I mentioned to you all before that Rich and the kids and I went on a short Carribean cruise in early July. There were 14 of us that went: Rich’s parents, their three kids and spouses, and most of the grandkids. We were celebrating Rich’s parent’s birthdays….Rich’s sister’s birthday, a niece’s birthday…a couple of graduations…and Tim’s new job (which he accepted while on the cruise). There were two stops: Roatan, Honduras, and Cozumel, Mexico. These are photos of our family during those two stops. Since there were so many of us traveling, I wanted to there to be one place for them to see these photos…so this was it. We had a lot of fun with animals! Rich even took a few photos of me while I snuggled with a sloth. There are a few photos with Rich’s mom. She has Alzheimer’s and is starting to forget her family. I tried to take a few photos of her and Rich together when it was our turn to watch after her. It is such a hard disease to experience with your loved one….because you are looking at their adult body of a person you have a long history with….and inside, there is a very childlike brain who doesn’t function on an adult level or remember the simplest things. Everyone has to keep a sense of humor because otherwise it would just be too overwhelmingly sad. There were still a lot of poignant moments that I know we will all treasure.

Y’all….I cannot tell you how much time I have spent in a car/airplane this summer – mostly car. But Lily needed to get to Omaha to pick up her car and stuff for college….so Rich, Tallinn, Lily, and I jumped in the truck to make the trek to Omaha….then to Kansas City. What’s another 45 hours of driving when you have already logged 100 hours in the car? I complain because it is A LOT…but in the same breath, I am thankful because I am well enough to be able to travel and my treatment allows me the flexibility to do so. This was a bittersweet trip….our last chickadee was leaving the nest. I am so proud of the young lady Lily has become and it is time for her to strike out on her own and spread her wings. So she left our new place in Montana….AGAIN…to leave huckleberries, jerky, mountains, and wildlife, to head back to Omaha. Montana is such a large state, that the first 11 hours of driving is in Montana alone, as we are living in the northwestern corner and need to get to the southeast corner to get to Wyoming…then South Dakota and finally Nebraska. We stopped briefly in the badlands…and at Wall Drug. Tallinn didn’t freak out over the dinosaur, which was surprising. The acres and acres of haybales were in Montana. We must have seen tens of thousands of them.

We had a small….okay maybe major hiccup along the way to Omaha. Lily had to fill out a lot of online information for Kansas City Art Institute. One of the questions was if she had ever been in Asia for more than 2 months. Well, she was born in China and then lived in Japan. So she answered yes. Granted…this was over 16 1/2 years ago (they didn’t ask that question). She got a text on a Monday while we were driving across Montana with very little cell service, saying she couldn’t move into the dorms on Thursday without a TB test, because she was considered high risk. Lily was vaccinated as an infant in China for TB. It is a live vaccine, so she cannot have a TB skin test like most Americans. She would have a violent reaction to it. So she needed to have a chest x-ray to prove she didn’t have TB. We have moved from Omaha to Montana. We changed our insurance….she no longer had a doctor in Omaha. It was crazy. I was driving and Rich was making calls to our insurance and then to clinics in the Omaha area that had an available appointment on a Wednesday…the only full day we would be in town. Do you know what a tall order that was? We were outside of cell service 90% of the time, so we would find a random spot with service and pull over on the side of the road to make phone calls. We ended up with an appointment at a clinic in Omaha at 0745 Wednesday morning. We went thinking we would only get a doctor’s order or referral for an x-ray and then try to find a place for that…but God was looking out for us. They had an x-ray there and by luck had a radiology tech there that morning. It was all done in the morning and we picked up a letter of clearance from the doctor that afternoon. Lily wanted to go to Dave and Buster’s – a dinner and arcade place, to cash in some of her points she accumulated over our years in Omaha. She bought a radio-controlled helicopter, which she had fun flying in our empty house in Omaha. Our close family friend, Emily Ryan, spent a lot of that day with us. She brought a SPREAD for lunch for us and two pans of scotcheroos – one for the family and one for Lily to take to the dorms to “make friends”. (it worked – it was a hit with her roommate and suitemates). I had to take a photo of the Husker flags at the grocery store….sports are not like this where we live now. I will be following the Huskers from here though!

