The next day Dad and I loaded up the car and headed to Montana for Amanda (my second cousin)'s wedding. The drive was beautiful. We took our time getting over there, taking two days and many stops.
Our first stop was Deception Falls. It was supposed to be a "quick stop" but then I offered to take a picture for a couple- the man recognized dad and it turned out they had worked together years ago at Boeing. 20 minutes later.... lol.
Dad and I made a stop here, at the Mission of the Sacred Heart. My dad and his dad stopped here on a drive to Montana when he was 12.
The next day we stopped for gas and saw a sign for "silver Mountain" and the "longest gondola in the world." At first I was discouraging my dad from going. It was at a water park according to the sign and I thought I boat ride on some ridiculously long gondola sounded like a tourist nightmare! (granted, I've been to Venice, and unless I'm in Venice, with my man's arm around me someday, I don't want to take a gondola ride). Now, I didn't say any of this reason to my dad - and boy was I grateful for that, after I looked at the mountain and realized it was the OTHER kind of gondola....yes, like a ski lift. I told my dad on the way up and he laughed.
It was the most beautiful ride, surprised us both as we headed to the second, smaller lift, and then to a third that took us up to the forest fire lookout.
I didn't take many pictures of the wedding sadly, (I didn't want to carry my camera around so I put it in the car). It was incredibly beautiful! The next evening, we all headed into Missoula for the county fair, and the Third Day Concert. It was a really fun experience. Dad and I also had dinner at Cracker Barrel before meeting everyone at the Fairgrounds. In the gift shop we saw these Griz hats and decided to buy them to egg on my fam over there that was trying very hard to get me to come to UM and become a Griz.
The hats worked, kinda. Cort gave us no response really (typical of Cort, and it got Dad haahaa), but Uncle Jim decided to take me on a midnight tour of the campus, and then to their new house to show me just how close I'd be if I moved in with them, lol.
My cousin Tina (mother-of-the bride) and her husband Phil...who is one of my new favorite people! He still does team penning, but used to ride bulls...they have a picture of him in the Calgary Stampede, riding a Buffalo! Not only that, but they let out like 9 of them at once! SO you fall off and you aren't just running from yours....there's a few more to watch out for!! At the same time, he is the sweetest man! (and Kris & Kim- he knows Flynn- our favorite Rodeo Clown- they are good friends, he's known him since he was a teacher, and stayed with his family! Tina and I were watching bull riding and a comercial came on with Flynn in it, and Tina goes "Phil knows him" and I said, "Wait- whats his name?!" cus I recognized him and thought it might be Flynn. Sure enough, it was!)
MORE KELLY GIRLS :) I think this is the first time I've ever had a picture with both Cousin Tina, and Hope. These have always been favorite cousins of ours, and while I have been able to send a good deal of Hope growing up (note, the name ;), I didn't get much with Tina.
The last morning, I got up early and went riding with Tina. I loved it! I was surprised by how relaxed I was, seriously. Maybe I was just still part asleep. I rode Missy, Tina's team penning horse, and she rode Phil's, Mandy. Missy was a total booger that morning, and she could tell I didn't really know what I was doing, so she was running the show...and I do mean Running. She'd take off across the coral all the sudden to be right beside her best pal, Mandy, who was tied up to a post still. After a little guidance by Tina, I had earned a little respect and Missy was paying attention to me. It was a blast. I rode around the corrall for a while, practicing turning her, checking her, and ...clicking at her (? telling her to speed up, lol). Then Tina and I saddled up mandy and headed down the road. We just took a relaxed walk (which was still a challenge since Missy wanted to get'r'done, lol, slow was NOT in her vocabulary the first half of the morning and I was constantly checking her. Once she settled down, Tina and I were able to have a great talk and beautiful ride on a Montana morning....ohhhh...yep, a little hard to leave.
After a long goodbye to Uncle Jim and Aunt Joanne, and all the others, we headed out.
2 comments:
Oh it looks like so much fun! I so wish I was there with you guys! And Jason and I are dying to get back to Montana and hang out with them more. I love Phil too, he's such a great guy. I can't believe he knows Flynn!! I so wish he was still doing the Ellensburg Rodeo, it just isn't the same without him. I'm glad you had a good time, and thanks for the post!
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