I haven’t been very good about blogging lately, but for memory’s sake, I am going to spend a few minutes summarizing our summer. We have been pretty happy to be back in Montana after spending the Spring in Virginia and Maryland, where you couldn’t even go for a drive during the lockdown without getting in trouble. Erich’s schedule hasn’t allowed for as much exploring as we normally enjoy, but we have been to the Bighorns, the Absaroka’s, Yellowstone, the Tetons, over Beartooth Pass, and to visit family in Washington.
One of the first things we did was to boondock at our favorite spot in the Bighorns for a few days and do a ton of 4×4 exploring. We went up there to catch a meteor shower, but ended up enjoying quite a lightning show at the same time. We spent a weekend in the Absaroka Mountains revisiting Kirwin, one of our favorite ghost towns, and just enjoyed stepping away from normal every day life. One of our favorite experiences though, was in Lamar Valley, Yellowstone. We were watching wolves in the distance and a coyote appeared fairly close to where we were. As we watched the coyote scavenging, an antelope came along, saw the coyote and stopped. The coyote looked at the antelope and you could almost see the drool. He dropped down into a ravine that was right in the path of the antelope, hoping to catch him unaware. The antelope could not see where in the ravine the coyote was and was visibly nervous about jumping across and carrying on his way. The coyote finally gave up waiting and exited the ravine. At which point the annoyed antelope took chase after the coyote! It was awesome. The antelope chased the coyote right towards the road where we were all watching with amusement. After they crossed the road they kind of pounced at each other and finally parted ways. We refer to it as the Revenge of the Antelope. Speaking of amusing wildlife, on one of our early trips to the Tetons, we were walking back to our campsite from the lake and a deer approached us. It was young and playful and really wanted to play with Cooper. It pranced and pounced at him, trying to get him to play. He was on a leash though and wasn’t sure what to think. They both kind of pranced back and forth for a bit and as we moved on, the deer continued to watch us and follow us for a bit. It was so bold and playful we were all taken by surprise.
The kids and I also spent a few weeks in Washington visiting family like we do every summer. With the restrictions in place, we spent less time going places and just enjoyed being together. My younger brother and his wife welcomed their second child, their first son, Torven, into the world while we were there and we were so excited to meet him. Last month we also enjoyed a last minute visit from my parents on their way to New Mexico. The kids loved having company and we were able to enjoy some pool time and even drive them up the Beartooth Highway on a little daycation.
This summer we also spent some time house and/or land shopping. That’s right! God (and maybe to some degree, Covid) has started preparing our family for our next grand adventure. But that’s a long story, so, for now, I will leave you with a few of our favorite pictures from our adventures this summer.
Lightning storm and the Milky Way from the Bighorns. 
Hiking to Glacier Lake with Jake. 
Glacier Lake in the Beartooth Mountains. 
Enjoying the Beartooth Mountains. 
Antelope chasing the coyote. 
Lamar Valley, Yellowstone. 
Washington Pass 
4x4ing to Kirwin in the Absaroka Mountains. 
River in Kirwin, WY 
Snow fight in Kirwin. 
Mine shaft in Kirwin. 
Lighting fires with my refraction globe. 
Sunset in the Absarokas. 
Look at all those guns and ammo! 
Playing in the Pilchuck River in Washington with cousins. 
Wander More 