Holiday Season Fun!

Wow! I didn't realize how long it has been since I've posted something on the ol' blog! It's not because I haven't done anything worth posting, but quite the opposite! I've been wildly busy! Just after my last post, I started working two (AWESOME!) jobs with no days off for about a month and a half! The jobs are/were great, but now I'm 'funemployed' and I have lots of time for playing outside, which hopefully means updating this once in a while!

I spent the better part of December doing my snow dance, and finally, after Christmas, it came! In two big dumps! Alianza stayed for a week after my brother and Liz left, and when it wasn't too cold outside, we played soooooo much!

Alianza got some cool new ponies from Santa, but they needed a stable, so Grandpa 

Dave and Ali got right to work building a little stable for Alianza's fleet of ponies!

Once the snow finally decided to come, we took a quick trip to Blacktail Mountain to get some turns in before Turner opened! It was a cold day, but we sure had fun!

Alianza and I had to take a warm up break

and split a hot chocolate!

#1 Auntie and her favorite niece! 

 Getting some Moose's pizza on the way home!

You can't go skiing and NOT get pizza, right?!

I love that in MT you can belly up to the bar and 

play Hangman with a kid! HA! 

After our day at Blacktail, Turner finally opened! Too bad it was soooooo cold! I took a trip to Turner but I didn't bring Alianza because it was so cold, and then Turner had to close for a few days after that due to the cold temps! So we had to wait ALL WEEK to go skiing, but it was TOTALLY worth the wait, because some of our most favorite people got to come down from Eureka and ski with us!

Two lil' ladies who can SHRED!

 I think a new friendship was born!

Colorful ladies.

The second dump we got was the best one of the season so far, but unfortunately, it warmed up, even in the mountains, totally crustifying all that fresh pow. :( But it sure looks pretty in town!

LOTS of beautiful snow!

I spent the better part of the day shoveling my driveway with Tessa so she could get out and get to work, and then I went over to my parents' house to help out Dave. Once the chores were done, I went for a little cross country ski adventure with the wonderful Medina Duo!

Setting the track . . . right alongside Bigfoot's snowed in tracks.

For a guy who grew up in Texas, he's quite a skier! :D

I promise there will be a post about the Grand Canyon trip coming soon! I have so many pictures to sort through and choose only a handful for a post!!

Grizzly Peak

I didn't have any plans for today, but luckily my pal Matt randomly filled me in on HIS Sunday plans after our Saturday tennis match and invited me to tag along! He had to lead a hike up Grizzly Peak for the Yaak Valley Forest Council and I am SOOOOOO glad I joined in! The views of the Cabinets from up there were phenomenal and the huckleberry snax along the trail were alright too!

The bear grass was gorgeous!

Views from the top.

The smoke cleared considerably compared to the last few

days and we got quite a fantastic view!

Aaaaaand more bear grass.

Skiing in July!

It's not very often you can ski in shorts and a tank top! Thanks to the adventurin' gang, we hit the slopes well after ski season again!

Nice views from the Going to the Sun Highway.

Views from the hike. 

That's St. Mary Lake WAY down there.

Panorama of our view from the hike!

We saw lots of Mama goats with their kids!

We even saw a kid sledding down a slope to catch his mom!

Happy Hikers!

 

 Victory! We made it to the top!

 Hidden Lake

 

Charlie was the first one to the top, and I looked up as he was

taking his skins off and this lil' fellah was watching over Charlie!

 

It seems so funny to take my ski boots off and put on sandals!

What's a summer ski without an apre ski margarita and wings!?

 

Flower Point

Today I had plans to go up Scenery Peak with some pals from Eureka, but one of their children fell ill so the plans were put on hold for another day! I was kind of bummed because I start my new job tomorrow so today is my last day of FUNemployment! I decided to go pick up Loki the Dawg and do some exploring up Flower Creek. I think I went up there at the nicest part of the day!

The Trailhead

Loki the Dawg is cooling off!

The Beargrass is blooming!

 Lovely view of Sugarloaf Mountain

What's left of the old Flower Point Lookout

Sunday Funday! Granite Falls Hike :)

I ran into a fellow outdoorsy gal at Rosita's the other day and we hastily put together a plan for an outing this weekend! Thank goodness! I couldn't have picked a nicer day to go on an adventure! We just went to the falls because we had some chores to do today too, but the trail looked like it's probably clear all the way to the lake!

Granite Falls - they're rippin' right now!

Nature's cooler!

Who needs lunch when you have Rainers!?

There were LOTS of colorful flutterbies

out in the sun today! 

BIG avalanche! That's snow under all that debris!

 

Loki the Dawg REALLLLLLY wants to

play fetch!!

Georgia On My Mind

I went to Augusta, GA to see Old Crow Medicine Show at a bluegrass festival/BBQ cook off!! It was great fun and definitely one of the BEST shows I've ever seen! It was a quick trip and I didn't take many photos. I was too busy having fun at the festival to take pictures, but on Sunday, we went to a state park called Stone Mountain, which was kind of silly, but the stone 'mountain' is a 1,000 ft. hunk of granite sticking up out of the ground! It's a pretty amazing sight! Those are the only pictures I took. If you want to see what OCMS looks or sounds like, Google em. :)

A giant mass of granite.

Don't take everything for granite!

(I had to . . . )

The only souvenir I brought home from Georgia.

Now I'm peeling. It's the gift that keeps on giving!

Happy Turtles!

I've been seeing a lot of these little buggers! They're hard to get a photo of though because the second they hear you they plop off their perch and back into the water!