Week in review

What a busy week I've had! My sisters arrived last Saturday afternoon for a week of hanging out, camping, and celebrating Michelle's and my 30th birthday. I'm happy to say that we had a fabulous time and did almost everything that they wanted to do while they were out here.

With the weather suddenly cooling off for the entire week, we were unable to go floating. Instead, we headed to Phillipsburg on Sunday where Michelle found three rough sapphires that will be able to be cut. On Monday, we headed to Glacier National Park for two nights of car camping. Tuesday, we drove the Sun Road and did a bit of hiking where we saw several mountain goats and a couple of different families of black bears. I got a four mile run in (opposited direction of bear sighting) and then we hit the lake, where it proved to be too cold to actually submerge.

Wednesday, we packed up camp before we headed to the stables for our trail ride. It was cool and started to rain towards the end of an uneventful ride. As we were nearing the corral, my horse had had enough, and decided to crow hop a couple of times, of which I was able to stay on for one. No major injuries, save for a few bruises and a very soar neck and chest from bracing for the fall. I had also opted out of wearing a helmet (which I will never do again) and was very lucky to hit my head lightly enough that there was no bump or soreness whatsoever. Had we been a few feet further along the trail, my head would have hit a large rock...all I could think was, "Not now, I'm not ready."

With that excitement over, we headed back to Missoula. We had timed it just about right for the arrival of Matt and Tiffany, who are also from Iowa and would be staying the night with us on their way through on a bike trip. My sisters, guests, and three other friends headed out to Sean Kelly's for dinner and drinks. As we were heading home, Michelle commented that I had very nice friends. Indeed, I do.

Thursday proved to be a bit of a dreary day, weather wise, so our last chance for floating went down the tubes. Instead, I stayed in bed until almost noon. After I finally gained the motivation to get up, the three of us did some shopping (Matt and Tiffany had left at 8am). As planned, a group of friends met up at Caras park for dinner and drinks and then headed out to a couple of bars for more drinks before heading to Blake and Justin's for cake.

Friday was a fun filled day of golfing with my coworkers in a Tough Enough To Wear Pink tournament, after which I rejoined my sisters for our last evening together. We had dinner, hiked the M and they enjoyed Big Dipper Ice Cream. Their visit was quickly drawing to a close.

I saw them off at 6am this morning and went back to bed, completely wiped out from over a week of constant activity. While drinking my coffee before work, I was a bit unsettled, as this was the first time in a week that I had been alone. I was enjoying the quiet, but at the same time, I was a bit sad.

Pictures of our time together to follow in my next post.