Hunting Camp Week

Tuesday after school, Derek brought his two older boys, Kyler and Luke out to camp.  If you're counting, that's 5 boys and 2 men.  Sounds noisy! :) 

Sounds like they had a heated game of Old Maid. 

Poor deer, they don't know what's coming! 

Luke loved breaking the ice in the creek.  

Not sure if I posted this picture last week, but it's our little sharp shooter. 

Just chilling at the card table. 

My little hunters.  :) 

An In-Tent Selfie.  

Tom and Gabe joined them for a bit, and captured this photo of my hunter boys. 

Luke hiked his head off and never complained.  Josh loves this stuff, he was all in for as much walking as Daddy wanted.  

He's smiling so happily because his mouse traps killed the most mice.  He is happy to announce that he had the most kills of camp -- sadly only mice.  He shot at a  nice buck on Saturday, but missed.  

Wednesday evening I came out to camp.  I loved that Mike had decorated the place. 

I love the night glow.

We realized we were 2 miles from Cliff and Wade lakes -- so we drove around the mountains to find them.
Ruby wanted in on the photo action. 

Made them squint looking right into the sunshine. 

They're gorgeous, with such clear water!

At Cliff Lake we saw a bald eagle resting on a snag, and when we drove by it got up and flew across the lake.  

Ruby loves sitting in the backseat between Luke and Mommy. Josh was in the front seat by the gun, ready at all times. 

Someone asked me if this was "glamping" and so I took a few pictures for her. 

Not Glamping, but pretty cozy!

I had cooked the whole Thanksgiving meal on Wednesday at home, and we reheated it at camp.  Pretty tasty, if unconventional.

Around the Dining Table. 

Ruby's not too sure about this whole feast for humans business. 

Last day deserves some posed photos. 

They look so satisfied. 

We need to remember that Josh was armpit high to Daddy during his first hunting season. 

Luke's not far behind - in height and in hunting!

Just in time to pack up a soaked camp, it snowed during the last night! Snow angels!

Who knows what Luke was thinking, but I can't look at this without laughing. 

I was home alone Thursday - Sunday, and got a lot of things done.  Here are the Christmas lights around the trampoline, as Josh requested.  

Hunting Camp!

This could be one of my favorite parenting moments ever.  I love this little sign, and we change it often.  When I asked the kids for a Thanksgiving message -- "What are you thankful for" they nailed it! 

Wednesday was Cub Scouts Space Derby.  The boys made rockets, and Josh's was a stick of TNT. He won 1st place all four of his races! 

Luke made the space ship Atlantis. He didn't have as much success at the races, we think because his rubber bands were loose.  He had fun, contrary to his non-smiling photo. 

Josh and Luke chose each other for reading buddies.  My heart melted!

Every night. Lucky boy, lucky dog. 

Saturday we set up hunting camp.  It's south of Ennis, and full of promise. 

Lunch the first day.  Silly boys. 

They were so happy to be at camp! 

Stovepipe Josh. 

Two guys from work -- Drew on the left, Clark in the center -- met us up there and ended up spending the night.  Josh and Drew are in a heated battle of 31 here.  

An evening hunt -- no deer but a great sunset. 

Luke and I went home Saturday night and  I made him Funny Face pancakes just like IHOP for Sunday breakfast. 

NYC

I took a trip to NYC with Brandi.  I won a trip from the Montana Ballet Company! A trip for 2 for three nights, airfare and hotel paid, plus a broadway show and dinner!  We had a blast!

Our first day there, Friday, was a rough traveling day.  But we made it, and we were determined to have dinner at Little Italy.  This is on our way to the Subway. 

Our dinner was amazing. We ate at Agnelo's on Mulberry. I had lobster ravioli in a vodka sauce, and she had canneloni.  Delicious!

We had NY cheese cake and a canolli for dessert -- couldn't choose just one! 

The next morning we headed to The Met!  We walked through Central Park and *tried* to work on our selfie skills. 

It was fun to see all the colors, and the people enjoying the lovely weather. 

