The Doyles Take Montana!

A couple fun things...........

2012-01-31T05:00:00.001-07:00

Something fun we did recently ... Kids Movie Night! Charles was not going to make it home one Friday night until late and since this is usually our movie night, we just had a 'few' kids over to watch Cars 2, instead. We had 11, missing a few in the pic. Here they are having their pizza.

Tuned in!

Charles walked in when the kids were getting their ice cream. It was a little crazy. He thinks I'm a little insane to invite a ton of kids over but we love it! And I got a little mommy time w/ the other parents on the side!

Also, Zak played some basketball recently and these were my two favorite shots from the 'season'.

I'm open!


He sunk it!

He was pretty good at it! Now if we could just find a hoop to hang on the garage or a standing hoop on a pole, we'll be in business for plenty of Saturday family play offs lol.

Charles gets a deer!

2012-01-29T05:00:00.001-07:00

Hunting season is fairly short here. If I remember correctly, bow season is sometime in October, then you can use a rifle in November, and by the end of November, all seasons are over. Charles and Mike had gone out a couple of times trying to locate ..well, anything. Charles has a tags for a couple different types of deer and an elk (I think). But they weren't seeing *anything*. He and Zak went out and saw deer, and the right kind of deer, but they were always JUST outside of the area he could hunt in.

One last time he and Mike went out and finally he got a young buck. He had hiked up and down this one area of mountains, through snow. They saw a small herd, the herd saw them but the crouched down and laid low a while. They were about 200 yards away. From the story he tells it was quite a difficult shot to take, all the effort, learning how, when and where to shoot, and the fact that the deer was so far away. Ask him about it sometime, I'm SURE he'd like to tell you all the rest of the details.

He got him down in this valley...

And I will just add that so far I've cooked a roast from this deer as well as cut up some of the meat in a stew and each time it has been been super delicious! I don't taste any gaminess and it's is super tender. yay!

Kids Fall School Pics

2012-01-28T05:00:00.001-07:00

Well, I guess I should share the kids' fall school pics before the Spring ones are taken, huh? lol Charlie loves her hair curled but we rarely have time on a normal day, so we made time on Picture Day. And, our man, Zak, just likes to try to look 'cool'. His normal toothy grin is much cuter...oh well. This is the first year that I REALLY like their school pictures!

c, m, c & z!

Trip to Holter Lake

2012-01-26T05:00:00.001-07:00

*If you are getting our blog by email, you will have to click on the title above ("Doyles Take Montana" or "Trip to Holter Lake") to go to the actual blog page to see the video in the update. For some reason, Blogger doesn't allow the videos to be emailed within the update. There are a couple of real fun ones in this update you'll want to check out!*

Last July a guy Charles works with (Mike, the guy who ended up being his hunting buddy) invited us to a nearby Lake for some BBQ and to do some tubing. Here are those pictures.

Charlie eventually wants off so now it's just Zak. And he is begging to go faster..of course.

He was going for a while and finally he fell off. He disappeared for that instant that you think your offspring has been injured or worse...........then he popped back up. Holding on tight still lol

Time to dump Daddy!

The kids are BEGGING to toss him! lol He is finally defeated!

This is a HUGE lake, created by a reservoir, tucked into the mountains.

Just gorgeous!

Testing out the chilly waters.

Charlie messing around.........the Mamacita and Big Daddy

This friendly little guy wandered up, I mean, RIGHT up to us!

It was a great day :)

Date Night!

2012-01-24T05:00:00.011-07:00

We've been trying to get more date nights in and last Saturday night we had a REAL fun one! There is a brother and sister here who own a wine shop and once a month they have free wine tastings. We've been trying to go to one and this time we finally made it. Here we are there:

That only lasted about half an hour so we went across town to a local brewery and did a little beer tasting :)

They closed half an hour after we got there, so we sampled and left. There is a restaurant here that we've heard about, with a little lounge above it.............with MERMAIDS. !! So we headed there.

We saw the mermaids, took pics, and decided we were hungry, so we headed to Applebees. The atmosphere totally stunk, but we ended up having a good time. Not good lighting, so the pics aren't great. But, here Charles is, ruining the pic on purpose as usual:

A smile!

It was such a fun night, hopping all over town!

c, m, c & z!

Laid back Saturday..snow melt!

2012-01-22T05:00:00.008-07:00

This last week has been *very* interesting. Monday started with subzero temps and finally on Wednesday it started snowing. At one point the wind chill was around -45. We experienced these temps in Wyoming a few years back, but the difference here is that in Cheyenne, similar conditions shut most of the town down, the Air Force base pretty much shut down so Charles didn't have to go to work, kids didn't go to school and such. But here, it's business as usual. And it was SO bitter. The kids kept saying, "I can't BREATHE outside". Our lungs burned! But you just hurry from the car into the house or school and don't stay out in it. At school, the kids don't go out on the playground if the windchill is below zero..yep, that means if it's 1 degree, they go out and play. But our whole attitude is, "Adventure!" It never lasts too long (one, two days at the most) and it's a GREAT excuse for hot chocolate, great warm soups for dinner and getting cozy under soft, comfy blankets to watch movies. :)

When if finally snowed, we got about 6 inches, which is not a ton, but enough to make everything beautiful and have some fun. Today, Saturday, was pretty incredible because suddenly, the temp is 50 degrees! After the severe cold, this REALLY does feel warm! We didn't even need a jacket! This is what the locals call a Chinook. They tell me that means a warm wind and 'they' say it happens frequently throughout the winter. I don't really understand why it happens but it is a great relief that often comes after those really intense winter days. Many people say the Chinooks are what make living here bearable. After today, I do agree with them. It has been a beautiful, 'warm', sunny day and all the snow is just melting like crazy. Sheets of it were sliding off the roof. But, before it all melted away, Zak pulled out this cheapo snow board with crappy, loose bindings and went out onto the street, where there is a small hill and started 'boarding' down it. Charles pushed him and watched for cars and Zak had a blast! Charlie had a friend over and they got a snowman built before all the snow melted. SOO many people hate the snow and I get it, but we just LOVE it. We love playing in it and watching it fall is just beautiful, quiet and peaceful. Here are some pics and videos of the kids today. If you are reading this in an email, you have to click on the heading (Doyles Take Montana) to go to the actual blog to view them.

Figuring it out:

More Practice:

"A New Record":

The Girl's Snowman

Charles lifts the heavy snowball for the girls

More tweaking

"Mr. Cool"

c, m, c & z!

Hunting!

2012-01-21T05:00:00.000-07:00

Before moving here, knowing this was a big hunting area, Charles knew he wanted to learn to hunt and bring some meat home! He works with Mike, a very seasoned and experienced hunter. They decided to rent a small trailer and go sit in the mountains a few days. Mike knows some great spots and said Charles could borrow some of his gear to get him started.

