Montana - Ryan's Paradise

For the past seven years Ryan has been after me to go with him to his Dad's place on the Madison river in Montana.  This place is Ryan's paradise and he wanted me to come and enjoy it with him. This year he was able to find a weekend that worked for us, his Dad, and his Mom to take the kids (so I didn't have to worry about them falling in the River every second!).

The weekend started out with a little excitement as we drove right by a brush fire outside Dubois that had started about 20 minutes earlier:

I think they had it mostly contained by the time we drove through.

Friday I began my Montana experience by fishing (well I didn't really fish, it was mostly Ryan) off a pontoon boat on Hebgen lake with Ryan, his Dad, Steve, Steve's wife, Diane, and their good friend Harold or HP as we like to call him.  Isn't the boat a beauty:

Ryan in his happy place:

I was in my happy place sunbathing on the boat and listening to HP's secrets to a happy life:

I even got the pleasure of driving the pontoon back to the Marina:

The rest of the weekend Ryan fished and I got to read a couple of books while looking at this amazing view from the deck:

And to top it off, Steve loves to cook gourmet meals and drink really really good red wine.  It was tough.  I think I managed to have salmon, scallops and this yummy paella while we were there:

This was definitely one of the more relaxing trips I have had in awhile and I definitely came home well rested.  Steve and Diane, you are gracious hosts and we thank you for having us.  We may be back sooner than you think:

And I also want to thank Grandma Connie and Papa Randy for watching our kiddos while we were gone.  I could tell that they had a great time as they both looked like this about twenty minutes after we picked them up on Sunday: