I Wanna Be a Cowgirl Baby

So.  It's been awhile.  The summer got away from me, and the next thing I knew, school was in full swing.  But I want to share a few highlights anyways.

One of my favorite things from this summer was a family vacation in Montana.  It was absolutely amazing, and I kind of (really) want to move there now.  I knew I'd like it there, but I had no idea how much I would love it.  So without further ado, here are some pictures from my trip.

Although the Bozeman airport was small, it was really nice and had a lodge-y feel to it.  This guy greeted us at baggage claim!

And this view greeted us in the parking lot.  I could get used to that.

Welcome to Bozeman!

Is this not the cutest little dog you've ever seen?  He was just waiting patiently on that little ledge until his owner came out of the store.

That's Lone Peak in the distance.

See the "M" on the side of the mountain?

Driving anywhere was a sightseeing trip.

Lone Mountain Ranch.

Learning to fly fish (dry run).

Pretty horses!

Outdoor music.

Bella's a fan.

Okay, she just came for the belly rubs.

View on our morning walk.

Ousel Falls.  And a failed family portrait - typical.

First wildlife spotted in Yellowstone National Park - an elk's bum.

Hot springs!

Second wildlife spotting in Yellowstone - bison.

A beautiful paint pot.

The colors were incredible.

Mystic Falls, Yellowstone.

Old Faithful!  Checked off the bucket list.

It draws quite a crowd.

And it didn't disappoint!

Yellowstone Lake.  I had no idea that this existed - pretty nice surprise!

Lake Yellowstone Hotel.

A bison herd!

The top of Yellowstone Falls.

Rainbow in the Falls.

Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.  I also had no idea that this existed - absolutely breathtaking.

Mud pot - ewww.

Trail ride!  It was so much fun to go horseback riding again - I probably hadn't been on a horse in 10 years or so.

View from the trail.

I want to go back!!

Chuckwagon dinner after the trail ride.

Alongside the Gallatin River.

 Another view that I miss:  the one from the bathroom!  How nice is that??

Oh, and Bella says hi.  She just wants to be where the people are.

So now I'm trying to figure out how I can practice law in Montana :)

Back to the grind!

PS For any Bachelor/ Bachelorette fans out there, I saw Arie (from the most recent Bachelorette season with Emily) at the Colorado airport on the way back.

(Source)

I was too shy to say anything to him, but now I wish I had just sucked it up and asked for a picture.  Ohhh welllll.

Song of the day:

"Man on Fire" by Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros.  This is from their latest album, Here.  I'm still not sure what I think about the album in its entirety - it might need to grow on me - but I do like this song.

Snappy

I got to spend Memorial Day weekend at my favorite place in the world:

In my opinion, it really doesn't get any better than this beautiful lake.  

Time passed too quickly.  I really hope I get to go back again soon.  

Remember those seaweed snacks I picked up from Trader Joe's last week?  Yeah, probably not.  Anyways, I was excited to try some roasted seaweed snacks.

Well, they became the running joke of the weekend.  I had one on the way up to the lake and was not a fan - it tasted really fishy to me.  And I couldn't pawn them off on anyone else!  Many ideas were thrown around (seaweed pancakes anyone?) but none of them went over very well :)  That white bean and basil hummus, on the other band, is absolutely incredible!  You win some, you lose some.

On the way home, my dad and I stopped to load up on tons of fresh, local asparagus.

We've had it two nights in a row now (grilled, with a little bit of olive oil - my personal favorite, and steamed - still very tasty!).  Yum!!

The idea was to eat some of the asparagus fresh and freeze some so that we could enjoy it after the season is over, but at this rate, I'm not sure any will make it to the freezer!

Nothing else very exciting going on around here, except a little visitor this morning:

I saw something in the straw from my bedroom window this morning and wasn't sure what it was, so I went to get a closer look.

But not too close.  Hello, snapping turtle.  The reason I know this is a snapping turtle is not because I'm an expert at identifying wildlife.  (Surprising, right?)  It's because when I was younger, around 10 years old, we saw a turtle like this in our driveway and my mom made my sister and me get really close to the turtle so she could take a picture of us with it.  This was pre-digital camera for us, so it wasn't until we got the film developed (which, for our family, could take many, many months... or a year) that my dad saw the picture and asked why we were so close to a snapping turtle.  Um yeah.  It definitely could have taken my arm off.  Scary!

And true to form, my mom still cut off the top of my head in the photo.  Worth it?  Not so sure.

Hope you all enjoyed your weekend!

Song of the day:

"Tallulah" by Company of Thieves.  I like this song more and more every time I listen to it.