An early start today a we’re leaving to visit the Garrett ghost town at nine. That means Sunday huckleberry pancakes for breakfast at the ranch before we head out.

Warmer weather and blue skies set the tone for our Saturday. Kayla and Jason have a good, solid riding lesson—time to practice working with a horse, getting to know a mount. Kayla’s equine partner is a bit stubborn, but she convinces him she’s the boss. Jason draws a sweetheart, a people pleasure who enjoys a good petting.

Kayla hasn’t been up on a horse for a long time, and the last time we were here, Jason had a fall, so this sets them up for our trail ride this week.

Kat sets up Darts on the Switch, and Griffin laughs as if it’s the funniest thing ever invented.

I’m happy to get a little work in, then wander outside. There’s a big bush blooming with what looks like pink honeysuckle. Gotta get a picture, so next time I’ll take my phone out with me—and some scissors to snag some blooms.

Kat makes scratch biscuits in the toaster oven! Absolutely delish! She’s now honor-bound to do so again.

Kayla and Kat have a date with the canopy tour so it’s off to get them geared up. And the horses are in the paddock! Oh, so pretty. One wanders over as I go to the fence, but it turns out he doesn’t want me to pet him. He wants to nibble on my jacket.

I decline.

A big bay’s more accommodating and gives me the sweet eye as I rub between his ears. Still my favorites are the gorgeous buckskins, both lounging on the ground. Several of the horses stretch out for Saturday afternoon naps.

Off to the ropes course, and into the harnesses.

I will always decline this activity, but the girls are more than game. There’s a little guy—maybe 10–with another group who also heads to the challenge course. His mom calls him out, points to the intermediate, so it’s just K&K for the challenge.

It’s up there, really up there. Swinging blocks of wood to balance on, wires to balance on like tightrope walkers, navigating from one rope to the next, a chance to play Spider-Man on a rope net. Kayla nearly loses it on one of the wires, but regains and continues. The stirrup section—seriously, hanging stirrups—nearly does Kat in, but she beats it.

Initially, Griffin’s concerned—or making concerned noises—when he watches his mom dangle and navigate way up there. But he’d like to try it, too. Daddy finds a way to make this happen—safely ground level.

Kayla wants to do the long drop finale. Climb up a tall, tall pole to the highest platform where the spotter hooks your harness to the drop line. Sit on the edge of the platform, then . . . Take the leap of faith. A quick drop, then a steady descent to the padded platform below.

Whew!

Both adventurers report burning legs and core. I bet!

Back home to clean up for dinner.

We note mama bird’s off the nest, so BW goes out to grab a picture—and yes, two babies—one who mistook BW for Mom and eagerly opens up for food. One egg left to hatch.

A pretty damn perfect evening for outdoor dining, and three of our party go for the amazing smoked Gouda grilled sandwich with smoked tomato bisque. Mmmm. Before we eat Griffin takes his mom off for a walk/run. Of course, the water-loving boy finds a puddle to splash through.

And with the colorful gravel, Kat makes a Pride flag to commemorate the month. She’ll attempt the newer, more inclusive flag next time.

We eat under gorgeous and sunny skies before Griffin takes me and Kayla off for a walk.

He thinks he has patsies. There’s an open gate to the next field, and jabbering, prancing casually, he aims for it. Kayla, says: Dude! and beats him to it. Undeterred, he jabbers and strolls on. He wasn’t going for the gate! Just wanted to stroll that way, bang on a pole, jump on the grass. Before he veers toward the gate again. Again, Kayla beats him.

Fine, fine, I really just wanted to hang on the fence, balance on my tummy, jump some more. One more casual wander toward the gate. Denied. So the fence will have to do. I’ll just jabber and balance, and hang. Then, slowly, stealthily try to swing my leg over the lowest rung.

Nana swings the leg back, twice, before he tries to wiggle UNDER the rung. Now he’s insulted as Nana hauls him back. The field’s right THERE. It’s everything I want and can’t have.

The battle is brief before Daddy comes and hauls him back to the table.

Huckleberry ice cream! I can’t do it justice tonight, but still a couple tastes are heaven.

Home to hang out, to do the Daddy Dance, BW and Kayla start to watch a movie, but the girl’s worn out. Bedtime comes early.

I’m up early to a pink sunrise and the low wall of mist. Into the 80s today, and I say: YAY!!

May squeeze in a short work out—or not—before morning adventures.

Nora

Bonus Griffin content.

