Yellowstone NP, Grand Teton NP, and Jackson Hole

My husband, our doggie Jackson, and I took a week and a half road trip earlier this month through Yellowstone National Park, to Grand Teton National Park, and Jackson Hole, WY.  It was such a good time and we saw a lot of country during this lovely Fall season.

I got to have a lot of fun with my camera, so wanted to show you some favorites from the trip (there’s a lot of them).  I posted them on my Facebook page but wanted to share and journal them here too.  =)

All of the photos were taken in YNP, Mesa Falls in Idaho, GTNP, and Jackson Hole, WY.

Summer Goodness

Last weekend we made a three day trip over to Idaho and Washington to visit all the family.  I will hopefully post a few pics of the weekend, but for now, just some summer goodness.

It was a good time, and we made a (very necessary) stop at the orchards at Green Bluff, outside of Spokane.  I really love this area, and would love to go there at least a few times every summer.  So fun to do the u-pick berries, peaches, and get your hands on all the fresh summer produce.  This time we didn’t have time to pick berries, it was very hectic (but fun) with visiting family, and having a 8 week old puppy with us on a roadtrip.  So we got a box of berries and a box of peaches.

Just freezing all of it, for wintertime baking, smoothies, and milkshakes.  It’s great to fill up the freezer with all the sweet, juicy, delicious summer fruit and be able to use it all year.  My next stops, sometime this weekend, are the cherry orchards alongside Flathead Lake!  🙂

And a 20 lb box of peaches…
I am enjoying a bowl of peaches with half and half and a pinch of turbinado sugar as we speak, a perfect midnight snack.  =)

A Taste of Italy in the Montana Winter

Last weekend hubby and I made a trip down to Bozeman, MT to spend time with family, go shopping, out to eat downtown, and have some quality time with my grandma.  I love going there, Bozeman is beautiful with lots to do, lots of good food to find, and full of young life and fun happenings as it is a college town.  I spent one semester there before I ended up settling in to the U of M, there are beautiful mountains and a lot of rivers.  Not many lakes, we have all the lake fun up here in NW MT.  Bozeman is kind of like a second hometown to me, it feels very homey, as I lived there for a little while on a few different occasions, and it’s where my mom is from so all of her family is there.  My grandma lives in her house still (on her own, at 88!) on a road out in the country that my grandpa had put in when they had their house built.  Soon after that my three sets of aunts and uncles followed suit and moved out there, so they live right by her, kind of in a triangle 🙂  Actually, all four of them built their home out there, pretty cool.

My Aunt Connie and cousin Nichole own an Italian specialty food store, All Things Italian, which now has my pantry accustomed to quite a few must-haves and cooking staples.  If you love to cook and love Italian foods, you’d love it there.  I love browsing through all the shelves of goodies and seeing what’s new.  …After enjoying a very satisfying Italian sandwich and a latte 🙂

It doesn’t take long to fill up the basket.  We grabbed the usual pasta and jars of soup, olives, and some awesome chocolate, and this time we picked out some beautiful seeds to start planting.  I really can’t wait to start growing these vegetables!

Lots of fun cooking ingredients

Shelves of eye candy

All kinds of Italian pastas

Delicious olives and capers

Specialty cheeses

Italian meats

My favorite- quality chocolate

Wines from Italy

Our chocolate indulgence

Doesn’t take long to fill up the basket!

Our beautiful Italian seeds to sow

Uncle Chris’s green thumbs at work, winter-time tomatoes

Aunt Connie

Plants getting ready for the greenhouse

Cute baby chicks getting ready for the coup

Lawrence’s boat

Soon to set sail

Pretty nice craftsmanship

Out for dinner

At Blackbird

Wood fired pizza

Nichole and Jared

We shopped, went to dinner downtown, and also had dinner at Connie and Chris’s and saw the cute baby chicks and all the plants Chris has getting ready for the greenhouse.  Also visited with my Uncle Lawrence who just finished building a boat for the first time!  It’s very cool, and they’ll soon make the sail to go on it.  And most importantly, enjoyed some quality time with my Grandma Anne…

Family, food, and shopping… it was a great weekend. 🙂

If you ever in Bozeman, MT stop in to ATI and say hi to Connie and Nichole!