After two full days of driving...we finally made it! Grandpa Bill met us in the Mule at the front gate of our beautiful destination...a secluded cabin in the middle of 1100 privately owned acres of forest right next to Custer National Forest.
We drove up the long driveway to find our home away from home for the next week!
The property goes all the way up this mountain and down to a valley below. This cabin was built about 5 years ago from harvested burn logs from Yellowstone that were in a forest fire. Each log is hand scraped and so unique. It was so interesting just to sit inside and look at the logs and beautiful architecture of this cabin.
Grandpa Bill was instant friends with Caleb, but he quickly got to work getting reacquainted with Josh. The best way...get out some cars and play with the little guy! In a few short minutes you are friends!
After we got unpacked and got our first good nights sleep we decided to head out for a little 4-wheeling and a short hike to a natural spring.
We saw lots of "droppings" on the trail that gave us an idea of the wildlife around the area. Elk, deer, turkeys and bears! Caleb loved to explore and learn with Grandma Ingrid.
We made it to the spring and enjoyed all the little wildflowers and beautiful forest.
We took a few pictures...
and enjoyed exploring around the area.
Aunt Sarah took this nice picture of Jon, Josh and I at the spring. Notice the barrel in the picture? This was part of a pipeline that fed water to a ski resort that used to be on this property in the 60's. They used the water to produce snow if the snow pack was low. Well, I got the bright idea to jump up on the barrel to get to the other side of the creek...dumb!!! It was cut in half just above the ground and flipped over. I fell off and the barrel scraped my leg on the way down, pushing my thigh muscle up about 2 inches. Thankfully it did not hit my knee cap or break my leg. But, when I looked down and saw my thigh muscle all wadded up it was pretty nauseating to say the least. I pushed and massaged the muscle back down and we quickly made our way back to the cabin.
This is what it looked like after smoothing the muscle tissue and washing it out for about 10 minutes. I kept off it for the rest of the day and applied ice off and on. Doesn't look to bad...right?!
This is what it looked like the next day...about the biggest bruise I have ever seen. I am happy to report that as of today, the bruising is almost gone, but the muscle has some work to do. Hopefully all will be back to normal soon!
Well, enough of that! We had a lot of fun eating delicious meals...
cooking...
hanging out at the house...
doing Pilate's (Sarah just got her certification and we had a class every day...it was fun. Caleb spent most of the time giggling at Grandma Ingrid though!)
collecting rocks...
and taking the biggest bubble baths ever! The boys loved the jacuzzi tub each night. It is amazing how a little soap in the water turned into a huge tub full of bubbles!
John and Jen arrived a few days later!
Caleb quickly got a game going with them...his horse race game that Grandpa Bill got him from Vietnam. We are not sure what it is called or even what the rules are...it didn't come with instructions! We managed to make up our own rules and it is a pretty fun game!
We celebrated Josh's birthday (I will put that in a separate post). John and Jen got him this great dump truck. He spent the rest of the week loading it up with all his favorite rocks and sticks that he collected on all his 4-wheeler rides!
We spent most of the week just hanging out on the property. With 1100 acres and a lot of ATV's around, you don't need much more than that!
We hiked and explored all over.
Took lots of rides on the Mule.
Grandpa Bill took the boys out alone for some special time with them.
They picked these wildflowers for me and had them behind their backs when they got back to the cabin...so cute!Josh picked me so many flowers while we were there and when we came home he didn't stop! On the first day home, he plucked all the petunias from my pots and brought them inside for me. I had to explain that we are not in the forest anymore where there are literally thousands of flowers! I am slowly getting flowers back in my pots now a few weeks later!
Out 4-wheeling with Aunt Sarah.
I wish that we would have clocked the time that Jon and Josh spent on the 4-wheelers...I am sure it was a lot. Josh's idea of a perfect vacation is being outside with lots of rocks, dirt, trees, 4-wheelers and his dad!
Caleb learned to steer the Mule with Grandpa Bill. Between Jon, Grandpa Bill and the boys, I think they got the entire 1100 acres covered!!
John, Jen and Sarah were off on a hike, so Gma & Gpa joined us for a picnic in this beautiful meadow.