Pretty day—such a nice improvement weather-wise. Still, we take it kind of easy—vacation, after all. We keep an eye on mother bird and the second hatched chick. This one fell out of the nest, too, but BW saw it and put it back quickly. She seems okay with that, and so far so good. Another egg has a little crack so maybe we’ll spot the next baby.

I grab some work time and some reading time—a nice combo for me.

Griffin gets a trip to the Apothecary to make slime. To make the class, he needs to get up from his nap. He seems confused by this. Like, you make me go to sleep when I’m playing, then you make me get up when I’m sleeping.

Lovely afternoon with SUN. Kayla and I go along. Griffin doesn’t seem interested in slime-making right away, but Kayla is. Michael, the instructor, has a Broadway Disney playlist going, and such a sweet way with a not quite convinced toddler.

The boy IS interested in the little things that can go in the slime. Tiny donuts or lemon wedges, orange slices and so on, and takes them one at a time from Michael, examines, then hands off to Kat.

Meanwhile, Kayla’s making some pretty cool slime.

The view is gorgeous, sunlight over mountains, hills and fields.

It’s a fun hour on a sunny afternoon, and we have two jars of slime to take home. Later, Griffin shows interest in the completed slime. I’d say it’s hard to resist playing with.

BW and Kayla go off for a ride and some photo ops. The camera loves the girl.

A little more reading time, then change for dinner. A restaurant meal, and we think to eat inside—but the hearty Montanans have the AC on—it’s maybe 67 degrees. As a group we decide to grab a pod in the warmer. And the sun is strong and embracing.

We have Alaska John for our waiter, and he’s as interesting as his name. Normally he’d be bartending on a train in Alaska over the summer, but Covid changed his routine.

Jason and Griffin take off to run around, check out the play ground area, hang out by the fence, watch some cattle go by. It’s a really lovely evening for a leisurely outdoor meal with good food and happy faces and our interesting waiter.

We stay for dessert—again—and again, I can’t resist the huckleberry ice cream. So home a little later than usual, and nearly time for the Daddy Dance. The boy’s ready for it, and his head plops right down on Jason’s shoulder. When it comes around, he sleepily sings the chorus for C Is For Cookie.

But then, it’s Cookie Shark time. He revives for this with a grinning, head shaking boogie at the end. Despite the revival, he goes down without a fuss.

Nice sunset, and a promise of a 70 degree day coming up after an early, quiet night on the ranch.

Sun again. Workout done, breakfasters back as Jason and Kayla have a riding lesson this morning. She’s got my cowboy boots—the tall, lavender ones, and looks ready to ride.

Gotta get myself going, too. Kat and Kayla do the ropes course this afternoon, and I’ll go to watch. I don’t do heights.

Nora

So pretty for about half the day, then clouds and cool mostly. So we set up to paint inside. Ashley, our instructor and guide has painted a couple of choices, and we go with lovely Montana landscape.

Let the fun begin.

Canvases, paints, brushes. Jason takes Griffin duty first—early nap so the boy’s up—and gets a late start, but he gets to join in.

I avoid looking at Kat’s because . . . Kat.

Lots of color to play with as we start—as instructed—with the sky and work our way down. I love that everyone’s interpretation’s different.

Ashley goes around the table, complementing and/or answering questions, then I hear her Oh Wow! She’s steps behind Kat.

I decide, what the hell, and round the table, too. It’s such fun to see what everyone does with the same scene. And yes, Kat’s an Oh Wow.

She’s added Buffalo (still to be detailed when Griffin is napping) and made it a winter scene.

Then Ashley brings out another canvas and gives Griffin paints and brushes.

He goes for it!

A fun, artistic afternoon on a breezy day. And we all have our personal souvenirs of Montana.

It gets cloudier, and rain’s off and on. Still good enough for some playtime in the tent.

All but BW decide to stay in, order room service and forgo tonight’s barbecue. We also have frozen pizza, and the toaster oven’s just big enough.

Sadly, we discover one of the baby birds—didn’t know they’d hatched—has been kicked out of or fallen out of the nest. And we discover it far too late to attempt a return. I hope the rest fare better.

We eat happily at home in our Montana ranch.

After dinner I play a little gin rummy with Kayla while Griffin begins his night time/bedtime ritual.  Jason finally comes down with the baby monitor as Kat tries to convince the boy to sleep.

Now we have four, and play Hearts.

This turns into a marathon, roller coaster of a game. Kayla way in the lead, BW losing steadily, Jason and I neck-in-neck between. Kayla slips, Jason sneaks by her, I sneak by Jason, back and forth.

