4th of July celebration, Montana style

For Independence day weekend, we joined Chad's college friend Mark in Idaho. We took his shiny new truck and drove to Hamilton, Montana to spend the weekend with his family. What a beautiful setting his parents live in, a very cute house in the forest with stunning view of the surrounding mountains. After chilling out a little on Friday, we shared a wonderful dinner with them while enjoying the nice evening out on their patio. We are the biggest fan of Jean's (Mark's mom) sherry pie which was served with ice cream: what a treat!!!

A plane ride above the mountains

Mark got his license as a private pilot so he offered to take us out on a plane ride. We went to the local airport and Mark started preparing a two seater. Chad being the gentleman he is (and to check how good a pilot Mark was) let Caroline got first. After all checks performed, we step into the plane, put the headsets on and ready for take off. The journey was really smooth despite the hot air and Mark was a great pilot. He showed us the beautiful mountains, including the high Trapper's peak, we flew above his parents house, the close by lake and back to Hamilton in the plain. It was such a great flight and we definitively had a lot of fun up there. We have been now both inspired to get our own pilot license. Not right now of course but definitively something we want to consider.

Montana style celebration

In the afternoon, we headed to Mark's sister for an outdoor BBQ. Little did we know about how entertaining this was going to be. After chilling out in the backyard, sipping local beer, we set up the table for dinner. And here is was: the 17-hour slow cooked home made brisket and all the suite so delicious sides. Man it was good, Chad can testify after his three servings. Given how much food we had, and for sure after the strawberry and chocolate cakes, some exercise was needed so the guys started taking the rifles out to shoot some clay disks. It was really entertaining until they decided that Caroline should give it a try. She had to be convinced but finally gave in: with the support and advice of three experts around her, what could be possibly go wrong? Well, it went pretty well as she shot the flying disk on her first try. Pretty scary but she may be born a natural on this one!

In a very 4th of July traditional way, some fireworks were shot from the backyard by Mark's family as the entire valley was lit by other fireworks being launched from other backyards. We just loved it, celebration Montana style surrounded by all these beautiful moutains.