Montana nostalgia

I've been going through our old pictures, finding baby pics of Sylvia for her scrapbook.
There are certain pictures though, that show why I feel Montana is about as close to heaven as you can come. I thought I'd post them, for those of you who are not lucky enough to live there. :)

This is the Clark Fork river, a 5 min. walk from Sean's parent's house. Very nice fishing. It is a fun place to swim in the summer, as well as a good place take rock hammers to chop ice in the winter. We loved this river in all the seasons, with it's sandy banks to dig in, and osprey hunting overhead. Until I moved to the mid-west, I thought all water was ice-cold, algae free, and full of trout that jump for flies. Ahhh.... I miss the snow fed waters. Mid-west water is warm and murky.

That is Sylvia tucked into her babysling. She is about 2 months in this picture. We fished almost every day... she literally teethed on the cork on my pole handle that autumn.

This is Mattias. We were celebrating the fact that public school had started, and we were still free to enjoy the beautiful, but cool August weather. Another thing I didn't appreciate fully - that air in the west cools off at night. Mid-west air just get thick. If you go walking in the morning, in August, you have to chew the warm air.

Somebody asked me if I skied recently. I said yes, but I couldn't stand the thought of skiing in the mid-west. So I haven't been in 4 years.
Here is a shot from the top of Discovery (by Anaconda, MT). - Skiing isn't just about going downhill on some snow. It is about being even with the clouds, and seeing the tops of snow capped rocky mountains surrounding you. It is about long, steep runs that go on forever. You quietly swish your way down the trails, around the trees, on runs so long, you forget there is a bottom. When you finally level you, you hop on the chair and are lifted into heaven again.
The ski hills here are so small, that the kids burst into hysterical laughter when we first drove by a resort. What kind of view would you have? Flat, snowy farmland? That would be so depressing. I don't think I could handle it. So, we stay inside our home a lot here during the winter.

Our other favorite Montana place is the Rattlesnake. Just a 10 min drive from downtown Missoula, it was our daily summer hang-out for years when the kids were small. We would walk down the trail, and play among our favorite giant tree roots. Noel would make moss nests, and the boys would hit everything with sticks. It was a cool, shady place to avoid the hot sun. The best thing about the Rattlesnake was the way the lighting was always so dramatic. The mountains nearby are steep, so shadows would move across the valley as the day progressed.


The Midwest has wonderful people, but we do miss how easy it was to get to heavenly corners of wilderness. I had no idea how concentrated people could be until I moved to the mid-west. Towns touch each other, and run together into one blob of buildings and roads. (I'm sure my sister in New York is saying "Baby, you haven't seen anything yet!")
I wish I had know to appreciate many of the things we left in the west, but I didn't know that things could be so different elsewhere. If we go back... I will be a wiser connoisseur of cold water and dry air.