270:365 Pond

I had to snap a quick photo at the pond tonight.  It was a bluebird day today.  Bring on fall!!

269:365 Gourd

Jeff and I thought that we were planting pumpkins, but they turned out to be gourds.  Oh well.

268:365 Fall Leaf

Fall is in the air and the trees they are a turning.  I'm without my good camera, but I'm enjoying all the colors anyway. 

267:365 His Favorite Place

Jeff and I made a quick trip to Fargo this weekend.  This little guy loves to go to the park.  He used to swing more, but now he likes to play in the sand and feed the squirrels.  He stuffed his pocket full of acorns before we headed home, so he could feed the squirrels at his house.

266:365 Cousins

This was the first of I hope many fun dinners with the cousins on my moms side of the family.  We enjoyed dinner and catching up and tons of laughter.  I'm hoping that we make this a regular event. 

(This photo was taken by one of the servers.  She actually snapped three photos and someone had their eyes closed in each one.  I can see that professionals have a tough time snapping group shots.)

265:365 Mom & Margaret

My mom is turning 70 years young this year on 11-11-11, but don't tell anyone.  In honor of her special year, she wants to have 70 little birthday celebrations to honor the people that she cares about.  I think this is a fantastic idea.  That's one of the things I love about my mom, she's always ready for a party and she is just so stinking creative.  This was the first of many celebrations for her.  Margaret, mom and I went to Perkins and celebrated with muffins.  I know that she'll have many more wonderful memories throughout the year. 

264:365 All done

It's done!!  Now I can get on with other things.  I just can't leave a puzzle alone until they are completed!

263:365 Puzzle

I blame my aunt Margaret for my not getting much done in the last couple of days.  She's the one that gave me this puzzle.  It's a 1000 piece Thomas Kinkaid puzzle and it's been a challenge.

262:365 Pumpkin Butter

I spent part of the day today making homemade pumpkin butter and homemade applesauce.  The pumpkin butter is really good and the applesauce is out of this world.  It was so easy and so much better than storebought applesauce.  I will never buy applesauce again.

261:365 Photo Show

Photo by Jo Ehli

I was very honored to receive third place in the photo show this past weekend.  There were over 50 entries from a lot of very talented photographers in the area.

260:365 Marathon

Last year I got a relay team together from work to run the Krolls Diner Marathon in Bismarck.  Marla was very hesitant about being a part of the team, as she had never run before.  After thinking about it very hard, she decided that she would give it a try and ended up doing a great job.  This year, she went above and beyond and ran the half marathon!  13.1 miles.  Way to go Marla!!  Eric and Heather also ran the half.  That's three out of the five of us.  I started to train, but every time that I started running I ended up hurting my back.  Not sure if the two were related, but next year I plan on running.  Watch out!!!

259:365 Photo Show

Photo show in Bismarck.  There are many talented photographers in this group. 

258:365 Garden Bounty

These are some of the tomatoes from the garden.  YUMMO!!  I love fresh garden tomatoes. 

257:365 I Always Knew.

I always knew that my mom was a little devil.  Now she has the horns to prove it!! =D

256:365 Wheel

This is the yard decorations from one of the house that I walk by on a daily basis.  (When I am in Wilton anyway.)

255:365 Flower (White Lilac??)

Two things: 
#1:  I think that this is a white lilac bush that bloomed already this spring and it has a couple of blossoms on it now.  I could be wrong, but that's what I think. 
#2:  I have had to send in my good camera for repairs and it is going to take at least 5-6 weeks before they send it back.  I'm really bummed about that, especially since I have been looking forward to this fall and all of the fall colors.  I also wanted to get the book done with all of my grandma's paintings this fall. I have decided though that I will use my phone and my P&S to continue my POTD project.  I don't want to just give up on that, since I have come this far.  I will just have to see how creative I can be with those.

254:365 Three Generations

I found them all enjoying each others company on the front steps and had to snap the photo.  Too bad, Papa Jeff was more interested in watching Payton then in smiling for the camera.

253:365 NDSU Bison

My big girl camera is on the fritz!! =(  I need to send if in for repairs and it's going to take 5-6 weeks to get it back.  In the meantime, I need to use my little point & shoot or my phone for my photos of the day.  We went to the NDSU Bison vs. St. Francis game last night.  We were sitting pretty high up in the stands and I was wishing that I had my camera with my new big lens, but I didn't and this is the best that I could get with my little camera.  It was fun to be there, but the Bison were ahead 42-0 when we left during the third quarter.  I'm not sure what the final score ended up being.

252:365 New Haircut

I just love his new haircut~!!  I almost didn't recognize him when I picked him up from daycare this afternoon.  He's wearing Grandpa Jeff's cowboy hat from when he was a little boy.  That hat is almost 60 years old and Payton is really rockin' it!!

251:365 Apples

We have plenty of apples in the tree this year.  I'm just waiting for the frost to sweeten them up a little bit.  I can wait a long time though.  It won't hurt my feelings one bit if the weather stays like it has been the last few days.

250:365 Turning Leaves

Another walk around the pond this evening.  You can see that fall is in the air and the leaves are starting to turn.  It won't be long now and they'll all be colorful!!

249:365 Crochet Book

I bought crochet book while we were in Medora.  I really want to start on a project, but just can't seem to find the time.  I don't know how I got everything done when I was working. 