On their way:

And, quite typically, that's the only picture they got from a 4 day hunt. They didn't get anything or see much but Charles learned a lot, hiked many many miles up and down the mountains, and knows a little bit about what he wants to do next time. At this point, hunting season had another 4 or so weeks left.

One Sunday he took Zak out on an afternoon trip, about 45 miles south of here. They saw deer, but oddly enough the deer kept standing just outside the hunting area. Smart suckers.

The following pics are all from Zak's perspective. Charles gave him the camera and told him to take whatever pics he wanted. I know most of you will scroll quickly through most of these, but I left most of them for myself because it's always fun to me to see what interests him and I like going back and looking at it that way :)

(This is where I edited out about 20 more pictures of cows LOL)

A can in the field lol

He loved this

If you're squeamish, you might want to scroll quickly past the next part. Leave it to a BOY to take a picture of a dead rat. And it's been dead a while!

3.....

2......

1..........................

Ohhh brother........

This hunting trip didn't yield anything either but many of you know there was a very exciting trip after this one. I'll blog about that soon.

Well, as Zak has been saying lately in his best British accent, "Cheerio!"

c, m, c & z!

Charlie's Bird

2012-01-19T05:00:00.035-07:00

*If you are getting our blog by email, you will have to click on the title above (Doyles Take Montana or Charlie's Bird) to go to the actual blog page to see the video in the update. For some reason, Blogger doesn't allow the videos to be emailed within the update. *

Some of you have seen Smokey Joe, but I'll quickly tell his story here for those that haven't.

Charlie's been asking for a bird and it was obvious it was more than a whim. We told her when she got better at handling her current pet, Rusty, we'd consider it. She reached that point and we started looking around. One day I was out in service and came across a lady who needed to find a home for her bird. She'd had him 8 yrs but her husband was allergic and since all the kids were gone, she wanted to find a good home with kids in it to pass the bird on to. She said we could have him and his cage and whole set up, if Charlie just promised to take good care of him and continue to call him Smokey Joe. She asked that we give her updates the first week. Charlie loved him right away, and promised to do so. The first 6 days I was really skeptical. He didn't seem to be adjusting well, he was pecking everybody and being an overall mean old bird. I was preparing Charlie for the idea of taking him back to his other owner. He was just plain old mean! Then suddenly, on day 7............he bonded with her. Then this:

(Video of Charlie and Smokey Joe)

And he's been singing to her ever since. When we all come in, he chirps and sings and looks around us to find her. He paces back and forth in his cage until she comes and gets him out. Once she does, he gives these cute little gurgly, chirpy sounds ..only for her. If she's around the corner, he can tell it's her from her stride and gets way over to the edge of his cage so that he can see her as she walks by. When he's covered for the night, if she walks by, he can't even see her but he knows it's her and chirps and sings as she goes by LOL He nuzzles her neck and makes kissing sounds to her. It has been so sweet watching them bond! But, the rest of us can take a hike lolol

They say a cockatiel will live to be around 18 to 25 yrs so we are hoping Smokey Joe gets to grow with her. And, well, b/c I nickname things, I call him JaMocha Joe, Mean Old Bird or Dinner LOL

c, m, c & z!

Jeep, A Couple Date Nights, Fall and Friends

2012-01-17T05:00:00.006-07:00

I've forgotten to mention..Charles bought himself a Jeep when we got here since his car stunk in the snow. An older model......

We love riding around town in it...except when I'm drinking my coffee. lol

I really love how bright Fall was here this year. This is a picture taken while I was inside my living room of the tree out front. Hard to really capture in the pic, but it was so bright it casted a nice yellow glow in the living room <3!

Charlie is learning how to play the Viola. There was this young, hip-type of orchestra/concert thing that came to town and she wanted to go see the girls playing their Violas, so Charles took her out to eat, and then to the concert. So sweet!

Celebrating our anniversary. Dinner and a movie! We don't look so thrilled here LOL!

Some friends had us over for spaghetti. They are so much fun. We watched football, and played Apples to Apples. Girls against the boys! Boys won. This time. Hope they enjoyed it b/c the girls will rule again!

c, m, c & z!

A couple neat things

2012-01-15T05:00:00.003-07:00

I just wanted to 'journal' a couple of neat things that happened recently that I really enjoyed seeing. Back on Hallloween night, one of the Youngs (half the congregation is made up of the Young family. They are all really good people, warm, hospitable and they are all ranchers and have been for generations) invited several families out to their ranch so that we wouldn't have to put up with trick or treaters. We went and had pizza, but the fun part that will stick out in mind was this........

When we got there the man of the house, Weston (30), and his ranch hand, Gunner (31) (they don't sound like cowboy names, do they?? LOL) were still out working. This just makes me laugh, I don't know why. I think b/c it's SO REAL, really their life and livelihood and I've only seen it portrayed, like in movies. BUT, as it turns out, they were out driving the cows home. They take the cows out to graze in the Highwood Mountains, just East of here, for the summer. As winter comes, they go round them up.........they have been grazing on various parts of this mountain range...and they have to track them down, trailer them and drive them back to the ranch so they can 'calve" (get preggers and have babies) into the winter and spring. They hadn't been able to locate 4 pairs of cows yet and had been going out over and over to try to find them, on horseback over miles and miles of this mountain range. It was so interesting to me. Then they finally made it home that night to have pizza with us. These are brothers that I usually see in suits at the meeting, but when they came in that night, they had on jeans of course, chaps, cowboys hats and scarves around their necks. Nothing was for show and everything had a purpose in their 'get up' lol They talked about climbing these mountains all day and their experience was nothing new to them but so neat to hear! There we sat, on their ranch, in their cozy home, at a huge table made from a huge tree hauled home from the woods (beautiful!) and even their cabinets 'hardware' was antlers instead of drawer pulls. I realized that these are real cowboys, doing real cowboy things lol. Before tonight, they were brothers, the school overseer, ya know? I knew what they did but seeing them in their work clothes was different. They took us downstairs where Weston takes animal hide and various types of leather and makes prize winning saddles, purses, saddle bags and other very functional types of leather ware. Now THAT was cool to see. I am hoping that Charles heard me say how much I wanted a leather purse made by this brother before we leave here. They are one of a kind and would be a REALLY nice way to remember our stay here and the brothers and sisters!

The other really cool thing that happened this week, I saw a BALD EAGLE while in service the other day. I had BEEEEEEN looking for them and not seeing any and as we drove along the river to a call, there one was, in the tree. When we approached, he took off to fly and spread out those huge wings ...very impressive. I really hope I get a nice pic of one while here. They say they are all along the river bank (runs through the town) so the kids and I are going to go out one day just to look for them since they want to see one too. :)

c, m, c & z!

A little catch up - Sept-Oct 2011

2012-01-12T05:00:00.002-07:00

Ok, getting a little caught up on some things to share..Things that happened Sept and Oct, 2011

The kids started a new school! The best part, they get LOCKERS!

