Our 4th in Montana

We celebrated our 4th of July weekend in the lovely

landscapes of Montana this year. Reece's parents, Reece,

and I drove up to his Grandma's house (the most lovely

house up on a lake in northern Montana) for the family's

holiday festivities.

It was cool enough to be pleasant but not cold

enough to make the water unbearable for swimming.

Oh how wonderful it was to reconnect with family,

hear all the old family stories, indulge in yummy food,

train in the beautiful great outdoors, and then ooo and ahhh

at uncle Don's larger than life firework show.

The only downfall was that I seemed to be all the mosquitos'

favorite flavor. Seriously I felt like I came home with

the chicken pox. Scratch scratch.

The drive was 12 hours one way, we broke it up between

two days on the way up....this is what the end of our

first day looked like. (No color enhancement

I promise, straight out of camera. On the first pic

the camera was set on shady WB

{more yellow than daylight balance}

which pulled out the yellows and oranges,

but I switched to tungsten balance to pull out the

blues and pinks in the second. Amazing.)

Grandma's dock and view from the house.

So calming.

Reece and I had to keep up on our triathlon training

so we had his family measure out our distance with

a paddle boat and fishing line. We swam everyday.

Open water swims are way creepier than

I expected. But I had good practice at focusing

on swimming and breathing when I couldn't

see further than a foot in front of me and while

strange plants are brushing up against my bare legs.

But of course my handsome man was a superstar, a

total fish.

We biked the area too, great trails. I only wish

that I rode the four wheeler with Grandma.

Next time for sure.

The house was so full of family that we had

to camp out in the yard. Can't complain when this is

your view every morning.

Uncle Don has quite the reputation around the lake for

putting on the best firework show over the water. He

has the greatest contacts from whom he gets giant loads

of the most impressive fireworks. He wires groups

of 3 or 4 to go off at the same time. And we got

front row seats! lying on our backs in the grass

looking straight up at the exploding glittering display.

WOW.

There are a few families that contribute

to the lakeside fire display from their own docks

and then there are a lot of families that

watch from their boats out in the middle of the lake.

A fire show in the round.

I will have to view from this point of view sometime.

But our view was still incredible. I loved seeing

fireworks and their reflections from docks

across the lake.

Everywhere you look there is always a stunning view.

So green.

On the way home we stopped off in the city of

Dubois Idaho to relive some fond memories.

This very small city is the infamous origin of our

fabulous mini panther whom is named

Dubois (Dubie for short) after this very town.

Our first year of marriage (on our way up for the

annual Montana july festivities) Reece and I pulled out

a frightened black kitten from under a truck that was filling

up at the same gas station we were. The owners of the truck

had been hearing meowing for the past 50 miles

but didnt find the need to pull over, to unstick the stuck kitten

from their axel.????!!!!! We had only wanted

to help the frantically meowing fuzzball and had no

intention of keeping him (well, maybe secretly I really did...)

but during the trip he became part of the family and

as never left us since. Those of you that have had

the pleasure of meeting this cat will know

he is truly a gem. I just love him too dang much.

As you have probably noticed he likes to have

his picture taken. Isnt he beautiful?

{Picture taken in our office while testing some

new flashes}

The very same gas station.

We were fortunate enough to have an ever changing

array of light, color, and cloud all the way home.

I couldnt stop taking pictures out my car window.

Here are only a few of what I caught,

it was so hard to choose

just a few.