Sheridan

We made great time on the way to Montana so we decided to swing down to Sheriday and say hi to some old friends. We had to stop at the Brinkerhoff ranch and say hello. It was weird being there and having our minds flooded with so many memories of life before kids. It is a very pretty place that we will never forget.

We had to take a pic of our old stomping ground. This was the home we lived in while in Sheridan across from the Brinkerhoff ranch. We lived here free of rent(except for two days a month Trent became a ranch hand) and free phone(except for taking care of their very old dog-Patches) and loved every second of it.

Montana

We made it! The gang of little boys immediately snatched Ryan and Raef up and out they went to Papa's backyard for water fun and eating raspberries. Ryan ate a bucketfull I think.

There was a lot of little boys running around Dad's house when we joined our two more in. Raef instantly remembered Jared and they became best buds again and Ryan tagged along with everyone. Our boys had so much fun running with the Heidema gang.

The last view of the siblings before the big campout. It was short and sweet this year. Lots of fun. We were all ready to get going and get dirty!

When we arrived, we set up camp quickly before fishing and tried to get some logs that were big enough for the amount of people that were coming soon to sit on around the fire. This seemed like the perfect one until we realized how long it really was. We took turns hacking on this thing for an hour and then finally got it. We were all soaking wet and Matt was covered in slugs! Nasty! He didn't even realize he had a whole family strewn across his arm(mostly dead of course.)

This was really quite the scene. Matt and all of his sisters out trying to load the boat into the water when the shore wasn't completely settled. Oh boy! Or maybe I should say, "Oh girls?!" He really was very patient with us. The truck got stuck, I got knocked into the water and then shaken by the nice lab dog helping us, and even managed to lose my sunglasses! But we couldn't stop laughing at the scene. As soon as we got out and going it was a perfect evening. We caught lots of fish and just enjoyed the scenery and eachother.

The rest of the family joined us on Saturday morning and we got camp set up, fishing poles ready, and took off for the river. Some people were fishing, some 4-wheeling, some kissing (Dad), some floating on innertubes, and some just chilling. It was so fun! Raef loved learning how to string the pole.

Mom and Doug met us on Saturday and spent some time meeting everyone and just catching up. Mom delivered her handful of presents as always and then they headed to the river too.

Matt, Becca, and Hyrum

Looking good stud!

The kids spent the day on the river and had a blast floating along with the current until they hit Jen and Dad who steered them back around to the shore. It was a beautiful day and the water felt just perfect.

Raef made sure to get his fair share of fish too! He was catching them all over the place.

We broke the group up to go fishing the last day and we got lucky to have Dad come and fish with the boys! What a memory! The boys will probably never cherish those moments as much as there mom will. Jen and her crew fished with us and then played catch the frog and dead fish catch. A few games I tried to avoid. Yuck!

Hey! What are looking at? You just watch! I'll catch the biggest fish out here!

Told you!

Goobers was all grins with this big catch! And so was I!

As Trent and I discussed how much fun it was to fish with the boys, he commented on Matt and said, " he just really doesn't care if he gets dirty does he? He could have fish guts, boogers, blood, and slugs all over him and it wouldn't even phase him." That's just Matt. And we love it! And thank goodness, we all stood over him as he rescued, killed, and unhooked many fish. I honestly don't think we could pull a trip off like this without him. He really is irreplaceable.

This is me in my happy place. I love fishing! Sometimes, I think that the perfect trip to just relax and find myself would be fishing. All alone...well maybe with Matt or Dad in tow also.

Beartooth Pass

Beartooth Pass is a hard place to even describe. It is probably our favorite place to visit and if it is at all possible to live near it, near Red Lodge area, we would die to live there. Just the smell of the pine makes us crazy to get there. The road winds up the mountain, above the clouds, and pretty much straight into heaven. It is out of this world crazy beautiful and literally takes your breath away. It's freezing! The boys played on glaciers and explored for awhile while we snapped pictures. We drove from Billings to Red Lodge and then over the pass and then entered Yellowstone and went through to Idaho. What an amazing drive!

I wish I could just climb right into this picture. It's beyond words beautiful.

I love moose! If you have been to my house you already know this. So I couldn't believe we actually came this close to one. I haven't seen a moose since we lived in Jackson and there it was a regular occurrence. Even better, though was when I climbed out of our sunroof to take a picture and saw the baby tucked into the brush a little ways back. So cute!!! I didn't get a clear shot but it still shows how cute the little one was.