Kiddo

For the last group of people I failed to notify, here it is: I'm pregnant. After surviving the first three months of sleepy ickyness, I am love, love, loving being a future mom. We had our first ultrasound at 21 weeks last Monday and we saw the baby squirming around. Nathan called it "amazing wildlife photography". It was.

Ngorongoro Crater: The Video

Ngorongoro Crater was my favorite Tanzanian park and home to one of the funniest and sadest things that happened all trip. The crater itself was formed by an ancient volcano, which imploded and became inactive. The sides are so steep that most animals never leave the crater, so it's teeming with amazing wildlife.

We went on Nathan's birthday with the best lunch packed we'd had all week: a BLT sandwich and the normal cornbread and hard-boiled egg, but stopped for lunch at a beautiful lake with harmless, large Kites circling overhead. Despite being warned of the "friendliness" of the birds several times, we decided to sit on the ground and eat our lunches. It didn't take two minutes, when, just after our guide, Dennis, had just said, "Nathan, be careful how you hold your sandwich" - a rush of air, an exploding sandwich, several kites, and suddenly Nathan was without his birthday lunch. Classic.

Here is Nathan's latest video in the safari series: Ngorongoro.



To read more about Ngorongoro, check out my previous post.

Sol y Sombra

I spent the last two weekends hiking through sun and rain.  Although none of them were fighting, I did see plenty of bulls and also some horses.  I can't believe we're so lucky as to live right down the road from this stuff!

My Trail: Lower Talkington

The first couple of foals are already here, but no new bison yet.

Notice that Theodore Roosevelt National Park is listed as one of America's Most Underrated Parks.  You might want to think about getting out here sometime!

First Day of Spring

Last week, in less-than-dramatic fashion (unlike last year), the ice breaking on the Little Missouri River exactly coincided with the first day of spring!  By the time the town woke up last Saturday, the river was flowing again and large chunks of ice had made their way onto the riverbanks.

 View from the Medora Bridge

The weather was wonderful too!  A quick drive up into the park proved that we weren't the only ones happy about the return of spring.  We saw three beavers swimming happily upstream and swear that some of the grass is starting to turn green already (hard to tell).  Enjoy these visions of spring from the top of Wind Canyon!

Beavers & Ice

Another Creature Happy it's Spring

Yucca Plant

Serengeti: The Video

My only regret is that we didn't take a picture of the giant spider in our bathroom that soon became our friend: Frederick. Mosquito nets are good for much more than keeping the mosquitoes off of you!

Lake Manyara: The Video

Here's the next installment of Tanzania Memories Revamped '08.  Our first day of safari took us to Lake Manyara National Park.  Again, this was all Nathan, so enjoy!

Consensus 2010

I'm dying to hear how much hype there is in other states over the 2010 Census.  I don't remember seeing droves of commercials, flyers, and people out urging you to fill out the census form in Wisconsin in 2000, but then again, I was wrapping up my Junior year in high school, preparing for a trip to Spain, and hanging out with a new guy I liked (who I ended up marrying five years later).  In other words, I wasn't paying attention.

Here in North Dakota, the 2010 Census is a BIG deal.  Ads and flyers are everywhere, urging you to "please, please fill out the form and mail it back - our very existence as a state depends on it" (or something to that effect).  I had my census form hand-delivered to my doorstep by a volunteer Saturday.  I figure this over-the-top public awareness campaign is much more pronounced in North Dakota, where the population truly has been steadily declining and the poor state literally needs everyone to be counted in order to keep it on the federal funding map.

Given that we own a house in Minnesota, live in North Dakota, and are moving to Kansas in May, Nathan and I were pretty confused about where and when we need to reply.  I really, really wanted to give our +2 population count to North Dakota for several reasons:

1. I really do consider this my home, despite what my tax return and permanent address say.
2. You get a lot more bang for your census buck out here - adding two more people here is a much larger percentage of the population than in Minnesota!
3. North Dakota has been just plain nice to us.  Not only were we allowed to vote in the 2008 primaries (just by living here for 30 days and signing our street address on the paper form in the North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame entryway), while Minnesota completely shut us out with their "must be present to vote" caucus system, they BY FAR charge us the least amount in taxes to live here.  Consider this: given the same yearly salary for our family in 2009, Minnesota charged us $5000 to live there, Kansas would have charged us $4022 for being full-year residents, and North Dakota's looking really good at $1699.  There are so many reasons to love North Dakota!

You can imagine how happy I was to find out that the date for which you count where you live is April 1, 2010!  So, we have a consensus for the census.  Without a doubt, I can say, "Yes!  I am living in North Dakota on April 1, 2010.  Sign me up for funding for that new stop sign on the corner of 1st & 2nd street.  North Dakota, you deserve it!"