Montana Time For Brady’s Graduation
Trips to Montana are the first to be put on the calendar. We typically know a few months in advance when we will be there next. This last trip to Montana had been planned since the day we left, if not before then. This trip was to go back and celebrate our nephew Brady’s high school graduation! As you know with us, this means we have taken a short window of time in Northwestern Montana and filled it brim to brim with adventuring, family time, and activities with friends! All we can hope is that the spring weather in Montana is kind to us because spring up there is a mix of all three other seasons! This makes packing slightly difficult. Time to gear up, knowing we are headed back to the birthplace of Live Rad to celebrate Brady’s big accomplishment!
MIle: 89,221
Quote of the Blog: “Good company on any journey makes the way seem shorter.” - Sir Izaak Walton
Song of the Blog: “For Those About To Rock” - AC/DC
Our flight from Oregon to Montana was out of Medford at 5 a.m. We did not want to make the two-hour drive that morning, as that would have made for a super long travel day. So, we headed over to Ashland the night before we flew out to spend the night with Aunt Traci, Uncle Doug, and our cousin Kaylyn. This trip into Ashland was much more pleasant and peaceful compared to our last. We made sure to check our "blinker fluid" and that the car was all set for a longer drive before heading out. By the time we got there, Traci had dinner prepared for us. We spent the night telling Montana stories and talking about some of our recent adventures in Brookings. It was not only nice to have some family time, but it was also nice that we were able to get a couple of hours of sleep there and only have to drive 20 minutes in the morning to get to the airport.
Our flights were smooth and easy. We landed in Montana fairly early in the day, so we had all afternoon to run some errands and get ourselves situated at our first "home" for the trip. We were staying with Craig and Amy Moore for the first night. We are always welcomed to the Moore’s with big doggy kisses from Wally. Amity got a quick run in while I got some last-minute work done for the week while sitting on the Moore’s back deck. It feels good to be back in Montana in the spring. We have not been here this time of year since we left. Not only did they hook us up with a place to stay, but they also took us out on their boat for an evening cruise around Whitefish Lake. They had a couple of extra spots open, so we invited Emma and Danny to come out with us. The weather really tested us. When we initially launched the boat, the wind was blowing, but not quite generating whitecaps on the water. It was just Amy, Craig, Amity, and me at first. We all laughed about how we only like to hang out on boats, as we had all recently been living on a boat together in Mexico. We also laughed about the waves being nothing compared to what we went out in on the first day of boating in Mexico. After a quick cruise, we picked up Emma and Danny. They brought with them even better weather! The wind died down, the sky cleared up, and we got an amazing evening out on Whitefish Lake. Cruising around and chatting with Emma was nostalgic, to say the least. The last time we were out on the lake together was on my family's boat over 20 years ago. Amy prepared dinner for everyone in the form of "Walkin' Tacos" or "Ballpark Tacos." For those not in the know, Ballpark Tacos are made with ground meat (Amy used ground elk!) mixed with taco seasoning, put into a bag of chips, and topped with cheese and all the nacho fixings. Super simple and really good! Dinner on the boat with good friends, good drinks, and great weather was a complete success! It was the perfect "Welcome Back Home" kind of evening we could have asked for.
