Looking for Goats

For those of you who don't know...  Clint won the Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks Lottery this year!  Yes, he got a permit for a Goat.  Lucky guy!  So, last weekend we decided to go do some scouting and see if we could find some of the critters, or at least get a better understanding of the land we would be hunting.  Friday morning we got up and headed South to the Ennis/Big Sky area to find a camping spot.  The campgrounds weren't too busy and we found a nice little spot.  Clint and Dane slept in the tent, and Kimber and I crashed in the back of the truck.  She has been pretty fussy in the evenings and I was afraid that between her fussiness and her night feedings she would wake up Dane a bunch and we would have a cranky toddler.  Plus, our little tent is TINY and with our expanding family, we have decided we probably need to buy a bigger one.  Fortunately, Kimber's tummy seemed better out camping than at home and I got some of the best sleep I have had in a while.  (despite the two vomiting episodes on Saturday night...  poor baby, we are working on the tummy issue...) 

Anyway, Saturday morning we got up and hiked about 6 miles into a high lake that is in Clint's hunting area.  It was so beautiful and the kids were great.  Clint is a total stud and packed Dane about 12 miles total, and it wasn't flat, easy hiking!  I had Kimber on my front and then a backpack with our lunch, water, etc.  Needless to say we were tired kids that night!!!  The scenery was incredible and the weather was really nice.  It wasn't too hot and the sun was shining!  The only downfall was the mosquitoes...  We each seriously had our own swarm following us.  Whenever we stopped walking they would try to find a place to land on each of us.  (I'm not being dramatic, it was really bad.)  We went through about 3/4 of a bottle of Off cause we had to spray ourselves constantly and then we kept sweating it off.  Even with reapplying as often as we did, we all still got a bunch of bites.  I did realize that one downfall to being the sweet girl that I am is that the skeeters REALLY like me...  I must taste delicious cause they found any little spot and got me!  :) 

Sunday we pretty much just packed up and headed home...  it's about a 5 hour drive since we have to stop for the kids, so then we got home, unpacked, showered and relaxed a little. 

Here are some pictures from our trip.

This is Earthquake Lake.  It was created when an earthquake occurred and caused the avalanche you see in the background.  Pretty cool!

Here are Dane and Clint at the beginning of our hike.  Dane has started this thing...  when we tell him to say "cheese" he scrunches up his eyes and says "cheese".  So, now we tell him to wave at the camera so his eyes stay open!

Miss Kimber and I on a well deserved break!!

This is Avalanche Lake.  The hike was definitely worth it.  It was spectacular and reminded me of where I grew up and hiked with my Dad.

One of the high meadows...  the scenery was so incredible, the pictures hardly do it justice

Kimber seemed pretty happy to stretch out on one of our breaks...  She is really good about being in the pack, but seemed to enjoy stretching her arms!

This was along the drive, we thought it was neat and had to take a picture!

As you can see, we had an incredible time.  I didn't do very good getting pictures of our campground, but really were weren't there very much.  We had a little fire in the evenings, but went to bed pretty early and then left early both mornings.  The only bad part is that we didn't see any goats.  But, we met some people who gave us some info and we have a better knowledge of the area.  Now we are working on planning our next trip!