And, of course, locker jewelry

There she goes! *SNIFF*

Circuit Assembly in Helena, MT

(Beautiful 90 min drive)

This was fun. It's a long story, but the guys at Charles office in California thought he needed a big thank you for the stuff he had to put up with while there so, since most of them had been to this base before, they knew of a great restaurant here (Bert and Ernies) and surprised him with a nice gift card. Here is us, spending it :)

The Girls

The Boys

"Would it be possible to get a NICE pic, here, with the nice, wooden waiter, plzzzzz??"

"PLEASE?"

"sigh"

"Maybe with me?.... ehh...no"

"Fine! If you won't cooperate, I'll just smoosh you two together!"

Charlie wanted to learn to ice skate so we put her in a class, since this Florida Girl and California Boy couldn't exactly teach her. lol She took lessons in Cheyenne but that was 3 yrs ago.

Lacing up

First time out!

Hmm, turn your head sideways, I guess? Sorry!

FUN!

:)

c, m, c & z

Video problems

2012-01-07T18:00:00.001-07:00

The videos I've shared in the blog haven't been uploading for some reason so I'm trying something new with YouTube. The following videos are from a couple recent blog entries..I hope they work this time.

These are one is from our trip to Cheyenne:

We surprise Rebekah:

Zak takes a swim:

Back home, first snow:

2nd good snow, sledding:

Charlie sleds from the top of the block

Charles lands hard haha

Charles breaks the sled :(

Let me know if you had problems seeing them. :)

c, m, c & z!

We went to Cheyenne! (Back in July! LOL)

2012-01-07T05:00:00.001-07:00

I can't believe we went to Cheyenne in August and I still haven't posted about it. Time FLIES! (HAHA and now it's January! This sat in DRAFT and I forgot! ack!) I'm behind a few months so I'll be playing catch up this month. Updates are scheduled to post every 2nd or 3rd day until I'm caught up. :)

So, anyway, I love my Cheyenne peeps (waves) and as soon as I found out we were moving to Montana I was so excited because I knew I'd be able to visit my good friends again. Charles came home one night and said he was being sent to some training down there and asked....oh...if I possibly wanted to go? I don't think I answered him. I think I just automatically started packing in my head :) School wasn't in yet so we were free ...........and off we went! We were able to go for a week. I was also glad it worked out this way because I wanted to see what the drive was like while Charles was with us because if it wasn't too bad, I want to take the kids down every summer after the convention. Our convention is in Billings, MT (3 hours from us), which is on the way to Cheyenne (9 or 10 hours from us). It took us 12 hours to get down there. Pit stops, or..I don't even know why. It's a constant climb in altitude, maybe that's why. I don't know, I think it's going to be a bit much for us to do on our own.. :( BIG NEWS on the way down! We saw a black bear!

Ok, so I decided to surprise my friend, Rebekah since she is excitable and I thought it would be fun :) We got there around dinnertime and met Jackie and Mike and Tyler and Alicia at a restaurant. They were in on the surprise..I am so bummed I didn't get pics there. We had a great time and felt so loved all over again. And when we left, Charlie skipped across the street to the car and sighed a deep heavy sigh and said, "It's so GREAT to be back!".....and it really, really was.

After dinner, we went to Jackie's house to wait for Rebekah to get home so I could go surprise her. They FINALLY got home from camping ;).. Here I am surprising her..we are talking to her husband in the driveway and hiding behind him and giggling lol

The kids had a favorite park there. I don't know the real name but they always called it Dizzy Park b/c everything there spins lol We planed to visit the next day.

We brought our bikes so here we are leaving to go.. it's a mile one way.

At the park, in the thing they call the ..toilet bowl :/ lol

Brought some sushi ..slurp!

Biking back through the park, around the lake. It was a GORGEOUS day.

Hmm, on the other end of the park we see this new place we hadn't seen before..a Children's Village. So we rack the bikes..............

And what a SUPER cool place this was.

Using pulleys...

"Gimme five!"

Puppet show!

It's a face!

Cool benches

games.. Zak, you can take your helmet off now...

Did anyone see this coming? LOL This kid!

They had this pond w/ Koi and you were encouraged to wade in up to your knees. It was beautiful and refreshing there. We returned another day with Charles this time, and this time no one ended up swimming :)

Rebekah and I went out for dinner and some alone time :) So good to do this after being apart for 3 yrs

I got to see my good friend, Jackie, some more, but how did I miss getting pics of her!? She had us and other friends over for dinner and it was DELISH!

Me and Diane, meeting for lunch :)

And the little group that went to McDonalds after our last meeting there. Diane, Dan and Janine, and Rebekah. I was so glad to see you guys!! Thanks for enduring...McD... one more time, just to say goodbye to us haha.

And..the scoundrels lol I think we're missing Deven here... They seemed to get along as good as ever :)

I can't wait to go back!

c, m, c & z!

Trying this again...First real snow! And second!

2012-01-05T10:09:00.001-07:00

Ok, the last update didn't play videos for me..anyone else? So I reloaded them and am trying again. Let me know if you have issues with them.

We had one small snow in October but in November we finally got several inches. When we realized it was snowing, Charles and I woke up and opened up the curtains in our room so we could stay watch the snow fall while we stayed tucked in, all cozy for a while. Once we all got up, like the typical Southerners that we are, we ran right outside and started playing in it, loudly. lol People were driving by looking at us like we were a little too happy about it. We were!! And as I type now, we haven't seen snow OR freezing temps in WEEKS. It was 60 degrees today! Bring back the snow!!

Incoming!

While we played, breakfast was cooking.

After getting good and hungry, we came in to hot yummy food and cocoa.

After we cleaned up we played dominoes while the snow continued to fall.

Pretty Rock area outside of living room window.

A couple weeks later we got heavier snow!

Enough to SLED!

The street in front of the house. We live on a little baby hill.

Go!

There are several sledding vidoes here. Ea one makes me laugh!

Charles plops down hard:

Charlie....Charles starts her from a block away:

Zak gets dumped, Daddy goes over curb:

And it all ends with Charles:


From my comfy place on the couch, coffee in hand, fleecy clothes and soft blanket on,while the snow continued to fall.

I love me a snowy day!

c, m, c & z!

Snow Shoeing Fun!

2012-01-02T19:21:00.003-07:00

I have some updating to do, but I wanted to post pictures of what we did today. It's the last day the kids have off for their Winter break, which I normally reserve for waking up late, just one more time and relaxing. But the weather didn't cooperate earlier in their break to go snow shoeing, ...so today, off we went.

There is a recreational area about 45 minutes away from us that has groomed cross country ski, snow mobile and dog sledding trails. They also have a nice large area with several loops for snow shoeing. It was chilly when we got there, around 35 but the forecast was for 50 degrees! That is almost short sleeve weather in this really dry air. And pretty soon we were shedding layers. We took 2 young sisters from the Hall and they got warm fast too. Last time I went snow shoeing it was on a mountain and very hard, but this was flatter trails with small inclines here and there so it was a lot easier and extremely enjoyable. The scenery was great too...

