My Beautiful Wife Getting Wet

Here are some pictures of Bekah under the waterfall, which is located between the Goat Lick and East Glacier, in Morias Pass. I really like these pictures. Doesn't she just glow?

Wednesday at Lone Pine

Elijah with Bro. & Sister Hart.

Josiah with Bro. & Sis. Hart.

The Harts taking in the view of Kalispell from Lone Pine.

Josiah getting ready to go exploring.

Josiah, just before I had to go chase him down.

Josiah with the Harts, looking out over Kalispell & Flathead Lake (in the background).

Our Visit with the Harts: Monday.

At the Visitor's Center in West Glacier. Bro. Hart is below, Rebekah above, to the right.

Bro. & Sis. Hart under the T-Rex.

Bro. & Sis. Hart await their gruesome demise in absolute terror. Rebekah looks on in disbelief.

Was Sis. Hart getting wet or getting blessed? I couldn't quite tell.

Bro. Hart, by the waterfall.

Bro. Hart, again.

A good shot of the waterfall with Bro. Hart below.

Bro. & Sis. Hart under the waterfall.

New Settlers Scenarios

Over the weekend, Rebekah and I tried out some new Settler of Catan scenarios from the University of Catan (Mayfairer) website. Dave and Melissa Hendricks even tried one out with us. We all LOVED the Pirate's Isle scenario, which adds some cool variants, including a volcano.

I have now decided that this is the greatest game ever made. There are so many different ways that you can play it/change it that it never gets old, and each way adds some fun variables to the gameplay. If anyone plays Settlers and wants to know the rules for Pirate's Isle, I can send them to you.

Mayfairer has a contest for the best new scenario created by gamers so I am now working on my own scenario, which is a variant of Pirate's Isle but more of a challenge. So far, it's only a two-player scenario and each player controls a raider (robber) that they get to place on their opponent when they roll a seven. The raider then collects for that player whatever his opponent would have produced off of that hex. The raider can only be moved by playing a soldier card and banishing him to the desert isle. There are two pirate islands and each player must build on one before landing on his opponents island. The pirate ship is activated when two sevens are rolled in a row. The person who rolled the second seven is then attacked by the pirate. One die is rolled to determine how many cards the pirate will steal. Lots more ocean to sail in this scenario, too.

On our pilot run, Rebekah sunk me bad. I would no sooner get the raider off of me than it would be back again. *groan* Beaten at my own scenario.

Here is a pic of the gameboard for a small two-player setup, using the volcano and jungle.



I also bought two new rivers to use in the Prospectors scenarios.

A Day With The Pigs (take that how you will)

Ok, everyone. We went and got pigs on Saturday. Bro. Ted took us out to eastern Montana and south from Browning to a place called Rockport Colony (middle of nowhere). That's where we got our pigs, which Bro. Ted will raise until fall and then have butchered for us. It's been a couple of years since we did it, but it is some of the best pork you'll ever eat. Here are some pics of Elijah and Bro. Ted's children with the pigs.

Elijah and Gabe. (These are day-old piglets, not the ones we bought.)

Bro. Ted overseeing the pigs. T.J. in the back, Elijah setting in front of Gabe.

Elijah and Gabe, again.

Here's Gabe, Elijah and Megan after unloading the pigs.

Our pigs, getting settled in the back of the truck.

Here's a picture of our pig. His name is Corky. Sis. Loren gave him a black eye (j/k).

Elijah giving Megan a ride. Can you believe it, Elijah's already picking up girls.

Victory, Sweet Victory!

Last night, we played Settlers, while we waited for Bro. Adams and Bro. Barker. They missed their turn and ended up driving to Missoula before they headed back our direction. Anyway, I challenged Rebekah to a game of Settlers, and the outcome is clear by looking at the board (I was blue). It was a really good game, but I prevailed and built my trade route across the entire board. It felt good. REAL good. (Especially since I got tromped so royally when Micah and Megan were here. lol)

Rebekah, admitting her defeat.

A close-up of the board.

Trip to the National Bison Range

On Saturday, we took a trip out to the National Bison Range, between Moiese and St. Ignatius. I was covering a story there and figured it would be a great opportunity to take Bek and the children for a family outing, afterward. The range had a 19 mile loop of ascending and descending road that wound through the hills and eventually came back to the visitor's center. Along that whole drive we only saw three or four bison, out of a herd of 300-350. Finally, near the end of the loop, we came across a group that must have contained the vast majority of the herd. Here are some pictures:

At the visitor's center, with a stack of elk horns behind me. Moriah has her usual "I'm too cute for pictures" look. I must have been rolling my eyes. Josiah went off exploring, as usual.