We left Thursday morning, August 17th, to take Lily to Kansas City. Our house was put on the market the next day. No nibbles yet, but we hope someone will fall in love with it. So not only was the 17th the day we became empty-nesters, but it was also our 32nd wedding anniversary. It was awfully hot that day and we were lucky. First kid of three and we finally got a first floor assignment. Her roommate and best friend from high school, Sam, was already moved in and the adults with her helped schlep in Lily’s belongings as one of us had to be in the shade with Tallinn most of the time. After all her belongings were placed in her room, and her bed was lofted, we took her and went to see Michelle. Michelle had been out-of-state in training for nearly 2 months and had just returned home the day prior. We went out to eat and it was great to all be together. We rushed Lily back to the dorm for a residents meeting that evening and started on our way home. The dorms were all decorated in Pokémon themes and I know both of Lily’s brothers would have approved. By the way, Tim was travelling at this time as well…he got to spend 10 days touring Italy with the UC San Diego women’s basketball team. He just returned last night. He had the same kind of heat the midwest has been having….but with no A/C and no ice.

We left that night and drove through part of Kanas before stopping for the night. We then drove the next day along I-70 until we were in Colorado. It has almost been 18 months since Joe died in a snowstorm in a car accident in Colorado. We had never been to the crash site. We don’t know when we’ll be that way again, so took this time to go and just be there for a little bit. It was 100 degrees…but we were there about an hour, cleaning up the area and adding a few things to the site that the OFD firemen had so graciously placed beforehand. The first photo is how we found his site…the next photo is how we left it. The third photo was 15 minutes after we left…and I believe Joe showing us he was there with us. It was very very hard, but now the tears of Joe’s parents are mingled in the dirt with his blood. We can’t thank James Davis enough for helping to make this a more permanent memorial for Joe. He went there on the one year anniversary of his death and helped spruce it up a bit. I told Rich that I heard Joe in my head the whole time we were driving there telling me that he wasn’t there. I know that…he lives on in all of the hearts of those who loved him. It was something as his parents we needed to do though.

We stayed the night in Fort Collins, our first official time camping in the trailer at a campsite. We left early the next morning and drove to Jackson, Wyoming, where we stayed for three nights. We love the Grand Tetons National Park. We had never been there in peak tourist season though. The weather the first day was a steady rain all day. The mountains were socked in. We still managed to hike about 10 miles that day in the rain. Did you know that after several hours in the rain, raincoats are no longer impermeable to water? We were both soaked to the skin that night. The next day went horseback riding for a couple of hours in the mountains and the forest. Rich went white water rafting in the afternoon and I went to the park to try to take some photos. The clouds weren’t so low that day. You could see the mountains, but it was still pretty storming, which was a cool look. These are my cell phone photos. I hope the good camera photos will be impressive. I always going to Mormon row and taking photos of the Moulton Barn…the most photographed barn in America.

We drove through the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone to head north to Montana. We FINALLY got home Tuesday night close to midnight. We have been unpacking, resettling in, and enjoying the quiet and cool temps here. This was our view on the walk to the mailbox this week. Ready for visitors!

On one of Lily’s last days in the Flathead River Valley, they had a big open house event at the Sportsman and Ski Haus in Kalispell. We raced to get over there and see the birds of prey they had on display. Montana Wild Wings were there with their ambassador birds. They aren’t located too far from us and I think maybe Rich and I will possibly volunteer with them. We had a great time talking with the volunteers about these beautiful birds…some bigger than others. They had some tiny owls! Lily is a huge fan of birds, so this was fun to experience together.