Us and the teens :)

We had to take a potty break so right before we got to the trails we stopped at a waterfall area we had hiked in the summer and here there was a bathroom. The stream was so beautiful.

This is how it looked in the summer.

Us and the Rock

This is how the rock looked last time we saw it.

Ready to hike!

So quiet on the trail and the evergreen trees smelled wonderful!

Happy to be outdoors!

Annnnnnd...he wonders why he was soooo tired an hour later. If it looked deep, he jumped into it.

His head was so sweaty it was dripping :/

Me and Rachel

Silly girls

Charles

Off trail, very deep

Snow marker. They say it usually gets this high.

Charles and Zak

Pulling up the REAR haha

We're not sure what this was

We stopped at this lookout point to have lunch. There were benches overlooking a snowy meadow.

In the background you can see the Showdown Ski Area mountain.

Chillin'

And...again... with the falling down and laying in the snow...

We did all 3 loops. Actually we just did the whole outside perimeter.

An example of a warming hut. This one was right at the beginning of the trail but on the cross country ski trails, there are 3 of these huts on various trails.

Amber, seriously posing......

Done! Going home to homemade french onion soup in the crockpot!

1/8 of a mile up the highway is the Ski Area so we went to check it out. Can't wait to come here to ski!

c, m, c & z!

Pottery

2011-10-06T10:10:00.000-06:00

I just wanted to share some of the pottery pieces I made back in August when I took the pottery class. There are only 3 pcs to show but these are after MANY failed attempts lol They didn't offer another class yet, after that one but since I know the basics, I can just go in and use the studio and practice what I did learn (only $2 an hour! to use the place) until I can get into another class. And, there is a perfect little spot for a pottery wheel in our basement so maybe one day I'll get one to put down there and practice on my own..we'll see. I just know I need a ton of practice. Pottery isn't something that comes natural to me but I've always loved it.

Ok, so I was going for a cereal bowl here. I"m not good enough yet to keep working the clay to thin it out so it ended up heavy and clunky. And to glaze it I dipped it in a 5 gallon bucket of cream then emerald green. Eh.. it looks like a beginners project lol

I actually sort of like this coffee mug. To put my name on it I used a 'wax resist' method. You normally use the wax along the bottom of all the pieces to keep the glaze from leaking down onto the bottom of the kiln b/c once it's fired, the glaze turns into glass and sticks to the bottom of the kiln. Then, when the next pcs are fired, that color melts onto those pcs and the next pcs, etc. So the wax keeps it all in place. Well, I decided that I'd brush my name on the cup in the WAX, then glaze in the color I wanted and sure enough, the wax and glaze stayed seperated. The saucer came out nice too. Except that the saucer was an attempt at making a plate LOL For some reason I don't drink out of this cup. Again, real heavy. But its pretty sitting on my counter lol

This little number happened b/c I was trying for a cup and the top got too wide and it was time to ditch it and start over, but I just pinched it in to make a flower shape. :)

This was me messing around at the end of the class, another failed attempt. Charlie calls it the slouchy sock. Lol, thanks, Charlie.

c, m, c & z!

Working in the rurals, Monarch and Neihart, MT

2011-09-07T12:23:00.001-06:00

We just had an amazing experience that I want to share so this might wordy and long.. hope you enjoy reading about it!

About an hour away, just south of us, you can get into some breathtaking mountains called The Little Belt. There are several old, quiet little towns tucked in there that belong in our territory. My friend, Claire, has a friend who had keys to cabin that was in her (the friends') family for many generations. She left the keys with Claire and since she has some territory right there, she invited several of us up to get some of it worked over Labor Day weekend. The kids and I said we'd love to go! Charles had some work he HAD to do in his garage so he was glad to have us go... me too. I don't particularly love garage work :)

It was going to be the three of us, Claire, another sister named Wanda and a sister named Pearl who just moved here two weeks ago from Chicago. The day before we left, I called to make sure I was packing the right stuff and she tells me there is NO RUNNING WATER! She keps saying, "very rustic"...mentioned an out-house and a wood stove for heat at night. Talk about changing up my strategy LOL The kids and I just shrugged and figured it sounded a lot like camping...in a cabin :) It certainly knocked it up a little on the adventure scale ...yay!

We left Sunday after the meeting, got to the cabin, unpacked enough to fit everyone in my truck and headed straight to the territory.

Here is the cabin. It was totally whimsical, multicolored and fun. One side:

Inside, looking at the living room/kitchen and far wall, the kitchen.

You come in through the red door up on the left. At this view, I am standing in the door of the only bedroom. The bedroom was TINY with a double bed on one side, twin on the other.

This stream that ran down the mountain, right beside the cabin, is where we got our water. We filled basins to bath in, cook with, make hot chocolate, all that. The kids splashed and played in it and in the picture, if you click on it to enlarge it, you can even see bottles of water and beer chilling in it LOL

Charlie wastes no time checking it out and what torture it was to have to stay in your meeting clothes and not play in the stream! We hadn't yet gone in service at this point. If you cross that bridge and keep going, you will pick up a trail (you can see it above her head) and it goes up and over that part of the mountain to an old mine. We were too busy to hike, but we'll do it next time!

Everybody knows where this cabin is because of all the painted rocks that surround the cabin. It's right beside the road ..can't miss it. Through the years the family has come and gone and painted a few rocks at the time. This wall of rocks is behind the cabin but in front of the cabin along side the highway are loads more of the painted rocks.

We ran out of time to paint a few rocks of our own!

Unpainted little bench. Claire's friend JUST cut out the dirt and put the rocks here for the bench on her last visit a few weeks ago. The stream babbles RIGHT behind the bench.

Love this tree!

And....the outhouse. I'd never been in a REAL outhouse!! 'Cause...why would I?? lol

Hmmm...looks WAY more comfy than our 'camp' potty ;) It was VERY clean!

LOL She's not sure.

Inside the outhouse were all these funny sayings (and some not-so-appropriate ones..sorry!) stuck over nearly the entire surface of the walls.

The kids LOVED this one on the door:

Ok, so we head out for service after opening up the cabin. Zak and Wanda coming back from catching about 4 doors. Such a nice, shady mountain road. I was hoping they'd get someone at the door so I could sit and enjoy the view and the smell of the fir trees a little longer lol

We took a break near Memorial Falls (the place we hiked our first week here). I blogged about it HERE. The kids love this place and even though they were in their meeting clothes, I just couldn't bring myself to keep them from climbing and playing.

The falls are about a mile from the pass and JUST over the pass is the ski resort we keep hearing about. It's very small, only 3 lifts, I forget how many runs, but we are so excited that it is only and hour away!! This is going to be our winter play ground and I can't wait! The sisters were very patient with me as I drove in, with all my excitement and took all my pictures and asked all my questions. This is such old news to them LOL

One of the runs...just waiting for snow!

We called it a day around 5 pm, went back to the cabin and started the fire for dinner. The cabin has a large, iron, wood burning stove to cook on but for some reason we all just wanted to build a fire.

