I traveled to D.C. for work, where we had an event at the Capital Building and the Bare Naked Ladies Performed. We went to STL and stayed in Jellystone park for Mathilda’s 5th birthday. Britt came to the property for a month to drop off her dog, Juno, for the next year while she goes to South Korea. My parents visited and Mathilda had a ‘2nd birthday’. We participated in the annual tow 4th of July parade. Then Britt’s boyfriend, Ian, came out for a week. I killed two snakes that were eating baby chicks and a ton of eggs and we spent some time at the lake.

We’re parked for a bit, Jim’s cleaning up the property and we’re getting used to chickens (I even baked them a treat). We expanded the outdoor part of the coop and lost three chickens, one to a snake, the other two disappeared. We went on our first hike in a while and rode our bikes around Ozark Isle. We decided to expand the building and contracted to have a overhang built off the other side and a patio with a roof off the front. In preparation, we found some logs from the property to use as the support of the roof. Construction will hopefully start in June, but we’ll see. Willow cemented his status as a mighty hunter by turning up with blood splatter on his face. Mom and Dad came out for a week – we got to see the full solar eclipse from the lake and did some target practice. We went to STL to help Ash for a couple days, Becky and Jim came to visit, then the g-kids came to visit for a weekend. We found one of the chickens in the outdoor cat box with 11 chicks. The kids were instantly addicted to dozer rides, side-by-side rides and feeding chickens treats. Britt found out she’s being deployed to South Korea, we’ll keep Juno for a year – her roommate will keep the cats.

We spent a cheesecake themed Christmas at the land with Chayse. Early on 1/1, I went to St. Louis for 4 days, before coming back for a day and a half, then going to Miami. I was able to spend 3 weeks there. Jim had a couple snow incidents and some VERY cold weather, while I enjoyed 75 degrees. Then, Ash, the girls and I drove to St. Louis. While she worked to get her new place ready, Jim came up and we spent 2 weeks with the girls in an AirBnB. Jim played with them during the day while I worked. Chayse went to the zoo with us, then watched a movie with Tilly. We got back to the land and decided to get chickens. We got a chicken coop/run with 10 hens and a rooster. A couple days later, we got 5 more hens… so we’re quickly learning a lot about chickens 🙂 We found some Highland cows in Missouri! Britt welcomed Juno into her fur family and has been snowboarding every chance she gets.

We toured the Edinburg palace, abbey and fort, had a proper Scottish breakfast, and enjoyed high tea with Jim and Becky. We tried clotted cream for the first time and were able to attend a rendition of Handel’s Messiah in a 1700’s cathedral. We took the train to Glasgow, where we saw one of 5 existing metal tall ships, an auto museum, Glasgow University, the outside of the Glasgow cathedral, construction began in the 1100’s and an incredible necropolis on the hill behind it. Jim found a sausage at the Christmas market, but it was sadly not comparable to Jim B’s find!

Jim continued his favorite hobby, dozer work, before we dropped the animals at a friend’s house and took off for our trip. We had a 9 hour layover in Newark, so we spent some time exploring NY. We were able to tour the Empire State Building, see Rockefeller Center and Times Square. We learned that there is more than one 16th street, which resulted in a bit of panic when trying to find the train station to get back to the airport. Then, an overnight flight to Edinburgh (pronounced Edinbur), where we met Becky and Jim at the AirBNB and started exploring. It was amazing. The history and surviving buildings were stunning. We learned the thistle became the national flower when, in the 1200’s a member of an invading army stepped on one and screamed, alerting the Scottish to their location. We tried haggis, neeps & tatties, blood pudding, and yorkshire pudding. We used the train system to go into the UK to see the AMAZING Newcastle castle and saw part of Hardian’s wall, as well as Roslin Chapel. Jim B found a giant sausage at a Christmas market (in England, before we met up with them).

We got to Montana, Jim hung out with Tim while I went to Miami for some kid/g-kid time. I was able to come back in time for Tim and Julie’s outdoor wedding at Tally Lake. We were able to get into East Glacier, which was closed last time that we were there. We got back to the property, with a couple stops at Harvest Hosts on the way. One of the Harvest Host locations had an amazing collection of old and unique vehicles. The annual tarantula migration kept the cats busy, Jim got set up with his new dozer, got the shooting range set up and we got skirting on the RV. Then, we headed to Birmingham for Thanksgiving w/ Jim and Becky. Chayse was able to come out to see us for the week.

Britt was able to come out for a week and explore with us. We visited Seattle and toured the Underground city that current Seattle was built over. While the underground itself was a bit disappointing, it was very interesting to hear the history of the city and how it came to be as it is today. We did some hikes in Olympic and toured the coast. We were able to see the Tree of Life, which is amazing. Britt left, we found a dog friendly hike, spent a day at North Cascades NP, then left for Montana so that I could go to Florida to spend some time with Ash and the g-kids.

We moved on to the Oregon coast, visiting the Columbia River Gorge (lots of hiking and waterfalls), some old forts, Cannon Beach and Astoria (home of the Goonies). We then went to Mt. Rainer, which was incredible, but had limited visibility due to wildfire smoke or storms on most days. We did some lower level hiking and saw a ton of waterfalls. We did a couple higher elevation hikes and were lucky to catch a few breaks in the clouds.

We made it to Idaho and completed our first back country hike. We went with Britt and some AF folks, it was incredible. We hiked in the Sawtooth Mountains and camped at Alpine Lake. We also hiked further up to Sawtooth Lake. The water was freezing, both Jim and Britt got in both lakes, I didn’t. Family came to visit, we did some white water rafting, visited an old jail, did some kayaking on a river, and visited a portion of the Oregon Trail before heading out to Oregon and Mt. Hood. In Oregon we did a couple rides down an alpine slide and some hiking. 

Did a weekend camping/kayak trip to a Mo. State Park. I went to STL for work and got to go to my first Cards game in a couple years. We bought a boat 4 days before we left for the summer and were able to take it out a couple times. After a couple stops, we got to Wyoming and the Tetons. We did some hiking, a float trip on the Yellowstone river and more driving. On our way out, we stopped at Yellowstone Bear world in Idaho – black bears wandered freely, a couple of grizzlies were behind a fence and there were bison and some beautiful elk.