Montana

Last week I flew out to Montana to celebrate the life of my Uncle Tommy and to be with family. A whole pick-up load met me at the airport on Sunday and whisked me off to the mountains :)

Since it was Aunt Lynn's birthday, her daughter, Leslie and friend, Jon took us to all the favorite spots! We stopped in Red Rock for Indian Tacos. We ate right next to a river- the weather was just beautiful!

 There was gorgeous scenery at every turn...

Interesting people...

Breathtaking views...

Wonderful company...

 And so much wildlife!

 We saw snow...

And lakes...

And valleys.

When we got to a certain point on the mountain, Aunt Lynn brought out Uncle Tommy's scrimshaw and gave each of us a handful of gun powder. We each thought of a special memory of him while we threw our powder to the wind.

 We drove and drove through the beautiful scenery stopping for ice cream and birthday dinner.

We saw bears, thanks to Jon's skills of talking to anyone he met, and buffalo, mountain goats, sheep, deer, antelope and more.

It was a beautiful day!

On Monday, we woke up, ran errands and set up the displays at the funeral home. We welcomed more family and when we got back to the house, Aunt Lynn wanted to take the Slingshot out for rides. We didn't say no!

Tuesday we woke up to another beautiful day.

This was the picture at Uncle Tommy's funeral.

Here is one of the displays and where his ashes were.

His friends brought many items to display that Tommy had made. This is him on the cover of a book.

His friends gave a gun salute in tribute before the funeral started.

This is Cooper, the neighbor boy who loved to stop by and visit with Uncle Tommy. 

There were many emotions during this week (obviously) but I tried to only capture the happy ones. Here are my Aunt Susie and her husband, Dave who I hadn't seen for many years.

They brought my cousins, Todd and Christa, with them. It was fun to hear about their lives and families.

The sky seems to go on forever in Montana!

These were some items in Tommy's shop that he had been working on. I wanted to show the kids what a great craftsman he was, building his own rifles from a piece of wood and metal.

On Wednesday, we went to the cemetery to bury Uncle Tommy's ashes.

He was a Vietnam Vet and had military honors.

After a moving service, we went to a nearby park to have lunch before most family headed home. Here are my two new sisters, Leslie and Crystal. I hope now that we've met we'll be able to see each other again!

Leslie, Jon, Aunt Lynn & Crystal

The girls :)

Dad and Linda. It was dad's birthday.

(How did we manage to celebrate two birthdays this week?)

The last two days were spent resting and doing some cleaning. 

I was so glad I was able to go and be with family and learn more about Uncle Tommy's life. Funerals are never a "fun" event in life, but the people I met and the love that was clear made it a time that I will treasure forever.