Yurt Dinner, take two

Last year we took my parents to dinner at a yurt in Big Sky. The food was DELICIOUS and it was a really fun evening! So this year we took 4 of our friends up there, to celebrate their upcoming marriages.

The evening starts at one of the hotels in Big Sky where everyone loads into a couple snowcats (some people inside, and some people riding on top!) and we take a trip up the side of the mountain to the yurt. It's about a 20 minute ride up and it's unheated, so by the time we get to the yurt we're ready to be warm! The yurt is nice and toasty inside, and there are bowls of hot french onion soup waiting for us. This is where the gloriously delicious food begins, and this soup is to die for. SO GOOD. After the soup, the waiters (otherwise known as the 4 guys who run the whole operation, wearing plaid flannel shirts and headlamps) come around and ask how you'd like your tenderloin. Then they go off and cook it, leaving a little break in the meal and time for sledding.

Yes, sledding. They provide sleds and a little run down the mountain a ways and people are encouraged to go out and play in the snow. We went with Colt and Susie and Kevin and Noelle, and while Noelle took one run, it was mostly the guys who had fun sledding. And boy did they have fun! I'm thinking they tried to max out the weight limit on the sled when they piled three grown men onto one sled and took it down!

From Yurt Dinner

You can see how much fun they had, though, and they worked up a bit of an appetite just in time to come back in, warm up, and enjoy the rest of the meal.

The rest of the meal is served family style, with large bowls of local vegetables, mashed potatoes (the BEST mashed potatoes you will ever have, by the way.) and the meat. Mmmm... the meat. When you make your reservation, you have the option of Salmon or Beef Tenderloin. We go for the tenderloin. I get mine well done, and it is still SO tender. It's amazing. Plus, they give you Montana sized portions. And then they come around asking if you'd like seconds. Always take the seconds. It's so good. And then, they come around asking if you'd like thirds. Seriously. It's like an all you can eat meal of the best food ever. I don't know how food this good comes from ski bums in plaid flannel shirts wearing headlamps, but it does. It's incredible.

About the time you can't eat any more, they clear your plate and you get to spend some time visiting and listening to the music played by a local musician. We took a little time to toast Colt and Susie and Kevin and Noelle on their upcoming weddings, in March and September. Cheers!

From Yurt Dinner

As you can see, dinner is by candle light, so it's hard to get good pictures, but makes for a nice atmosphere!

From Yurt Dinner

All in all, the evening is great, and just about the time you think it can't get any better, they bring out dessert... fondue. And not just any fondue, but fondue made from melted down Toblerone, so it is just as smooth and delicious as could be. Dipping choices include pound cake, bananas, apples, and oranges. I recommend a cube of pound cake paired with an orange slice in the chocolate. It keeps the pound cake from falling off the skewer, and it's a yummy pairing. We ate until we were pretty sure they were going to have to roll us down the mountain to get us back home.

The pace of the evening is very relaxed, and perfect for spending some time with friends. Many of the people who go to the yurt dinner are visiting from other places and book through the hotel, but we met some local people as well, and, obviously, we are local too! It's a really fun evening, and we recommend it if you're looking for a nice evening out, and something out of the ordinary.

From Yurt Dinner

First Family Snowshoe

On Presidents' Day we went for a little family snowshoe, our first time snowshoeing all together! We bought Eliana some used children's snowshoes and have been looking forward to teaching her how to use them and getting out into the snow as a family. She wasn't sure about walking in the deep snow at first, but we let her walk along a packed down trail and she was much more excited about it then. She did a great job!

Along our walk, Eliana was very excited to find a bug in the snow and she wanted it to play with her. We tried to convince her that bugs don't really like to play with people, but she wouldn't hear of it and carried the poor thing around for a while! We finally convinced her to put it back in the snow and let it go find some food and shelter.

Seasons of change...

... or lack thereof...

I am so ready for fall. Beautiful leaves, crisp air, hayrides, cute fall sweaters, pumpkins... This is what I long to see:

Instead, we went from 90 degrees to snowing overnight and have stayed in a winter wonderland. I'm not ready for it yet! So I'm just going to keep reliving the drive we took up the Beartooth Pass a couple weekends ago.

We got to drive up, up, up to the highest point in MT, until we were driving above the clouds.

It was really, really windy, but the drive was beautiful. The aspen and cottonwood trees were afire with their fall foliage and the peaks were beautiful.

We had a nice mini-vacation, staying in Red Lodge at a hotel with a pool. Eliana thought that was great! We stayed in a hotel and ate at various local restaurants along the route. It was really nice.

Some of the Sights of Butte

I think I mentioned a while back that we took a little family trip to Butte on afternoon about a month ago. We took a few random pictures while we toured the sights of the old town, and it was kind of fun! Here are some of the things we saw...

This is the old M&M cafe. I guess it's been open 24 hours pretty much ever since the mining town was big. It's been around since 1890, and is a pretty good place to visit if you want a taste of Butte culture, or so we're told.

While there are lots of beautiful old brick buildings in Butte (it is very different from most Montana towns in that way), I'm not sure the sights we saw led us to believe there is that much culture left in the Copper City. Here is some of what we saw...

Remnants of the old mining town still looming...

Old businesses that look like they just stopped being (this is a law office, in case you can't read the sign above the door....)



And a church-turned-movie-theater. I can't say that I've ever seen this one before. I've seen plenty of grocery-stores-turned-church-building, but this I just stopped and gawked at for a while.

But there were some other cool sights about the town, too, and lots of old buildings that were fun to look at...

We wanted to take Ellie to go see the Berkley Pit, but it was closed for the season. We also wanted to go tour Our Lady of the Rockies, but I think it was closed because it was Sunday. The restaurant we were originally going to eat at was closed because it was Sunday, too. I think next time we will have to go on a weekday or a Saturday. Still, it was a pretty good afternoon. Pretty good indeed.

