Ohmyohmy. My husband was away for a long weekend with his posse, fishing wild Montana rivers while I was at the homestead navigating class five rapids with one oar, negotiating log jams and barracudas. It was hard and tiring (as if I needed to feel more exhausted) and, come Sunday afternoon, I was very, very thankful for the return of those extra two hands and the bounding, rough energy that only a papa can offer.
My girls and I had a very Missoula sort of weekend. We picked four pounds of peas (!!!!!!), had breakfast picnics at the park, ate waffles and hula hooped at the farmer’s market, watched the Missoula Marathon (and ran a few of those miles with our friend), swam, slid down red slides at the playground. I went to bed at 9pm all three nights Andy was away, my eyes so heavy they fell shut the instant my body was horizontal, supported by Missoula.
Yes, Missoula. I love my town, my community. We chose this place, the same place that raised generations before me. It’s the geography, the mentality, the beauty. Read more about my Missoula in this week’s mama digs, Missoula Grows With Us.
17 Comments
oh that first photo is delicous, great post x
Oh, Missoula, how I miss you! We were visiting LAST Saturday, and hula hooped at the market! I keep plotting to someday return for good- there is nowhere else on earth like Missoula 🙂
I LOVE this one, Nicki…thank you!
Isn’t it great that the thing we sometimes yearn for is the thing we already have? We should all pause and reflect.
The photos are especially great in this post!
Eyes welling up… so true! Thank you.
I remember when we were transfered to Spokane…I had to leave my beloved Montana…..I cried all two hundred miles! I also cried, (and still do), when I would fly into Montana and glimpse the Rockies. It’s in the blood!
xoxo, Mom
ps…..LOVE the first photo of my girls!
Oh the Rockies…
All that you say here is exactly what I’m looking for, and exactly what I felt last week in Missoula. So looking forward to returning. Your Mama Digs says it so beautifully… a different kind of rich. The only kind I give a rat’s ass about. The wealth of friends, community, beauty, mentality. Every fiber longs to escape my current personal purgatory of Grand Rapids. Michigan is beautiful in a very special way, but the mentality, the motivation, is not in connection, or community, or progression, but rather on hanging on to old ways, being insular and judgmental, and friends are, for me, really hard to make here. Again with the mentality… BUT! to know it exists, and awaits, aaaahhhhhhh…. yessshhhh.
As always, love love love your photos. Ruby is quite the little personality girl these days eh?
PS
I posted the other day as anonymous, after finally giving up on the letter thingy. On your garden post. I of the giant tomato tree on my return from Montana.
Giant, enormous, freaking tomato tree.
Yeah, so about those waffles? I noticed Marcy “liked” them on Facebook, checked the fan page out and now every Saturday (Sunday?) morning as I eat my stale Dunkin’ Donuts bagel, I get an update on the SINGLE MOST AMAZING waffles being served at your farmer’s market. Smoked Ham, Blue Cheese and Caramelized Vidalia and Horseradish Sauce? Holy moley.
Forget the views and fresh air, woman. I’d move there for the waffles alone.
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In every one of the many places I’ve lived in, I was always eager to find the next place – until I moved to Missoula. I can’t say I’ll be here forever, but by damn it’s the greatest place I’ve yet to live in. It’s the place that is me.
Got myself a new screen saver. XOXO
Beautifully said…brings tears to my eyes. The complete truth. Thank you!
oh **NICI**, i’ve spent most of the past decade in Missoula and i’ve been away for almost a year. for the past few weeks i’ve been full to the gills with longing for missoula’s rivers, aching for missoula’s trails, but mostly weeping for missoula’s people. i’ve been doing extensive searching for the perfect place (for me) to live, but all this circling round and around keep leading me back.
huh.
so thanks for your perspective on this wonderful place. i’m currently searching for signs.
You are so very lucky to live in place you love and to be able to recognize it’s riches.
High five on this one, Dig! Take it from me, I’ve traveled north, I’ve traveled south, traveled west and now have traveled east and there has been no place yet that compares with beautiful Missoula. Everytime we roll on home, we all take a deep breath and exhale with a “Yesssss….”