anne's chit chat

Today I wanted to be from Montana. I wanted to have grown up with horses. I wanted to gallop away into the mountains. But most of all I wanted to be a cowgirl.

Taking almost 150 pictures today in Yellowstone National Park was my pleasure. The pure beauty of nature and wildlife was absolutely breaktaking. It is also the perfect backdrop for taking photographs of people, just random beautiful people.

cows and hay bales
Originally uploaded by akl.

Across Minnesota, across South Dakota, halfway across Wyoming and finally Montana!

The South Dakota view from the car consisted of cows, hay bales and rest stops. Today the view from the car consisted of more cows, hay bales, horses, and eventually mountains. The heat rose as we moved west. Today it reached an incredible 103 degrees in Wyoming.

Last night we were in Rapid City, South Dakota. We stayed with our friends Jerry and Carol (who just moved from Mankato last week!). We had a fabulous dinner and enjoyed visiting with them.

Today we arrived at Cindy and Darius’s home in Big Sky Montana. We drove into the Gallatin Canyon along the Gallatin River (the movie A River Runs Through It was filmed on this river) and it was amazing. I had a hard time staying on the road!

Tomorrow we are all heading to Yellowstone.

p.s. Did I mention that Cindy and Darius have wireless?!!!

Tomorrow morning I leave on a road trip to Big Sky, Montana with my Mom. We are staying with Cindy and Darius, my God parents, who have also been my Moms friends since high school.

I have packed my cell phone with car and wall charger, digital camera and charger (borrowing Jakes camera), and my iBook and charger. Oh, and I guess I packed some clothes too.

I really don’t know how much I will be on the Internet in the next eight days…So, please forgive me if I am unable to visit your blogs—it doesn’t mean I am ignoring you!!!

fireworks
Originally uploaded by akl.

As Jake and I pulled up into my driveway last night we could see he was already up there with tri-pod and camera set. Completely decked out in full National Geographic Photo-Shoot Attire my Dad was prepared with long sleeves and pants along with a hat and dish towel under it.

No mosquito’s were going to distract this photographer.

I ran inside to get my Mom just as she is stumbling out of her bedroom from taking a nap. She also had prepared for the night.

We all head up the ladder to the roof to watch the show. The show was great, my Dad taking pictures the whole time, my Mom and I ewing and awing, and Jake running back and forth between helping my Dad and sitting with us…

After climbing down from the roof and uploading all the pictures onto the iMac, we enjoyed a slide show of the fireworks now accompanied by the William Tell Overture. No mosquito’s this time.