19 Years Beginning Revisited

Depot Park, Kalispell, Montana -- June 9, 2012 (We were married under this gazebo 19 years ago on May 15th.) The trees have grown shading the gazebo more. There are two new statues in this park. One is a Veteran's Memorial that was redone a few years back. I love the sky in the photo of the memorial. Hope you enjoy sights of the place of my beginning as a wife and now a mother to three children (ages 12, 14, and 18).

A Walk in the Rain

Kalispell, Montana -- Woodland Park, June 9, 2012 -- Started out a raining/sleet pelting day. Ended up beautiful, wet, and memorable. Hope you enjoy these pictures. I find this place enchanting. A place of love. The tile gazebo is something new to me. One of the tiles had 2003 on it. I moved from the area in 1994. Glad to see it only gets better every visit.

Rainbows and Memories

Last weekend my family traveled to Kalispell, Montana to attend my uncle's funeral. The weather poured like our tears did for this wonderful man. I can't remember a time or visit with him when he didn't smile or make me smile. He always made good conversation and seemed genuinely interested in whatever I had to say. That means a lot to me especially from my childhood days. This man will be thought of and stay in my memories for years to come. I am blessed to have known him. My aunt, (his wife) and I talk on the telephone almost once a week and I have been making it a great effort to try to travel the 4 hours one way to spend time with her (them) while the snow is off the roads. In a conversation a week or so before my uncle passed away, I remember my aunt and I commenting that we don't see rainbows in Big Sky Country like we use to. I first moved to Montana when I was 21 and everything was so new, wonderful, and different. I could not stop marveling at the skies. Now I marvel at them still, but life has become so "hurried" at times. I forget to take the time, to step out on the porches at home and be in "awe" no matter what time of day or evening. Even so . . . on my sad travel last weekend, the rain/sleet ended after the funeral. My family didn't want to spend time in the hotel room and bother my exhausted aunt with more people so we ended up driving and viewing important lovely spots in Kalispell and Whitefish, MT. Rainbows were found. I was able to smile. Our travel and spirits were lightened. Hope you enjoy the photos I snapped. One is on top of Big Mountain in Whitefish, Montana. The other is at Woodland Park in Kalispell, Montana.

What Is With This Weather?

For several weekends now I have been trying to travel by roadways here in Montana from one city -- Great Falls -- to another -- Kalispell.



The first reason for not accomplishing my goal was SNOW! Go figure. It is after all in the middle of winter and I do find myself watching more and more of the weather channel for parts of this continent where I have friends and relatives nesting. Again, what is with this weather?!



Now my area is in the upper 40's, but the second reason for not accomplishing my goal or travel destination is WIND! After going over half the distance (almost 2 hours of driving one way), in winds up to 50 mph, my van reached a town called Browning, MT. The winds picked up to 70+ mph and the driver's door was literally moving in and out (like it was breathing) because the wind was so bad.



Then I get to my turn off for the last leg of the journey to find a Montana Department of Roads utility truck barricading the road -- Highway 2. We were defeated and by then the children in the middle and back seats were calling for lunch. So a turn around was made and travel back 100 miles down the road found us at Shelby, Montana in a Chinese restaurant as an alternate adventure.



The food was good and everyone satisfied to make the additional 85 miles home to Great Falls, Montana.



Phone calls have been made and relatives have been located in Kalispell since I have arrived home. They know we made an effort and I hope they know we are thinking about them. Another endeavor will be made in the future for this goal of visiting in Kalispell, but now I know to not even start if SNOW and now high WINDS are mentioned in the weather forecast.



Hope you like the pictures in this posting. They are from our local paper submissions from readers with the topic of Montana in Winter. I picked these, because I thought they were the best!

Roadtrip Montana

This past weekend my brother and I took a roadtrip from Great Falls, Montana to Kalispell, MT.

Distance between Great Falls, Montana, United States and Kalispell, Montana, United States, as the crow flies: 149 miles (239 km) (129 nautical miles)



The snow covered mountain peaks were spectacular and many pictures were taken in the van headed toward our destination. We drove through a little section of Glacier National Park along the way.




The question that just came to my mind is -- What is a glacier? Computer research yields these answers -a slowly moving mass of ice, a perennial mass of ice which moves over land. A glacier forms in locations where the mass accumulation of snow and ice exceeds, and a mass of ice formed through the accumulation of multiple years of snow input causing compaction and thus the expulsion of air from within the mass.




It was a quick trip and I was glad we had one good day of sunshine as the return trip home was like a fog hanging above our heads with scattered snow on the roads.





I couldn't help taking pictures of the storefronts, statues, scenery, and culture around us.





This is a picture of Big Mountain Ski area as headed into the town of Whitefish, MT.


On a bit of fun side -- We thought this advertisement might be something to check out on our next adventure to Kalispell.

Nature Walks - Beautiful Scenery

My family and I have been blessed to return to Montana. I am not writing or saying that Tennessee was not a lovely and colorful place with plenty of nature to see all around us, but we have been enjoying outings and taking more pictures here recently of things we are seeing and appreciating.

This picture is of the kids walking across a little bridge at Lewis & Clark State Park and Fish Hatchery.



These pictures of trees were taken at the Goat Lick in Glacier National Park.




The kids played in the water at Whitefish, MT where the scenery is gorgeous. A good time was had by all, including the ducks that visited me for some potato chips.


Here are Avery with his new found rock and Wynston all smiles in the water.



The scenery back behind them was as breath-taking as ever -- The Big Mountain, a busy ski site in the winters.




This picture was taken outside my aunt and uncle's house. I years ago stepped outside during the winter to take a picture of the snow covered scenery and the trees, only to get locked out and no one else was home. I had to travel and visit a neighbor for short while during that mishap.

On the way home from our Labor Day weekend travels to the Kalispell area, we decided to take a little bit different route. We drove through smaller towns like Choteau, Valier, Bynum, and Fairfield. Here are a few photos while driving that my boys took from the van. Also, thrown in is a little humor -- Wynston said the shadow reflection our van was casting off looked like SHREK . . . so we were following him on our way back home to Great Falls, MT.