Our 8th Anniversary

It’s been 8 years!  I just can’t believe it’s been that long!  Since my man and I said, “I do.”  This last year has been one of the hardest for us, facing circumstances and trials that have pushed us to new depths with each other and with God, thus making this one of our best years too.  We have grown stronger together more in this year than any other year since we’ve been married. 

We were blessed by some friends of ours who gave us a night at the Silverwolf Log Chalets just outside of Coram, MT.  What a fabulous place! 

The cabin was so cozy!  Just what we needed to get away and be refreshed! 

Once we checked in and had a little snack, it was off to Glacier National Park!  It’s been several years since we’ve been able to get up to the Park, so it was such a treat!

I love this time of year in the Park.  The busy tourist season is over.  The stores are all closed up for the winter.  There are very few people.  And the colors of fall are setting in. 

We drove along Lake McDonald on the Going-to-the-Sun Road.  The evening light was gorgeous!  The breeze was picking up.  Just enough to make the trees begin to dance in a nice soft sway.           We stopped at the falls.  The water was very low, but the sound of rushing water was so sweet.

Mmm…who’s this man!  I’ve got to go check him out!  Even after 8 years, my heart skips a beat whenever I see him!

We went up to Avalanche Lake trail head, by the Cedar Trail.  That is as far as you can go in the highway this time of year.  They were also doing some repairs on a bridge on the Cedar Trail, so we were only able to walk part of the way.  The forest was enchanted!  It was magical!  The green was so green.  The mist was beginning to fall.  It was quite warm.  And we were together!

It was so wonderful to get away together.  It was too short, as it always is.  But we’ve made some more memories, and they will be with us forever.      

A Whole Lot o’ Pickin’ Going On

This week my sister and nephews came for a visit.  I will spend the next few days telling you about our time together. 

It’s cherry picking time here in the Flathead Valley.  It has become a tradition in our little family to go picking every summer.  We take a picnic lunch and spend a couple hours, picking our fill to eat and to share with friends.  We are very fortunate to have some friends who have about 50 cherry trees on their property and they invite us each year to come and pick as much as we can take.    This year it was so perfect that my sister and nephews got the chance to come wiht us!  What a treat!  In a couple of hours we picked about 18 gallons. 

I was beginning to think Li’l K was going to eat herself sick on cherries, or maybe turn into one.   By the time we left she had cherry juice all down her chin and all over the front of her clothes, not to mention on her feet from walking on cherries that had fallen off the trees. 

Li’l K became fast friends with my sister during their stay.  What could be better than sharing cherry kisses with a cute little blonde 3-year-old girl?

There were plenty of trees with low branches for small boys and girls to pick from.  And I think more berries went into their tummies than into their buckets.  But that’s what berry picking is all about.

When we first got set up my sister and I were busy taking pictures of the kids picking cherries.  Then the kids went off to play on the play set and we started our picking.  I warned her that once you start picking you don’t want to stop.  I don’t know what it is, but that happens to me every year. 

The branches were so loaded with fruit that they looked like cherry ropes.

Here are some photos that my sister took to share here on my blog as well:

Berry Pickin’

This is my cousin, Sharee, and her girls…and my girls…and Li’l K.  We all went berry picking last weekend.  We were trying for huckleberries, but didn’t find much except a few for munchin’ on.  So we switched to sarvis berries.  They aren’t as fantastic as huckleberries, but they were plentiful and the kids had fun picking and eating them. 

First we drove out to the ranch that Sharee and her husband used to work on when they lived here several years ago…wow…it’s more than several years now!  Time goes by too fast! 

We also found a handful or two of Oregon grapes.  The kids didn’t like these too much.

I thought Li’l K was going to eat herself sick on sarvis berries.  She was so cute!

  

As you have probably noticed…there are no photos of berries that have been picked.  Well, the reason for that is very simple.  We ate all the huckleberries we could find so there was little to no evidence that we had picked them.  And we got such a small amount of sarvis berries each that I just didn’t take a picture…that and I was too busy picking to think about it until we got home.  Oh well.  Maybe next time.

 

The day was so wonderful.  Time spent with family out in the country.  Nothing could be better!