We saw several horse-drawn carriages.  

We watched this boat race for a while, and daydreamed about who lives in those buildings. 

The Met stairs are always busy.  So many people! 

This is one of my favorite pieces in the entire museum.  From far away, it's just a man's face.  

Up close it's made of 1" squares, each it's own tiny composition. 

We looked for color everywhere, in this sea of gray and black.

The Real Van Gogh! 

After the museum, we tried some pizza.  Delicious again!

This is our Hotel.  The Hilton Midtown. The same hotel that President Elect Trump held his election night festivities just a few days earlier.

Saturday night we went to dinner with Brand's Cousin and to the Broadway show "The Book of Mormon" which was hysterical!

Sunday morning we went to the 9/11 memorial when it opened at 9 AM. 

The new World Trade Center is so beautiful!

The Memorial Museum was our favorite attraction of the trip.  It was so well done, with attention to detail in every exhibit and a lot of personalized respect for the victims. 

This is the last pillar.  As the clean up efforts were underway, people came and posted signs/painted messages on this pillar. 

The letters of this quote were forged from the steel from the pillars of the buildings. 

In tact box pillars from the original buildings.  

The concrete stairs in between the stairs and the escalator were the actual stairs that the survivors used to evacuate the collapsing buildings.  

There is a hall way dedicated to the art that came from this event.  This quilt was amazing -- each square was personalized and special.  It was created from several seamstresses all over the nation. 

A mangled beam from near the point of impact. 

The plane shaped hole is so eerie to me.

The exhibits that meant the most to me where audio displays where we heard the black box recording from Flight 93, and from survivor's stories of the day.  I didn't take pictures in many of those places because it either seemed to invasive or it was too busy to get a good picture.  

Right next to the memorial is the transportation hub building, which is white and airy, designed to be like a dove of peace.  It's amazing inside, such a stark difference to the memorial and to the rest of the gray/black around the city. 

It's huge too! 

We had lunch and found a Sprinkles, so we had a world-famous cupcake for dessert. We split one salted caramel cupcake, and a mini red velvet cupcake.  Both were incredible!

Next was the Statue of Liberty boat tour. We had a bit of an adventure finding the right boat tour, and ended up on a "party boat" tour that was off the beaten path.  This is from inside the boat, commemorating our random silly time. 

But in the end, we got to see Lady Liberty up close and we loved it!

Our selfie skills are not improving much. 

We got the heck out of there (Pier 36 was a long way from where we wanted to be!), and headed to the Financial District for a beer and a look at the Charging Bull statue.  Frauncis Tavern is the oldest building in Manhattan.  

A beer (and mule in a glass!?!) with truffle oil french fries really hit the spot. 

We found the Charging Bull statue, and Brandi thought it was hysterical that there are two lines for photos -- one at the head and one at the testicles. 

We knew right away which line we wanted to be in!  We were making Kevin proud with our choice. 

Then we went to Chelsea Market to shop a bit. We were told that Amy's Bread has the best red velvet cupcakes in the city.  

We had dinner in the meat packing district, and then headed to Times Square for some sight seeing.  It's so busy!  This was at 11 PM! 

I could not stop thinking about how much energy goes into lighting that place up!

Mike and I were here when it was David Letterman at the Late Show, and now it's Steven Colbert. 

Monday morning we went to the Empire State Building when it opened at 8 AM.  No lines!!

I thought this shadow was funny. I am immature. 

Brandi and I wondered if the workers who built this knew that they were making something so significant and historical. 

South Manhattan. 

North Manhattan -- see the Chrysler Building? 

Another attempt at a Selfie with a background.  Shadows are hard. 

We walked down 34th Street to do some shopping, and caught this view of the Empire State Building from Macy's. 

Macy's was beginning to look a lot like Christmas!  The window displays were just beginning to be festive. 

The boys play a game where you yell "Bongo!" every time you see a yellow car.  In Bozeman, we can go miles without seeing one.  In NYC, you can't go 5' without seeing several!

Before we knew it, we were at La Guardia waiting for our plane to take us home.