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home:
Montana
Family Reunions are a lot more fun that I thought. having never been
to one, I guess I only knew what I heard others say about theirs...weekend
before last we flew to Montana for Martin's (hubby) family reunion. Four
generations got together to share stories, food & fun...His
family is so kind & sweet, I now have all kinds of cousins that
I can keep in touch with, something that I am not able to do with my own
since they are stuck in Iran more than half way across the world.
My first impressions of Montana was the calm & quiet you feel
everywhere... nothing seemed to be in a hurry which is such a contrast to
our lives here...& after the last week of busy busy for us, hubby
& I seriously missed the gentle manor in which everything happens in
the pretty state of Montana.
The second most noticeable difference was how folks treated each other
& us the visitors, I mean the family was nice, really really cool
& kind, but I am talking about the other people as well, like the waitress at
the restaurant or anyone we saw anywhere we went. Here in Santa Cruz
California, you are lucky if you get service with a smile, let alone good
kind treatment. When I hold the door open for someone here, often I never
even get a nod, let alone a thank you, the same gesture in Montana gets
you a whole lot of thanks & smiles... perhaps where you live people are
kinder than they are in my town & therefore you think this is a silly
thing to see...but we saw it in Montana & liked it a lot.
Hubby & I are thinking about buying a small house somewhere out there
near the grand parents, just so maybe once a year we can escape there
& just tube down the river or sit & watch the landscape without
smog, fog or noise...Why do we live these kinds of fast lives in busy
cities when we could live calm, relaxed & happy lives in such gorgeous
surroundings as Montana I will never know, drop me a line if you know the
answer to that one...& don's say its the coffee houses or the movie
theaters, there were plenty of them around in Montana too...my only
complain would have to be the lack of great food, as in fun different international
restaurant food. Maybe if there were not so many cool places to eat around
here, I would cook at home more, who knows.
CLICK ON PHOTOS TO ENLARGE
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Pretty Vistas everywhere you go in Montana
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Martin & his grand parents, Guelda &
Martin Johnson
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Martin's mom Victoria & his brother
Chris
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Martins Dad, Martin Johnson (standing) &
his cousin Jeannette & her hubby
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Here is an old photo of the Johnson family, Martin's great
grand father, Martin Johnson is the first person standing on the far right, his wife Carrie to his left
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Here is another photo of Martin's great
grand parents, Carrie & Martin Johnson
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And here we are...Marin looks so much like
his dad, his grandpa & great grandpa, its kind of cool, I knew
early on what my hubby would look like as he got older...they are
a good looking bunch to say the least
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Martin's dad & more awesome family...
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Cousins Joey & Jeannette had gone to the
old family ranch, found all kinds of cool old objects left from a
life long ago, added flowers & such, made them in to table
center pieces, one great way to preserve the past...not to mention
a lot of work...they had done so much to make this reunion an extensive
view of the family...
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There was also a table full of cool giveaways
from pictures to more memorabilia from the ranch...hubby won a
wreath made with barbed wire found at the ranch, I however got the
coolest prize which is a bone back scratcher that Martins' dad's
cousin & favorite hang out buddy, Butch, had painted a gorgeous
Montana vista on...you can see it on the table, we have to get it from his
parents, since we could not bring them back on the plane, they had
driven to Montana & brought them back for us...
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and here is a photo of Butch, an honest to
goodness cowboy, yes they are still around, he was so nice and has
such talent, he made & painted the back scratcher that I
won...
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Here is a photo of this little kitty that Martin
& I found on the day of the big picnic, she is being held by
Julia, one of my new favorite & cool family members...
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The old family ranch, we went out there on
Sunday to see where it all started...I can tell you one thing for
sure, the Johnson's had a great view, in this lovely valley...
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This river is on the old ranch property
& this is where we went river tubing, things got a bit out of
hand later on, where the water was a bit faster & there were
these big rocks they call turtle rocks every where, I ran in to 3
of them just for fun, hurt my hand, my finger still hurts...and
stopped right then & there...it was so much fun, we also found
a whole bunch of crystals in these cracked turtle rocks...brought
some home, pictures of them and our prizes when I get them from
Martin's parents
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Here we are, our last day there...we had so
much fun...we want to go back now...
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Here we are at he fish hatchery, not sure
why I missed out on the fish photos, but one of the other cool
things about most parts of Montana is that unlike California,
Nevada & Arizona, they have lots of great fresh spring
water...you can drink it right out of the tap & is great on
your hair...can not do that here in Santa Cruz...
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