It finally happened! I’ve wanted to see the Aurora Borealis for years and now I can finally say I have. My grandpa reached out to me, saying that we should be able to see them between midnight and 4pm. He even sent instructions on how to capture the lights on a smartphone camera. Hannah and I had been planning to go to bed early so that we could do a morning hike in Glacier, but our plans quickly changed. Glacier will be here all summer, but we only had a night or two to see the Aurora Borealis. They came out around 12:30 and we spent about an hour standing in the courtyard watching them. It was cool because for the 30 minutes leading up to the lights you could see the sky slowly lighten and turn green and pink. They were still pretty faint, but we were able to make out the bands of color. We mostly saw green lights, but there were faint traces of pink over the lake. They shift as you watch them so it looks like they’re dancing. I totally felt like I was in Brother Bear and the eagle spirit of my older brother was about to appear. The colors came out a lot more distinct on camera than to the naked eye, which both Hannah and I found interesting. I wonder what it is about the camera that enhances the contrast. They might’ve gotten more clear as the night went on, but we heard a loud noise in the forest and decided that the lights were cool, but not cool enough to be eaten for.

Even though I can check that off my bucket list now, I think it would be cool to see them somewhere they appear more vivid and vibrant. If I ever end up further north I’ll still be keeping my eyes pealed.

I mentioned changing jobs from the daycare to a nanny position earlier in my blog and said I would explain later. It’s later.

The idea of the nature school was really cool, but the reality was less than glamorous. There were about 18 kids shoved into the little shed and although it gave us more room being outside, spending 4 hours a day in the rain isn’t my idea of a good time. I was also obsolete and wasn’t trusted with much of anything. Instead of training me and letting my do my job, my boss and coworker occasionally explained how things went but then would do everything while I stood around. I tried to ask questions and jump in to help in anyway I could, but that just made it feel like I was training myself. It’s kind of funny because my boss didn’t want to give me access to the app they use or have me interact with the parents (they had 2 people quit from the position before they hired me) and yet the lack of trust was part of the reason I quit. I understand that they wanted to see if I would last before doing things like buying my uniform and having me make connections with the parents, but to not even give me access to the app? It was the same app I used when at Rooted and it just has each child and a place where you can log things like food, diapers, and incidents for the parents to see. I couldn’t’ve done much damage on the app even if I wanted to. I also learned that both my boss and coworker were using the nice indoor toilet at my boss’ house just down the driveway while I had to use the ghetto child port-a-potty. So it was fine for me to have to strategically plan out when to pee so no one would see me but not for them? I could go on longer, but I don’t want to just complain. To sum it all up, I felt like a high schooler with a summer job instead of a 25 year old woman who knows how to take care of kids. I’m sure that would’ve changed with time, but I only get one year in Montana and I didn’t want to spend months of it trying to win my boss’ trust so that I didn’t hate my job.

Thankfully, 3 days after I quit Rain or Shine I was hired as a nanny for a cute little one-year-old boy in Columbia Falls. It’s about a 45 minute drive to the house, but I enjoy driving and it’s a beautiful area so that doesn’t bother me. The family even offered to pay for half my drive time, which is really sweet of them. So far I’ve just done one week, but it’s been phenomenally better than my 2 weeks at Rain or Shine combined. Silas is such a cutie and I like the control nannying gives me. I follow what the parents want, but have a lot of freedom in what I can do. I’m sure you’ll be hearing a lot more about Silas and our adventures together as I continue to blog. Hopefully I’ll get permission from Susan and Zach to post pictures of Silas so y’all can see how cute he is!

Curtesy of a new friend Shauna, Hannah had a fun walking trail she wanted to show us. My parents already knew about it and wasted no time in taking the wind out of her sails, but it was new to me so she still got an excited response. Because of where the house is, there isn’t anywhere to walk nearby so your options are 1) walk the driveway and get a thigh-burning workout on the way up or 2) do continuous laps around the house and see the same trees 500 times. If you want a more pleasant stroll, neither of those options are great so I’m happy to have an actual flat trail. It’s in Bigfork so there’s about a 15 minute drive to get there, but such is the way of life when you live rural. We only walked a little ways along the 2-mile trail when Hannah first showed us, but just me and Hannah went back a few days later and did all 4 miles (there and back) to get the full experience.

My mom, Hannah, and I had some free time after my nanny job interview in Columbia Falls (more on that soon) so we decided to head up to Glacier. It’s only open to Lake McDonald lodge right now, but there are still a few hikes in that area and it’s always fun to look at the lake so it was worth the trip. We went and grabbed sandwiches from a highly rated local sandwich place (that lived up to the hype) and then headed into Glacier. Hannah was the only one who really dressed to go on a legit hike so we started up a trail with the intent to just go a little ways. We ended up going onto a little side trail that led to a pretty river. The water’s still pretty low, but we sat for a minute and got some fun pictures.

I was trying out the camera on my new phone (Stevie) and got this very flattering picture of Hannah.

We continued up the trail a little bit and as it started to go more uphill I decided to sit and enjoy being out in nature. My mom and Hannah wanted to continue up a little higher so we briefly parted way. About 10 minutes into my solitude I heard a rustle in the woods across the trail. I had a brief fear that I was about to get eaten by a grizzly, but it turned out to just be two deer. Hannah and my mom appeared just then and we ended up walking most of the way back down the trail with the deer. I named one Bambi and Hannah named the other Licorice. It was really cool that they stuck with us for about 10 minutes and didn’t seem bothered by our presence. They were definitely still skittish, but we were able to get pretty close to get some pictures.

I even got a selfie showing my joy and their complete indifference.

After our partial hike we went down by the water and just looked out over the lake. It’s so beautiful, even when it isn’t summer.

I ended up down below Hannah and my mom and got a good shot of Hannah trying to break into the little building by the pier.

She retaliated by ruining this gorgeous picture of me.

Then my mom spent the next 10 minutes throwing rocks into the water because they made cool splashing sounds. When the three of us get together I question if we’re really adults or just children in adult bodies.