Happy Trails to You

I went to the funeral of my friend’s brother today.  He was 58, developmentally handicapped, a kind, hard working man.  He made the decision in life to be a Democrat… in Idaho.  He worked on every campaign.  Frank Church and Cecil Andrus knew him by name.  He also decided to be a Bronco, way before there was a reason to cheer.  He had season tickets to football and basketball games for almost 40 years.  He never missed a game.  He missed his sister’s wedding, but not the game.

It was a beautiful service.  His brother gave a thoughtful eulogy, very wise and witty.  The displayed cowboy boots and the Bronco balloons just fit.  So did the music, Morning Has Broken (my favorite Cat Stevens song), Let There Be Peace On Earth, and Happy Trails to You.  The music was happy, sweet, and perfect.

Happy Birthday to Me

I’ve had several birthdays on the first day of school, and those are my favorites, because it’s always a fun and exciting day – one of the best days of the year. My second favorite birthdays land on Sunday.  I never want a lot of attention or a big gathering, or a celebration.  I want a day when where I can do anything I want, and that’s usually not much.  I want a good meal, some cake, simple presents, and time to relax.  The day of rest is good for relaxing.

This year was great because church isn’t until 12:30.  I slept in, relaxed, read the paper, took time getting ready.  I taught the lesson in Relief Society and I was nervous.  It’s been many years since I’ve been in RS.  Everything went well and everyone was nice.  I heard an elderly sister say to her neighbor, “she’s so cute”.  That made me feel a lot younger than 54.

We came home from church and had a pasta dinner.  What can be better than pasta.  After dinner I made cupcakes for my school class, with caramel frosting.  Yum.

To top off the day there were visits from my parents and a couple good friends.  It was the best.  I like being 54.

Kuna Adventure

Entrance to the Kuna Cave, formed by a big lava tube.

It’s just a small town south of Boise.  You wouldn’t think there was much to see except farmland.  But my brother and sister-in-law moved out there with friends, who have explored the country for decades.  They invited us out for a picnic and grand tour.  It was fun seeing the sites with enthusiastic guides.  I hadn’t been four-wheeling since high school.  We went in two rigs – women in one, guys in the other.  It really is beautiful country – plateaus, the Snake River, the Owyhees.

We had to four-wheel up to Initial Point.  This is the point where they surveyed the whole valley.  You can see everything from on top of this hill.  There are medallions embedded in the rock that mark true north.  You can see all the way up Meridian Road, which cuts up the middle of the valley.

Last time Zella, our guide, came up here, she brought a bunch of cub scouts and a couple moms along.  She killed a rattle snake with a rock.  Pretty entertaining.  It was big too.

Overlooking the Snake River at the Birds of Prey Center.

Beautiful.  The Snake River just below Swan Falls power plant.  I wish I had a picture of the dam and the plant.  It brought back a lot of memories of the power plants where my Grandpa Cowley worked most of his life.  His family lived in the houses provided and we visited him "at the office" and saw all the big loud machinery.

Bill spotted an owl in the tree by our picnic spot.  We were at the Swan Fall dam.  He spent quite a bit of time getting pictures.

I did not spend much time, but I also didn't get a very good picture.  I think owls are cool.  It's pretty special to see one.

Terr, Blair, and Jo picnicing

First Day of School…Again

We started school on a Wednesday this year.  I’ve been going back to school every year since 1963.  The only time I didn’t have a first day of school was in 1992 when I substituted here in Boise, but didn’t have my own classroom.  They blur together, but it’s always an exciting day.  High hopes!

  Here’s my empty classroom.  It’s looks better when the kids arrive, in their new clothes, with new school supplies, and all their excitement. 

This year I have a BSU intern for the whole first semester.  She’s darling and will be a big help.  I have 19 boys and 10 girls in my class.  It might be a little more active.  Good thing there will be two teachers.  We hit the ground running.  We’ll be changing classes for language, writing, social studies, and math within days.  I have 90 names to learn and 90 kids to get to know.  It’s always fun.  Everyone is on their best behavior in the beginning.

Frisbee Fame

The Idaho Statesman had an article on Ultimate Frisbee that featured Ty.  It was a big article, 1/2 page on the front page of the sports, and a full page on the inside.  I was soooo proud.  It gave a good feel for the “spirit of the game”, the league in Boise, and told the story of the intense ending to a game in Minnesota, where Ty and his friend Josh saved the day.  There was a bad picture of Ty.  This one is better.