While Lily was here, we wanted to make sure she got to spend some time in the park before she went to Kansas City for school. Since COVID, there has been a strict ticket system to get into Glacier National Park. Having a park pass isn’t good enough. You need to get a daily vehicle entrance pass to go on certain roads during the hours of 6 a.m. and 3 p.m. You can get in outside of those times with your park pass. This will go on until September 10th…when the official end of the high tourist season is over. Then the locals can start to enjoy the park without the crowds. If you can’t get the vehicle passes (they go on sale months ahead of time with a few being released 48 hours prior) you can do a tour of some kind and be able to enter the park. We chose to do a Red Bus tour. These Red Buses are actually serviced and stored within walking distance of our house. They are pretty cool. They are vintage 1930’s red buses with roll back tops. They seat 16 and this fleet of 33 red vintage buses are the one of the oldest fleet of working vehicles in the world. We took a tour from Apgar Village near the West Entrance (about 20 minutes from our house) to Logan Pass (which is the highest point on the Going-To-The-Sun Road, which cuts through the park). It was a little smokey….we have several wildfires burning in our area. A huge storm blew in while we were at Logan Pass….but we had a good time and learned a lot from our driver. I would love to do the East side at some point, as well. Lily also got an ice cream cone with huckleberry ice-cream. The water is crystal clear in GNP…and the mountains are always spectacular.

We have purchased a few kayaks since we arrived here. We have a single, where I drop Rich off on a river somewhere and pick him up somewhere else. We also have a tandem, where Rich and I take it out to the lake to paddle around. We took Lily out during the brief time she was here this summer. She and Rich rode together in the tandem and I rode in the single. To quote Rich, “This was a learning experience. Two things we learned: Cyndi paddles stronger on her left side and Lily needs her own paddle!” There is also huge woodpecker we saw when kayaking.

Last weekend I got up early and went down the road to take some sunrise photos. I had several things that I loved in these photos….haybales….mountains….dramatic clouds (and some smoke as well-not my favorite but dramatic nonetheless), and purple flowers. How can you go wrong when you mix those things together with a rising sun? You can’t! God’s glory just smacks you in the face!

When Tim, Rich, and I went to visit Crater Lake National Park in March, we couldn’t really see anything. There was 130% of the annual snowfall on the ground at the time…over 13 feet of snow. We went snowshoeing and had a blast, but didn’t get anywhere near the rim or the lake. While I was driving home to Montana from San Diego, I decided to take a brief break and do a 2 hour trolley tour around the rim and see what we missed in the early spring. Even though there was a lot of smoke in the air from wild fires in western Oregon, I thought it was absolutely mesmerizingly beautiful.

I took some notes when I was on the trolley to share with you. The rim and lake is actually a caldera (where a volcano’s center has collapsed upon itself). The lake is 1943 feet deep. If you place the Eiffel Tower, stack the Washington Monument on top of it, then the Statue of Liberty on top of those two, you would still have about 60 feet of water above the torch until you reach the surface. It is not the deepest lake in the world, but it is one of them. The water is incredibly clear. There is no sediment or anything foreign that goes into the water. The water is from rain and snowmelt only. Nothing runs into the lake due to the rim. Every summer, the rangers and scientists lower an 8 inch radius disc attached to a rope into the lake. You can see the disc 130 feet down easily. It is one of the clearest lakes in the world. It is pretty cold. Once you are more than 10 feet below the surface, the temperature drops to 38 degrees. In the warmest part of the year in August, the surface temp is about 55 degrees. Why is it so blue? It is the sun reflecting back from the sun. Is there fish? They introduced several kinds of fish in the lake in 1890 to promote more visitors. Only two kind survived; rainbow trout and kokanee salmon. The trout grow to about 20 inches long and the salmon around 18 inches. There is also crayfish (they were introduced to the lake on purpose but sadly, they have almost destroyed the only indigenous species in the lake, the Manzana Newt.) The only indigenous mammal around is the pika. The island in the lake is called Wizard Island. There is also this Hemlock log/tree that floats in the lake that is called The Old Man of the Lake. It is over 100 years old and floats vertically about 7 feet above the water. I was actually able to see it while we were on the tour. The guide said that one summer the Old Man of the Lake moved over 60 miles just from the lake currents. They also joke about the fact that the log actually controls the weather around the lake.

The scenery was amazing. I hardly did anything to these photos. I almost wanted to turn down the blue hues…but I wanted you to see what it looked like to the naked eye. It was crazy blue. If you get a chance to go…..you should! I have one odd ball photo in here…because this tree….fighting to survive the elements on the road up to Crater Lake National Park, just spoke to me.

