ok, so here we go. the montana recap. we had a great time, there were around 30 family members up in red lodge for the week. this is a shot of us before we went white water rafting. The River Rats (the raft i was in with my jboys) conquered not only the river, but an inexperienced guide who about killed us all within the first few minutes of the trip. despite the big scare, it was a great time. my highlight was getting up the c-c-c-courage to jump off a cliff into the river near the end of the trip. when the guide said "you can climb up and jump off the cliff into the river if you want..." i thought he was kidding. until everyone else started hiking up like he said "hey, there's a free buffet up there." are these people afraid of NOTHING?

hot tubbing was a big hit for everyone. too bad i don't have pictures of my sister-in-laws drinking beer under water...but that happened much, much later in the night. ha.

kayaking on island lake, at the very top of the beartooth mountains. at least, i think that's where we were at. this place is amazing. there are 'WARNING: Grizzly Country" signs all over the place, and there is still snow up here. we camped one night in tents at a secluded little place...no running water, no electricity, plenty of mosquitos and apparently, grizzly bears. this was no woosy pop-up camper adventure :)

fishing at gardner lake. the trout here hop on your line about every minute. the kids loved it so much, they were willing to hike straight up for about 3/4 a mile without whining. or maybe it was the call of doritos and cookies in the car at the top of the climb...

all in all, another great vacation. good-bye montana, see you when the ski slopes open ...