Ty (center red) playing on the Swordfish Team in Minnesota.

TyMez after Timberline won the state championship 2010.

Blessing of Cleanliness

I am thankful to live in a time and place where clean water is readily available and modern conveniences make it easy to live clean.  I love bathing every day, washing my hair, washing my hands (a lot), and brushing my teeth.  It’s refreshing.  It’s a blessing.  I love crawling into bed with clean sheets, clothes that are ironed crisp, scrubbed bathrooms, and the shine on newly mopped floors.  I like the tracks left from vacuuming, shampooed carpets, and washed windows.  I like to sweep the front porch and spray off the patio.  Being clean and being surrounded by clean, feels so good. 

I didn’t do much spring cleaning, but our houseguests moved out on Friday, so we moved back into our own bed this weekend.  I enlisted the help of Terr and we did two days of summer cleansing before we settled in.  It was good to move things, go through things, eliminate clutter, and organize.  I’m thankful for my home and all my things.  I appreciate everything more when it’s dusted, wiped, scrubbed, and polished.  We’ve worked hard and slept well the last few nights. 

Brand New Pair of Roller Skates

My sister-in-law got a pair of 1961 Sears and Roebuck roller skates, with a key, for her birthday. 

Hers were in better shape.  They had the original leather straps that went around your ankle.  For any youngsters that are reading this, you used the key to loosen and tighten the bolts underneath, so that you could adjust the size to fit your shoes. We put the key on a piece of yarn and wore it around our neck. 

I don’t want a pair of vintage skates for my birthday, but I saw her skates displayed on a trunk in the living room, and was immediately transported to summer days in the sixties on Cherry Drive.  I was a pretty good skater.  It wasn’t an easy feat.  There weren’t sidewalks, just rough blacktop, and the four metal wheels were a far cry from the rubber wheels on the roller blades that would be the rage 25 years later.  I’m sure I scraped knees, but seeing the old skates this week, made me smile – all happy memories of neighborhood friends and summer days on the best street ever.

Ready or Not

Today was my first day back on the job.  I arrived on time and stayed until about five thirty, but didn’t accomplish much.  I wandered around the school aimlessly.  I bounced from one task to another and completed nothing.  My mind was mushy.  I’m sure the room will be ready when students come for a sneak peak on Tuesday afternoon.  I’m sure I’ll be ready when the real thing starts on Wednesday morning.  I’ve never not been ready.  I just need to do something about my mushy mind.

New Obsession

Stacey told me at the beginning of the summer that I needed to get on Pinterest.  You can save and organize all of the ideas that you come across on the internet in one place – recipes, crochet patterns, crafts, thoughts, or anything that you love.  You don’t have to download to the desktop or bookmark or put in your favorites anymore.  You set up little bulletin boards for whatever categories you want and then start pinning things on your boards.  Now when you click on one of your ideas, you’re automatically linked back to the source (the tutorial, the blog, whatever).  You can also look at all of the amazing things that other people are putting on their boards and repin them on yours. 

The only way to get set up on Pinterest is to go through Facebook or Twitter.  This presented a problem for me.  I’m not doing FB.  Finally I opened a Twitter account and put nothing on it.  I can probably ditch it now that I’ve set up my Pinterest site.  It’s already apparent that this new obsession will be a time sucker, but very useful and fun.  Check it out.  I can send you an invite if you want.

Mom's Gift

It's my mom's birthday.  Every year my sister and I check out Arts in the Park for the perfect gift.  We usually go in on something together.  This year I went with Mom to Arts in the Park, and the only booth that she was tempted by was an artist, Julie Peterson, who painted pretty little flowers and birds.  I went back to the booth later that day and bought Mom a couple little prints.  One for summer, and one for winter. 

I returned to Arts in the Park the next morning, early, so I could get a good parking place.  A lot of the booths hadn't even opened yet.  I had just ordered a scone for breakfast and I looked across the way and saw my sister and her husband.  They had just arrived too, but Nan had already bought something for Mom's birthday - a little print of birds and flowers from Julie Peterson!

It was freaky!  I guess Nan just knows Mom.  I'm sure she'll love her birthday gifts.  I just need to order another frame so that the collection is cohesive.
 

