Well the holidays came and went with a flash.... Beth worked almost straight through, but we spent lots of time with family enjoying the lights and trains of Christmas.  The snow was not great but we did manage to get some good times in and we even got a quick new years dip in the lake at the cabin.  To be honest the swim was easy compared to navigating the treacherous rocky hike out past the grounded dock to find water.  Andy is thriving in his rough and tumble way... did you know how much fun it is to run out of control down a steep trail... or jump off the bottom of the stairs.  He remains very focused on mastering everything physical he tries and can't be distracted... His vocabulary continues to grow slowly, and while he seems to comprehend everything he is still content to grunt, chirp, and skwak for his way in life.  How every body had a wonderful holidays.... Cheers and Good Health from Mike, Beth, Andy, Roo, and Max.

Well the past few weeks brought us all kinds of fun... we replaced the Subaru's brakes only to turn around and blow the head gasket a week later... All fixed and good as new now.  On friendlier notes, Beth is back home now, we got a chance to visit Nick and Jeannine in Silverdale, spent lots of time in CDA with Nanna and Poppy including a nice trip to the pool, and winter started.  Andy loved the snow, we got him out sledding a couple times and even tossed him on his skis for the first time.. Bindings are still a bit loose for his pint sized feet, but there was no lack of enthusiasm.  For Thanksgiving Beth didn't get much time off, but I did get a day of skiing in and we spent a nice night out on the lake with the whole family.  hope everyone with well and loving life, we sure are. Happy holidays!

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 have been having a great fall here.  Until last weekend when winter hit us with a snowy 65mph blast we havdn't seen a drop of rain and the abnormally high temperatures and continuous sunshine made playing outside easy.  Andy and I have continued to spend two to four hours a day outside walking, running, and watching wildlife around our favorite park.  We have been using Andy's stroller as a grocery getter.  Beth even managed to get a couple good mountain bike rides in with us during her last week of surgery.  However the Saturday before last she dove into following hospitalists on her internal medicine rotation and the biking has been cut short by her long call hours and the snow on the ground.  On the plus side since we live a skyway away from the hospital she has been able to come spend time with us between admits.  Andy  even took a little time out of his busy day to send a little message to one of his great grandfathers who we all hope feels much better soon.  This last weekend we took a little trip south to Bismarck for Beth's ski patrol refresher.  This gave Andy the opportunity to spend his first night in his new tent at the hotel.  It worked very well and I highly recommend them.  Then while Beth was refreshing we summited the snowy "peak" above Huff Hills Ski Area for some nice views.  Andy loves to explore.  It's been a big couple weeks for him.  He seems to have taken being 5% by weight very seriously and suddenly doubled his milk intake the beginning of last week.  In addition he has now mastered front to back rolling, and is getting much more comfortable on his stomach with his head up as well as seems to be slowly warming up to spoon feeding.  He really likes the high chair, that we finally had a chance to pull out of the storage in Bismarck last weekend.  That's a funny story in itself, but by the time we were done we had managed to rescue the snow tires for both cars from the bowels of the pile, change them out in the mud, dug our way into the keys for the fire safe we have been carrying around with no way to open, as well as retrieve ski gear.  So now we have passports (in safe) and equipment for our x-mas ski trip.