Joy under the Big Sky

I managed to scam some leave out of work and jumped on the plane headed for Montana to see Randy. Really cool little factoid: while fireworks were entirely illegal in Colorado, you could pretty much buy a rocket launcher from a roadside fireworks stand in Montana. Definately an awesome place to spend the Fourth. Ironically, it was the one year anniversary of my departure from Iraq. We flew out at night and it was kind of cool because the perimeter guys were launching illumination rounds which were a cool substitute for fireworks. That was such an emotional departure - glad it was dark inside that C-130 because I couldn't hold back those tears. Guess it's just the immensity of everything that had happpened, the relief at leaving with all my body parts intact and a weird unwillingness to leave. Stupid Iraq. But enough about that... onto fun in the motherland...

The Dirt Bike Project: we had big plans of reconstructing his old dirtbike so that we could go riding together. Unfortunately those things never go together as easily as you'd like... the wrong radiator came in, but we put the rest of the bike together anyway... it was fun getting all greasy and cursing at bike parts when they wouldn't fit right :)

Since we couldn't get the dirtbike back together, we ended up doing a lot of hiking which you know I was stoked about. These pics are from the hike up to Beaverhead Creek. I didn't see any beavers, but I did see a whole buttload of tadpoles.


We also hiked up Mt. Baldy which was amazing. We were the only two on the mountain and a lot of the hike was off-trail so we were just tromping through the woods. The view from up there was breath taking. It was such a beautiful day.

I know it's sideways, just tilt your head to the left!

The marker at the top