Yo Yo

I’m battling my weight this summer and so far the pounds are winning.  Here’s the problem:

• I’m cooking dinner every night.
• I’m trying new recipes.
• We have left-overs for lunch.  That makes 2 big meals a day.
• The cookies, whoopi pies, buttermilk muffins, buttermilk syrup, and caramel frosting have been big hits.
• We had a 3 day family reunion with 5 big meals.
• We went to Education Week and Big Sky.
• We went camping and ate well all weekend.

But I’m really tired of seeing the same pounds creep back on, so I’m doing Weight Watchers (unofficially) with a friend.  The accountability and support help a lot.  She’s doing great!  She’s also writing down everything she eats, and trying harder.  I’ve been up 3 times and down once.  Hopefully I’ll get fully engaged mentally with this process because:

• Our summer guests are moving out and I won’t be cooking so much.
• School is starting and I won’t have time to try new recipes.
• A different routine and schedule has to be better than the one I’ve been on this summer.
• I won’t be traveling or celebrating as much.

I’m putting it down in writing here to help get me on track.  I’m sure all three readers of my blog will be waiting anxiously for updates.  I’ll keep you posted.

This is What Summer’s About

I’ve been wrapped up with family, cooking, and a little sewing this summer.  It’s been great, but we arrive at the middle of August, I realize I’ve been to lunch once with friends and once with my mom and sister.  That’s just not right!  Now in the four days before I report back to school I have to squeeze in what I’ve been missing. 

Monday I went to lunch at Willow Creek with old teacher friends.  We spent 2 1/2 hours on the patio.  Also on the patio were teacher groups from Liberty and Valley View, and a couple colleagues from the district office.  (Everyone must be thinking the same thing I am.)  I came home long enough to get something ready for the family dinner, then left for the movies.

It was perfect.  I love movies in the late afternoon.  I love the Flicks.  I love Woody Allen.  Mary and I went to Midnight in Paris.  I loved the movie - the shots of Paris, the clothes, the humor, the music, and Earnest Hemingway. 

This is what a school teacher’s summer day should be like.

First Annual Family Camp

It started out as an experiment to see if we could do it, if anyone wanted to do it, and if anyone had fun.  As a whole, we weren’t very experienced.  Terry has done several backpacking trips with the boys in the wilderness, but that’s different than camping with girls and kids.  I have camped a few times with my dad, who did everything, and I’ve been to Girls Camp many times.  Again, that’s different.  We have a picture of Bry, Brent, and Stace, when they were grade school age, camping.  That was the only time they went as a family.  Mike was a boy scout, but that’s not the same.  Thank goodness Amee joined the family.  She was the only one with real experience. 
Amee suggested a beautiful spot, Pine Flats, up by Lowman.  It’s a small, shady campground above the river.  There’s an easy trail, about 1/2 a mile, to some hot springs.  The campground also had 2 hand pumps for good well water and 2 outhouses that didn’t smell bad at all.  That’s a good thing because Hadley needed to make many trips a day to the potty.
We did it up right; three tents and three coolers, chats around the camp fire, tin foil dinners, s’mores, dutch oven dinners and cobbler, hot chocolate in the mornings, hikes, and the hot springs.  We came back with funny stories about our camp neighbors, ideas for next time, and good memories.  The only thing we need to improve is better shoes for the McClure kids.

 
 Mike in his GQ camping clothes, Our fire crew, Kids help with tents, and Bry with 4 tinfoil dinners

Hudson’s first roasted marshmallow was a burn-up dud.

Bry lost his wedding ring down by the pump.  It was found, and they’re still honeymooning.

Omelets in a bag, Sticks were big, Water boys, Hadley’s hangout

Entertaining the troops, Cars in the dirt, Amee’s magic bag that held everything for kids, Group crossword puzzles

Hiking to the hot springs, Haddie soaking it up, Haddie drinking it up, Bry’s fam reaches one of the upper pools

Dutch oven cooking

Tent clean-up

Last one out - He didn't want to leave.

Getting There is the Hard Part

We decided to experiment with a family camping trip.  I use to laugh at the hunters in my family that take weeks running around getting ready for their trip.  Now I understand.  Finding a spot, organizing the food, checking the tents, borrowing the gear, packing, doing food prep before, going over lists, and trying to remember everything….takes a lot of time and effort. 

Around the Town of Nampa

I’ve lived in Boise for 19 years, but I can’t find my way around Nampa.  I have family that lives there, but I only visit once or twice a year usually.  (We really are a close and loving family.)  Anyway, I ventured over to Nampa and had quite a drive about. 

