Ashton's Bachelorette Bash Part 1

 

One of my absolute best-friends and battle buddies here is Ashton.  She and Matt have been married for awhile now (ahh that military lifestyle) but are having a big Catholic wedding late in summer.  She never had a bridal shower or bachelorette party so I decided to make a big bachelorette bridal soiree for her!

 

She is one of the kindest, most loyal people you could ever meet.  She's also conveniently a Young Life leader with me (I know, I've been dropping Young Life left and right this week but it is THAT important to me).  

One thing that she loves would be outdoor adventures.  She's from Colorado so she is 100% familiar with all that is outdoors.  She's even interested in getting certified in being an outdoor rec guide! How cool is that?

So it was only fitting that one component of her bachelorette bash involved the great outdoors.  It's shameful, but I haven't done much in the local area in terms of outdoor adventures. In fact, the ones that I have done are usually with Ashton.

After weeks of deliberation between a float trip, horseback riding, and hiking, the final result based on everyone's schedules was a hike! 

 

We decided to visit a really great local state park- First Peoples Buffalo Jump.  The Native American tribes in the local area used to hunt buffalo by driving them over cliffs.  I know, intense.  

One thing that I love about Montana is the rich history of Native Americans and the beautiful scenery that accompanies so many areas of this state.

If you're out-of-state, the park asks for a $5 donation but Montana residents can visit the park for free. The visitor's center has a really great mini museum and the presentation was wonderful.  We learned all about how the tribes selected three boys to help hunting buffalo.  A 16-year old was chosen to wear a buffalo calf pelt and two younger boys were chosen to wear wolf hides.  I also learned that female buffalo were the matriarchs and in charge of their herds.  #whoruntheworld

 

 What was also pretty neat was learning that the park hoped to buy additional land and actually have buffalo there!!  After visiting the museum and the presentation, we hiked up to the top.  It took us probably 20-30 minutes and the view was wonderful.  There were so many gophers up there, too! I could only imagine the chaos that would ensue if Holly and Blu were with me.

It was a wonderful day at a local state park and I can't wait to share part 2 of Ashton's bachelorette bash!
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Small Town Parades

   

Small town parades are so great! Great Falls is super adorable about throwing several small town parades throughout the year.  This is the first town that I've lived in that has several small parades. 

Family Life Update

 

This past weekend was pretty awesome! I got the notification that my third grad class was about to start on Monday (which I almost forgot about- totally normal for me) and so I was able to get my books squared away on Amazon.  I also got my first 100 on an essay in the course. CHYEA!  

Why God Put Me in Montana

 

Before I came to Montana I was so excited for the new adventure.  I had never been to Montana or anything remotely close to "big sky country" and I felt like I was going to come across something so wonderful and memorable.  

When I first got here, I was sorely disappointed.  

That's not to say that Montana isn't beautiful, because it is.  It's so beautiful that on some of my alerts, I'll be driving out to the sites and my breath is still taken away by the landscape. There are mountains that will truly floor you just to see God's wonder and rolling hills that you can only dream of.  However, that wasn't Great Falls.

Man oh man I struggled and sometimes I still do.  Driving into the town, you could have seen my morale go shooting down a slide.  The "busiest road in Montana" otherwise known as 10th here has so many businesses that haven't seen a renovation in years.  Driving through, it seemed well, dirty and definitely not kept.  I soon discovered that to leave the town, cities like Missoula and Bozeman were three or more hours away.  Yikes!

All of this contributed to how I decided to shape my attitude.  It definitely wasn't a good one.  I found myself missing home so much that it would put me into the worst moods.  I missed my family and friends.  I missed being able to pick up some Chipotle or visit Marshall's to pick up a new outfit.  I missed going to Hilldale Mall in Madison and having all of my favorite things there.  I missed mega-Target.

I realized that it would be four+ miserable years if I continued with this.  So I slowly began the process of changing my outlook.  I knew that my church community was going to help so much in the process.  Instead of holding back, I started joining small groups and Bible studies.  I felt the Lord challenging me to reach out and develop my relationship with Christ.  It was one of the best decisions I ever made because I am obsessed with my small groups.  I have met so many amazing people who have taught me things about the world and about myself.  All of this from a community that I originally thought was "too small town."  I then started volunteering more and I currently volunteer with a Girl Scouts group as they practice to compete in a robotics competition.  Never did I ever think I would be doing this but my background in advertisement and public relations made me an ideal candidate to become a coach.  Now I'm working with girls to build their confidence, their public speaking skills, and to hopefully help them win.  

