It was a summer of "Y's"

Huh? Well, first it was a visit to Yosemite and then it was a visit to Yaak. Where, you ask? For those of you not familiar (although I'm not sure there are many people reading this that don't know me well enough to know where Yaak is...), Yaak is a teeny, tiny, itsy, bitsy town in northwest Montana. Sort of wedged in the corner near the Idaho and Canadian border. We're talking rural with a capital "R" but beautiful beyond words.

So the Desotell Family headed up there to join Grandma & Grandpa T as well as a boat load of other members of the Thomas clan. The first part of the trip was spent at the house in Yaak with the G-parents, enjoying the lovely weather, deer, huckleberry picking, sleeping (as much as we could catch up on) and generally just doing a lot of nothing.

The latter part of the trip included a big ole party at Savage Lake in honor of the 50th anniversary of the cabin originally owned by my Great Uncle Bert which is now owned by my cousins Jackie & Gwen. They threw a GREAT party - lots of family, friends, good food & drink (huckleberry daquiris - how can you go wrong???) We also had a nice BBQ with s'mores & all on our last day with the immediate Thomas clan (G-parents, Uncle Jerry & Aunt Lou Ann, cousin Todd & wife Grace, cousin Tracy & boyfriend Justin).

Enough babble - here are some pictures. Not enough to capture everyone or everything, but what can you do...

You can't be in Yaak without seeing deer. And you certainly can't be at the Thomas place without feeding the deer some corn. Nick really got into it and spent many an hour - I kid you not - HOURS - going back & forth between corn can and the "feeding area".


Feeding the deer all that corn is pretty exhausting. So what better place to take a nap than on Grandpa?


Feeding the deer came a close second to Nick's favorite pastime - the swing.


Not to worry - the house does have running water. Showers and everything! But no bathtubs. And he long ago outgrew using the sink as a tub. So lucky Nick got to bathe 'al fresco'. He didn't seem to mind.


Nick with Mommy and Aunt Lou Ann at the Savage Lake party. Nick is giving Lou Ann a high-five. The high-five was really just a ploy to get Lou Ann's camera. Thankfully Lou Ann was fast and the camera was safe from harm.


Here are Jackie & Gwen giving a bit of history on the Savage Lake cabin, introducing people and giving greetings to all the guests.


Nick getting his groove on while watching the Terriers - my Uncle Jerry's three piece band. At a couple of points during their performance, they were actually a four-piece band - my cousin Todd added his bass skills to the mix for a few songs.


Nick climbed up and down those stairs a bazillion times. I think in this picture he's trying to join the band up on the deck. He has some mean rattle skills, you know.


Nick is clearly telling Grandpa T and Mommy something very interesting. Only he knows what that was, however. Probably something like "So, I saw the deer and I went and got her some corn. Then I went and got her some more corn. Then some more corn..."



I'm sure there are more "Y" places to visit. Yemen, perhaps? Yakima? Stay tuned...