First stop was at All That Jazz, a little house on the corner of 16th and Roosevelt, where Kierra is now a professional hair stylist!  She gave me a back-to-school haircut, so I won’t have to return shaggy.  We talked all about Cole and Santanna’s wedding and romance.  Santanna is Kierra’s sister, Cole is my nephew, and Kierra’s married to Cole’s brother.  Confusing?  Weird?  I think it’s going to be fun for all.

My second stop was at Idaho Bag Lady where they sell Switch-Flops.  I bought a silver pair (40% off), and two straps that were on sale.  I’d been to the shop before, but this time I had a hard time finding Nampa-Caldwell Boulevard.  It’s a big street.  I never saw the sign, but I did drive fairly directly to the shop.

I met my sister for lunch close to the school where she works.  I overshot the parking lot of Chapalas and had to turn around, but I think I could have driven right to her school.  I also found the hospital.  I’m feeling more confident about navigating Nampa.  It would still do me well to look at a map.  And it will be best if I visit in the daylight.

I Need to Pay Attention

When I started this blog, I had read and listened to Henry B. Eyring’s talk about keeping a journal.  He wanted to record every day events that would show God’s hand working in his life and his family.  He wanted his children to be able to recognize it and to be grateful for these blessings.  It would build their faith.  I wanted to include spiritual experiences like this in my blog.  As I look back, I haven’t focused on spirituality and gratitude much.  I have kept something of a journal which is good.  This blog is always evolving though, so it may become a record of more spiritual things.  I just need to be more spiritual and more mindful.  I’m a good person, and pretty smart, but I tend to not notice and not think.  I need to be more thoughtful.  My lacking in depth is just laziness, in combination with my easy-going nature. 

Today a person came to our door and delivered a $299 check.  It was completely out of the blue.  An earnest prayer had been said that morning and this was an answer received loud and clear.  It was very moving.

I want to be more observant and in tune.  Spiritual experiences shouldn’t have to be so blatant.  I want to recognize little, daily ones.

Our Park

Williams Park is hidden between Park Center and Boise Avenue.  Provident Road dead ends in a little parking lot there.  It’s a favorite of ours.  It use to be Ty’s park when we lived on Provident.  Hudson had remembered it from our bike rides last year.  Hadley is now won over because there’s great playground equipment and a lot of it is always shaded.  It has basketball courts, tennis courts, a big open field and a little creek.  Last summer we watched a squirrel build a nest there.  This summer the kids were fascinated with a rooster that kept crowing.  Most of the time you have the place to yourself.  It’s pretty quiet.  If we had our own family vote, it would win Best of Boise – Family Park.

Sweet Release

I was released from my calling as Primary secretary today.  It’s been a favorite calling of mine, but lately I haven’t been fully engaged.  It’s been 5 years since I’ve been to Sunday School and Relief Society.  It will be great to spend some time with adults on Sunday.  Who knows what I’ll be doing next.  I’m just going to enjoy the suspense, and doing nothing for a couple of weeks.

Bike Trailer

It took until the first part of August before we had all the bike tires fixed and helmets fitted, but we finally started taking the kids in the trailer.  In the beginning Haddie cried for her mommy, but it wasn’t long before she was shouting for Grandpa to go faster.

 

Huds fell asleep on the way home.

(We realized that Hadley’s helmet still needed some adjustment.  She’s now wearing a different model.)

Blogging Lesson

I’m getting a lesson from Stacey and hope to step my blogging up a notch.  Right now I’ve downloaded Windows Live Writer to use instead of Blogger.  It should upload my pictures faster, let me put little picture collages together, resize easier, and I don’t know what else, but it should be good.  Next, I’m going to try to set this program up on two other blogs I use and see if I can get it to default to this one.  Then I will do so more practicing with the program.  Good thing I’m behind on all of my blogs so that I have plenty of material to practice with.  Stacey assures me that it is so easy to figure out, and so much faster.

Once I get this Live Writer going, I’m planning on (with Stacey’s help) setting up more pages on this blog.  I’ve been cooking a lot this summer and trying new recipes.  I want to organize all the recipes I use.  I also want a page to keep track of my reading, and what I want to read.  The last page I want to add will be quotes that I want to save.  I’m very excited.  If I figure all that out, maybe I’ll go to the Potluck and Prose site and put our recipes on a separate page.

