his balance, crawls up stairs, and climbs into and on-top of everything.  The fun continues.

Well wile the Eastern side of the state is disappearing under flood water the weather here is feeling great.  Beth reminded me this last weekend that there was exactly five weeks until graduation.  You don't think she is counting do you.  The nice weather has allowed us to get out an play a lot.  Last weekend we made a trip down to Bismarck to retrieve our much needed vacuum cleaner out of storage.  Using this as an excuse we booked a room at the motel allowing Andy to fit two swim sessions into the time between his visits to the science center and the zoo.  He loved it all, especially the water time and animals at the zoo. The pool was nice and warm and the cooler weather and lack of visitors seemed to make all the animals extra active and excited to see us.  To Beth's horror one of the cats even seemed to want to play with Andy and kept pawing the glass inches from him while one of the Alaskan grizzlies seemed possessed and ran up and down the fence line next to us.  Andy loved it all.  All the playground time also seems to be reminding Andy he still isn't walking much and he has taken up a renewed interest in walking around the apartment.  Enjoy the pictures and see you soon back west. 

Well spring is proving elusive this year if the negative 3 degree morning temperatures or last weeks 10 inch blizzard mean anything.  Beth even got a snow day because all the hospital clinics shut down until travel improved.  We didn't think twice about the need to pack our bikes along on this segment of road living but they may go unused.  However the XC skis that we skeptically decided to pack in have been getting daily use and at this rate with several feet of packed snow on the ground and temperatures well below freezing they will get lots more.  Life in Minot is going well and we have been finding lots of time to play.  In addition to lots of skiing, and some soggy trail running we took advantage of a long weekend and visited Katie and Jon in Minneapolis.  It was a fun weekend that involved a surprise birthday party for Jon and Andy's first trip to the aquarium that he really enjoyed.  In other big news anyone that hasn't already heard Beth matched to her first choice in Spokane, WA for residency so we will soon be heading home.  Enjoy the pictures.

The past month has seen a whirlwind of mobility advancements from Andy.  When we arrived in Missoula he could stand, but was not crawling or getting up from laying to sitting.  Now he can do everything but walk across the room unaided.  He now crawls well, and climbs up to standing an almost everything.  Life is getting more fun(mike)/ scarier(beth) every day.  When we are not chasing Andy we have been taking him XC skiing which he loves.  The snow has been great and Andy even went on his first night ski yesterday.  Our Subaru has been having a great time clawing its way up to the trail heads in deep snow and even got an unexpected pat on the back last week when it pulled out a truck about three times its size that got stuck.  He should have known better than to follow Subaru tracks so high up :)  We thank Audrey for a wonderful month and hope we get to swing through again soon.  It has been great and we will miss all the family visits from Pat and Noreen.  The match that will decide the location for our next three years happens this coming Thursday (will keep you posted) and we make the move back to North Dakota this weekend for Beth's final two months of med school.  So the adventure continues but we are relieved to see the light at the end of the tunnel growing brighter.  We may get to retire the gypsies wagon yet.

Well we arrived safely in Missoula MT where we will spend a total of four weeks (thanks Audrey for a great place to stay) and wanted to share some new videos.  Beth's first week has gone well and nearly trouble free.  We traveled up to Helena Wednesday night for a legislature dinner on medical school funding and the Subaru overheated as we pulled into town.  It turned out to be nothing a new fuse and some serious deicing couldn't fix thank goodness and after spending a nice night with Pat and Noreen we made it safely back through more snow to Missoula.  It must be something in the Montana air, or all the new snow that fell as soon as we arrived but Andy has made some great mobility advancements.  Almost as soon as we arrived he finally got the order of operations down required to sit up from laying (see second video) and has also been regularly taking steps behind his push car.  He has also continued to let go of everything with reckless abandon.  However it is taking longer and longer for him to fall and he often stands rocking back and forth on his feet for ten seconds or more before falling over.  His babbling has also been getting more continuous and he now regularly vocalized "mmm's", "ddd's", and "nnn's" even seeming to say "mamama" and "dadada".  Enjoy!

Beth finished up her rotation in Spokane last week and we are back on the move.  We thoroughly enjoyed all of our time in CDA and wish we didn't have to leave.  What a wonderful thing it is to stay mostly in one place for more than a month.  Beth had a great month and liked Cardiology greatly.  If it didn't mean loosing so many more years of life to training she might consider making it a career.  Andy is doing wonderfully and has mastered all of the elements of walking, and crawling without any of the effective coordination that makes such activities possible.  He has loved standing up with assistance for months but he suddenly decided that the tub was the right place  to perfect pulling to standing.  It took us a bit by surprise but we got used to it quickly and is now a common occurrence.  This now hi-lights Andy's most frustrating problem... the inability to get back into the sitting position after falling over.  This is the cause of most of his fussing and it will be a wonder full day when he remedies the problem.  Andy also had a wonderful baby shower and is now outfitted with larger clothes, new toys, and a larger car seat.  We also put proceeds to work and picked up a used jumper seat and stand and sit car.  Both have been hits and I am sure walking will not be far off.  Our departure means we will miss the last two swim lessons but Andy loved the ones we attended and will surly miss the water time.  Thanks goes to to my parents for room, board, and baby sitting as well as Schoomer (our elderly retriever) for taking Andy's abuse in stride and writing it off as needed attention.  Take Care

Well I apologize for the delay.  The last month has seen many miles of travel and I believe that Andy has now visited at least 12 great states.  We left North Dakota and plunged right into a trip to Oregon where is snowed a lot, and Washington where the power was out for two days bringing the temperature in my brothers house down to a chilly 40 ish degrees that the plants did not like.  Anyway we found friends to accommodate the whole lot of us for the night in a warmer location with lights and after fighting our way through Seattle holiday traffic and lots more snow made it home for Thanksgiving and another interview in Spokane.  After a few days to visit family and friends we headed out on our southern tour to OR, UT, and ID.  This allowed Andy to bag another three flights as well as hang out at some cool ski areas as we took turns enjoying more fresh snow.  All the interviews went well and we made it home to begin shuffling the list and think about preferences with only one more interview remaining in January.  Through all this Andy develops in leaps and bounds.  He now sits up quite well and continues to love standing with balancing aid.  His day will be made when he figures out how to get off of his back into the more vertical positions on his own.  He seems to have no desire for rolling or even crawling and seems to strive for a leap straight into biped travel. Then we were off to Missoula, Helena, and Cutbank for Christmas which puts us at the present.  If you have some spare time to burn here are some pictures of our interview trips.  Through all this Andy develops in leaps and bounds.  He now sits up quite well and continues to love standing with balancing aid.  His day will be made when he figures out how to get off of his back into the more vertical positions on his own.  He seems to have no desire for rolling or even crawling and seems to strive for a leap straight into biped travel.  More will follow in time of the holiday trip.  Merry Christmas