Montana continued...

I'll try to keep the rest of the Montana stories/photos to a minimum, since I've already shown a lot of what we did on vacation. But there are still so many great photos to see!

One morning we decided to take rented ATVs up to the Benbow mine. It was a 4000' climb on a 4-wheeler, and the view was absolutely amazing. Gunnar stayed with Nana and Papa that day, since he's still too little for ATVing. 1/3 of the way up was the old Benbow Mill, where they processed the chrome from the mine. It's now just the remaining concrete foundations and beams, but looked really cool in the middle of the wilderness.

Here's the actual mine - almost at the top, and a photo of one of the mine shafts that was filled in when the mine closed.

We finally got to the top of the Grassy Knob, which is just above the tree-line. We could see over the entire valley. Here's a photo of Justin at the top.The trail down was great, but riding the ATV down the hill was so painful. The rocks didn't hurt so much on the way up the hill, but on the way down, we could feel each and every jagged little rock. About halfway through I thought maybe I would just walk down - or cry. Anyway, we made it, and if I ever go back up there, I'll definitely be coming back down the same way we went up.

The best time were mornings in Montana. It was nice and cool, and very sunny every morning. We all got up and had coffee and breakfast in the kitchen, and most mornings we had coffee out on the deck. Here's a photo of Gunnar and Daddy having coffee on the deck one morning.

We had pizza on the deck with Ray and Janet at the rock shop by the creek. It was a nice cool evening, and Gunnar had fun, but fell asleep right before dessert.

Before we knew it, it was time to come back to Oregon. Here we are on the morning we headed back. We got some good shots of the three of us, and Gunnar with Nana and Papa.

That's the end of the Montana photos... sort of. There were so many more, but I'll be using many of them to make Gunnar a laminated album for Gunnar to play with and remember his trip.

Back from MT with 300+ photos...

We had a lot of fun in Montana with Nana and Papa John. We got there Saturday the 14th, and stayed until Wednesday the 25th.

The flight into Billings was pretty uneventful... they had an extra seat so we got to bring Gunnar's car seat on the plane, which gave my arms a little break from the squirming I endured last time. Gunnar loves flying because there are so many people in such a small proximity who pay attention to him. He finally took a moment from his flirting with passengers to take a short nap on the flight. Here's a photo of Gunnar and Daddy on the plane...

When we got there, we found out Papa John got a brand new truck while they were in Billings waiting for our plane to arrive. So we got to ride home in the brand new GMC. Here's a photo of Papa John in his new truck, and Gunnar on the ride in his car seat.

While we were there, we went to coffee every morning with Nana and Papa John at Ray and Janet's Rock Shop in Fishtail. Justin says they have the best mochas, and Papa John goes there for the rancher-talk with his coffee buddies. Gunnar seemed to really enjoy seeing Ray every morning too, and when he's old enough, we're going to teach him to call Ray "ray ray". Here's Gunnar and his first cup of "Rock Shop Coffee" (ok, the cup was empty).

Here's Papa John and Gunnar playing hats at the Rock Shop one morning.

The night we landed, Nana found out she won a new four-wheeler at the Nye Goes Nuts celebration. It was the biggest thing she ever won, and I bet she'll have a blast driving it around the ranch. Here she is picking up the four-wheeler at the Nye Fire Station.

Daddy and Papa John had fun watching Nana on the ATV with Gunnar too.

Nana and Papa John got Gunnar a brand new "horse", which Gunnar insisted on riding backwards - I hope this isn't a sign of how he will try riding real horses when he's old enough.

Daddy wanted to go swimming, so we headed up toward Emerald Lake one day (the lake was WAY too cold for any swimming though). I leaned down to cool Gunnar off with his feet in the water (still had his socks on) but the lake and the view were amazing. I had forgotten how easy it is to find solitude in Montana - we didn't see a single car on the way up, and when we got there, there was one car in the lot, a couple who were on a day fishing trip. It's so refreshing up there.

