Mama Moose, Baby Moose and Bighorn Sheep

Wildlife is everywhere we look.

When we moved here I was hoping that we'd have a neighborhood moose that just lounged in peoples yards. That didn't happen. I was a little bummed, to be honest.

But, I moved on and we've enjoyed seeing lots of wildlife on nearly every drive we take. Mostly we see deer. Lots of deer. They travel in packs or herds or gaggles, just kidding not gaggles, and don't particularly care about cars. One day we rode for 5 minutes behind several deer who preferred to walk down the middle of the road instead of beside it. They say we'll get tired of deer always being in our way but as of now, we still think it's pretty cool.

One time, on our way to a friends house for dinner, we pulled up on a group of pronghorn antelope. Not in a field, not on the side of a road. Right there in our friend's front yard eating his grass. He told us that they in fact do have neighborhood antelope that hang around like an outdoor group of pets. Jealous. Maybe we should look into buying a house in that neighborhood.

On our way to West Yellowstone we looked into a field and saw lots of elk. And when I say "lots", I mean thousands. You probably think I'm exaggerating but I'm not. They lined both sides of the road for   miles in huge groupings. There were so many that we just pulled over on the side of the road and watched them for a while. Supposedly, they come down from the mountains to eat in the fields. It was amazing.

Big horn sheep are a big deal here. People hunt them and they are supposedly commonly found in the mountains nearby. We'd never seen one until we were coming back from Yellowstone. Sure enough, these sheep were just hanging out on the side of a mountain, or in the road. We, of course, stopped to take pictures. I'm sure we annoy the cars behind us, but I don't care.

We also saw a wolverine. Did you know that wolverines and wolves are 2 very different animals. I didn't. I thought wolf was short for wolverine. That's wrong. Don't judge me. Anyways, we saw this wolverine, not knowing exactly what is was and were pretty excited. I mean, when you see an animal and have no idea what it is...you get real excited. Anyways...

Mostly, I've wanted to see a moose since we've been here. I was SURE we'd see one on our snowmobiling trip so when we didn't, I was bummed. So, on our entire drive home I scanned the river banks and mountain sides for a moose. Finally, I see this big brown thing. Could it be? We couldn't stop right where we saw it, so we parked down the road and walked back. When we got there, it was gone. Are you serious!? Thankfully, Paul spotted the moose in the woods. Turns out it was a baby moose! My excitement quickly turned to fear when I realized we were standing 30 feet from a baby moose and we didn't see it's mama. Then, this huge moose slowly appeared and stepped out of the woods towards us. She was big and beautiful and not upset at all with us. It was such an amazing moment. Bucket list item "see moose in the wild" can now be crossed off.

Baby moose is behind that tree on the right!

Oh, and there are bison here. I think they're kind of ugly but still cool to see.

Love and Happiness,
Bethany

Snowmobiling Trip and Scenic Detours

Paul and I are just having too much fun. Every weekend it's something different...skiing, day trips, scenic drives, hockey games and sledding. Our latest adventure was a roundabout road trip to West Yellowstone for a full day of snowmobiling!

Weeks before Valentine's Day we started talking about making special plans. I didn't have much in mind, just our typical dinner and alone time at the house, but Paul was wanting to do something a little more special. When he realized that President's Day fell the weekend after Valentine's, he came up with the brilliant plan to snowmobile in West Yellowstone for the long weekend. I was so excited!

You see, West Yellowstone is known as the snowmobiling capital of the world and it's beautiful there. Miles and miles of groomed trails winding through snow covered trees, venturing to tops of mountains and running by picturesque streams. Another reason I love it so much is because we went there on our honeymoon! I'm a sucker for nostalgia and I couldn't wait to go again.

We headed out on Saturday morning towards West Yellowstone. The drive would take about 3 hours if we drove it straight but what's the fun in that? My mom bought us yet another book detailing scenic day trips and back-roads of Montana. (The teacher in her keeps our bookshelves stocked.) We picked a route along the way and detoured to some really cool places. We stopped frequently to take pictures or explore and it ended up taking us all day to make it to Yellowstone.

