Glacier the Beautiful!

This blog is really to entice all those friends and family out there that have thought about coming to Montana to visit this summer, but have not committed yet!  These pics are just a few from our latest adventures in West Montana...

Lots of rustic mountain lodges with antler chandeliers and grizzly bear rugs on the wall behind them...

 Lake McDonald, West Glacier, so serene... 

Views that you can even capture with your camera on a timer...sort of...

Pretty wildflowers...

Your hunting binoculars will come in handy to see these mountain tops!

Cute cafe with yummy food, fresh lemonade and chairs with birds on them-cute!... ;-)

Downtown Bigfork!

Mountain goats all over the cliff edge... 

Two Medicine, East Glacier, spectacular!!!

St. Mary's lake, East Glacier, crystal clear water!

Moose hanging out by the side of the road... just waiting for their picture to be taken...

Many Glacier, East Glacier, breath taking...

And tons of hikes all over the park for all kinds of fitness levels.  Make sure you have your bear spray though... note: Ben has his strapped to his right hip just in case ;-)

Trip to Cali

About a week ago I got back from a 10 day trip to California to see family and friends.  It was so nice to get out of Montana for a bit and spend some time with some of my favorite people.   The trip included lots of golfing, yummy food and quality time with my family.

I'm still not very good at remembering to take pictures, but here are just a few from the trip.

(Aunt Melody and Grandma)

My grandma had surgery when I was home... she did great!  She is such a strong lady and I'm so thankful she is doing well- huge answer to prayers!  

(Cousins-Danielle, Natalie and Sierra)

Spent lots of quality time with my mom.  Wow, do I need a tan! ;-)

And I got to meet my neice- Chloe Marie Dalton!  She is such a cutie!!!  As is her momma Emily.  

Bulgogi night

This was my first "real" attempt to make Korean food.   I can't believe I just turned 30 and I'm finally saying that!  A friend of mine from work wanted some help making the Bulgogi marinade recipe she got from a local Korean lady so we turned it into a cook off.  Her recipe against the secret family recipe!  We had a great time cooking and I learned a lot in the process.  Thanks to Aunt Miriam for helping out with the spinach and sprouts... they turned out great!  I'll have to get her cucumber kimchi recipe for next time though because mine only turned out so so.  Overall, the family recipe shined and my first attempt at the other sides was pretty good, but nothing compares to the family gatherings at Aunt Ruth's and Aunt Miriam's for Korean food.  I will never forget "washing" our kimchi cause it was too spicy and eating the little "fishies" like it was going out of style.  I've got a lot to live up to!  ;-)

Mustache March

It's been a few weeks now, but I'm know I'm not the only military wife that is thankful for the end of the month of March.  Every year we get to experience the furry caterpillar around this time... and for those of us that are not used to it, we can't wait till it's over!  Let's just say, March=fewer kisses.  Thank goodness for April!  ;-)

PW comes to Great Falls

During my jobless months earlier this year, I had a lot of time on my hands.  So I worked on trying to be more frugal and healthy while keeping a tidy home for my husband.  This led to endless hours learning how to coupon, cooking new recipes, keeping a budget and trying a new workout.  After all that I learned a lot of new things about myself including the fact that I could stay really busy just being a housewife... and I could get used to this!

Now that I am working, the "couponing" has slowed down and the workouts were reduced from daily to "as much as I can," but I have really tried to keep up with the cooking.  Part of this is due to the blogs that I started following when I had a lot of time on my hands.  They automatically keep me filled with so many ideas for new recipes every week- it's hard not to stay inspired and motivated!  One of my favorites is the Pioneer Woman (PW).  I may have been one of the last to discover her in this world, but at least I made it eventually!  ;-)  Her blog is filled with new recipes, photography tips and funny stories about her daily family life... 

Well, the real reason I'm blogging about it is because PW made a visit to Great Falls this weekend to speak at the "world-famous Western Art Show."  She just shared about her life (really all the info she has already shared on her blog) and was there to visit and sign books, but it was fun to see/hear her in person instead of just online.  

She sounded just like she does on her blog- go figure...

Again, picture quality is terrible from the iPhone, but for anyone who has seen her blog you will recognize the picture on the screen... makes you want your own husband to wear chaps every once in a while... hehe

This is the line I waited in for 2 hours... 

This is what my husband got me so I could survive the 2 hour line while he watched basketball in the hotel bar and looked at art...

It worked!  She was sweet and signed my book... and she reminded me of my Aunt Carol up close.  ;-)


-Rhiannon

The Boiling River

So we are a little behind in keeping up with this blog, so here goes a little bit of catch up!

In January we met some friends, Skyler and Amber Clark, near Yellowstone to make a day of snowshoeing and dipping in the hot springs.  We got to try out some new snowshoes... they were an awesome purchase, but we have not used them since!!  Yikes, better get on that.

We did see a little bit of wildlife while we were out there.  Tons of elk everywhere!  We even saw what could have been a snow ferret??!  Not really sure, but he was fast and cute.  Too fast for me to get my phone out and capture his cuteness.  And yes, these pictures were all taken with the iPhone... hence the lack of quality.  ;-)

After hiking around all afternoon, we rewarded ourselves by taking a dip in the boiling river.  There is a hot spring that joins the river you see in the picture above and people flock there to relax and enjoy the mixing of the hot and cold water.  People have taken stones from the river bed and arranged them to create several pools to sit in.  The temperature varies in every pool so there is a place for everyone!  We could have stayed there for hours if it weren't for the impending darkness.  Next to us in the cold river was a river otter??!  You can tell I'm not real good with naming the wildlife.  He was definitely having a good time swimming up and down the river really close to us... very entertaining!

As we drove out of the park we saw more elk.  And they were not scared of our headlights!  When I took this picture, this guy was just standing there on the edge of the road, practically posing.  It was a nice way to end a great day with good friends enjoying some of God's amazing creation.