The next day was the big day!!! Brady Heitz was graduating high school! We started by getting our things packed back up, as we were moving our home that night out to Micheal and Maggie Conery’s cabin in one of our favorite places in the world: Essex, Montana! We got our things together and headed over to Columbia Falls from Whitefish. This was my rival school growing up, so I did not spend much time in or around the school. It was fun to explore Brady’s stomping grounds! The moment we walked up, we connected with Seth and eventually Evie, Tori, Cadence, and Tori’s boyfriend, Jayson. My mom and Cassie had been holding down our seats in the gymnasium. We were both so happy to see everyone again! The graduation ceremony was decent. It had your standard hits, but it also had a couple of moments that I even found inspiring. Brady proudly grabbed his diploma, ending a four-year run as a Columbia Falls Wildcat. He not only did great academically, but he was also their go-to goalkeeper for the soccer team! We are immensely proud of him and stoked to see what comes next. The only thing the ceremony missed was my brother Shane. "Where’s Shane?" After the ceremony, we had a couple of hours to kill. We stole Cadence and Evie from their moms and took them over to play some putt-putt at Scout & Gather. We ended up getting some pizza while waiting for the course to clear out. I loved catching up with them and getting to hear how things were going in their lives. There is a lot of change happening in all of their lives. Cadence and my sister Tori are moving into their new house, and Evie is preparing to become the only child in her home. While playing mini-golf, Evie gave me a run for my money, but in the end, I prevailed as the best mini-golfer! We all had a blast! We also timed our arrival at Brady’s graduation party perfectly! Shane was there, and they had some good food and good drinks to celebrate Brady and three of his friends. They had a cake with a photo of Brady and his friends skiing printed on the top. It was delicious and hilarious! While there, we realized how many people we were connected to through Brady’s friends. Old co-workers from both the ski resort and the hospital said hi and chatted with us. We also saw some old mutual friends from my youth baseball days whom I hadn’t seen in decades. At one point, Tori put on an inflatable dinosaur outfit and surprised Brady with a confetti cannon to the face! It was priceless! Overall, it was a blast to see everyone and celebrate Brady and all of his friends. After giving my mom a big hug and sharing a welcome-home moment with her, we hopped into the car and headed to our next home for the night up in Essex.
The drive up to Essex is full of memories and nostalgia. It’s one of those places in the world where you don’t have to wonder what is beyond what you can see from the road because we know it all. As we passed the west entrance into Glacier National Park in West Glacier and entered the Middle Fork Canyon, we knew we were back in one of our personal homes. We fell in love with this area a long time ago. We got married up here, and we will take every opportunity to escape to Essex. Over time, we made our "Essex Family." This group is composed of a lot of mutual friends from all over. Some are locals to the Essex area, some are cabin owners from the Flathead Valley, and some are transplants simply looking for an escape from the city. We all go out there for one reason: to escape to simpler lives focused around rafting, hiking, and exploring the area. The Conery’s have always been very kind to us by giving us access to their cabin or the bunkhouse on the property. We know we are in the right spot because they are among the very few special people who embraced the Live Rad mantra enough to fly a Live Rad flag at the entrance to their property. I feel like I can see it from a mile away when we come around the last corner. I was surprised to see bear grass flowers blooming as we pulled onto their property. Duffy was there when we rolled up. He is a hoot! Duffy is one of those Essex characters who is classic to the area. I helped Michael get some tools back over to Duffy’s house. His house is quite the story, but I am always surprised to see all the work he does outside the house because, if you go inside, it has never been finished. He is always good for a laugh and willing to help when you need it. Craig and Amy arrived just after us. They wanted to join us for a night of camping and hanging out. We barbecued and hung out around the campfire. We don’t sit around campfires enough these days. It is one of our favorite activities, and it’s so simple and calming. The main goal of coming out was to go rafting the next morning, but the weather gods did not favor us. It was finally cold and rainy. Michael was rip-roaring and ready to raft, but our Arizona blood has not thickened up enough yet to weather a rainy rafting trip in 35-degree weather. We spent the morning hanging out in the cabin catching up with the Conery’s. They recently got a new puppy named Bob. He is a black Lab and a good boy!!! We always get asked whether we would want a dog, but the reality is we don’t have a structured enough life for one. We do, however, love other people's dogs; like Bob!
