The Giant M

The giant M represents Montana State University. The white, 250 foot tall M was built by students in 1915 out of watershed rocks.  It sits at 5,800 feet on the mountain overlooking the city.   We drove past the M each time we went to ski and the hike looked fun, so we added it to our list of things to do while visiting Bozeman. To hike to the M we drove to the  trailhead, which starts at 4,800 feet.  It was much steeper than it looked, but we did the hike round trip in about an hour. In our quick stop at the top, the view of distant mountain range was great and I felt like I could see forever.  Although it wasn't the best day to hike, with crazy winds (gusts of 50 mph) and a bit of rain on the way down, I'm glad we did it!

-Jack

Bridger after 14" of POW!

Skiing in Montana was awesome, next stop Jackson Hole!

Hank

The Ridge

I would be remiss if I didn't dedicate a full blog entry to one of our favorite Bozeman pastimes...basketball at The Ridge. We joined The Ridge gym to answer any potential issues with poor weather, energy to burn, and the effects of the amazing Cold Smoke Ale that I (and my hips) have become addicted to.  Little did I know that while I attempted to run off my ale, a hard-core 2v2 hoops tourney was in full throttle. Jay/Hank v. Jack/Grant...day after day, night after night. It wasn't until last night that I began to understand the true nature of the boys constantly demanding to go The Ridge. As we headed into the gym, Jay announced  that we were only going to "shoot around" for 45 minutes. Grant looked at me with a wink and quietly said, "Ha. 45 minutes?  We'll be here as long as we continue to beat Dad."  After 45 minutes elapsed and a heightened curiosity took over, I decided to leave the treadmill and go watch the friendly family activity. I was greeted however, by sweet Hank, who was seriously annoyed with his father. I witnessed as he barked at Jay, "Are you kidding me?" after missing an easy lay-up. I watched as he busted it to try and close the 4 point deficit and beat his older brothers. And... I watched the clock for another 30 minutes.  I realized that what I thought had been four weeks of brothers playing basketball wasn't just shooting around - it was GAME ON. It was obsessive, it was rough, and it was crazy.  But as I settled into the spirit of it, I realized that it just added to our story at The Ridge. The story that we were the weird "home-schooled" family who ordered way too many smoothies, used way too many towels, and took way too many steam showers. We were always together...red-faced and sweaty...a pack of five.  Just how I like it!
-Julie

Hank's First Video!

Back To School

Yesterday we went to the Bozeman elementary school to talk to a class of kindergartners about Maine.  When we showed them pictures of seals, lobsters and Casco Bay on the Ipad we came to realize that only two out of the 20 kids have been to the ocean before. Hank, Grant and I all talked about different highlights of our home state.  When Hank told them that they were getting blueberry muffins at the end of the presentation, the kids eyes practically popped right off of their heads. It was cool to realize how diverse the class was, two of the boys were from local indian reservations and another was the son of an Egyptian professor at Montana State. After our presentation, we taught the kids how to do a word search about Maine that we made for them.  The kids really enjoyed us and want us to come back next week so they can show off the highlights of Montana. We have been promised a native american dance by one our new young friends!   Jack
                                                                                       

Big Sky Mountain

On Tuesday morning I went to Big Sky to see my friend Alejandro and his family (from Yarmouth). Their grandmother lives in Big Sky and they visit her every year.  On our drive, we saw big horn sheep licking the salt in the road.  There were a bunch of them.  They looked like huge sheep with big, curved horns.  I snowboarded all day with Jandro and his family.  The mountain was cold, but BIG.  The chair lifts got us to the top really fast and the runs were really long. It was great to see where he skis on his vacations.  After skiing we went back to his grandmother's house and took a hot tub - jumping in the snow first.  After a game of Monopoly, we had a great dinner of shrimp, chicken, steak and rice that Alejandro's dad cooked in a pan on the table right in front of us.  It was mine and Alejandro's first time using chop sticks.  We got to cheat by putting a rubber band at the end and a piece of paper in the middle.  It was a great dinner!  It was fun to stay overnight and see my friend.  Thanks, Alejandro!!

-Hank

POW POW POW!

Today we headed over to Bridger Bowl our ski mountain. The day before it snowed 9 inches and they didn't groom a thing. Although 9 inches doesn't sound like a lot you'll see in our video that it was perfect. The snow was super soft so it was easy to make nice turns while your skis were fully covered the entire time. The morning started out with gray sky and a cloud that was hovering about 1/2 way up the mountain that covered the top peak. Within 2-3 runs it totally cleared out with a perfect blue sky. With the weather settling in at 10 degrees we would go out take 2-5 runs and head in for a hot cocoa. Even though the snow was great, we are expecting an additional foot at the end of the week. Hope to continue the great skiing and blue skies!

Happy New Year! Grant