Birthday on the road!

One day, Michaela's going to have a great story to tell about her first birthday. Of course, she won't actually remember it, but she'll hear about how she sat in a car for 9 hours, minus a few brief stops, between Watson Lake, Yukon Territory, and Ft. Nelson, British Columbia.

Even more exciting, though, she can tell people that she went swimming for the first time on her first birthday and that it wasn't just anywhere... it was at the Liard Hot Springs! She wasn't too sure at first, but got used to it and even tried to jump out of Jason's arms and go solo!

On the walk back through the woods to the car, there was a squirrel sighting. That was definitely worth a stop to squeal and watch the squirrel run!!

Besides squirrels, today was also a good day for big wild life sightings! In addition to quite a few buffalo (which Jason made me take a picture of, but which I'm not posting because we've seen buffalo, a LOT), we saw a black bear first thing this morning and then a MOOSE this afternoon! I was so excited to get pics of the moose that I did a little squealing and almost woke up the baby who napped through the whole thing. Ooops! But, I think I'm the only person I know who managed to just about leave the state of AK without seeing a moose (we saw a few the other day, but no pics). And I just wanted to see a moose, dangit!

Here's the black bear. He paid zero attention to the fact that we were there. I stayed in the truck for this one, and only had to use my 300mm lens. He was more concerned about the cars coming up behind us than us... and the grass he was eating. And he was BIG. You can't tell from this, but he was definitely large for a black bear!

And the moose!!! So worth the wait on the pictures! The other 4 we've seen were either juvenile, female or just didn't have a rack. That and they spooked easily and ran away as soon as the truck came along side. This guy just stood there and contemplated me and the other guy taking pictures. I did get a few closer shots, but this one is my favorite. I busted out the 500mm for this, and braved the outside world (ie, left the truck), hoping he wouldn't decide to get mad at me!

And finally, we weren't able to go all out to celebrate our girl today since we're a little busy, but we did put her birthday bib on her at dinner tonight and she also got a small piece of cake for dessert. Jason and I had a small toast to surviving our first year of parenthood as Michaela slowly started to melt down because she was hungry and needed dinner! After we got back from dinner, we laughed at the ridiculousness that was the two of us ducked down between the beds in the hotel room so Michaela couldn't see us from her crib, all so she'd go to sleep. Ah, parenthood!

Happy First Birthday to our sweet girl! Lady-lou, we love you so much and can't imagine this world without you. We CAN imagine a cross-country PCS without the added work of dealing with your needs and wants, but we wouldn't have traded the last year in for anything!! You make life.... more. We love you!