This morning Mark, Leslie, the kids and I went on a nature hike up a large hill (small mountain?) near the cabin. There is a ski lift practically in the backyard. At the base of the ski lift we found this marmot that kept poking his head up near the cabin.
Further up the road we finally found the moose that we missed in Yellowstone. A moose cow and her baby were hiding in the woods, which makes for lousy pictures. But later they came out of the woods and went across the road ahead of us. Look just above/beyond those concrete dividers at the bottom of the hill.
After lunch we went just down the road to the Big Sky Resort where they still had one ski lift repurposed as a scenic lift. It took us to the top of Andesite Mountain. We forgot to put down the guard on the lift, leaving us holding on tight and leaning way back so we wouldn't fall, but Mark yelled at us from the car behind to remind us.
We paused for a group photo at the log cabin lodge at the top of the mountain. Then we set off exploring looking for some great vistas.
It didn't take us too long. Becky and I had found walking sticks that helped on the rocky terrain. We found a great view at the edge of the mountain and took a lot of pictures of everyone, including this shot of the 4 of us.
After a snack on the lodge's porch, almost everyone took the lift back down. Mark and I decided to walk down the mountain. There was an access road that vehicles used to get up that they recommended we use to walk down. We started that way and then found a "shortcut" that took us down a steep hill. It was so steep that we had to stop every few dozen yards to catch our breath - you'd think going downhill would be easy until you realize that what you are doing is working really hard not to fall down the side of a mountain. Our legs were shaky at the bottom, but it was a lot of fun walking and talking with him.
After dinner the kids wanted to try a dip in the hot tub, but I got it a little too hot. So they spent a short amount of time and we promised to try to get them back in later this week at a lower temperature. We broke up the evening a bit with a family skit night where Mark divided us up into teams and had us put together spontaneous skits based on props he provided. Becky, Mom, and I had fun coming up with a Swedish Chef skit that stole the show until Mark and his two kids pulled out a funny skit with a a surprise ending.
After we put the kids down, we broke out the Wii that Becky had fit in our luggage and we introduced Mom and Dad to Guitar Hero. Mark had been practicing on his Wii at home, so he came prepared to rock out. We even coaxed Mom to try her hand and she did really well. It was worth hauling that stuff to Montana from Ohio just for that night.
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