Paradise

On our honeymoon, which was a comedy of errors to say the least (multiple travel delays, lost luggage, unexpected storms to name a few) we started talking about our 10th anniversary trip. It is hard to believe how quickly 10 years came upon us. So much has changed since we were married, we have grown up a lot, changed jobs, had two wonderful children, owned two houses and many other things. While there are times when we have faced life's challenges, we are so blessed to have faced them together.

AND, we actually took the 10 year anniversary vacation that we have been talking about all these years. We debated where to go for a while. Not surprisingly, we went through a very organized process of deciding on our final destination. While there were a number of exotic locations that made it to our final list, we both kept coming back to the idea of Montana. We have been there before and have found it amazingly picturesque and relaxing. So, Montana it was. The moment we began driving out of the airport, we were even more certain we made the right choice. We spent an entire week being in charge of our own time and nothing else! Imagine that! It has been so long that it took us a couple days to remember how to relax, but we did remember soon enough. Kevin took hundreds of pictures on the trip. I will spare you the 100 or so of just me with scenery in the background.

We had a great time together and were so glad to be able to go. A great shout out and thank you to Mimi and G'Daddy and Gran Allie and Pops for making it possible for us to get away. While we enjoyed a different pace of life for a few days, we missed the kids a lot and were eager to return home to them.


This is Lava Lake, which is a lake that was formed by a crater volcano years and years ago. We decided that it would be a great morning hike after reading about it in one of the local papers. Most hikes in that area are loops so the distance listed is the total distance. This was a 3.5 mile hike. It sounded perfect. Well, the end result was beautiful but it was not 3.5 miles round trip, it was 3.5 miles up a mountain one way! Had we known, we would have planned accordingly and packed lunch. Since we thought it would be a relatively quick hike, we packed water and granola bars and were off. So, we get to the top and this is the view - unbelievable and worth it even though we were exhausted. Unfortunately, we knew we had quite a hike back down and if we didn't get started it would not be good. We enjoyed the views for about 15 minutes and then began our trek back down the mountain. We got down about 2:30 and were famished. While it was not what we planned for our day, we ended up glad that we did it because it was truly beautiful.