Montana Trip!!

What a beautiful week with some fun fishing. I drove up on Thursday morning to meet Bronson, who was fishing with his dad and brother, at Reynold's Pass....just outside Island Park. I visited with his dad and brother for a while then Brons and I headed off to Ennis to check in to our motel. We stayed at the Sportsman's Lodge cabins which are walking distance to the main street of town. We had a nice dinner at the Claimjumper, walked around town, then got some good sleep :) Friday morning we went to the Beartooth, which is the best fly fishing shop EVER!! Picked up some supplies and got some advice and drove down to a part of the Madison River and fished all day.

Within 5 minutes Brons hooked a fish!!!

Madison River!! 78 degrees, sunny, slight breeze!!

That evening we drove to Bozeman to spend the rest of our trip with his uncle Ryan and Lisa. They have been living there for a couple of years and are trying to recruit Brons and I to come live up there with them. Brons is in....but I'm gonna need convincing. :) They cooked us dinner and introduced us to their babies......Holy Crap!!!! Their babies are nothing like my baby fergie. Lakota and Cheyenne are their 2 Alaskan Malamutes that both weigh a ton and are huge!! Lets just say is took them a day to warm up to us being in their home. The pic to the left is Lakota barking/howling at me. It was so funny how they didn't like us at all and if we tried to pet them they would run off.

Saturday morning we were up and going around 9am and drove 1 1/2 hours to the Missouri River for our next fishing adventure. This is a river Brons and I had never been to and one Uncle Ryan has fished many times. So it wasn't any surprise to me that he hooked the first fish...and the second fish....and the third fish!! I must say that this river is a hard one to fish. I hooked 3 fish for about 10-40 seconds then they got off my hook. These fish were amazingly huge!!! We spent all day on the river then drove back to Bozeman to eat at Bronson's favorite pizza place, MacKenzie River Pizza Company. Then we went back to Ryan's house to make copies of the fishing pic's of the day.......

Sitting in the office watching them print off pics is when the dogs finally warmed up to me.....almost a little too much. They are big babies to be giving so much affection and kisses...Their tongue's were HUGE, they shed like no other, and for some reason Cheyenne thought she was a lap dog!! It was a fun filled fishing trip. Thanks "unkie Ry" and Lisa for sharing your home with us.

Education Week!!

Nothing new or fun has happened with the family this week, except for Brons who left for Denver on Friday for the Fallen Firefighters Memorial. He is coming home today and said the memorial yesterday was amazing. As for me, education classes only and working :( Last Sunday I worked a 6 hour extra shift at Primary's then went to Coen's B-Day party at Bryant and Katie's home. It was the funnest part of my entire week. Bas came down for the party and it was fun talking and playing games with him. Monday I had a Trauma Workshop at Primary's that all Trauma nurses are required to attend. It was very informational and I learned tonz. Tuesday I worked my normal 12 hour shift at Primary's. Then Wednesday and Thursday I took a TNCC (Trauma Nursing Core Course) at Lakeview (my perdiem ER job). It was an awesome course and certification. Then on Friday for 6 hours in the morning I taught PALS (I'm an instructor) at Primary's, which I love to do. And finally yesterday I had the DAY OFF. Damen and I cleaned the house, laundry was done, I took a nap, we made dinner, and watched movies all evening long. It was fun. Now its back to work tonight and tomorrow night at Primarys. This is my life that I love! :) Keeping busy is good for me. Damen continues to do well in school and fights me on homework. :) Wednesday I leave for Montana to meet Brons and go fly fishing for the week. I should have some great pics...........

A beautiful weekend in Idaho

Last Thursday around 4pm Brons, Damen, Fergs and I made the drive back up to Idaho for the funeral. It was a nice drive and we arrived at the house a little after 7pm. Bas, Mom, John and my grandma were all ready over at the viewing. We were all starving so we decided to head out and find some food. Just outside of Rigby we found a steakhouse restaurant that looked good.....and it was fantastic. Our steaks were amazing! When we got back to the house I spent some time with my mom and grandma. Brons and Damen went outside looking for "snipes". They had fun.

I don't think anyone slept well that night and Friday morning came quick. We all met at the church at 9:30 when the viewing started. Kris looked absolutely gorgeous. Her color in her face was amazing.....I didn't realize how anemic (pale) she really was from the constant bleeding in her mouth. Her has was done nice and she was dressed in her temple clothes. I sat there in the room watching all the people go through the line with the same things to say- "Kris was my friend". The waterworks started when they closed the casket and as we walked into the chapel. I sat in the front since I was a speaker. Damen sat with Bronson and the other pall bearers off to the side of me. The service was perfect. Bas picked out amazing songs to be played and my cousin sang an Enya song "where are you now" that my step dad accompanied, it was perfect. I spoke and it was my first time speaking at a funeral and I think I was a blubbering mess and everything was clear in my head but I couldn't get the words out. Everyone said I did a great job, but I'm not convinced. My mom and Ruth also did a great job speaking. The dedicatory prayer at the cemetery was hard. I watched as the pall bearers carried the casket and I was hard to watch Damen carry his aunt. He looked so small and so young. It just reminded me that Kris was to young to leave us.
After the luncheon we said our goodbyes and drove a little over an hour more north to West Yellowstone. We decided we needed some happy times this weekend. We found a motel room at the 3 Bears Inn. Damen was excited to have his own room. Our motel was just off the main street through town so we decided to walk around. We took some time to look in some shops then we ate dinner at Bronson's favorite pizza place. We walked around some more then headed back to the motel and slept!

I slept so good, for not being in my own bed. Saturday morning we were up and ready by 9am and went to the restaurant at our motel. For some reason breakfast always tastes better when your out of town. Then we walked over to the Bear and Wolf Discovery. We walked around the inside exhibit and learned all we ever wanted to know about grizzly and black bears. Then you walk outside and they had an area for the wolves and on the other side had a bigger area for the bears. After some convincing, Damen and 10 other kids became Keeper Kids and were able to learn more about bears. They took the bears out of there area and the kids and the guide walked into the bear house and hid buckets of fruits and veges for the bears to find. When they were back with the parents and the area was locked up they let the bears back out and it was fun to watch them find the food.

Before leaving town we stopped at a fly shop, Bronson's tradition and his favorite fly shop, then we hit the road. We arrived back home safely around 5pm completely exhausted.