Besides 3 blogs, I have four Shutterfly web sites that I try to keep updated.  I don’t know how I got so far behind, but I have a list of 24 things to write up.  I really thought it would be easy to find blogging time this summer.  Wrong!  I’ve been busy.

Under Construction

You might have noticed the Reading and Thinking tabs at the top of the blog.  There's also a Cooking page tab that is saved in my drafts.  Don't bother checking them out.  I was wanting to add to these pages like I do with the home page, but these pages are static, which means they are just one page and they don't change.  I may think of a way to use them, or I may figure out how to delete them.

I'll probably keep track of my reading, and what I want to read, by using Good Reads.  I'll start a new blog for my recipes and cooking adventures.  I might have another blog for quotes and thoughts that I want to keep.  This is a little insane though since I already have 3 blogs and 4 Shutterfly web sites that I try to keep up, and I'm always behind.  I started with the thought of just doing something for family history.  I've found it's really good for me to write.  But when?

The other part of my blogging lesson has been partially successful.  I've used Windows Live Writer on this computer, and the pictures upload fast, I can make collages, and I can see what the post will look like while I'm working on it.  I was able to add all three of my blogs too, but when I tried to install it on one of the other two computers that I use, it was a mess.  Microsoft installed all kinds of things, but I couldn't find Live Writer.  It took Terry 40 minutes to uninstall all the dreaded Microsoft stuff that he hates.

So the blogging lesson gets two stars out of five.  I learned some things, but I don't know if I'll be able to use much of that knowledge.  I'm not giving up though.  I'm going to have Stacey give me another lesson on customizing all the background and header.  That should be easy.  Everyone does it.  If it goes well, I'll get one more lesson on making a blog book.   

Not Again!!!

I don’t know if I’ve just been under too much stress or if I’m just losing too many brain cells as I age, but while in Big Sky I broke our new family rule again.  (Never leave a restaurant table without checking for things we’ve left behind.)  We went into a little market/deli for an ice cream, and I left my purse (with camera in it) hanging over the back of a chair.  A few hours later when I went to get my glasses out of it I realized it was gone.  We called, then drove back down the mountain to retrieve it.  The girl said, “That’s the good thing about little places like Big Sky.  Nobody would take anything.”  She might be right.  They didn’t take anything in a little place like Weiser, only in a big place like Ogden.  I don’t want to keep testing the theory though.  Terry doesn’t handle it very well.

Hard Labor

Every year I sign-up to work in the cannery one day in the summer.  Actually it's only a four hour shift.  The cannery's open and running (on mostly volunteer labor) six days a week, but there is usually only one day in the summer when our stake has an assignment.  I like it because I don't have to take time off work, and because it's usually apricots or peaches.  (Once, back in '91, I did meat chunks.  I was pregnant at the time.  Never again.)  You work on the line with people of all ages and professions.  It makes you feel good to volunteer and do a service that is so necessary and appreciated.

You always make friends, but this time I went with a friend and we worked side-by-side.  No matter what job you're doing, the first hour always reminds you of the episode of I Love Lucy when she's working in a chocolate factory and can't keep up.  It always makes me laugh when we're so inept.  We were assigned part of the line where the cans are filled with apricots.  There were three of us (all elementary school teachers) who had to either knock a few apricots off, if the cans were overflowing, or put a few in, if the cans weren't full.  We either didn't have enough apricots, or our trough was overflowing.  It's really funny in a panicy sort of way.

After the first hour you get into a kind of groove, even if it's not very efficient.  You figure out a few tricks or some sort of system that half-way works.  By the third hour it's not near as funny.  You keep checking the clock.  You feel it in your feet, legs, back, neck, and head.  It's really noisy in there.  You're wet and sticky and sweaty.  When you leave, you're beat.  You have a whole new appreciation for people who do all kinds of manual or menial labor.  It's hard!

Just a side note - My favorite assignment is to be put on the machine where the apricots are sliced in half.  I always line up the crease in the fruit so it gets sliced there.  It really bugs me when I'm working some place else, and I see apricots that are cut every which way.  Next time I'm going to request that spot, and I'm going to train the others up to do it right.  Who wants to open a can of apricots that have been sliced willy-nilly?   

Makes You Wonder

I neglected to mention a few weird things from our trip.  Here’s a list:

• These construction vehicles parked along with other cars in visitor parking spaces.