Our beer is cold by now :) It's tucked way under the water bottles.

Zak just loved this fire, as he does all fires. Should I be worried????

Having a blast!

The view around one side of the cabin. It's so unfair how you can never capture how it really looked....

You enter the cabin from the back and right outside of the cabin door the mountain went straight up. Charlie and Claire are scouting for marshmallow sticks.

Claire and Wanda

Ohhh yeah, this is what we've been waiting for! By the way, when the sun went down, it was in the 30's. Day time temps were 85-90!

I don't know WHAT business we had breaking out Scrabble at this point because we were SO so so tired. But it was so fun! I made the biggest word I'd ever made in scrabble! Forgot what it was...

Right after I took this picture of us playing scrabble, we heard all these scratching sounds and 'roaring' and 'growling' right outside the window. Silly old Claire was trying to scare us.. I joked that we needed our...."Claire Spray" (instead of bear spray ..get it? haha)

Zak slept on his air mattress in the living room. So did Wanda and Claire slept on the futon. I have to give Claire huge credit for getting up all hours of the night to keep the wood on the fire ..it kept us all nice and toasty!

Kicky Kickerson and I shared the double bed.

We were up at six! (voluntarily!?), we got ready, had a warm breakfast and headed out for service. These towns originated as mining towns and here is a broken down old mine right next to the road.

Down one of the roads we came across what appears to be a cemetary? Weird...

This is Belt Creek and it follows this highway all the way. SO beautiful. The kids even said, "Thank you Jehovah!" here lol

Taking a break and here to the left you see the culprit...Claire... going into the woods to find berries to eat lol. She CRACKS me up. She found several types of berries to have us try and told us all about them and how MUCH the bears love them... this was a good hour-long break. I teased Claire that we weren't going to let her out of the car again b/c she just HAS to be in the woods and might take off on us! :)

Zak and Claire founds some Rosehip berries. She told me how to make tea from them when they ripen a little more.

Still looking for cool stuff along the ground... I don't even want to think about the condition these clothes came home in.. but it was worth it!

These are June Berrys.. they are sort of yummy

Claire was searching for some Choke Cherries. And she found them, and they are very appropriately named...as you can see on these faces... Here Zak is saying, "I'm trying to get the taste out of my throat!!" lol.. They are supposed to make great jam and wine.

Choke Cherries:

Next, headed up a mountain road that needed to be worked and OH MY GOODNESS was this the treat of the whole trip. It went up ..up ..up forEVER and was a bit of a scary drive at times, but once it opened up on top, there was the MOST amazing view I'd seen in my life! There must have been 30-40 cabins up here in all directions. Here, Charlie is giving her presentation...I was distracted by the view though :0 We are very near the top of this mountain.

The next 3 pics are of Zak giving his presntation. I could hear him from the car and he did SO well it brought tears to my eyes. He looked up scriptures and explained them to the lady. He was using page 16 in the Aug Watchtower and when he got to the end of the the first paragraph the lady asked him to keep going. He is so excited to have a return visit up there. These people only come in the summer (winters are too harsh up there) so he might see her one or two more times this year then not again till the next. Such different territory than I'm used to!

These pics aren't good..sorry! Here he is showing the magazine..

Explaining the scripture:

Reading it to her..

Pretty soon we were at the very tippy top.. This road got really rough but went even higher than this. We could see power lines and and a roof over the trees way far ahead but we decided to stop here and leave it for next time because it was 1:30 and the kids were really hungry for lunch and tired.....and getting cranky. In this picture we are mostly above the tree line and the road is much steeper then the pic shows. I kept thinking that to live this far away from anything else, you do NOT want to be bothered...or found!

We went back to the cabin, had lunch, packed up and left. On the way back we stopped at a swim sport on Belt Creek. There goes Claire! The kids messed around a little bit, but then they were so extremely tired that we just went home. We had an hour long drive to get back so we saved the swim for next time. Besides, it was COOOOOOOLD!

One last pic...here we are right before we left the cabin for good. In front is Claire, Pearl, me and Wanda. You can see that Pearl still doesn't know what to think of all this. She was definitely out of her element. But she survived! We just can't WAIT to do this again. We might have one more chance before it snows. WHAT an experience! Our total magazine count was 75 (many of those were left at not at homes).

If you are still reading this......... I'm surprised! LOLOL

c, m, c & z!

Busy!

2011-08-15T21:47:00.001-06:00

We've been pretty busy...too busy to stay inside! So I'll catch you up.

Charles and I went on a REAL date! He got tickets to a small dinner on the fairgrouns (Montana State Fair) where Aaron Tippin was doing a meet and greet (haven't listened to him in YEARS but it was neat to meet him), and we stayed to watch the rodeo afterwards. Halfway through we got bored and just walked through all the exhibits and goodies.

On the way there

With a very aged looking Aaron Tippin lol

None of us were ready for this pic ..the guy was all talking to us, next thing we know, he took the picture :/

Pretty typical picture-taking behaviors here

The Rodeo lol

Walking around downtown, we discover.....

Mini Golf on a very hot Saturday afternooon

Here we go! Ironically this was the hardest hole for all of us LOL

MAN we are sweating here! It was in the upper 90's and had been all week.

Charlie - hanging out near the misters...again...

Charles, loosing to me :)

We were invited to a little graduation get together at a ranch. It just looked like a house in the middle of rolling fields. The family has 1400 acres there and bunches other places. Somewhere there is cattle, horses, sheep, crops, etc. I didn't see any of that.. Anyway, I took Key Lime pie.

Yes, I am the dork who took a pic of the pie in the oven :)

We gather in a nearby field for softball. So much fun!

Charlie

Looking back at the 'ranch' from the softball field

More ranchy stuff

My friend, Amy, trying so hard to hit the ball lol

Amanda

The outfield. They made us run FAR!

To my right I see an old building ..I thought it was sort of 'pretty' sitting out there lol

Kids playing 'crack the whip'

Cowboys

the kids were given these glow stick thingys...worth HOURS of enterainment

Somewhere along the way we went to an air show.. in 101 degree temps. WHOSE idea was this??

"Scary" prop plane tricks

Sweltering. And somebody isn't a silent sufferer.....

The Blue Angels are up next to do tricks.

Taking off

Yeah, I know, airshow pictures are kinda lame. I do have some pretty cool little video shots that show some of the cool tricks in the air, but I didn't have the patience to upload those tonight.

So, anyway, we've been staying busy and getting to know people. It's so different how social people are here v/s our last town. Here, they just want you to come along, which is nice. This weekend Charles had been invited by a group of brothers in our Hall to go on a 70 mile 4-wheeling trip, some sisters on the ranch invited me to harvest apples, which means baking pies, making applesauce and apple butter all day, to help them put up their crop. And I'll get to take home a ton of yumminess too, of course. And this Wednesday, we were invited to the lake with some friends for skiing and fishing, so Charles is going to take the day off to do that. Today I was supposed to join my friend, Claire (remember her?..the mountain lady LOL) up in the mountains about an hour and a half away, to stay at a cabin with her and her friend. They were going to take us on a hike up to a look out tower on the peak. But, I couldn't sleep for some weird reason last night (fell asleep at 5 am!) and couldn't get up and meet her. Maybe next week. And we've been in service twice as much as we ever have before. They really try to stay active during the summer because once it cools off, the snow comes and things slow WAY down.

