Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Years! I know I did. Very happy I was able to go home to Texas for a few days. But before that, I was lucky enough that I got in a few concerts, survived the fall semester, and had a few visitors!
First, before Thanksgiving, I was able to catch another concert. Eli Young Band, Jerrod Neimann, and Dierks Bentley came to town! I never thought I would see some many great country artists up here! Especially a Texas country band. I keep hoping more will want to see the great state of Montana. No, it's not Texas, but it's awfully close!
Of course, the night of the concert, was the one night it really snowed up here. We've had a considerable lack of snow, but on this night, you wouldn't know it!
My country concert buddy, D! It was snowing in this picture, but you can't really tell...
First up, Eli Young Band!
Then there was Jerrod Niemann...
And finally, some Dierks Bentley!
It was an awesome concert! Loved that I got to go!
When I got back to Montana from Thanksgiving, I was ready to set up my Christmas tree. It's the first time I've had a large one! Since college, I've just used this little bitty Christmas tree that my mom bought each of use when we were little. I had so much fun decorating a big one! So Christmassy!
Although, there was a slight problem with having such a great Christmas tree....
...the kitten developed an EXTREME liking to it. By Christmas, all the ornaments had been moved up and the lower branches were sagging, a lot. Well, at least we both enjoyed it, right?
A week before going home for the holiday, my sister and brother made the trip up to visit me in Montana! I was so excited, and we had an awesome trip. I was hoping I could show them what REAL snow was like. However, as I mentioned before, there has been a considerable lack of snow this year. All those predictions by (somewhat) reliable sources saying that this year there would be a ton of snow? Yeah, haven't seen it yet...
Anyway, after picking them up, I decided the only way to show them snow was to take them up Hyalite Canyon. Fun times!
After driving up the canyon, we stopped and climbed over the snow mound on the side of the road and played around:
Sisters!
We decided to take a little hike to the river...
Mike walking on thin ice. He was pretty brave and got pretty close to the river. Very brave, or not so smart... hmm...
'snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes!'
Since I live in a place like this:
We decided to take a chance at skiing. We ended up going to Big Sky, which I had never been to before. It was so fun! It took a few runs to make sure we all knew how to ski, and stop, and had awesome help from my friend D. After a few crashes and maybe a few run-ins with a few trees, they became pros!
Snow bunny Manda, and skier Mike!
All in all, a wonderful day!!!
And, what trip to Montana isn't complete without a trip to Yellowstone!
Manda had to make a snow angel before she left. Did a pretty good job...
Manda wrestled the cat into taking a picture with her.
I had great dinners made for me. Yum!
Soooo glad they came to visit me! It was such a great start to the holidays!
-amyg