The drive itself was beautiful. I took way to many pictures of the same mountains, over and over again. At every different angle they would get prettier and prettier. Our detour took us through tiny little towns and back-roads that turned to gravel. Soon, road signs disappeared and after consulting a few different maps and our GPS we made it to our first destination: Renova Hot Springs. There are lots of hot springs around here; most of which have been tapped and fill swimming pools or hot tubs. Renova Hot Springs was nothing like that. This hot spring is a local spot in the middle of nowhere. There is no fee and the water levels and temperature are determined solely by nature. People have arranged circles of rocks to contain the hot water bubbling out of the ground and the icy cold river water mixes to make the water cool enough to get in. Sure enough, the water was hot despite the river being frozen up stream. I'd never seen or felt a hot spring so I thought it was very cool.

Next, we ventured through several other tiny towns to make it to our next stop. Ghost towns are all over out here. The gold rush created these cities and eventually they emptied out. Nevada City and Virginia City are these restored ghost towns, full of history and original buildings. It was so interesting. It's "off season" still so nothing was open. It truly felt like a ghost town. Hotels, stores, house and banks were all abandoned. We peeked through the windows and they are full of memorabilia from those times. We can't wait to go back in the summer when tourism in these little towns are in full swing.

We finally made it to West Yellowstone around supper time and settled into our hotel. On Sunday morning we headed out on our snowmobiling adventure. When we came on our honeymoon it snowed heavily all day. There were certain trails we couldn't go on because it was too dangerous in the heavy snow but on this trip the weather was perfect and we got to take some extra trails that were extra beautiful. It was perfect and beautiful and so much fun!

Monday morning we headed back towards Helena, but in a different direction than we came. This time we drove through Yellowstone Park for several miles and then detoured to Big Sky to drive around our honeymoon resort. We drove by our cabin that we spent our honeymoon in and explored the mountain roads. I loved, loved, loved being where we spent our honeymoon. It brought back such vivid memories of our incredible trip and I couldn't get over how lucky I felt that we lived so close to the place that inspired us to move here.

We really do feel lucky and blessed that we're getting this chance to be out here, exploring and making the most of every moment. The memories we're making will last a lifetime and all time we say, "I'm so glad we came."

Love and Happiness,
Bethany

Valentine's Day 2013

Valentine's Day may be one of my least favorite holidays. Don't get me wrong. I love having someone who loves me and I love them and all is well with the world. But, there are several things I just don't like about Valentine's. For one, I don't like hearts. Maybe that's weird but I just don't care for them. And let's be honest. Pretty much from New Year's on, all the stores are covered in hearts and pink. Did I mention that I don't really like pink either. I know, I know, but it's true. Lastly, I don't like those little conversation heart candies. I'd rather eat Rolaids. Honestly, a box of Tums would be just as romantic to me. 

Thankfully, Paul knows all these quirky things about me and not once have I ever gotten candy hearts for Valentine's Day. He also keeps hearts in general to a minimum and pink is used sparingly, if used at all. But regardless of my feeling about Valentine's Day, we always celebrate with a romantic meal and cards for each other. This year, Paul even got me roses, red not pink, and chocolate... not in a heart shaped box. :)

A tradition has been formed for our Valentine's meal including spaghetti, Caesar salad and french bread served by candle light with our monogrammed napkins from our wedding. I, of course, made a special dessert for Paul and we spent the night spending some quality time together. 

Butterfinger Blondies for my Butterfinger loving man

Our real Valentine's celebration wouldn't begin until Saturday, when we would head out on a scenic road trip to West Yellowstone for a day full of snowmobiling. I'll write a separate post about our amazing trip soon!

I think the reason that I don't love Valentine's so much is because Paul treats me like the love of his life everyday. He's romantic and spontaneous and is constantly doing little things or big things to let me know how special our love for each other is to him. Sometimes, I get flowers for no reason at all and I get a "Good morning beautiful" text message every day. He kisses me before he goes to work and tells me he loves me multiple times a day. So, Valentine's Day is nice but for the most part, it feels like any other day. I feel very lucky to have a husband who treats me so amazingly every day of our lives together. And after celebrating 8 Valentine's Days together, I couldn't ask for a better man to share it with. 

Love and Happiness,

Bethany

The Day We Almost Died

On February 9th, 2013...we almost died.

