Another 4th Blown Away!

Few things are greater than the Fourth of July and summer in the Treasure State! This one included fireworks, mountain hikes, burgers, and matching shirts! 

Go Hike Around the Lake...

While most of Becky's family was in town, we took a little drive up to Clearwater Lake for a small nature hike. We were supposed to be looking for frogs in a lake that was supposed to be populated with the amphibious things, but all we found was one. The trail was a bit overgrown, but we trudged through it and rounded the entire coast. Fun was had by all...

Go Jump in the Lake...

With the heat of summer finally here, the kids have finally gotten a chance to jump into the cold waters of the Montana lakes. It's definitely not the luke-warm salt waters of the Gulf of Mexico that they grew used to, but on the 90+ degree days, it's definitely not bad.

The Never-Sleeping City

I got a chance to go to the Big Apple a few weeks ago, which has always been on my list of places to visit. It didn't disappoint. There were endless things to do, see, and eat in Manhattan, and so many places I'd only ever seen on TV. Definitely worth checking out and hopefully will get a chance to go back at some point.

Got to check out the observation deck on the Empire State Building. It was a bit rainy, but the building's lights gave off a pretty cool glow in the clouds.

In the Backcountry

Yellowstone made the news this past June for getting some serious rainfall. Crazy enough, we were there in the days leading up to it. We stayed at a campground in Gardiner which was almost washed away by the rising river the day after we left. We also hiked 20 miles through the backcountry and camped out, but thankfully beat the rain out. It was just starting to come down as we were getting back to the truck and then hit pretty hard around dinner time. We decided to pack up and leave early, and a lot of the roads were washed away after we got out. But otherwise, the trip went well, and we got some great photos out in the wild! Not many animals though... or at least living ones...

We never actually saw it, but something in the bushes was not happy with us...

Tons of elk antlers just laying around...

Had to ford some serious rivers!