Come back, that is.
Mer and I agree that our family vacations just keep on getting better. That's a good trend, and I hope it only continues. Big Sky, Montana is one of the most beautiful places that I have ever been to...and I think that's saying something because I have been to most of the 50 states. We were on the Gallatin River - the same river that was filmed in the movie "A River Runs Through It." It was pretty cool to find ourselves fly fishing on the same river, and even more, to have the boys catch their first fishes with a fly pole!
It was so restful, and that's exactly what we needed. It was good to hang with Mer's brothers, Brian and Tim, her sister in law, Lauren, and Brian and Lauren's kids, Avery and Owen. Lauren's parents, Ian and Esther, so graciously let us stay in their condo, and at 7,000 feet the views were absolutely breathtaking! The dinners were gourmet (Lauren is an amazing cook!), the wine was perfect, the hikes were beautiful, the golf was...well...hilarious and frustrating but still fun, and on and on. We are thankful we had a chance to get away. We needed it...especially right before the fall semester starts in all its craziness. Two goals I had - to reconnect with my God and reconnect with my family. Both happened. And a bonus was reconnecting with my golf. :)
Even though there's no way I could post all 360 pictures of the trip, I thought I'd post a few highlights. So here goes.
MARINERS VS YANKEES @ SAFECO









We took off on Thursday afternoon and surprised the boys by taking them to their first MLB game - Mariners vs Yankees. They loved it! It was a great night - especially when ARod got up to try to bail out the Yankees at the bottom of the 9th. The whole place started booing him (seeing as how he decided to ditch the Mariners a few years back for a spot with the Yankees), and the boys chimed in as well. ARod so wanted to get that hit and knock it out of the park, but instead he struck out. That pic above is his third strike. The place went wild as the Mariners won - not a regular occurence. It was a great moment, and a great start for our vacation!
THE DRIVE, THE PLACE & HIKE #1















Woke up Friday morning and began the drive to Montainya (the "actual" pronunciation). Drove from Seattle to Spokane and stayed with my sister-in-law's parents, the Clarks. They were great! We went on a little hike up their road and were chased by some kind of animal - and we weren't even in Montana yet! We were in the city for crying out loud! It was kind of creepy. Woke up early Saturday morning, drove to Cour'delane where we ate breakfast, and started the long trek to Big Sky. When we finally arrived in Big Sky it took us a little bit to unwind, but we finally did. It was so nice to just chill out and do nothing if we wanted to. Hikes, golf, fly fishing, more hikes, reading, good wine and just hanging with family was the norm.
BABY OWEN, HUNGRY MOOSE, VIEW FROM THE DECK, HIKES, COWS AND FIRST FISH


























Mer couldn't get enough of our little nephew, Owen. You can't hold him and NOT smile! He is ridiculously cute. I think it was like the 3rd major hike we went on when we hiked up to a place called Rat Lake and uncle Brian attempted to teach the boys how to fly fish. While we were on the bank of the lake these crazy loud cows (I'm talking the loudest cows I've ever heard) came down the hill and toward us. I began to get the sense that we were right in the way of their daily walk around the lake. They came within about 10 yards from us and just looked at us and moo'd as if to say, "dude, what's up? move already." They even started to get a little crazy with each other - they started butting heads. I've never seen cows do that. We held the fort as long as we could, and then they started threatening a stampede, so we left. they cussed us out as we hiked back up the trail. What kind of cow cusses someone out to their back?! I lost respect for cows. They had no respect. So we drove down the road and got out at a bridge where Brian continued showing the boys how to fly fish. It was there where all three of them caught their first fish.
Such a beautiful place to go. We loved it. It was good to rest.
So I guess we have to come back to the craziness of it all. It was good while it lasted.
Hopefully we bring a little bit of the peace and stillness of Montainya back with us.