Paradise In Our Backyard

Tuesday afternoon late we were headed up the Boulder with the truck camper and ATV’s—to the paradise which is our backyard.  It was cloudy and a touch cool as you can see from Michael’s attire:

But we built a big fire and made the best of it—when it began to rain we headed inside—to our cozy little truck camper.  It rained off and on all through the night while we weren’t sleeping on the concrete mattress.  We even put a two inch memory foam mattress pad on top of the concrete mattress and it didn’t help! New mattress in the near future!

Wednesday we had a very leisurely morning, Michael made us a delicious breakfast on the campfire

before we headed out on the ATV’s—the first night’s campsite we chose as it was getting late in the evening sat high above the river and we thought we might like to be right on the water—so off we went.  Found one—right on the river—what we didn’t realize was just how incredibly noisy that high water river would be!  As we were unloading the ATV’s at the new site, Michael states, “geez it sure is noisy here.”  Beautiful, spectacular—but just a touch noisy!!  Here’s a short video of the river at the first campsite—turn up your speakers and multiple that noise by two—yep, it was very loud!

After a light lunch and getting our camp set up—

we headed out on the ATV’s again riding a total of 35-40 miles reaching the old mining ghost town of Independence.  We were surprised to be able to get that far thinking the snow would have stopped us—we saw snow and there was water running everywhere.

Independence—do you see a pattern in my cowboy’s diet—that Cheetos bag was never far from his hand—camping food he calls Cheetos!

a creative fence!Forget-me-nots were everywhere.

Back home after the long ATV ride we cooked steaks and potatoes over another big fire.  Sleep eluded us at times again due to the concrete mattress and the cowboy saying at 2am, “guess I will get up and see if the water is rising.”  WHAT???—that thought had NOT occurred to me!!  Now I was having visions of floating down the river in our little truck camper—not a thought conducive to sleep, let me tell you!!

Yep, I’m thinking we do have paradise in our backyard.  We saw a moose on the way up Tuesday evening and today I saw twin moose calves on our way back down the Boulder.  It was a great time camping with the cowboy and Ms. Emmi!

Strawberries And A Guys Day Out

Yesterday morning Lonn called asking if we wanted to join them for a dirt bike/ATV ride up the East Boulder to Moccasin Lake—Lonn’s two son-in-laws were visiting while the daughters had the baby shower.  I just wanted to stay home—the trip to Great Falls was a long one to do in one day and I was tired—off Michael went with the gang.  They had a great time, a few wrecks but no injuries. 

I stayed home but was busy—laundry, grass mowing, weed whacking—all those wonderful things which need doing this time of year.  I even gave the stinky Ms. Emmi a bath. 

Today was the day I guess—those dang strawberry plants were not going to weed themselves.  I did half the patch before lunch then the rest after lunch.  We’ve got lots and lots of little strawberries forming.  It is most definitely spring in Montana—the birds are eating me out of house and home!

This afternoon late we loaded the truck camper and are planning a trip up the Boulder—the cowboy is creating some sort of platform to make our steps safer plus it will hopefully carry the barbecue grill on our Alaska trip.  Friends who live up the Boulder have posted some great photos on Facebook of wildlife—bears, mountain lion, elk—maybe we will get to see some.

And speaking of wildlife—our neighbor Geoff has a game camera and one recent morning the camera captured a large mountain lion—Geoff and Nancy only live a mile up the road from us, I hope that kitty doesn’t come calling!! 

Nothing much going on around here, just routine life.  We did talk to Rollie this afternoon—today is his birthday plus he is getting to hold for the first time that new grandson which son Thomas and his wife Ashley just had.  Happy Birthday Rollie!

Joy Tinged With Sadness

LoraLee’s presence was felt so much today—she would have loved being the Grandma-to-be at this baby shower and would have been excitedly awaiting the arrival of her first grandchild—but sadly, it was not be be.  LoraLee we did indeed miss you so much today. 

This afternoon, Katie along with Laci’s friends in Great Falls showered the mom-to-be, Laci, with gift upon gift for little Lora Elizabeth who we expect to arrive in late July.  We had a diaper “cake”:good for the diet I might add!

We were asked to guess how many M&M’s were in the big baby bottle—Laci’s aunt Kay came the closest to guessing the exact number and went home with the prize—the M&M’s!The weather was Montana perfect for sitting in the sun while Laci opened all the generous gifts.  Guests were asked to use a child’s book as their gift card and Laci received so many wonderful children’s books.

She had a helper:

Lora Elizabeth will have a new outfit for every day of her first months plus John and Laci will not have to do laundry!

Stylish jeans!

Ruffles and pink ones at that!

As Laci would open packages shaped like this one she would say, “oh good, mute buttons.”  I wondered what in the world she was receiving in these packages, why would she be getting “mute buttons????”  Mute buttons are what most people call “pacifiers!”  Only our granddaughter Laci!