I have mentioned that I helped our son, Tim, move to San Diego at the end of June. I was only there for about 48 hours and most of that was helping him get settled into his new place. We did take a break on the second afternoon to head to the San Diego Zoo. It is FABULOUS! I loved it. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a good telephoto zoom lens with me. It was pretty warm (for San Diego). They had mister sprays blowing on many of the animals….some of the people as well. The San Diego Zoo is a lot of up and down hills. It is a place I would like to spend all day with my good camera and my big lens. There were A LOT of people there. I look forward to visiting Tim again soon and spending another day there rather than just a few hours. We had a good time though! The zoo is only about 20 minutes from his new place!

By the way….Tim is doing great! He is the sports performance coach for the women’s basketball team at the University of California San Diego. He also gives a hand on the men’s basketball side as well. He has a great house that he is living in where he has 3 male roommates who he actually knows their names and what they look like. He has two rooms to himself and use of all the shared living spaces as well. It is a nice neighborhood in the University City area in a quiet little neighborhood where there are a lot of retired folks. Not a lot of little kids zooming about. His backyard is spacious, walled in and has lemon trees and a few other fruit trees as well as beautiful flowering bushes. He has been working over 12 hour days the last couple of weeks getting into the flow of his new position. He has had a steep learning curve but is putting in the extra effort to get on track with the high level sports science they use for practice. If you know Tim, he is always eager to learn and then master something new. He is working on that now. He leaves with the team next week to go to Italy for 10 days. They will be playing some games while they are there but will also be doing a lot of touristy-type things that will help with team building for the year. I am so, so proud of what he is doing with his life and I am glad he is finally in a spot where he can be challenged, appreciated, and also have a life because he is getting paid. Makes a momma’s heart happy. He has definitely paid his dues at the last several spots he was at. Anyhow, here are a few photos I took at the San Diego Zoo….

Anyone who knows me just a little bit, knows how much I love sunflower fields. I will drive hours to see them for an hour of photographs, then turn around and drive hours back home. I also loved lavender fields. I am a fan of purple and the smell is amazing. We are fortunate enough to have gone to the lavender fields in Sequim, Washington four years ago. They are some of the most beautiful and large fields of lavender in the United States. Lily and I drove an hour to see a lavender field in Iowa last summer and were more than a bit disappointed. We took more photos with the frogs in the nearby pond. However, we did hear about lavender fields near us in Montana. About 30 minutes away is a tiny rural town called Somers, Montana. We wound our way over there a couple of days ago to visit one of their lavender farms. It did not disappoint. Just like sunflowers, lavender attracts bees. However, there were lots of big, buzzing bumblebees here. They flew just slow enough for me to capture them doing their busy work of pollinating! The first couple of photos let you know how far away we are from everyone!

Lily is still smiling…she hates bugs….especially bees! She is getting better though! She has been my wingman for most of my flower photography over the last couple of years and she is not as nearly as bad as she used to be. Instead of screaming and running, she just makes a weird guttural noise in her throat and throws some pretty impressive matrix moves to avoid any bugs flying near her.

I am FINALLY getting to all the photos on my good camera…so there should be photos coming! I wanted to share some sunset photos. The darkest one…with the moon…that was actually in Washington state as I was driving towards Montana. You know how your GPS sends you on a wild goose chase through the countryside to save you 2 minutes in your drive? Well, I was out in the middle of NOWHERE all alone for over an hour. I was literally getting a little nervous. There were forest fires in the near area and that cloud is actually a smudge of smoke. I was in such a rural area that I thought it was sprinkling but it was actually bugs hitting my windshield and car. Oh my goodness, it was a mess! I could barely see when I pulled into the motel. God was smiling on me though, because they were resurfacing the motel parking lot and the motel had everyone parking at the business next door….a CARWASH. Best $12 I ever spent the next morning! The other sunset photos are from just down the road from us in Columbia Falls. I went down to take some photos of the sunsetting behind the water. I was ill-prepared for the bushes and brambles though. So they are peek-a-boo shots between the branches.