Kayla runs them! Back in the lead.

Then BW cagily does math, plays it right and hits 100 on the nose. Hit 100 by our house rules, go back to zero.

The game turns around! BW way in the lead the other’s battling for second. Up, down. I should add Kat comes down during all this battling, and that besides card sharking we have a ridiculous amount of laughs.

We’re hitting BW hard, though he still holds a commanding lead.

And then, out of the dark, Jason—apparently inadvertently—hits 100.

Back to zero, and I fall over the edge.

Game over. Jason is The King Of Hearts for the evening.

Then we all fall into bed.

Workout done on this cold, cloudy day. This is forecast to be the coolest, wettest day of our stay, so we  plan to cook a big vegetarian meal for dinner. (And there’s frozen pizza!)

We’ll start on that after Kat, Kayla and I have our massages at Spa Town.

Sounds like a very fine way to spend a day where they’re calling for a high of around 48.

That ain’t June to this East Coast Girl!

Nora

Update from The Travelogue Editorial Desk: Today’s #randomkatness is a puzzle. A five leaf clover? Did Kat get a maniture? Do the palettes match the greens? There’s no explanation so I leave it up to you.

And just between us – since we’re friends and all? I’m working at the beach office and the weather is just fine.

Laura

We’re gifted with a perfectly beautiful day. Bold blue skies, light breeze, low 70s. There’s another bush between the lilacs, and I think—maybe—white lilac. Not sure, and the blooms are too high and on the other side of the fence so I can’t do the sniff test.

But pretty.

Lots of play time outside for the boy, in the tent, out of the tent with bubbles and his love of pouring water and dropping rocks into the tub. Pour more water from tub to tub, pick out rocks to drop in new tub. He can work this experiment for a very long time.

I can sit on the porch steps on a pretty day and watch him for a long time.

When it clouds up, as predicted, and you can all but feel the rain coming, there’s some intense puzzle time. Kayla’s deeply into this and makes serious progress.

Some wavering by me about heading to the Chuck Wagon Dinner event. If it’s raining and chilly, I can toss a frozen pizza in the toaster oven and all good.

But, delightfully, skies clear, temp creeps up again.

Time to put the cowboy on.

In the shuttle Griffin does his car riding thing. He calls out K!!!!! We like to think that’s his name for Kayla and not just the letter. Then COWS! He has a steady interest in the cattle—from a distance. We all join in.

This event is by the river and a stunning spot. You travel there through woods and hills all sparkling and shadowy at once in the sunlight. The river’s running fast, the smokers are smoking—smells good—-and the bar’s set up.

We grab a picnic table under a pergola—in case the rain comes back, and while Griffin takes off with his parents giving chase, the rest of us settle in.

Live music, a beautiful spot on a beautiful evening.

Apparently our boy wanted to run in the road—and the fact he was denied this activity ruined his life for about ten minutes.

The feast’s on. I’m really grateful the resort has so many veggie options, and Kayla doesn’t go hungry here. She, of course, passes on the Tomahawk steak. I do not, and it’s delicious.

We all pass on the invitation to take part in a hatchet throw.

Kayla makes herself a s‘more, then it’s time for the ride home.

It’s past a certain someone’s bedtime, but he strongly objects. Mama won’t be denied, and—as mama’s do—wins the battle. But it’s fiercely fought.

Kayla and I are at the puzzle, and Kat comes to join in. But after the battle decides she’s earned a mimosa. Kat is a rare drinker, and a serious lightweight. Kayla decides she’d like to try one. When she samples, she says, it just tastes like oj. Kat is amazed! But it tastes so strong to me. (Lightweight! LOL.)

I suspect Kat put maybe a scant teaspoon of champagne in the nearly 8 oz of oj. I add a little more to Kayla’s. Okay, she says, it tastes like sparkling oj.

There you go.

So I have my first adult drink (no oj in mine, thanks) with my granddaughter.

We puzzle on until bedtime.

Another gorgeous day, and a morning warmer than the last few. Workout done, a load of laundry in. I’ll work a little in a little.

We hope to have our Paint Day. Rain coming late afternoon, but sunny and low 70s before. It should be a great day to play artists outside.

Nora

Note from the Travelogue Editorial Desk: I wake up to a trove of photos. Some I know will fit copy. Some are there for the memory. And for some, I create stories of my own. These didn’t fit copy, but I thought you’d like a glimpse of the power of the Griffin.