I am blessed that these two beautiful young women call me “Grandma!”

And then there was this Grandma’s gift to Lora Elizabeth.  I’ve used this quilt pattern for a friend but with circus animals—Laci wanted farm animals and my handy husband drew the horse and helped me adapt some coloring book animals for the baby lambs and calves. 

The colors are lime green and purple—my photos make the quilt look blue. 

A special day for Laci and our family—we are eagerly anticipating the arrival of Lora Elizabeth!!

Up Close And Personal With The Mountains

Friends Ken and Lesley invited us up to their place this morning for an ATV ride and breakfast at their cabin on the mountain.  While chilly at 8am, the morning was alive—rivers were roaring, the smell of chokecherry blossoms was sweet and the sun was shining.  They live a few miles up the road from us and you are most definitely up close and personal with the mountains.

While there is an old fashioned propane cook stove, Ken prefers to cook breakfast on the wood burning stove.  Eggs with peppers, mushrooms and homegrown chives, sourdough pancakes and maple syrup—eaten outside at the picnic table in the sunshine—life is dang good I would say!!!

The grass is tall, lush and green, the balsam root is blooming everywhere as are other wildflowers such as forget-me-nots. 

After breakfast and visiting I asked to see the inside of their truck camper—I wanted to see if all truck camper bathrooms are built using five year old children as the size model—and yep, Larry & Geri, their bathroom was tiny too! 

Back home I tackled some chores and fixed us a mid-afternoon lunch/dinner before we headed into town for a couple errands.  The cowboy is now examining the backs of his eyelids and I’m writing this blog—it’s gonna be an early night for me—traveling is exhausting!

Airline Karma

I’m home and glad to be here with the cowboy and Ms. Emmi!  It was a delightful trip visiting my family and I was sad to leave today—my entire immediate family lives within two miles of each other, I am the only one who lives far way and it’s hard to leave them after a visit.  Mom took me to Little Rock today, we had lunch then headed to the airport. 

For some reason the airline gods smiled down upon me this trip.  When checking in online with United my boarding passes going to Arkansas and coming home today were marked with a “TSA Pre-checked”.  Noticing this I wondered what it meant and was pleasantly surprised to find out it means I got to leave my shoes on, did not have to display my liquids in their little baggie and if I had had a laptop with me, I did not have to remove it from my suitcase!!  In Little Rock I also did not have to wait in the regular line—there was a special line for “pre-checks.” 

Arriving in Denver I was not looking forward to my almost 3 hour layover again.  Glancing at the departure boards I noticed there was an earlier flight to Billings but the board stated, “closed.”  Oh, well I thought and kept walking toward my next gate—not in much of a hurry as I did have three hours to wait.  At the next departure board I just happened to glance up and see that the earlier flight which was to have departed for Billings at 2:45pm now showed “delayed until 3:15pm.”  Quickly looking at my watch I saw it was 3:05pm—I kicked it in high gear and headed for gate #69.  They were boarding the Billings flight, I walked up to the desk and asked if it would be possible for me to get a seat on that flight.  As I had not checked luggage I was able to walk right on!!!!  Talk about good airline karma!! 

A very good travel day—it was so pleasant to walk out of the Billings airport into non-humid, cool air!  It’s summer time in Arkansas—rainy, hot and humid.  I retrieved my car from long term parking and in less than two hours an exuberant Emmi was telling me how much she missed me!!  The cowboy was also very glad to see me!

We Sure Eat Well

There isn't much which says southern more than fried chicken!!  My sister Ann and her minister husband Danny have been on vacation this week and we spent the morning preparing a feast for the rest of our family. Fried chicken, mashed potatoes, fresh green beans, fried squash (are you noticing a "fried" trend??), homemade rolls, salad, and a strawberry rolled cake. Oh, my!! Did we ever feast. 

Yesterday all the "girls" headed out for a shopping expedition in Little Rock. We had a delightful day shopping and doing lunch.  What did folks do before cellphones--how do five ladies and two youngsters find each other in the mall without the help of cellphones and texting????

Today after lunch we spent the afternoon visiting and trying to stay awake after our great meal. It has rained all week and I managed to catch a bug breathing that airplane air but it's still good to be home!! 

Family Time

In the past I've flown a lot, for twelve years I flew two or three times per month, racking up all those airline and hotel points.  Flying these days is an exercise in pure torture!  Yesterday it was vomiting children--I felt so sorry for the mom but not for the obnoxious guys in first class who had the misfortune to catch the brunt of the child's lunch.  Then it was an over three hour layover in the Denver airport with two gate changes and icky airport food.  It was good to see my Mom and sister Ann waiting for me in baggage claim.

Today was spent playing with the great nieces and visiting with family.  It was rainy and cloudy most of the day making the little girls swim sessions a touch nippy!!

Tomorrow I am off to spend the day with my sister in law Vicky.