Our friend Dick took Justin out for some early-morning fishing a couple times, and Justin caught 3 fish while we were there! Dick has an adorable little dog, who didn't have enough fur for Gunnar to grab, so she wasn't afraid of him. Here's a photo of Gunnar and Buttons, and one of Justin's fish, which Papa John grilled up for Justin (the other one had already been eaten)...

One day, we headed up the Beartooth Pass, switchbacks and all. It was about a 4,000' climb to around 9,000' elevation. Justin was a bit nervous with the cliffs, and thought I was crazy when we stopped so I could take photos over the edge. We got some of the most amazing photos from this road trip, and in no way do they show how high we actually were.

Once we got past the switchbacks, we found a town called "The Top of the World", where we stopped to rest and eat our picnic. Here's a photo of Justin under the sign.


We then headed over the hill to Cooke City, which is a gateway to Yellowstone Park. Here we stopped, rested, checked out a few stores, and tried to get Gunnar to pet a stuffed bear. Needless to say, he wasn't thrilled at first.

We then headed back home a different route - through a northern corner of Yellowstone Park. There were quite a few cars at the viewpoints along the way, but traffic was very light through the park. Along the road we saw a buffalo laying about 15 feet from the road. Papa John said he didn't take the truck out of gear while I was taking the photo b/c he was afraid the buffalo might get up and try to charge. Good thing I have good zoom on the camera.

Then it was on toward Mammoth Hot Springs, which is a resort village in the park. There's a grassy area in the middle of the buildings where elk graze and just sort of hang out while people walk the sidewalks around them. Seems pretty dangerous to me... but Justin got out and took some good photos. We also saw another buffalo while we were in Mammoth.



That's it for right now. I'm going to add the rest of the photos to the next blog... there's so much more to see!

We're traveling today...

Today we'll be heading to Montana to visit Nana and Papa. Gunnar must have been so excited that he just couldn't sleep last night... Ok, I don't think he has any idea what's going on, but he really didn't sleep last night. I think I might have gotten 5 hours, so it's going to be a long day with packing, getting the dogs to the kennel, getting Gunnar ready to go, and getting the house ready for us to be gone. I probably won't be blogging while we're on vacation, and should have tons of photos from Montana when we get back. So here's a couple photos to hold the blog over until we get back...

Gunnar saw Daddy using the DustBuster, and wanted to try. He was pushing it back and forth just as he observed - monkey see monkey do.

Here Gunnar was trying to share his toys with Arnold and Prae.

And last but not least, here's Gunnar's latest fascination. He spends most of his days trying to get me to chase him to the cable box. Guess we have an electronics junkie on our hands?(Oh yeah, I got a little carried away with the sepia.)

Ok, well it's time to get going and get ready to travel today!

Downloading photos!

Yay! I figured out a way to bypass the USB cord and Kodak software. I'll deal with that later. For now, I can finally download photos straight to the computer, and I couldn't be happier! Let's start with Gunnar waving to Daddy from his high chair

Next is Gunnar standing in his crib - this is how he greets me when he wakes up now (when he wakes up happy anyway).

Here's Gunnar and Daddy at Helvetia Tavern (their hamburgers were in the top 10 nationally). Right before I took this one, Gunnar spit up his peaches all over his shirt, and Daddy said "Kid, you better stop that, that's my money coming out of your mouth." We were there with Ali and Jeromy and the girls, and we couldn't stop laughing after he said that.

As I posted earlier, Grandpa Joel was here on the 4th of July helping Daddy with the deck, so we got a few good shots before he left. .Here's Daddy and Gunnar at the 4th of July party we went to..

We went to the wading pool park again, and forgot to bring swim diapers... again. Check out Gunnar's saggy diaper! Poor kid...

Gunnar helped me with laundry a couple days ago... he's VERY helpful!

Gunnar seems to think he should be a model, eh?! And last one for tonight... Gunnar with a flower we picked from the wildflower garden out front.