Butte, America

Tonight Leif and I went to see the Bozeman Premier of Butte, America, a film about, well, Butte! The first showing was in Butte, but Pamela Roberts is from Bozeman, so the film's second showing was here in town, at the Emerson. Tickets were free, and it was a packed house. By packed house, I mean that every seat in the theater was filled and they turned away quite a few people who were hoping for tickets. And after the lights went down, I saw a guy carry a folding chair waaaay up into the top of the balcony, I'm guessing because he'd gotten in, but hadn't gotten a seat.

The film was good. I wouldn't mind owning a copy of it. It definitely gave me a better understanding of the culture and history surrounding Butte. Living in a neighboring town, there were things that I never quite understood about Butte. I didn't understand the pride that people have in a mining town. I didn't understand how this once great town had fallen to where it is today. I didn't understand what happened to all its past glory because, well, I've driven through Butte and there isn't much of that past glory still standing. And I didn't understand "Our Lady of the Rockies."

The film answered a lot of these questions, but more than that, it put flesh on what had been a skeleton of historical fact. Rarely seen photographs and footage offered perspective about the mining town that I hadn't had before. Personal testimony from miners and their families brought the days and nights to life for those of us in the audience. The stories intertwined on a timeline not only of Butte's history, but the history of the world, painted a picture of what it was like when copper was king.

Butte, America will broadcast on PBS in the fall, and will be available for purchase on DVD at that time as well. Prior to its television and DVD release, I believe that the film will make its way around select cities in the U.S. If you have the opportunity to go see it, I highly recommend it. And if you don't happen to live in one of the cities where it is playing, don't worry... just come visit us after it comes out on DVD. We'll probably make you watch it. ;D (And then we'll all go on a field trip to see the Berkley Pit.)

BRRRRR!

I woke up this morning to a blizzard! There are inches of snow out there and it's still coming down, blowing sideways past the window. I hope it lets up and they plow the roads soon, because I have places to be this afternoon! We are supposed to go Christmas caroling tomorrow evening, and the forecasted high for tomorrow is -3. Brrrrr!

This is much more like the Montana winters we had when we first moved here, but after this fall it's a bit of a shock to the system!

Playing in the Rain!

Sunday afternoon Leif took Ellie down to the river even though it was a dreary, drizzly day. I'd say she had a great time despite the drizzle!

Fall again...

... after that little snow storm we were afraid fall had been completely skipped over after only a week! But we're back to fall weather again and, though the freezing temperatures put the kabosh on most of our fall colors, there are still some little spectacles of fall beauty to behold...

Thank you, Leif, for capturing Montana's beauty so well!

One week of Fall!

Really, can it be that we only had ONE WEEK of fall this year??? A week ago we were at the pumpkin patch and it was in the upper 80's. Thursday night it started to snow and has been cold, windy, and snowy since. I'm not ready for winter yet! So because I refuse to believe that winter is officially here, let's just celebrate fall a little longer with some fall pictures of Ellie and Grandad down at the river recently....

Camping with Eliana

Last weekend we decided to do something we've been dreading doing... taking Eliana camping for the first time. Leif and I have enjoyed camping and backpacking since we moved to Montana, but haven't been since Ellie was born. Now that Eliana is two and is able to sleep in a "big people" bed without the restraints of rails, we plunged headfirst into the adventure and took Ellie camping.

Really, though, it wasn't so much our drive to camp that spurred us to such adventure last weekend. It was the RightNow development family picnic and weekend camping trip that encouraged us to give it a go. And as we are not really car campers, we borrowed a tent from Carl and Liv and spent our night in the company of Leif's coworkers' families, also camping with children.

Camping with other families with kids is definitely the way to go.

We were on a site with Carl and Liv, whose son Cale (1 year) is one of Ellies little play buddies. She and Cale had a GRAND time getting as dirty as possible. Seriously... how dirty can one child get? I'm pretty sure Ellie was trying to set a world record!

The other family camping on our site had 3 children: a 7 year old son, and 3 year old twins, a boy and a girl. And Ellie just decided to hang out with them while we camped! They ran around, played in the water, played with pinecones, took turns swinging in the hammock... The four of them were great together! They stayed within our (fairly large, given that it housed 3 tents and a luxury camper!) campsite and any time I realized neither Leif nor I were paying close attention to where she was I'd look up and find her playing with the other kids. It was great!

Then it came time to go to bed. This is the part we were afraid of. Once it got dark (about 10:00 at night) I took Ellie back to the tent and we got ready for bed. I got her all situated and she seemed to think it was funny that we were sleeping in a "triangle". So I tucked her in and told her it was time to go to sleep, and then the talking started. She just chatted and giggled and had a great time! For TWO hours! She seemed to think that it was a slumber party and that I was there to talk to! That's great, but other families were trying to sleep, too, and they could all hear her. Especially when she started looking at her flashcards. (Silly me, I thought they might get her to quiet down and rest, like reading a book before bed!) She was very excited and the next morning people gave us a hard time about our daughter reciting things like "Mayan Temple!" and "Tower of Pisa!" late at night. Whoops!

But all in all the night went so well that we decided to stay a second night with everyone else. The second night I was smarter, though, and put her to bed just before it got dark so she wouldn't be scared in a dark tent all alone and I could leave her there until she fell asleep. It worked like a charm! She didn't even wake up when we came in later to go to bed ourselves. Hooray!

So... it was a successful camping trip. And I think we'll even try it again once or twice this summer yet! Now we just have to find some friends to camp with so there are other children for Ellie to play with. Anyone want to come??