Another Montana Summer

Becky had the opportunity to spend a few weeks in Montana again, which has been an almost annual thing since we left 11 years ago. It's never enough time, but we're thankful she and the boys get to do it, given the long distance between us and home. The boys always enjoy their summers in the mountains and getting to spend time with cousins and grandparents. This year, they spent most of July under the Big Sky, hanging out with the Clayburns and spending most of their days at Granny and Grandpa's house. Here are some of the photos that were taken along the way...

Photo BOMB!!

The joys of trying to take a group photo with a bunch of kids under 10... Nolan's pose sums it up. Next to impossible.

Thankfully, they escaped before the smoke moved in, as Montana is still suffering from an overabundance of forest fires this year. We're also thankful to everyone who took time to hang out and make memories with the boys. They'll be back before long...

Arches and Canyonlands National Parks

For a hot, mostly lifeless desert, southern Utah has some pretty amazing things to see. We went to Arches National Park back in 2006 and it was well worth seeing again. The heat prevented us from taking too many hikes this time, but we did do the iconic Delicate Arch hike and saw some of the other monuments that were a little closer to the road. On a different day, we drove up to Canyonlands National Park, where I'd never been before. We drove around the Island in the Sky and checked out the amazing views of the landscape...

Delicate Arch

Balanced Rock

Just making sure it doesn't fall while we're here...

After I got back to work, the rotating desktop background on my computer came up with a photo of Mesa Arch (as seen here). It made it only slightly more depressing to be back sitting at a desk...

The Heat of Moab

The last time we were in Moab, Utah was 2006, long before the children and all that other stuff between when we left Montana and now. Since then, the expanded family has grown exponentially. If the Millers had come along this time the campground might not have been big enough. I do have to say, Moab is a fantastic place to visit, even if it is 107 degrees in the summer. It was hot. Really hot. Especially if you're camping in a tent at night. So that limited our activities during the day, but we still got out to see the parks and hung out with the Utah Sellers. The landscape is unique in that part of the country, with steep rocky cliffs, red dirt, and beautiful wind-carved rock formations. We hung out in the campground while the kids swam in the pool or played in the creek, then we hiked in the heat, and even did a little Jeep off-roading.

The Green Table

I thought "mesa" meant mountain in Spanish, but I guess I should have known that "Montana" is the Spanish word for mountain. So I learned something after going to Mesa Verde, which I guess looks like a green table. We didn't have a lot of time, and after dealing with a slight fiasco at the campground in Cortez, Becky and I took the boys into Mesa Verde to see a few of the sites. It was a long, long drive to the back of the park, but it was incredibly beautiful. The sweeping valleys and towering sand colored cliffs surrounded us as we curved our way back to the locations the park is known for. It was too late to take a Ranger tour, but we did get to see some of the famous Puebloan cliff dwellings, even though it was raining by the time we got there. We've been to several parks like this, but this one has the most impressive ancient structures.

While we did get rained on, it was nice to actually wear a jacket in July for a change!