Belated pictures from the LaFond family campout in Butte

Reese's first four-wheeler ride (well, not in utero)Reese picking wildflowers
The kids playing
Reese and her 2nd cousin, Ellie, who is a few months younger than she is

Belated pictures of Sarah and Fred's trip to Big Sky Country

Sarah and Fred came to visit in mid July and here are some photos of when we brought them up to the property:

House - possible exterior ?

Below is the progress on the house - ok, about a week or so behind. But things are moving along well. We are hoping to pour up to the first floor this week (fill all the block you see with concrete).

I don't think we have posted any "design" pics online, so here is the first a potential candidate for the siding and colors - I'm sure if it's like the design process to date, this will not be what is looks like, but you have to start somewhere. If you compare this to the picture above. The lighter siding on the bottom is where the blocks are stacked thus far (the garage on the left does not yet exist - give me a month or so.)

Night night baby

Unfortunately she also tries this with her brother...

First tooth and ready to eat some "real" food

We've been trying to get Asher to eat rice cereal now for about a month. Each week we test it out with him and up to this point, he has shown little interest. This morning, however, I tried again and I think he finally decided he's ready. Not surprisingly, I checked his mouth after we were done and yup, there was the first tooth peeking through on the bottom. The tooth also likely explains why he's been kinda grumpy lately. Poor little guy is just trying to grow up on us :) Anyway I took some video from the cereal adventure this morning:

June/July videos of the kids

I've finally gotten around to uploading a few videos that we've taken of the kids over the last month or so. Enjoy!

The first walls

The forms for the first walls of the house are up (the actual walls aren't poured yet). You can now clearly see a big white mark on the hillside from all the way down in Helena (sure to get bigger and brighter as our giant white "igloo" gets taller).
Looking up from the road:
You can see how tall the walls are in relation to the backhoe
The view from outside the house
Not a bad view from our backyard
It's amazing how the "tight" these blocks make the house. If you are outside trying to talk to someone inside (even without a roof) it's virtually impossible to hear them. Should bode well for our heating bill next winter :)
CK has already done more block stacking since these pictures were taken so I'll be sure to get some pics this week while I'm home on vacation and post them.

4th of July and the Missoula Marathon

We spent the 4th of July watching fireworks up on the property with Val and Kaitlyn.

Sarah and Fred arrived late Friday night for a week in Big Sky Country. Saturday morning we left for Missoula for race weekend. Jen, Sarah, Meredith (Jen and CK's cousin) and I all ran the Missoula Marathon as a relay Sunday morning. In addition, 4 other cousins had a 2nd relay team. The best surprise was having guest fans (including Jan and Val) make the trip all the way to Missoula to cheer us on.

Sarah ran the 2nd leg and "passed the baton" to me. Here are Renee (the other LaFond relay team's 3rd leg and CK's cousin) and I looking at the runners going by at our exchange point waiting for our teammates.

Sarah arriving at our exchange point while Meredith and CK look on

And the sisters pass the "baton" (actually the timing chip)...

The relay teams and their fans
Pre race...all smiles and so friendly
The next day everyone's competitive spirit came out (not really but it made for a good picture)

Happy July!

Return to the cabin

Some pictures from last weekend's trip to the cabin in Show Low. Reese didn't take long to make friends with the puppies by sharing her breakfast with them...Jane and Asher enjoying the living room
Jane immortalized CK's "work shoes" by mounting them. As you can see from the air conditioning in the toe area, they got a lot of use last summer.
And now have a place on the mantel (hopefully not permanently)
Thanks to Tom and Jane for a great weekend!

Concrete

We finally have concrete after cancelling twice and waiting almost 1 1/2 weeks. The footings and stem wall are in. Now on to backfilling around them and stacking the walls for more concrete. Below is a view of the foundation looking towards the south (at Helena). The concrete pour went very well, We had 3 full concrete trucks. The 1st truck we mixed in plasticiser (to make the concrete flow well) and calcium chloride to make the concrete set quickly. This was used to pour the footings under the ICF blocks. The plan (that worked great) was by the time we finished pouring the upper footings the ICF footings would be cured 30% or more and ready for the walls to be filled by the final truck. It took 3.5 hours to pump the 28 yards of concrete.

Here is a picture of the footing as they step up from the garage level to the basement level of the 1st floor.
I wanted to get a good picture of the "fastfoot" product - It is the fabric material attached the bottom of the ICF blocks, as you can see it worked great for the traditional footings and to pour the ICF footings.
Here is an overview of the 1st level looking towards the NE.
This is the opening for the lower level shop/garage door, it will be 12 feet tall and 12 feet wide.

Somewhere over the rainbow

After all of that nasty weather here yesterday we were rewarded with one of the clearest double rainbows I have ever seen.As you can see below, the rainbow ended at Jen's house...hmmm...apparently she hasn't been sharing that pot of gold with the rest of us. Things I wish I had known before we moved out ;)
Reese and CK taking in the view
Luckily, we didn't get the tornadoes they had in Billings that essentially destroyed the huge sports/concert arena they have there. Unfortunately, though, the rain was too much and the concrete pour has been delayed until tomorrow.

75 and sunny...and hail?

This was the scene this morning when we drove up to the property to check out the progress...a gorgeous day. Reese, CK and Tanner even got in a bikeride.

Then this...

Gotta love Montana weather...as they say, wait 5 minutes and it will change.

Happy Father's Day to all of the fathers out there!

Reese's room

Tonight is the first night of Operation get-Reese-to-sleep-in-her-own-room. For awhile now, she has successfully been sleeping in her toddler bed in our room and, for the most part, sleeps there all night. Moving her to her own room is actually happening because we'd like to get Asher sleeping through the night (or at least more than now) and we can't really let him "cry it out" in the same room as Reese or we'll end up with two crying children and, consequently, two crying parents :) So one of them has to go and it makes most sense for it to be Reese.

We know what to do. Consistency of routine. Bath. Brush teeth. Read book. Night night. Suffer through a few nights but push on until she's used to her new surroundings. Yeah, we know what we need to do but we are also dreading doing it. I actually wanted to start last night but my flight was delayed and I didn't get home until after midnight so it wasn't a good night to start. So tonight's the night. I'm putting it on here because that will hold us to it. Hoping if we start tonight we'll have 4 nights in a room of both of us home to "help" so that by the time I leave next Tuesday we have made enough progress that CK won't want to give up when he has to tackle it on his own.

Sad part is as soon as we get her through this then we get to tackle Asher and getting him to sleep more. But, as painful as it might be for a few weeks (please not months!) we know it's worth it in the end to have two kids on good routines getting lots of valuable sleep (and the added benefit of getting more sleep ourselves).

While CK was busy getting the walls ready to pour concrete I was in Chicago this week checking up on a former client and teaching some of our new hires about what I do. It was a nice break from my regular project routine although it really felt more like double the work since my project didn't stop while I was gone, I was just doing it from afar.