After the picnic, we went back to the springs for another hike...this time no barrel jumping!
We had one cool day during the week and we knew that Bob (the owner) started a new 4-wheeler trail through some aspen trees earlier in the spring. So, we decided to finish it for him as a 'thank you' for letting us stay in his cabin. Besides, Jon liked having an excuse to play lumberjack for a few hours!
So, we all pitched in and blazed a new trail. That gave us one more trail to explore during the week!
We felt adventurous one day and decided to take a 90 minute drive through Beartooth Pass and on to Yellowstone...if we only knew how it was going to turn out we would have never gone! Oh well, it makes for an entertaining story now that it is done with!!
This picture was taken at the first rest stop about 1/2 way through Beartooth Pass. We are all happy, healthy and having fun! The climb through the mountain was quite steep but beautiful.
The boys were entertained by some cute chipmunks that were tame and very well fed!
This is Shoshone National Forest...
Not long after taking this picture, we quickly discovered that little Josh is apparently like his mom...he must get car sick pretty easily. I think all the hairpin turns finally got the best of him! Both of the boys were in the back seat of the Yukon with Aunt Sarah in the middle. Lets just say that Aunt Sarah was a HUGE trooper dealing with Josh's hurling! I do have to give the little guy credit though, he did say that his tummy hurt about 30 seconds before he let it go. We had no spare clothes along but did have a sweatshirt because it was about 50 degrees in the mountains. So we cleaned him up with baby wipes, took off all his clothes and he wore his little sweatshirt the rest of the way. We told him to keep his eyes closed, and he did! I don't think he wanted that to happen again!
Out 4-wheeling with Aunt Sarah.
I wish that we would have clocked the time that Jon and Josh spent on the 4-wheelers...I am sure it was a lot. Josh's idea of a perfect vacation is being outside with lots of rocks, dirt, trees, 4-wheelers and his dad!
Caleb learned to steer the Mule with Grandpa Bill. Between Jon, Grandpa Bill and the boys, I think they got the entire 1100 acres covered!!
John, Jen and Sarah were off on a hike, so Gma & Gpa joined us for a picnic in this beautiful meadow.
After the picnic, we went back to the springs for another hike...this time no barrel jumping!
We had one cool day during the week and we knew that Bob (the owner) started a new 4-wheeler trail through some aspen trees earlier in the spring. So, we decided to finish it for him as a 'thank you' for letting us stay in his cabin. Besides, Jon liked having an excuse to play lumberjack for a few hours!
So, we all pitched in and blazed a new trail. That gave us one more trail to explore during the week!
We felt adventurous one day and decided to take a 90 minute drive through Beartooth Pass and on to Yellowstone...if we only knew how it was going to turn out we would have never gone! Oh well, it makes for an entertaining story now that it is done with!!
This picture was taken at the first rest stop about 1/2 way through Beartooth Pass. We are all happy, healthy and having fun! The climb through the mountain was quite steep but beautiful.The boys were entertained by some cute chipmunks that were tame and very well fed!
This is Shoshone National Forest...
Not long after taking this picture, we quickly discovered that little Josh is apparently like his mom...he must get car sick pretty easily. I think all the hairpin turns finally got the best of him! Both of the boys were in the back seat of the Yukon with Aunt Sarah in the middle. Lets just say that Aunt Sarah was a HUGE trooper dealing with Josh's hurling! I do have to give the little guy credit though, he did say that his tummy hurt about 30 seconds before he let it go. We had no spare clothes along but did have a sweatshirt because it was about 50 degrees in the mountains. So we cleaned him up with baby wipes, took off all his clothes and he wore his little sweatshirt the rest of the way. We told him to keep his eyes closed, and he did! I don't think he wanted that to happen again!So, here we are at Yellowstone...3 hours later! Yes, the 90 minute ride turned into 3 hours because we were very unlucky with construction pilot cars. Always had to wait 20-30 minutes each time. So after cleaning Josh up twice (yes he did do it again) and stopping for contruction, we only made it this far. Caleb was crushed, but we had enough of car driving time and throw-up for the day. We bought an overpriced tourist outfit for Josh and a took this picture of the Yellowstone sign and headed for home!
