We Made It!

First of all, thank you to everyone that helped us before we left Provo- moving and feeding us! You are so wonderful!

I had to throw this random picture in here somewhere because its just so cute! We stopped on our way up in Rexburg to say 'Hi' to my parents at my dad's office. Gayla, my dad's secretary, did a little recruiting and I'm sure they've got Reese's resume somewhere on file now. She was a natural!

Well, somehow we survived the rigors of moving, cleaning the apartment, leaving five hours later than we'd planned, blah, blah, blah, and are now in the oh-so-delightful 60-degree weather of Great Falls, Montana. Ahh, you gotta love double servings of springtime!

Where to start? Since we got in Tuesday night, the week has been a relaxing mix of unpacking (MUCH more fun than it's never-ending counterpart), getting acquainted with the town (one way streets are definitely something to get used to), and fun touristy stuff. Ry doesn't start work until Tuesday so we've made sure to mix in a fair share of pleasure with all the business of getting settled.

But before I give you an overload of pictures, let me just say that I LOVE our apartment. Love, love, love it. Would you like to know why? Would you? Well, first of all, its so pretty. :) Ry laughs at me when I say that, but its the truth.

It's the upstairs of an old Victorian home built in the early 1900's so all of the doorknobs are engraved, there's 6" molding around all of the door frames, and its just a fun, MUCH larger layout than we're used to. And the best part is that our landlord, this funny, jittery guy who reminds me so much of a cross between my mom's brothers, is a member of the town's Historic Building Society and he's restoring the whole thing. Claw-footed tub, pedestal sinks, etc. I just love it. Did I mention there's an attic complete with pull-down ladder from the ceiling- how can you not be in love with a place this charming? For a couple of history buffs such as ourselves, I'm sure you can imagine how much fun we're having.

Sorry for the long tangent, but congratulations for making it through! I couldn't help myself, and once we have everything put away I'll be sure to put up some pics to show it off. :)

Ok, now its time for the pictures. I think I'll tackle yesterday's outing today, and leave the rest for later.

Welcome to

Ulm Pishkun

Weird Name, Cool Place.

B u f f a l o J u m p a n d M u s e u m

These guys were Reese's best friends in the museum. She climbed right into the display with them and petted their noses and I think she even gave the calf a kiss. The museums here are great because for the most part they have a strict "Please Touch" policy. :)

Reese and I, plopped down on a comfy buffalo rug

How can you resist trying on a hat like this?!

Reesey digging for fossils and arrowheads

On our way up the three-mile trail. You can see why they call it Big Sky Country.

This was awesome. At the top of the buffalo jump was a Prairie Dog Town. After you huff and puff your way up the cliff, you hear an incessant yipping. Looking around it looks like just a bunch of rocks around little mounds. But they are actually prairie dogs, tons and tons of them, and they sound just like little metal detectors- the closer you get, the faster they yip.

This is the Buffalo Jump. Back before the Native Americans had horses, they still hunted buffalo- but in a different way. Basically, one brave kid- usually about 12- would wear a buffalo skin over him and lead the herd of buffalo from the plain where they were grazing to the edge of a cliff. He would leap onto one of the rocks and hide himself in the crevices while the animals fell over. The rest of the waiting tribe would then take the animals for meat, tools, clothing, etc. This particular jump was used for about 800 years!

This is the view from the top. See that gray line in the center? That's the museum, where we hiked from and back. It was a great hike- complete with snake sighting. We were warned before we left to be on our guard for rattlesnakes, apparently they were coming out of their holes in droves since it was warming up. And when we got back, one of the Museum workers told us someone last week counted 17 of them coming out as he took a rest on one of the benches!

Good freaking laws! I think I would have died.

Luckily, ours, though uncomfortably large, was only a harmless gopher snake. And lucky for me, Ryan had the foresight to jump in front of me when he saw it crossing our path, saving me from happening upon it without warning. Thanks Babe, you are definitely my hero!