Big Sky Country

9 days seemed like a long time when i originally booked my flight home. in reality, those 9 days flew by so quickly! i worked at the starbucks in billings for 4 days--definitely a different experience than what i've been used to. not bad, just different. then the neill's loaded up the truck and headed west into the beartooths for a little camping action. the place were ended up was a new place for us--we had never been to this side of the beartooths. we are red lodge campers, but due to a large forest fire that is literally taking over the red lodge side, we thought we had better find an alternative camping location. the one we found ended up being absolutely fantastic. we were situated in this great canyon with nothing but mountains around us. the 360 degree blanket of mountains is such a comfort to me. my dad and i spent the first night at camp gazing up at the stars. it has been a long while since i had seen the stars that pronounced, that alive. we could even see the outline of the milky way. it was pretty incredible. on day two, we found a trailhead and took a switch back trail up to woodbine falls--a gorgeous display of the natural cycle of the annual snow melt. i unfortunately did not have my camera on me, so i was forced to make a mental memory of the falls. my brother sean drove down from bozeman to join us--it was really good to see my big brother.

Here is me standing near the river that ran right by our site:

And my niece admiring the view as well:



additionally, by pure chance, my friend whitney happened to be in town from boston as well. we were able to hit up our usual spot, mackenzie river pizza co, for a catch up session. (btw, mrpc sold out to the corporate level. a huge disappointment). it's always so wonderful to see whitney. i keep in good contact with 2 people from high school and she is one of those constants. and i appreciate her friendship more than i think she'll ever know.


other than that, most of the time was spent hanging out with my amazing parents, my niece michael and my g'parents. nothing is better than sitting on my parents' porch on a lazy montana evening, watching the stars come out and enjoying the big sky country.