It’s been super gorgeous outside every day since I’ve gotten here and I am loving it! Unfortunately that’s supposed to change later this week so my mom and I decided to go on a hike through the woods behind the house. We found a service trail and followed that, since it’s so much easier than trying to walk through all the underbrush. Since the house is on a hill, going back behind the house means going up so my mom and I got some pretty views of the lake through the trees.

Everyone who has grown up in Montana or anywhere similar knows that spring season is also tick season so my mom and I made sure to appropriately protect ourselves. And you never want to forget your bear spray!

Much to our dismay, the geeky socks tucked over our pants didn’t stop us from picking up some very unwelcome hitchhikers. We stripped down on the porch for a tick check and found 8 in total. I have never seen a tick in real life until yesterday and I can say with 100% confidence that I never want to see one again. They’re really ugly and really hard to get off clothes. I don’t know what’s on their legs, but if we could sell it super glue would be out of business. Even after we got all the ticks off we were nervous there were some hiding on us still so we both took showers and washed our hair. We didn’t find any more after that so I think we got them all. Their sad little carcases are still on the front porch table where we squished them as a warning to all other ticks. I feel like I’ve passed some Montana initiation now that I’ve survived a tick infestation!