A moose walks into a bar. . .

Anyone who knows me well knows that I love nature and all its wonders.  In particular, I have a huge affection for moose and the wilderness they inhabit.  Ever since I lived in Massachusetts, I became obsessed with the idea of seeing a moose.  Stories of moose sightings would creep down the mountain from the hill towns, but despite numerous bike rides and hikes, I never saw one.  Of course the more northern states like Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine all claimed to have plenty of moose- bragging on road signs and tee shirts, but despite my frequent adventures in the north country, I was never privy to a sighting.  I had traveled all over, to Utah, Colorado, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, all the while hoping to snap a few pictures of these giants.  After 8 years of yearning I only ended up seeing one moose, and that one came to see me (or at least that is what I have convinced myself).  That moose showed up on the campus of the University of Massachusetts.  Although I almost got arrested while snapping pictures of this guy (a story for another day), it truly quieted my inner yearning for a moose sighting and made me gloriously happy.

(he is that tiny brown spec in this picture)

Many years later, I moved to Arizona and I had almost completely stopped thinking about moose.  I stomped down all of my moose-loving feelings but really I became more obsessed with NOT seeing various aspects of nature (i.e. scorpions, black widows, snakes).  Thennnnnnnn, Chris and I decided to go to Montana for a long weekend.  Now I know that my husband loves me very much and knows me well, but to this point, I had never exposed to my love of moose nor has he ever even heard me talk about my need to see a moose, and quite frankly I did not want to scare him.  Once our tickets were booked, I started to get excited about the possibility of a moose sighting on our trip but I held my tongue.  About a week before our trip, all hell broke loose and all I could talk about was the hope that we would see a moose.  All animals love Chris, this is a fact we both know, so when he started to realize how much I wanted to see a moose he turned to me and said "Carrie, have you met me? There is a good chance that a moose will pick us up from the airport".  I felt instantly better.

So, we go to Montana, we talk to the locals about where to see moose, we start hunting for them on our first morning and BAM we find two, a cow and bull laying in the reeds.  I proceed watch them for hours, take 300ish pictures and jump up and down out of sheer joy when we get back to the hotel.  We went back 3 different times to see if they were there, and they were!

I could not be happier!

We also saw Elk.

And big horn sheep!

Big Sky was amazingly beautiful.  I look like I am super imposed in these shots, but I promise, this was the real backdrop!

On our last day, we hung around Bozeman.  This town is the perfect combination of hippie and red neck.  The Co-Op there would rival any Whole-Foods I have ever been in and all the restaurants serve local organic meats.  I absolutely loved the vibe and the scenery there and was sad to leave.  Luckily we had our animals to come home to!  We loved Montana and we will be back to enjoy all it has to offer!