248:365 Pond Walking Path

It's been beautiful here for the last few days.  Perfect for walking around the pond.  You can see how still the water is.

247:365 Headwaters of Missouri River

We left Glacier National Park and headed south yesterday.  We stayed at Wolf Creek, just north of Helena in the Belt Mountains.  It was a beautiful drive.  The Missouri River flows through there and we must have crossed it at least eight times.  Since we were driving right by the Three Forks, we decided to stop and see where it all starts.  There are three rivers that flow in to start the Missouri River.  They are the Madison, Jefferson and Gallitin Rivers.  To see these three rivers flow so gently in to each other to form the Missouri, it's hard to imagine the havoc that has been wreaked all summer long down it's entire length.

246:365 Bumble Bee in Flight

We spent the day driving across the Going to the Sun Road and I have lots of photos of mountains and lakes, but this was my favorite of the day.  I caught this bee flying.  I cropped the picture to take out a lot of wasted background as I was using my 28mm lens for the scenery. 

245:365 McDonald Lake

We spent the day at Big Mountain doing a lot of fun things, like alpine sledding and zip lining.  If you ever get the chance to go zip lining, you have to go.  Do NOT let fear stand in your way, it is a great thrill. 
We have decided that we will be going back to Glacier National Park and going over the Going to the Sun Road though, as it was so foggy they first time we came over that we couldn't see a thing.  We have come this far and it would be a real shame not to see everything.  Here we are back at McDonald Lake in the evening and will be heading back over to St. Mary in the morning.  I love the light and shadows on the mountains in the background.

244:365 McDonald Lake

We spent last night at an inn right on McDonald Lake at the east entrance to Glacier National Park.  It was raining late yesterday afternoon and evening so we didn't get to do too much.  It also rained during the night and the clouds were really low this morning as we were getting ready to leave.  I stood on the shore and snapped a few photos before it started to rain again.  It's a good thing that I did, as they are the only photos that I took today.  We went white water rafting in the afternoon, and I wasn't about to take my camera along for that.  The water is running kind of slow this late in the season and they were only class I and II rapids.  It was fun and made me want to go on some bigger rapids.  I hope some day that I will.

243:365 Swiftcurrent Lake

We woke up this morning to lots of clouds and fog.  It makes for gorgeous scenery.  We headed over to drive the Going to the Sun Road from east to west.  Brandy had given us a geology book about the road and we were planning on stopping at each of the stops to learn a little bit about the geology of the area.  We made it to the first stop, then missed the next couple.  After that, as we were driving up the hill, it got so foggy that we really couldn’t see anything anyway.  And there was road construction on top of that.  By the time that we go to Logan’s Pass, it was so foggy that we couldn’t see across the parking lot.  After leaving Logan’s Pass, the weather cleared up (we were driving down the mountain) and it was beautiful.  The afternoon did bring thunderstorms though, so we are stuck inside for the time being.  I’m hoping for better weather tomorrow.  We are on the south end of McDonald Lake and I was hoping to get some good sunset photos this evening, but it doesn’t look like that’s in the cards for today.

242:365 Grinnell Lake and Hike

It’s great camping!!  We got up early this morning and headed over to take a lake cruise on Swiftcurrent Lake.  After a short hike we ended up on Josephine Lake and cruised that lake to the other end, where everyone got off the boat and hiked about a mile to Grinnell Lake.  This hike was led by a naturalist, so we learned a lot of interesting facts about the vegetation and the glaciers and lakes.  All in all it was about a four hour trip.

We spent the afternoon driving up to the Canadian side of Glacier at Waterton.  They have quite the little village there with a lot of little shops and places to eat.  It was a pretty drive.  We drove back to Many Glaciers and had supper at the Lodge and enjoyed a beautiful sunset over the mountains. 

241:365 Glacier National Park

We spent the night in Cutbank, MT last night, and got up early to drive to Glacier National Park.  We decided that we would go to the northern route first, then head back south in a couple of days and travel on the Going to the Sun Road, which crosses the park from east to west.  We found a campsite in the campground, and then headed out to find something to do.  As we were leaving the lodge, we spotted a big black bear along the side of the road.  Of course, we stopped to take some photos, but I must have been too excited, because all of the pictures were blurry!!  Then we headed to the little village and there was a big group of people looking up at the mountain over the store watching a mama grizzly and her two cubs.  They were quite a ways up the mountain so we needed binoculars to see them.  On the way in to Many Glaciers, we had noticed a trail leading up to a waterfall, and we headed back out to hike that trail.  We parked along the road and I was inside the van getting my backpack ready and Jeff told me to come out and look across the road.  Here was another black bear!!  I was a little bit more prepared this time and the photos did turn out a little bit nicer.  We hiked the mile and a half UP to the waterfall even after seeing all of these bears.  I was a little nervous, but there were other people on the trail so that helped a bit.  It was great hike and the views were fantastic. 

Later in the day we tried another trail that was right in the area where we were camping.   It was supposed to go to a lake, but we never made it that far.  It was getting late and we had already gone about one and a half miles, so we headed back.  This trail was quite a bit easier than the first one though.  I went to the evening program at the campsite and learned quite a bit about glaciers.  The most interesting thing is that they expect the glaciers in the park to be completely gone by 2020.  Global warming is definitely having an effect here.