So why did God send me to Montana?

He sent me to Montana for several reasons.  The most obvious is that Malmstrom AFB is here and the nuclear mission needed more missileers.  He sent me through Air Force ROTC because he knew my passion, dedication, and gratefulness to this country would make me a good officer.  He also understood that I would work my ass off to be the best officer I could be.  

The Lord sent me to Montana because I needed to break out of my comfort zone.  I needed a space to work on my marriage that had been so unconventional from the start.  For the first time, Ryan and I were living together instead of being separated by deployments, orders, or distance.  We needed a space to figure out how he other worked, what upset us, what brought us joy, and for us to have the time to build on a beautiful life together.

The Lord sent me to Montana because he knew that I needed to help others but at the same time be humbled.  When I first got here, I thought I was better than this city.  I had a college education from one of the best schools in the world and I couldn't understand why this place didn't want to be more progressive.  I needed to be humbled because many of the folks here are intelligent, kind, and care more for others than themselves.  I was leaving the selfishness that I had recently lived in.  It was a place of young people almost needing to go out to the bars to fulfill their need for human interaction and an attempt at relationships.  That need to feel wanted because you were young and beautiful and alcohol made everyone social.  The need to be so materialistic and buy whatever you felt compelled to purchase because the 30+ short dresses in my closet weren't enough.

So the Lord put in a place where there were few stores and instead, replaced the amount of shopping opportunities with just wonderful people who needed me and I needed them.  The Lord put in a place where everything that was sort of similar to my college experience was hours and hours away.  I needed to become a better person here first and learn to help build up my community.  

I need to fall in love with Great Falls.

It didn't just stop there.  I needed to be humbled about myself and that despite being a young person, I am just human.  Instead of being naturally good at everything, I had to spend hours and hours everyday studying in a career field that has rocked my confidence to the core.  I gained weight to realize that despite being 23, I still had a woman's body that would naturally gain weight in areas that made fitting into my old clothes nearly impossible.  I was forced to give up clothes filled with memories that really didn't fit but to also purchase new ones to make me feel confident in having hips and curves.  I had to learn that despite my natural athletic ability, I was going to have to work my ass off (literally) but to also learn to love my new shape.

The Lord sent me to Montana for many reasons but I know the Lord sent me here because I needed to build a relationship with Him.  I had so badly wanted that in college and struggled.  I let so many contributing factors, especially my failing relationships with guys, contribute to how I felt about myself.  I became a friend to myself instead of a friend of the Lord.  When Ryan came into my  life I knew that this was the start of a journey that God, HIMSELF, was guiding because He knew that I needed this so badly.

God put me in Great Falls so that I would have the time, space, and opportunity to become a better person.

In Montana, the Museums Offer You Whiskey

My friends Matt and Ashton offered me to tag along with them on an exploration of the local area to find the "Lost Lake." After driving several gravel roads, taking lefts, rights, and going down into steep valleys we stopped and started walking.  I was talking, staring at my feet to avoid cow poop, and then BAM- this was my view.

Lost Lake is very briny and not really ideal for swimming, fishing, or boating, but it sure is pretty.
 
     We also kept talking about Game of Thrones and how that wall of rocks reminded us of the scene where Jon Snow was scaling it in the middle of winter.  Not the same wall of rocks, obviously, but still the fear of heights was still definitely there.       My Fernando Torres pose


Ashton asked to do a "sorority pose" but sorority poses are usually composed up of different positions to accommodate "going out" outfits and alcohol ;) So I just decided to celebrate how beautiful the view was and that I was with awesome folks.

We then went to Fort Benton and ate at a great place called Wake Up. I had the most delicious wheat wrap with chicken, bacon, avocado, and spinach.  I also had a mango and orange juice blended drink that was sooo yummy! If you're ever in Fort Benton, Montana, I highly recommend that place.  Fort Benton also has a lot of history and several pretty solid museums.  The actual fort had several displays including the tee-pees above.  One of the displays was about trading and we were offered Trader's Whiskey.  No lie, I drank whiskey at a museum.