Ok, so that's what we've been up to :) We secretly can't wait for the snow to come but for now we are soaking up summer!

Some great............falls.

2011-07-25T22:47:00.002-06:00

LOL Well obviously this place was named because of it's pretty great water falls. Louis and Clark 'discovered' them on their journey West and somehow because of that discovery the town was situated here. There are 5 falls in Great Falls, 10 miles from the first to the last and from the first fall to the last, the Missouri River drops a total of 612 feet. Three of the five are dammed. That's about the extent of what I know about the history of this place because frankly, as interesting as it might seem, I don't give a care in the world about most history. Well, Western/American history that is. We plan on going to the Louis and Clark center here and doing the tour so maybe eventually I'll learn more. But for now, we can say we've seen all of the falls on the Missouri River that snakes through the town. Some are ..ehhh... and a couple are WOW. I'll just show you the wows.

The first one is Rainbow Falls (the 3rd of the 5). I read that L & C named it Rainbow because as they came up to it, they saw a lot of rainbows in the mist. I thought that was cool, but we were so excited to see rainbows when we went to see it! As hard as I tried, I wasn't able to capture them in the pics. Remember to click on the pictures to see close up.

Rainbow Falls

I like how they left part of the waterfall intact after the dammed section. At this part of the overlook we are getting wet and it's real loud. This is where we saw the most rainbows.

It winds around to the right and on this first curve there are a couple of un-dammed falls. We are looking from an overlook parking lot and can't drive any further to see those falls but there are bike trails that continue on from the parking lot that we plan on riding soon. They are the only way to view these falls..can't wait to see them up close!

You can kind of see the falls there where you see white water. If you click the pic you can really see it. Click a second time and you can't miss it.

The following weekend we drove out to the last falls of the five, Ryan Dam, also called The Great Falls. Rainbow Falls drops 44 feet, The Great Falls falls 87 feet.

We heard that we had to cross a bridge to get on an island with an overlook to the falls. There it is!

And immediately we see ADVENTURE lol

Here we go!

Zak isn't sure.

More scary signs.

As soon as we cross the bridge we are on a lush, green park-like island. VERY pretty.

Five minutes on the trail and here are the falls..

After we look at the falls a while, we go back down and walk the island. The kids decide to roll down the hills a few hundred times lol

The bridge back! This time, Zak TRIES to sway it.. I could have put some money on that one :)

This one was REALLY exciting to see. Hope you liked the pics!

c, m, c & z!

Testing 1,2,3..

2011-07-19T14:39:00.000-06:00

Now that we have a few updates up and running and some subscribers, I am hoping all the kinks worked out and everyone is getting the updates. If you are getting them, comment below. I'll be checking with the Blogger program for those that aren't getting updated. Thanks!

c, m, c & z!

WHAT a DAY

2011-07-18T20:47:00.005-06:00

Hike at Roger's Pass

In our Hall is a sister named Claire. I'm not really sure of her age, maybe 50? She is sweet, personable, and we've taken right to her. Under her sweet exterior, hides TONS of grit. She grew up in Montana, has traveled the world and hiked literally hundreds of trails. She has floated or rafted or canoed hundreds of miles on the Missouri and other rivers. She skiis (water and snow), snowshoes, cross country skiis..you get the point. She is extremely knowledgeable about the mountains, wildlife, flowers...how to know if a bear is near...important stuff. After today I learned that *her* version of an easy hike may not be *our* version LOL Actually she has a book on all the trails in our part of Montana and they labeled this hike as easy, and she took the books word for it. But we're up for anything......so here we go...

We left at 9 am, and drove Northwest for an hour into the mountains. We pulled over at this sign:

And immediately we were going up a steady incline with lots of switchbacks (I'm talking like a mountain woman already haha) and even she was surprised at how immediately challenging it was. Rusty was with us and led the way as usual. And..it was HOT. But there was a nice strong breeze that made it doable.

So here we are.......you can see them ahead, headed to the right

VERY quickly we start seeing some great views

Way far away is the valley we drove through to get here

Until now it's been a one-person-at-the-time type of trail but we hit a clearing and Rusty takes off

Another straight-up stretch... things are aching...already! Ahhh!

So pretty!

Feeling like we're getting near the top

A close up of the road we came in on

And here is how far away it actually looked (click on the pictures once to enlarge, twice to zoom if you need to).

Higher up, snow capped peaks!

Stopping to rest, Rusty peeks over

Beautiful!

Still smiling..the attitudes haven't started yet ....

If there is a rock, HE is throwing it........always lol

I look back to make sure all my bear-snacks are caught up.........and what is this??? SNOW to the left! We plan to go over there on the way back.

Looking back the way we came, the trail near the top... we came up from those trees on right.

By now we are at the peak...and we are feeling it! We are really high up, almost 6000 feet and even Rusty is breathing hard. Lots of burning muscles and the water is almost all gone. We stop to eat lunch.

Behind Claire is an amazing view of the valley to our left. Since we are at the peak, we are seeing huge valleys to our left and right.

After we refuel, we start back.

This is the ridge. When she said we were hiking to a ridge and the trail continues along the ridge, I envisioned walking single file on this thin strip of land with sheer drop offs on the left and right ... I don't know...... that's just what it sounded like! lol but it's fairly wide across. You can see where it slopes down on each side and it's fairly gradual on each side and drops off steep eventually. And there is the snow...the kids are headed for it.

It didn't look that bad from a distance or even in pics, but it was quite steep getting down to this snow. I wanted to do it but the kids would certainly follow so I asked Claire to do it. She does THIS kind of stuff in her sleep LOL so she got down there...closer to it she had to turn around backwards and slide down....... She grabbed us a snow ball and brought it up... I dont have a pic of it b/c we fought for it to throw at each other lol.

The funniest thing ALL day..... Rusty ran down to the snow, his first snow experience. And he started eating it like it was dinner! LOL. He ate so much of it he left huge holes in the snow. It was so funny. We laughed and laughed...I'm still laughing. He is ONE crazy dog! Hope he likes it that much here in about 2 months!

Don't let this picture deceive you ... this was the attitude on the trail. All sorts of things had her griping. You name it, it was on her, in her sock, in her hair, on her skinned knee, in between her fingers. Don't get me wrong, this was a tough hike, even for the adults..well, me..not Claire LOL but enough was enough ..no whiners! Eventually I gave her one new job at home for every complaint I heard. She will be a hard worker this week!