We had Josh wear the sack that his outfit came in for extra protection in case he decided to up-chuck again...thankfully it was not needed! Aunt Sarah was such a trooper dealing with all the nasty bodily fluids going on in the car!
We made a few stops on the way back and were much luckier with the pilot cars on the way back home. This was a beautiful collection of lakes in the Shoshone National Forest. The mosquitos liked it here too!
We finally arrived back at the cabin and told everyone about our "adventure"! Josh took a bath and Gma Ingrid helped me clean out the car seat!
We also took a few trips into the town of Red Lodge...about 15 minutes away. This white water river ran through the town. It was amazing water and so clear.
The town was really neat and had a lot of fun little stores. We went to the little toy store, book store and ice cream shop with the kids.
We enjoyed using the billiard and game room at the cabin as well. John is imitating this black bear hanging up on the wall...do you still have your tonsils John?
Jon and Caleb in a match against Gma Ingrid.
Gpa Bill showed all of us how to play poker. We had a lot of fun. I think Aunt Sarah took the biggest win of the night!
My great grandparents settled in this area in the early 1900's, so we decided to check out some courthouses and museums in the area to see if we could find any information on them. John and Jen found some interesting census information in Red Lodge and we also drove to Fromburg to hopefully find more information. They lived a few miles from there while working in the mines. That brought us to this quaint little museum...
Yes, you are reading the sign right! It is the Cowboy Bar, Gift Shop and Museum! Only in rural Montana! Kind of looked like west river South Dakota!
We made our way through the smokey bar, to the back of the building. There we found all sorts of books and memorabilia. We didn't find any information specific to our family, but it was interesting & entertaining nonetheless!
Some family pictures on our last day together!
We had an absolutely wonderful time in Montana. It was nice to be together as a family in this very special place. It was peaceful and so much fun. We so rarely have the chance to all be together, so our chance to make some special memories together will last a lifetime. Thank you to Sarah for organizing this special family reunion. Jon and I and the boys loved it! Maybe we can go back again someday:)
We had Josh wear the sack that his outfit came in for extra protection in case he decided to up-chuck again...thankfully it was not needed! Aunt Sarah was such a trooper dealing with all the nasty bodily fluids going on in the car!
We made a few stops on the way back and were much luckier with the pilot cars on the way back home. This was a beautiful collection of lakes in the Shoshone National Forest. The mosquitos liked it here too!
We finally arrived back at the cabin and told everyone about our "adventure"! Josh took a bath and Gma Ingrid helped me clean out the car seat!
We also took a few trips into the town of Red Lodge...about 15 minutes away. This white water river ran through the town. It was amazing water and so clear.
The town was really neat and had a lot of fun little stores. We went to the little toy store, book store and ice cream shop with the kids.
We enjoyed using the billiard and game room at the cabin as well. John is imitating this black bear hanging up on the wall...do you still have your tonsils John?Jon and Caleb in a match against Gma Ingrid.
Gpa Bill showed all of us how to play poker. We had a lot of fun. I think Aunt Sarah took the biggest win of the night!
My great grandparents settled in this area in the early 1900's, so we decided to check out some courthouses and museums in the area to see if we could find any information on them. John and Jen found some interesting census information in Red Lodge and we also drove to Fromburg to hopefully find more information. They lived a few miles from there while working in the mines. That brought us to this quaint little museum... 
Yes, you are reading the sign right! It is the Cowboy Bar, Gift Shop and Museum! Only in rural Montana! Kind of looked like west river South Dakota!
We made our way through the smokey bar, to the back of the building. There we found all sorts of books and memorabilia. We didn't find any information specific to our family, but it was interesting & entertaining nonetheless!
Some family pictures on our last day together!
We had an absolutely wonderful time in Montana. It was nice to be together as a family in this very special place. It was peaceful and so much fun. We so rarely have the chance to all be together, so our chance to make some special memories together will last a lifetime. Thank you to Sarah for organizing this special family reunion. Jon and I and the boys loved it! Maybe we can go back again someday:)
