NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2005
BEFORE (08-05-03) & AFTER (12-31-05) – CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE
The holiday season has been crazy and the yard has suffered a great deal of
neglect. Weeds are breaking through the bark layer at a frightening pace and I'm
not sure if all the birch tree's will make it either.Because we've made zero progress on the finishing touches over the last two
months, we'll share Christmas vacation photos with you instead...
12.19.05 – My very generous parents, Don & Chris, flew the whole family out to
Butte, Montana for a week of snow-filled winter fun. On the left, is the condo we
stayed in at the Fairmont Hot Springs. Right, looking the other direction, is the
7:40 sunrise and fresh animal tracks. The tempatures were predicted to be
between -10° and +10° and there was about a foot of snow blanketing the entire
valley we were in.
Three hours later, Julian and I are at about 7,700 ft up on Rumsey mountain at
Ski Discovery outside Anaconda, MT, ready to carve the powder. The Northern
Rocky Mountains are in the background.
12.20.05 – On Tuesday, we drive to Bozeman to visit the Musuem of the Rockies.
Here, Julian and Quinn hang out with "Big Mike". The musuem had great dinosuar,
Lewis & Clarke, Rocky Mountain and mining history exhibits.
12.21.05 – The sunrise view of the condo balcony was amazing on Wednesday.
It seems to take forever for the sun to finally break over the mountains. I probably
took 50 shots over 30 minutes waiting for the sun. Notice also, how the snow on the
has melted away. The tempatures changed from 0°–10° to 30°–40° in two days!
12.22.05 – On the road to somewhere, a look at a farm and Diana and Quinn in the
back seat of the truck.
12.22.05 – On Thursday, we took a 3 hour drive to Yellowstone to do a day-long
guided snowmobile tour. We had to leave the condo at 4:30am to get there, and
didn't get back until about 10pm. A long day, but it was well worth it. That's Quinn
waving from the back of Diana's arctic cat. (If you haven't tried it before, you got
to go snowmobiling sometime... what a blast!!)
The whole group bundled up and standing over one of several waterfalls we got
to see. From left to right: Don Jr., Don Sr., Diana, Quinn, Julian and Chris.
A heard of snowcats on break and a heard of bison having lunch.
A walking tour of the Lower Geyser Basin. Quinn clearly doesn't enjoy having a
camera pointed at him!
Diana and the boys sit near Old Faithful waiting to view the eruption. Most of my
good geyser and nature shots are on the video camera, so unfortunately, I can't
share them here with you.
The family and the parents with Old Faithful spitting up in the background.
On our way out of the park we were fortunate enough to pass by a small heard of
bison. They appeared very tame an curious.
A coyote trying to catch a mouse by the river and another lone bison.
I was taking some shots of a family of deer near a river when all of a sudden a
helmet-wearing yeti jumped into the frame and started waving his hands. We ran.
One of our last views on our way out of Yellowstone. On Friday, we went
snowboarding at The Great Divide outside Helena, the state capitol. Really good
day, but no photos.
12.24.05 – Boarding the Horizon Air 70-seater twin prop from Butte to Seattle on
our way home. It was awesome trip! Thanks mom and dad!
12.26.05 – Back home and Quinn is posing on his shiny new Shwinn Stingray bike.
This is also the first wide shot of the front showing the screen walls with the
grey vinyl strips.Another year gone... and a Happy New Year to everyone!
Also visit Don's portfolio site: www.designbutton.com