Headed back

Trail Dog

Claire said to bring our swim suits and she'd take us to a mountain lake to swim. Little did I know it was 1.5 hours away from our hike! Her idea of "just down the road" is way different than mine too LOL But we jumped in the car, cooled off in the A/C and took off. We ended up at a BEAUTIFUL mountain lake.. just so so beautiful. Pictures could never capture it. It was chilly, but doable because it was 104 today.... so we swam a while. It invigorating and refreshing and the perfect end to a hot and dusty day.

As we left the lake, we saw this mule deer trotting along, not bothered at all by us.

He stopped alongside the road and at first glance, I thought he was just chillin'. Can anyone guess what he's REALLY doing??????

Beautiful view behind him, huh?

And from here, we drove 1.5 hours back to Great Falls just in time for dinner. I'm so wiped out...but it was worth it!

If you likey, please comment!

c, m, c & z!

Oops, forgot

2011-07-14T15:20:00.025-06:00

I forgot to add a couple of pictures I took at the end of our hike day. My camera battery died so these came from my phone.

This is a valley that was on our way up the mountain. The stream we hiked alongside fed into this stream. It's always hard to take these types of pictures because they aren't nearly as great the real beauty. But it's close! :) Click on the pic. It's my favorite so far.

After we hiked, we stopped in a little mountain town for lunch, and I mean LITTLE. lol. There was a little brewery restaurant where we ate yummy food and played pool with the kids. It was a GREAT day :)

The girls almost won lol

Cool penny countertop

And at the next meeting, I asked to check out a territory. They have plenty of rural territory that includes all these little mountain towns. So I got myself one that was about an hour away, right where we were on our hike! I was so thrilled.. I can't wait to see what the people are like out there.

*Just a note, if you've missed any of our other posts, check out the numbered menu on the top right.*

c, m, c & z!

And now on to the fun! Our First Hike in the Mountains of Montana.

2011-07-12T21:45:00.002-06:00

Memorial Falls

*Click on the pictures to enlarge them. Click on them again to zoom*

Beautiful Drive up

The stream followed us on the highway

Once we got to the trail head, we saw piles and piles of these 'glittering' rocks that just sparkled in the sun.

I was pretty disappointed that you can't see the 'glitter' in the pic.

The stream at the beginning of the hike

Let's follow Daddy

Rusty jumps right into the water..surprised?

Stream on left, massive glittery rock on right

Taking a break

This is Memorials Falls. A smaller waterfall, but still very pretty!

According to the Forestry map, the trail ends here. But since it's only 1/3 a mile in, people have created trails past this waterfall that goes deeper into the mountains. We are barely getting started so we find the trail that goes on.

To go deeper you have to go above the waterfall. To do this, you have to climb around it. Before I know it, Charlie is climbing to the right.

Can you see her way up there?

Mommy and Zak climbing

I like the trees and sun here.

Here comes Charles..see the falls?

At the top looking down.. dizzy!

And on we go. See the guy right above Charles' head? He was standing on the very EDGE of the waterfall getting a pic. Crazy people!

In the water at EVERY chance. How he is just standing here in this cold water..I'll never know. It is SO cold that our feet went numb in less than a minute.

One of many times the trail crossed the stream.

Stopping to play

He's a mountain goat. Any chance he had to scurry up rock formation, he took.

It took several tries to get this shot without Rusty in the way, and by that time, we couldnt feel our feet!

Rusty had the best time.

We went off the trail just a little bit to reach this really high rock formation.

Up we go!

Looking down.

So happy to be in the clean, cool air in the mountains!

The 5 of us ;)

Throwing rocks...over and over

What is this? A rare, sweet moment.

Charlie decided to go slightly off the trail and follow us on the other side of the stream.

The lone flower on the trail.

She runs into a dead end and has to find a way to cross the stream to get back to us.

Zak wants me to get a pic of him hanging out on this log, but he soooo doesn't want to put his feet in lol!

I found muh-self a hiking stick. I'm going to put a notch in it everytime I use it to hike trails while we're here.

Back down at the beginning :)

A cool looking formation at the trailhead.

A fun surprise, Rusty meets another Springer Spaniel!

c, m, c & z!

Our House on 7th

2011-07-11T08:22:00.002-06:00

The house we moved into has a great story behind it...our getting it that is. I know that Jehovah blessed us with it and I wasn't even nervous to 'speak' for it even if I hadn't seen it myself. We'd seen about 5 pictures of it and I had several conversations with the landlord to find out that it would probably meet out needs. Before we got to Great Falls we knew that if we could find a house before we got here, it would take off a LOT of pressure/stress to be able to drive right to the house instead of living out on base until we found something, packing, unpacking... etc etc ETC. For months my house hunt was futile. Since we weren't here, houses were slipping through our fingers. Even, the tiny little ones on the wrong side of town lol. In the end, it all worked out perfectly. We drove right to it in the morning of June 20 and had the truck unloaded by the afternoon. We all LOVED it as soon as we saw it. It's not that it's a super swanky house or anything. It's very nice, has some REALLY great features (16 ft ceilings on main floor, vaulted ceilings upstairs, etc), but some challenges as well (ea floor is on the small side but do able since there's 3 levels). But overall we are all very comfortable here, in an awesome congregation, a super good school district, near shopping, close to Charles work and even though we are in a typical neighborhood, we feel sort of private the way the house is situated. And daily I have the special feeling of being blessed by Jehovah because he chose this house for us. If I haven't told you the story, let me know and one day I will..it's a good one :)

I took a lot of pictures today because several of you guys keep asking for lots of pics...some of the rooms need a little more unpacking and I still haven't hung up all my decorations, otherwise we are mostly settled!

The front

Deck to the right against the house, through the fence. Back yard is to the right of the house, followed by a detached garage on the far far right... On a corner lot.

Back yard..or side yard lol

The deck attached to the house

Looking off deck into back yard toward garage.

Looking toward house from garage.

Inside of garage. Not the best pic. The funny thing is that Charles wanted at least a 2 car garage so that parking in the winter/snow wasn't a problem but really needs more space for his tools plus tbird. This car will hold FIVE cars! So needless to say, his needs were MORE than met here! lol Three cars are in here in the pic.

Ok, let's go in! :)

When you walk in, you see the stairs.

Left of stairs..living room.

Love the large windows. View to the street

This view is from the other window in the living room. Lots of birds sing out here. I'm going to get a bird bath and put it here with a couple of my hummingbird feeders and sit and watch them. They perch REALLY close to the window.

Sitting on couch, my view to the kitchen

Other side of living room you see Charlie's room

Charlie's room...TINY! One of the challenges for sure.

We have since hung pretty curtains and sweet owl themed decorations <3

Door next to Charlie's room is a small study

YIKES....last room to unpack

Kitchen.. pretty wood cabinets. Pretty plain otherwise. Need to add my special touch to it eventually lol The dining space is also tiny and right by the front door..another challenge. I also really hate the small fridge. But b/c of the other perks I think I can live with it.

