The Week Ben Left

Well, Bendigo left for Basic Training on Wednesday the 3rd.  But, the week before he left & the week after he was gone, we took the opportunity to spend lots of time with him and his grandparents.  It was a great time.

When Jim & Jan arrived on Monday the 25th, Jeff & I were in camp doing an overnight.  

Picture of Lone Peak as we drove over Jack Creek to start our overnighter

So, Bendigo picked them up at the airport late that night & they all got a motel room.  The next morning, Tuesday, Bendigo had to meet up with his sargeant to sign his ship papers. After that, they made their way to the ranch where Jim & Jan got settled into the guest cabin.  Jeff & I arrived home late that afternoon.  For the next several days we played tourist, visiting Virginia City, Ennis, the Madison River, etc.  Here's some of our fun:

One of the first nights, we headed down to the Madison River for a picnic dinner & so the guys could get in some fishing.

Ben putting his Fly Fishing 101 class to use

On Saturday, Jeff had to leave for a 4-day pack trip. 

Some pictures of the trip Jeff was on in Yellowstone National Park, at a camp on Slough Creek

So that left Bendigo and I to entertain Jim & Jan.  We had a fantastic time visiting Louis & Clark Caverns, going to church in Big Sky, going out to dinner, shopping in Ennis, checking out the fishing festival, playing Cribbage (I taught Jan the game and she beat ME) and just generally having fun.

One of the fish in Ennis where the "Population: Population 872 people, 11,000,000,000 trout"

lunch at the Pit Stop before Jeff left

Virginia City Pics (before Jeff left, obviously)

Jim's a huge J.W. fan!

Good pic, huh?  I staged it. :)

Is it just me, or does Jeff look the part for V.C.?

something was interesting

Bendigo "El Bandito"

3 Hombres, 3 Generations

Drinks at Wells Fargo Steakhouse before dinner... and no, I don't THINK Ben was in that much pain

Bendigo playing for his g.p.'s

A piece a the fishing festival.. all made out of old metal parts.. very cool

Here are some of the Louis & Clark Cavern pics... the ones I could tell which way was up.  It was a great time and Jeff & I hope to go back for the Christmas Torchlight Tour.

Quite a hike up ... not steep but it takes awhile

Fossils in the rocks on the way

Yay!  She made it all the way up!!

We were the last of our group to arrive, so obviously we made them wait a little longer while we took a pic!

a polished step.. pretty huh?

I forget what they called him.. grim reaper maybe?  But I see a Samurai

Loved this pic of the g.p.'s

The evening Jeff returned coincided with Bendigo's ship date.  That evening, Jeff met us at Olive Garden in Bozeman, where we had dinner. I then said my good-byes to Bendigo (easier to do that eve in the Olive Garden parking lot than at the airport the next a.m.!) and took Jeff's load of horses on home to Ennis to unload & unsaddle.  Jeff stayed & had dessert with them and then they took Ben to his hotel room, and then headed back to the ranch.  Early the next a.m., Ben's sargeant met him at the airport & escorted him for his flight.

We were able to take a few days off that week & spend a little more time with Jim & Jan.  We knew we had to work Sat & Sun & they were leaving Monday a.m.  So, the guys fished a day or two and we took a trip over to Big Sky to show them our new digs.

our bedroom (a separate little cabin from our main living quarters)

chandelier in our bedroom

our main living quarters "the great room"

more of the great room

one of the views out the windows

After visiting Big Sky, we went over to the Corral Bar & Steakhouse for lunch & then wandered down to the Gallatin River so the two guys could fish while Jan & I read.  This little fella came & visited me while I reading.

Well, that's a lot of what we did... very busy couple weeks, and it was tough to send Ben off... but at least we had some distractions the rest of that week. :)