Before Paul and I moved, my mother gave us a warning.

 "Don't be those people from Alabama who die in the wilderness because they got stranded in a blizzard on a forest road following the instructions of your GPS."

Or something like that. That's why she mailed us these really awesome maps for Christmas of Montana, Wyoming and Idaho so that we could explore the roads of these beautiful but remote states safely. Little did she know that our map of Montana would  lead us straight to the narrow, one lane, rocky "road" on the edge of cliff, where we nearly died.

Roads around here are a little tricky. Few roads outside of town are paved and even some in town aren't either. So it wasn't a concern to us when we took off down a dirt road toward an unknown direction. Paul wanted to drive to this mountain lake, tucked deep in the backwoods outside of Helena. On the map, the road looked accessible. It didn't mention needing 4 wheel drive or that it was one lane and that a full size vehicle is basically too wide to fit on the road. We took the turn off onto the road and began climbing the steep grade. Soon, my anxiety level rose. This narrow, one lane road was a tight squeeze between a rock wall and a cliff. No guard rails and nothing to catch our fall but the rocky valley below us. The washouts in the road made some sections feel impossible to cross but there was no way we could back out. We'd gone too far. The road had snow on it and I feared we would slide right off the edge, straight to our deaths. Paul assured me that we would get to the lake and not come back the way we came. "Don't worry," he said.

We continued up the hill and got to an area that was going to be impassable because of the snow. Luckily, there was a place to turn around but that meant we had to leave the way we came. At that point I was sure we weren't going to make it. Now, I'm a little dramatic sometimes and over-react to situations like these but I knew when Paul offered to call a co-worker and let him know where we were, in case we didn't make it, that we were in some serious trouble. As we began down the mountain, I started crying and praying and praying some more. I started thinking about all the multiple ways we may die. Would the Jeep catch fire falling down the rocks and we'd burn to death? That sounded horrible. Maybe we'd be lucky and just die on impact. Oh, and I didn't want to freeze to death either. The options just sounded painful.

At one point, just before the narrowest of sections where we had to ride the right side of the Jeep up on a snow bank to fit on the road, Paul reached over, grabbed my hand and said, "I love you". That was it. It was official. We were going to die.

I don't know how long it took us to make it down the mountain. It felt like a lifetime. My tears had washed away all of my makeup and as we pulled out onto level ground I thanked God for keeping us safe. "Never again", I said. And I meant it. I don't want to be those people.

Love and Happiness,
Bethany

Scenic Montana

Skiing every weekend is getting expensive.

We even get our tickets half off but after going weekend after weekend, it's starting to add up. I still don't have a job, which doesn't make our money situation any easier. I mean, we're okay but we decided that we need to start rationing our entertainment funds. There's other winter activities, like cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, dog sledding, snowmobiling and ice fishing. But guess what? Those all cost money, too.

So, what's a better way to enjoy the beautiful scenery of Montana, and spend a minimal amount money, than by going for a drive? Yep, we're like those 75 year old retired couples driving 15 mph under the speed limit enjoying the views in the rear view mirror. Everything is so beautiful here. Why not take advantage of all the scenic drives so close to home?

I should tell you that Helena is in a valley, so the our immediate surrounding are very flat. You can see houses for miles because in the valley there are no hills and no trees. It's kind of ugly, actually, until you look toward the horizon. Since we're down in a valley, the whole town is surrounded by snow covered mountains.  I wish my camera could capture what we see, but the pictures just don't do it justice.

So, for the past couple of weekends we've taken drives to the several lakes nearby, all nestled down beneath towering mountains. We've driven on back roads by old gold mines and ghost towns. We've seen hundreds of deer and dozens of antelope but I'm still waiting to see a moose. Along one mountain pass there is a mountain stream that has been tapped for people to get drinking water. It pours out of the ground, into the pipe then continues on it's way down the mountain stream. The water is crystal clear, perfect for drinking and is as natural as it can get.

Really, these weekend drives have been some of my favorite things we've done. There's nothing better than spending the day with Paul, just the two of us, talking for hours, holding hands and enjoying the epic scenery around us. There's no one else I'd want to be on this journey with.

Love and Happiness,

Bethany