That afternoon, we got our things packed up for our fourth and final house of the trip at my mom’s. We had some time to kill, so we both went our separate ways to spend some time with friends. Amity went over to Kenny and Abby Carpenter’s house to catch up, hang out with their toddler, and meet their new baby, while I went over to Bobby’s house, where he was all but packed up to move into a new house in town. We all reconnected downtown at the Remington Bar. We had to come down and have one last drink at the Remington before it officially changed ownership. It feels like everything in Whitefish is for sale right now. Amity and I had dinner at the Bulldog, which hopefully never changes, as it is the last true place from when I was a kid. It was nice to get a little bit of nostalgia in Whitefish, as that night we were headed down to Kalispell for the first time to stay at my mom’s new house. Recently, she sold our family’s home in Whitefish and bought a new house in Kalispell. Her house is located in a golf course community called Village Greens. I played golf here while I was in high school. She scored a really nice house while cashing in on the Whitefish house! We are super excited for her. We were her first guests at the house. The next morning, we both had some training runs to do, and I had to get some work done before we met up with Seth, Cassie, and Shane for a round of golf at the "family" course. Shane nearly didn’t make it, but in the end, we only had to let two groups tee off before he got there, so it wasn’t too bad. The course played really well, and we got fantastic weather! Cassie even got in on a couple of holes. Golf is not her thing, but hey, we got both Seth and Cassie together outside of their restaurant for some fun! That doesn’t happen often anymore. Glad we all got to play together, and now we have this course right next to Mom’s house! That night, we got to celebrate Brady again!!! This time for his birthday! Graduating and turning 18 in the same week!!! That’s huge! One of the most comical moments of the night was when everyone else was at my mom’s, but Shane was not. He had headed home after golf for a quick nap and missed his first alarm. At one point, we had everyone get out their phones and text him, "Sup Dog?" at the exact same time. He was only five minutes away. Nothing like giving the little brother a hard time! After dinner and celebrating, my siblings all left for a softball game. They all play on the same team. Amity and I hung out with the kids for a little bit longer before we went over to Brian and Ashley Seefeldt’s house. They had just gotten back from Wisconsin, and we wanted to hear all about it. They even treated us to some curds from Wisconsin!!! Brian is from Wisconsin and said he had a blast with his family. We would love to time a Wisconsin trip with them! Maybe someday it will happen! We could have stayed there talking with them until the wee hours of the morning, but we knew they were tired from a long travel day, so we said our goodbyes and headed back to my mom’s for our last night in Montana.
When my mom lived in Whitefish, we had a tradition of going to the Buffalo for breakfast on the last day we were in town. Since that is too far now, it was easy to make the switch to lunch in Kalispell at Bonelli’s Bistro. Some of our old friends from our Craggy Range days in Whitefish, Jeff and Marin Schuman, are the owners there. This made lunch with my mom double as one last hello to some friends we haven’t seen in a long time! The food is delicious, so missing out on the Buffalo is not a big deal at all! While having lunch, we chatted with my mom about her plan to come down to Brookings with her sisters and her stepmom. We made plans for her to come down July 11th–13th. Looks like we have a miniature Holmes sister reunion happening soon! We also learned all about my mom’s new life in her new home and community. She seems to be very happy with the move, and the house is beautiful! We couldn’t be happier for her! The next time we will be back will be for Christmas, and we are excited to celebrate with everyone at the new house! There is going to be so much more room for activities during the holidays! Big win!!! As we finished our food, we realized we had just landed in Montana, and it was already time to head back to the airport to start our journey back to Brookings, Oregon. We gave my mom hugs and kisses and said our goodbyes. We had planned on landing back in Oregon at 6 p.m., with a two-and-a-half-hour drive from Medford back to Brookings. We got the standard flying-out-of-Kalispell treatment: delayed flights! We already had a tight connection in Portland that was very clearly not going to happen. Luckily, there was another flight from Portland to Medford later that night that we were able to transfer onto. The downside was that we were now scheduled to get into Medford at 11:30 p.m. Aside from that, our flights went smoothly. We made the dark and windy drive through the Smith River Canyon and back down to the coast from central Oregon. We had initially planned to be back in Brookings by sunset but didn’t make it until after 1 a.m. The next morning hit like a freight train. We both pushed through our Monday with relative ease because we knew that, at the end of the day, we could walk down to the beach and recharge with a Pacific Coast sunset! After a four-day, end-to-end adventure and celebration fest in Montana, we needed it! Thanks, everyone in Montana, for continuing to Live Rad!!!!