We also visited Fort Benton's Agricultural Museum which had a huge outdoor display that was like a mini town.  The creepy factor quickly set in as everything started to look like it was from  Children of the Corn.

I was just waiting for his face to pop out of nowhere as we were walking through.
  We also found a warehouse filled with different vehicles and there were hearses, carriages, and sleds.     Can't you just picture us in a wintery wonderland?

Conveniently, we thought the same and this has got to happen this winter ;)     The indoor displays in the museum were pretty good but we did come across the creepiest mannequin alive and it was a nurse from WWII who looked like she was plotting something.  So of course, we had to plot with her.
  Since we are now children of the homestead, we thought it was fitting to join these little girls in celebrating the wild west.   If you visit my Instagram, you can see more from the trip :)   If you liked this post, share it with others! If you feel particularly moved by it, leave a comment because I love feedback and discussion. Social media links are provided below and thanks for reading!

Snow, Museums, and a Baptism

 This weekend was the Sunday Sampler in Great Falls.  Several museums had free admission and special events to open up to the community.  A group of friends and I visited the art museum and the history museum after we all got back from our respective church services.

 Great Falls definitely isn't Chicago, but the museums held their own and I felt very "grown-up" in a sequin sweater, pencil skirt, heels, and down jacket.  It was even lightly snowing.  Welcome to Montana!

We all met up before leaving for the museums and my friend Nicole gave me this beautiful Willow Tree statue as a present after Baptism.  I feel so blessed to not only have such wonderful friends but to be a part of this military community.  We always look out for each other, we're family.

 Our first stop was the art museum and I was able to capture some images of my favorite pieces.

This is Three-Thousand and Counting which is an installation piece by Great Falls artist, Jean Price.  

 The artist designed a dog tag for each of the fallen military service members in the Iraq conflict.  There were specific Montana-shaped dog tags for those service members specifically from Montana.

 It was definitely a moving and humbling piece.  I was instantly drawn to it because of the vertical lines and when realizing that it symbolized fallen service members, it was a sobering moment.  Many of the dog tags had service members who were 18 or 19-years old.  At 23, I was blessed with the opportunity to live even just a while longer and something I don't take lightly.

 

 My next favorite exhibit was a tribute to the artist Lee Steen and his totem pole-esque cowboys.

 I thought they were so neat and I can't imagine what it must have been like to drive past these while on a road trip.  They're creepy, yet whimsical and so incredibly tall!  Each one was so unique and their personalities were based on what the artist could feel with the surface of the wood.  Knots were turned into mouths and the width of the log became the size of their foreheads.  It was pretty cool.

 The Exquisite Corpse was a project done by the local high school students.  They were made from lineolum bars and carved out to make prints.  I loved these and thought that they would be so popular if they were made into prints for the home.  I know that I would have bought some.

 Now the final piece I photographed was this telephone stand complete with circuit breakers.  It was an interactive art piece that could be solved by using the provided riddle.

 We probably spent 20-30 minutes here and still couldn't solve it.

We then made our way to the history museum where they had a wonderfully large military display.  With a section dedicated to female service members, we thought it would be a great opportunity to take a picture.  Their uniforms were so cute and actually form-fitting.  Definitely different than the ones we have today.

 I thought these dolls were so neat! They were made by the Freundlich Novelty Corporation in 1943 to help show support for service members during the war.  I've visited several museums and their military sections and have never seen these dolls before.

 I thought this was pretty interesting as well since these dolls were used in the 1940s to teach young mothers how to care for their newborn babies.  I know it may sound silly but I bet some of those earlier principles could well suited still for today.

 Here's a slightly better angle of the dolls.  The ladies and I decided that we needed to bring these back and make ones for our specific career field ;)

 I love WWII history and anything to do with WASP or the Women Airforce Service Pilots.

 There was even a display on the Hutterites, who are a communal branch of Anabaptists.

These were my favorites as they had such detail and beautiful works of embroidery.  Plus I'm a romantic and I thought these were so cute to make for your sweetheart.

I don't really know what Ryan would do with it if I made him one of these.  Wouldn't it be neat to bring back one of these original traditions?  How was your weekend?