• We saw a dead beaver in the middle of the road up by Big Sky.  Why would a beaver cross the road?
• I’ve seen watch for livestock or deer crossing signs before, but never a bighorn sheep crossing sign.  I kept my eyes peeled, but I didn’t see any sheep.  I would have liked to.
• We were behind this big F 150 on the way to Bozeman.  Why would you buy one in New York and drive it out West?  Just ‘pick-up’ one when you get here.
• There were only 2 or 3 exits in Bozeman, but as we were leaving town, we couldn’t find a gas station to save our lives.  We drove from the U of M campus out to the middle exit, through all kinds of shopping centers, including a Costco, but couldn’t see a gas station.  Finally on the far side of the exit there was a little mini-mart with pumps.  This is a business opportunity for somebody.
• In a ranch outside of Livingston, Montana, we saw a pasture full of llamas.  I’ve see farms where a few are living.  They’re a nice hobby or FFA project.  There must have been 75-100 of them in this field.  It made me happy.  They (along with quail) always make me think of Dr. Suess characters.

Long Way Home

We didn’t take our longest option, just a longer one.  We went north from Big Sky and then east (home is southwest) so that we could see the towns of Bozeman and Livingston, then enter Yellowstone at Gardiner, up by Mammoth.  It’s the only Yellowstone entrance I have never used.  There’s a big stone arch there in honor of Teddy Roosevelt.  It was so worth the extra miles.  Terry actually didn’t enjoy the corner of Yellowstone.  It’s slow going, with some traffic and crowds around attractions.  He was in get home mode.  Here’s a picture of him by the Madison River.

He cheered up when I started driving and we exited at West Yellowstone.  We stopped in Rexburg for a frozen custard at Nielson’s.  When we came out the car wouldn’t start!  The nice BYU-I coeds that worked inside gave us a jump.  It ended up that we didn’t need a new battery, just a new starter. We can take care of that in Boise.  The rest of the way was freeway driving.  At least half of that was orange cones, one lane, and construction, but we made it.   

Sunday Speakers

I didn’t want to miss church on the last Sunday of July because the month has been filled with the best speakers.  Brother Rockwood has been rocking the sacrament program.  But the branch in Big Sky did not disappoint.
First of all, they only have a two hour block, sacrament meeting, gospel doctrine, and a primary or YM/YW meeting.  I told Terry I want to move there.  We hit a missionary homecoming.  The branch president’s son had just returned from Las Vegas.  He was outstanding.  When announcing the program, they said that he would take the remaining time, but he could take as little or as much time as he wanted.  “This is Big Sky.  We’re pretty casual up here.”  I told Terry I wanted move there again.  I’m pretty casual.  At the end of that meeting we all turned our chairs toward a blackboard for Sunday School.  There were 32 people in the room, and only 1 was from Big Sky.  The branch presidency comes 55 miles from Bozeman each week.  They need us in the Big Sky Branch.  I want to move there. 
Oh, and they fed us chocolate cake that had thick icing like fudge right after the meetings.  It was left over from a Friday night social.  I really want to move there.

Big Sky, Montana

When we left Rexburg, Terry and I decided to take a couple more days to just relax.  I had been skiing at Big Sky back in the mid-seventies and early eighties.  Chet Huntley, the newscaster, had built a lodge there and developed a little resort with a tram and I think two other lifts.  You follow the Gallatin River through a corner of Yellowstone and the beautiful Gallatin National Forest.  It’s an wide valley with mountains climbing over 11,000 feet.  The ski lifts go pretty close to the top.  Now there are 16 lifts that cover several mountains.  You couldn’t ride all the lifts in a single day!  Condos and cabins are all over the place, but the developments are spread out and each has their own nook.  There’s a golf course, rafting and kayaking, horseback trips, hiking and fishing.  It’s a huge resort with a very friendly, small town feel.  I like it so much more than Park City, Tamarak, or Sun Valley.  I didn’t want to leave.

Here’s the original Huntley Lodge and a ski run where they do zip-lining in the summer.  We found the oxygen bar in the corner of a mini-mart in a mall right by the lodge.

This rainbow was stunning.  It was actually a double rainbow that stretched from one side of the canyon to another.  I know there’s more treasure in Big Sky than could be found at the end of the rainbow.  I’ve spent quite a bit of time since our return just day dreaming about retiring up there.  I might open a little yarn shop.  I’d sell hats, scarves, slippers, and maybe have a counter with fudge right up by the front window.