Big Sky Country!

I believe we have hit the dog days of summer. As Rocky mentioned the other day, "I thought we left VA because of the heat!" I do better understand the idea of a "dry" heat though. The heat in Richmond would just wait at the door and hit you like a ton of bricks as you walk out.

I'm also really enjoying the Montana "Big Sky." Last night, we watched a rain storm come in from about 7 miles away (at least that's what I've been told how far away the horizon is). The rain came down in streaks in front of the big red ball of the sun -- perfectly round and not diminished in it's light. We saw the lightening and heard the thunder. And we stood outside playing with water balloons and bubbles until 9 and then continued watching the storm from our bedroom until 9:30 when we all feel asleep. I love that I can see all of this from my backyard. This morning, we played in the pool for a few hours and watched 2 hawks search for a meal. The farm on the other side of the creek and slough has cows we can hear bellowing in the morning. The deer have gone off for the summer, but seem to spend the fall and spring in a small clearing of trees just past the slough. I had truly forgotten what it is like to live on the prairie. We got a huge rain on July 5th and we saw the best rainbows ever. I think it was the first time I was able to see all five colors so clearly.

We actually have grass now! It is rather patchy, but is really coming in. Our neighbor says that next year we will really be able to tell that the hydro-seed was a good investment. It's nice as we can actually walk in the backyard barefoot. Otis loves it and never misses a chance to roll around on it. Maggie's not sure what she thinks yet, but I'm sure next year she'll be ready to run around barefoot. The front yard looks really good.

Maggie was doing really well about sleeping in her own bed, but has regressed a little in the past few weeks. I think it may be because of my rehearsal schedule. But she's also been stuffy -- with the weather being so hot, we are spending a lot of time in the air conditioning. She loves to go to the zoo and knows exactly what animals she wants to see when we go. We took Grandma when she was here over the 4th of July. We also went to a baseball game at the new stadium. The stadium is really nice, but we only stayed until the end of the 2nd inning because it was raining so hard and Maggie had seen enough. On the plus side, we got to see a lot of the great rainbows!