Day 10: A Montana Summer Night's Dream

What a grand day - not only were we NOT driving, we were treated to lots of Montana beauty and Judberger hospitality (Ann Snowberger + husband Ivan Judson). Ann's daughter Hannah made delicious pancakes for breakfast; we let the teenagers sleep in as long as they wanted; we went our for another drive/walk/rock collecting/snake hunt; then came back and loaded up the trucks, equipment, and snacks for a day of rafting on the river right by their house. (By the way, Ann's divinely inspired philosophy of river snacks is frozen candy bars! Could she be anymore in tune with God's will?!) They have a big inflatable party raft which nicely accommodated all nine of us and we spent a couple of lazy hours floating down the Madison River, laughing, talking, splashing and enjoying the scenery before returning to where they had parked the vehicle with the cooler of frozen treats. What a perfect day! After that I went back out with Hannah to take some pictures right up the road at Buffalo Jump State Park while Ann fixed another wonderful dinner. Now everyone is settled in for the night: JD and Isaiah asleep out in the tent. Samantha, Ann, and Hannah in the girls room, and then Anthony and I are living like sultans with Ann and Ivan giving up their big comfortable bed for us, in which I'm lying even as I type, so if one of these sentences doesn't end soon, you'll know what happened. You know, way back when I emailed the friends and relations on whom we are inflicting ourselves on this trip, Ann came up with a counter suggestion that we pick up Nina's and Skip's families, the Foleys and the LeVans and head out to Montana for two weeks all together out here. I've realized a couple of interesting things 1) she was probably only partly kidding! They are such consumate hosts and 2) that she was right - we probably should have done that! Brought the whole gang out here for a 2 week Montana holiday! I'm just thoroughly enjoying both the place and the people! Oh man, I am very sleepy....I posted a few pictures on facebook tonight if you'd like to get a glimpse of some of the things I've been writing about. Tomorrow we head to Yellowstone with the Judbergers and then on Wednesday we strike out on our own again for Glacier National Park, then on from there to Spokane - to visit with all of the Erbs and to pick up Olga at the airport ZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...................