Almost May

Snow, snow, go away...come back in 9 months! This morning brought us another dusting of snow in lovely Montana. While I am a bit remorse to see more snow on the ground, I am thankful for a Spring season packed with travel and thankfully, warm weather. Our travels to New Orleans and Tucson were a nice reprieve. We are buckling down in Kalispell for a short 6 weeks while Ben finishes the end of the school year and we are looking forward to getting outdoors more often. Here's a recap of what we've been up to since my last post.

The end of March brought us to New Orleans for my sister, Gabbie's, wedding. She was a stunning bride and the location was quite romantic. It was wonderful to return to Louisiana as a family. We had not all congregated there since our move to Oregon in 1992.


Since those days, our family has grown considerably from 8 to 14 with one more coming at the end of summer.


Ben and Sy enjoyed visiting Louisiana for the first time. Experiences to note include visiting Cafe Du Monde, walking the French Quarter, eating mouth-watering food, and meeting great-grandparents for the first time for Sy.


A week later in April, our family jetted off to SE Arizona for our first family vacation...and to allow Ben to do some much-anticipated birdwatching. We traveled from Phoenix to the Chiricahua Mountains in Portal. Despite being in the desert, the mountains housed beautiful habitats that drew incredible wildlife. We loved hiking and discovering the flora and fauna.


After 2 days in Portal, we drove further south to Patagonia. For you birders out there, we found the best bed and breakfast in the area, The Duquense House. While Ben visited the local birding spots, Sy and I enjoyed the beautiful garden and walked into town for some organic coffee and treats.

We capped off our week with more hiking in the Huachuaca Mountains and a visit to the Sonora High Desert Museum in Tucson.
Our week in SE Arizona was filled with lots of traveling (we covered over 500 miles in 1 week!), hiking, birdwatching and was busy, but restful. For more pictures, view our web album at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/bennywayne/SEArizona#