Walk through the kitchen and to the left and there's the laundry room/pantry

Stairs to second floor.. one of 4 skylights :)

Once on the landing you walk right into the master bath with my fav feature...2 person jetted tub! The bathroom itself is really big and also has a sky light that opens. Here I wasn't fully unpacked...messy.

Left on the landing, you go into Zak's room. It's HUGE. Pictured here is about 1/3 of it. Has a sky light.

This part of his room is his favorite. He makes forts in this area lol

Right on the landing is the master bedroom. At the time I took this pic I was in the middle of unpacking but it's not this messy now. This room also has a large sky light. I need to add curtains and some of my wall hangings/pics.

Left side of room...what do I see..a walk in closet? Oh yeah baby!

LOVE THIS!

Ok, back on on main floor, next to kitchen, basement stairs

Still working on this room.

One side has the futon and movie/game area, far side, a guest bedroom area.

Keep to the left and there's another room

This will be my pottery room :)

Headed back toward stairs...I'm going to put a craft table and built in organization here for scrap booking

Going back to main floor...took this to show you the arches. Kitchen straight ahead.

Main floor bathroom.. beach themed..kids use it.

The main floor of this house was built in 1900. You can still see some of the original beams in some parts of the house. At some point, the owners at the time decided to dig underneath for the basement. Then, in the 80's, the current owner added the top floor. Cool, huh?

One challenge is the yard..not sure what to do with it.

The yard was professionally landscaped at one time but the previous tenants let it go, so I'm trying to decide what to do with it. I pretty much have free reign.

The front..left part of the yard (river rocks winding around). WHY must rocks still haunt me? LOL

I can stick all sorts of flowers/plant/trees down, but only certain types will survive these winters.

Any ideas?

And tonight...in a warm summer breeze, we had burgers on the deck :)

C, M, C and Z!

Our Trip up

2011-07-09T22:33:00.004-06:00

So! You're checkng in...GREAT! Let me catch you up. My thoughts..

Well... we wanted OUT of Cali and I was so happy to find out Charles got orders to Great Falls (Charles got excited later). I would have rather gone to Cheyenne (I love you guys!!) but Montana is a sweet second.

We left Lompoc, June 17 at 3pm (3 hours late) and it was a crazy mess. Charles was driving a U-Haul, pulling his trailer with his Tbird on the back. I was driving the Pathfinder, without the extra trailer. A BIG problem b/c that extra trailer had tons of our stuff on it (on that trailer, my WASHER AND DRYER, ..my fire pit, lawnmower, vaccum cleaner..yeah, important stuff). It was left behind b/c it wasn't towing right, so Charles decided he'd DRIVE BACK (from Montana..yeah) to get it. So anyway, we left and didn't even get out of Cali that night. Going through L.A. was just the WORST thing ever. We inched our way through traffic there for THREE HOURS! If Charles changed lanes, I became glued to his bumper..and if somebody didn't like it, I made enemies. I got flipped off, cussed at..you name it. I was just DYING to get out of this part of the country. Never liked it anyway.

We spent the night in Barstow (CA) and left the next morning, went through Las Vegas and the fun part of the trip began. Past Vegas I-15 took us through Arizona, for only, like half an hour. As we have crossed the US a few times, it always amazes me how the terrain changes, almost (not always) by state. California and Nevada had a scruffy, desert type of terrain. Arizona and the Southern few miles of Utah had a red, rocky, orange, cliffy (grand canyon-ish?) appearance. Once we were well into Utah it got VERY green, hilly......beautiful. Amazing. Just...gorgeous. We stopped the next night in an extremely small ..town..or really just a spot, speck, on the map called Scipio, UT. It was just a small ..gas station and one small motel off an exit. It was super clean, and mountains, tall grass and super cool, clean smelling air all around. There was a heated pool, hot tub and sauana..yeah! We swam and soaked and got a GREAT nights sleep.

The next morning, it was drizzly and I didnt get a pic :( I REALLY loved this small, little, comfy/soothing place and am pretty disappointed that we left so early that I didnt' even think of getting pictures. Soon we went through Salt Lake City and on to Idaho. Our sites were set on Helena, Montana so we had to REALLY make up for lost time (in L.A.). Charlie was with Charles in the Uhaul, and I had Zak and Rusty. Charles and I said we'd only stop if we HAD to. We stopped every 3 or so hours. Rusty was....just............perfect. All 3 day of travel, I barely knew he was back there. This day, we stopped, he pee'd, ate, slept a TON. We covered 700 miles and yes, we made it to Helena!

As we drove through Idaho, we began to see mountains. Soon, they loomed..really really LOOMED, closer..and finally.. were in the heart of the Rocky Mountains. We started seeing snow breaks. Then, I told Charles that we were really close to the Idaho/Montana border and I wanted to stop and get a pic of the Montana State Sign. He told me to go ahead of him and stop when I saw it. Zak and I could barely tear ourselves away from the BEAUTIFUL, snow capped mountains on all sides of us, but eventually we did see the Montana State Sigh <3. It was on a curve with a real steep grade, but we 'chanced' it.

It's feeling real!

That night we made it to Helena.... our destination if we made up for lost time! Yeah! Another swim, warm soak..great nights sleep.. next day..on to Great Falls!

We woke up, ate, headed out and on the the MOST beautiful scenery..ever. The Rockies are on both sides of Helena, steep, snow capped and gorgeous. On the way out of Helena, we followed a beautiful river all the way down, dropped out of the mountains and finally.............after 1400+ miles and 3 days later, were on the flat road that took us down to Great Falls. Zak and Charles saw a bald eagles' nest, Charlie and I counted down the miles. And soon, we were in the city limits of our new town. We drove straight to our new house......... which we'd not seen yet (only in pictures).. and loved it at first sight :) Pictures of the house, coming up :)

Since today's post was so long, I'll continue later..but for now, enjoy the pics of our trip up!

Here we go! (click on pic to enlarge) OOOPS, I need to edit this tomorrow so you can see bigger images.

Headed out of Cali..

LONG long road from L.A. to Las Vegas:

Thirsty dog in Arizona lol

My buddy, day 2

In Idaho, she gets crazy lol

We switch out... with Daddy

Northern Utah

Tired of mountains yet? lol How about a random Budweiser building in the middle of a field in Idaho..50 to 100 a miles away from anything lol

Or.............buffalo??? (Northern Idaho, near the Montana border)

Driving through the Rockies, there is still snow!

We stop for gas in an itsy bitsy mountain town called Lima. Old Man Rivers catches Charles just in time to gab about his 56 Tbird lol LOOK at that snow, RIGHT behind them..and it's June!

Moving on down the road,..a mountain lake. At this point, I begin to feel like Forrest Gump, when he relflected on all the things he saw when he was 'runninnnnngggg' all over the U.S. This lake was just beautiful. I saw the reflection of the mountains in it, but couldn't get that shot as we drove by.

A few hours later, descending.......Great Falls, an hour ahead!

More later!

charles, melissa, charlie and zak!