Best Brother in the World

Samuel and I used to fight. A lot. There's a couple of horrible stories on my other blog but I don't think I'll get into it here.
I moved away for school and that seemed to help. Then we lived together for the first time since '98. There were those (mom) who feared for our emotional (perhaps also physical) well-being, but we're both stubborn so we went ahead and moved into a little house all by ourselves.
And that's when all the fun began.

Ladies, he's clean, funny, gentlemanly, and he can cook eggs like no one else! He's good with a vacuum, Jerry Lewis impressions, and drives a hot little car.

He's also very supportive:
I don't know what I would do without my brother.






He listens, encourages, and laughs at me when I'm not even funny. I'll be gone this summer and when I return he'll be off to Japan. I'm a bit sad that we've only had such a short time together. He's pretty much my most favorite brother in the whole world. Why is it always easiest to take for granted those closest to us?

Raging Rivers

The grass is green and the rivers are up.





Here's a comparison of the top of the Mad Mile on the Gallatin river. The lower level is from May 11th and the second from May 25th, only two weeks apart but thousands of cfs different.
Compare this photo with the one below of House Rock. And this isn't even the peak level! Lots of water...lots of fun for crazy boaters!

Pickle Ball

Last weekend the troops arrived at Grandma and Grandpa's and the weapons of mass construction were assembled to create the Pickle Ball court. Bob & LaDonna came down. Bob and BJ used their masterful civil engineering knowledge and dug a big hole. Steve and Samuel helped out and the gravel was brought in and the posts set.

With a rigorous watering schedule in effect, the cement is curing while Grandpa golfs and all it lacks is a net and some lines. I expect the next generation of Pickle Ball pros to emerge out of the Cope family. As soon as it becomes an official Olympic sport, you'll see our names in all the headlines!

The plastic life

Had an interesting conversation with a dear friend. She shared with me a comment: "You can never pass through a sandstorm with hair in place - unless you're made of plastic."
I really liked that because it is an apt metaphor for life. As anyone who has had sand in his/her hair, it's not a pleasant sensation. But, it's a fact of life. And whether it comes from a sandstorm twisted up out of the dry places where the heat comes from all directions or as a side effect of a lazy nap on a beach tickled by foamy waves, it can't happen without embracing Life. As Tennyson proclaims, we must "drink life to the lees," even when it means a bitter taste.
Give me both sweet and sour, sand and rain - let me live life and love well.

Flora and Fauna

We had a wonderful end of the year party with the Werner party at their house. We barbequed outside, played badminton and batted around the shuttlecock, hiked up and around and all-around, traded like crazy stockbrokers, ate until we almost popped, and created a crazy morphed mutant play-doh bear. What a great time!

(l-r boys) Lucien, Peter, Brian, Andrew
(l-r girls) Andree, Susan, Helene, Charity, Mariel


Montana wildflower in the Bridger foothills.

What's family for?

Cousin Eric wouldn't eat his peas for dinner so Aunt Becky had to get a little forceful with him.

Gallatin Valley

A 2-1/2 mile hike up Storm Castle gets you this fantastic view of the Gallatin river. Not sure what the elevation is up there, but it's somewhere around 8,000. Met a nice, hungry ground squirrel, found some fossils, got a sunburn and found a treasure. Can't complain about a day like that.

House Rock on the Gallatin: obviously the water is barely running over the foundations of House but it's water and it's moving - what more could a paddler ask for other than a pretty girl to run the shuttle car?

Yellowstone

It was a beautiful, wonderful day in the best National Park in the world.

A drive-by shooting of fuzzy little calves trotting along...just past my favorite sign in the park that says:
"CAUTION: bison are wild and dangerous. DO NOT approach."
Who would have thought? Not entirely sure why they would post that. Someone has to keep the emergency medical folks in business.


Towards the end of the Old Faithful eruption so it's not as glorious as it could be.
A couple of ways to look at this: either it's erupting out of Andrew or he's relieving himself in an area clearly marked as sacred to the environmental gods.






Grand Canyon of YNP. A friendly East Indian family jabbered excitedly to our left. One couldn't handle the height so she just kneeled with outstretched hands and clutched the massive boulders surrounding the viewpoint. She got pretty excited but I'm not sure she could even see over the rocks.





Perhaps it was the thundering of the 308ft falls to our right that got her squirrely.