Big Sky Country!

One of my favorite places in the world is Montana, aka Big Sky Country. My aunt has a house on a lake, and for the past many many years, we’ve spent some fraction of summer there (usually revolving around the 4th of July). It had been a couple of years since I went up due to work and schedules, but this year our entire family went up. The entire vacation was spent on the lake jet skiing, boating, water skiing, wakeboarding, and tubing. The weather was absolutely gorgeous! It was sunny and warm, and the neat thing about MT (why it’s called Big Sky Country) is that it can be hot and sunny with clear skies on one side of the lake, and on the other side there can be dark clouds. It’s absolutely gorgeous. Here are some pictures I took this year:

Me and my baby bro

Me and my nephew

Tubing with my baby bro and our sis-in-law (our big bro's wife)

My baby nephew

My big bro, his wife, baby bro, and my two nephews :)

Pure heaven

Me and baby bro

MT has spectacular sunsets

Weeeeeee!!!!

Cousins!!  I love them!!

Sunset :)

My baby nephew was SO close to walking!  He was walking with this chair all over the house!

Me and my cousin drinking sangria through Red Vines

Me and my beautiful cousins

Sunning on the dock

I love it here 

I also got a run in! First run for me in a LONG time! I woke up really early one morning before anyone in the house was awake (with the exception of my dad who is also an early bird…the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree :)), and it was the perfect morning for a run – cool with sporadic drizzling. I hit the pavement and I can’t even describe how great it felt to be surrounded by nature and breathing the cleanest and freshest air, filled with the scent of evergreens and wild flowers. It would drizzle then stop, drizzle then stop, and the sky was painted with spotted clouds and the sun trying to peak through.

Big Sky Country

 Trail run

Running in Montana

I ran 2 miles out, then turned around to head back. On my way back I got wrapped up in remembering my uncle and Grammie, both who loved that place more than anywhere. Side note: my uncle died of lung cancer 12 years ago, and he always said felt so peaceful when he was at his house in MT. And most of you know about my Grammie.  Anyways, I was remembering them and smiling, and I felt so close to them. I even forgot I was running. Then all of a sudden, a huge gust of wind came just as if they were saying hello and smiling back at me. I know it sounds bizarre, but I know that’s what it was. It was a magical feeling. Before I knew it, I was back at the house and the wind subsided. That run was one of the greatest runs I’ve ever had because everything just clicked.


After my run, it was back to water sports on the lake! Then we celebrated the 4th of July with our Annual Croquet Tournament complete with Sangria my cousin and I made, followed by our famous Fireworks show! My family always goes crazy with fireworks…we seriously have the best fireworks show on the lake!

Let the croquet tourney begin!  (And a view of the lake from the house)

Happy 4th of July from me and my cousin! 

4th of July tats with big bro!

That's right.

Glow sticks on the 4th!!

Glow sticks with my 2yo cousin

The arsenal.  We go nuts for fireworks!

The fireworks masters - my cousin, bro, and nephew

As always, it was a spectacular holiday filled with family, activities, nature, great food and drinks, and so much fun and love! I am so blessed to have such a wonderful and close-knit family <3