A Barbecue!

Montana is infamous for it's unpredictable weather.  The saying goes, "If you don't like the weather in Montana, wait five minutes and it will change."  But there is one thing that almost always stays the same weather-wise, year after year.  It rains on Memorial Day Weekend. 

Most folks choose to ignore the weather, or endure it, and camp, barbecue, and play outside anyway.  Our family is no different.  There was camping, fantastic food, fourwheeler riding, and one raging warm campfire.

For dinner, Andy masterfully grilled up steaks, Mike mixed up some Southern Gin Buckets for all us Northerners, and cousin Brad made this:

This is not your average corn on the cob.  This is corn on the cob, dipped in honey, rolled in crushed corn flakes, and deep fat fried.  This is a little taste of heaven.

And of course, no camping adventure of any magnitude would ever be complete without s'mores.  

These bad boys were made with....not chocolate candy bars, but....wait for it....wait for it....chocolate frosting.  They were amazing.  

No really, they were super good.  I mean, who doesn't love s'mores anyway, but seriously - you should try this.

This barbecue, of course, also had wet dogs.  No party of ours is ever complete without wet dogs. 

Peace Like a River

Over the weekend, Mike and I spent a lot of time attempting to hone our water photography skills at various creeks in the area.  There is SO MUCH WATER running right now, it's insane.  Half the state is under water, and all people seem to be talking about currently is flood, flood. flood.  The fact that it's raining a lot probably doesn't help to quell people's nerves.  Let's hope it doesn't get as bad as everyone thinks it will be!

Weasel Creek - Elkhorn Mountain Range
(Lindsey's)

We stumbled upon a super cool old dam, made for some great practice!

(Mike's)

There used to be a lot of mining in these mountains, and the evidence is still here.  We found this old bridge as well as the dam and many old cabins. 

Crow Creek Falls - Elkhorn Mountain Range

Crow Creek Falls was a 3.5 mile hike in.  We will definitely be revisting this one later in the year, when the water chills out a bit...or a lot.  And when there's a little bit more foliage.  And when it's not pouring down rain.  There were about 5 minutes when it wasn't raining - just enough time to get the cameras out for some quick photos.  

(Mike's)

(Lindsey's)

And then it was back to Trout Creek for a bit.  We were hoping to find the water the same as we left it two weeks ago - crystal clear, but it was not not be here either.  

It was great to have a weekend to get out and play with the cameras!  I predict more weekends like this in the future.  

Sun Rise and Sunset

(by Mike.)

The Post That Didn't Want To Be

I fully intended to have this up last Sunday, but better late than never!  I've had to rewrite it three times because whatever technical difficulties Blogger was having erased my first two attempts. After writing this twice already, my motivation for this particular post is a bit drained.  So, I'm starting this off as a pictorial telling and I may come back and edit more later.  And I still don't have the pictures from mom's camera - I'll get them on here eventually.  

Happy.  Mother's Day.

After a great breakfast with the family, we took Anna and Reese and mom and dad up to York for a nice little hike through Trout Creek Canyon.  It's one of my favorite hikes, it's a beautiful area and an easy trail.  (I had done this same hike the day before with Jasper, so most of the pictures are from then.  It was a little bit too wet Sunday to get the cameras out.)

It rained.  Pretty much the entire time.  But not enough to put a damper on the day, and it ended up being just cool enough that you didn't work up a sweat and just warm enough that even if you stopped moving you weren't really chilled.