From Wedding to Hunting Season (AKA Grocery Shopping)

This is my deer for 2007. We had been elk hunting and were on our way out when we saw him. We had to do quite a bit more hunting to fill the freezer for the year, but this was one of the better pictures of our success in 2007. I had to revise this post to suite Jane from England, although she'd rather have had me delete this blog all together. Her entire comments can be read by clicking on "Jane" and then scrolling down to "Carlisle Lass" and visiting her blog. Feel free to comment on our behalf.

The Deck

I think Abby enjoys the deck more than Landon and I do. It gives her a pretty good view of whats going on in her town.

We built it all by ourselves, and still got married. It's 16'x20', gray composite decking with 2x6 joists on 12" centers-so it's not going anywhere. It took us about a month and a half to build in our spare time.

The guys from work (I work at a lumber yard/construction company) took out a window and put the sliding door in. We lived with a 4' drop off for about a month. It drove Abby crazy that she could jump up and see in but couldn't get into the house. Mesa stood at the door and laughed at her. Abby had to learn to wait for the door to open before coming in the house. Hopefully we only have to replace the screen once, or twice if we get another dog.

The Proposal and Wedding

On September 15, 2006 Landon forced me to go for a walk down with the dogs down at the park, in the drizzly, 40 degree, ugly fall weather. We stopped at this bridge to throw the dummy for Abby and then he found the courage to propose. I, of course, said yes and immediately started planning our wedding for 09-08-07. (It's a math nerd thing) We had to have a couple pictures at the "romantic bridge"

The theme was fishing (of course) and "Accidentally in Love", hence Accidentally the Holtes. These two boys, my cousins Dalton and Wyatt, were quite entertaining. I said they could wear whatever they wanted to the wedding, they just had to be there early to direct people and hand out can coolers. I guess my Aunt Mickey took "whatever they wanted" seriously. They were great sports about it.

We got married at 4:30pm at the Flat Lake Boat Ramp in Fort Peck. Cindy stood up for me, Casey, Landon's brother, for him (in clothes he bought the morning of the wedding because he left his in Bismarck, which is why he doesn't match the olive green and baby blue theme). We had a childhood friend of mine, Aaron, marry us. Andy, my brother, made my bouquet about 5 minutes before pictures; everyone brought their own chair, or stood. It was a beautiful day, but the weather was too unpredictable that weekend and we ended up having the reception in the basement of the post office. I know that sounds awful, but as those of you who've been to Fort Peck know, it's not so bad.

Abby Cuss Holte

Abby was born on June 20, 2006 in North Dakota. We picked her out when she was just a few weeks old. Landon’s mom brought her home on August 18th, Landon’s 26th birthday. We named her Abby about 3 years ago, long before we even planned on getting a dog. Her middle name, Cuss, came from calling her abacus (it’s a math nerd thing) as a nickname. Then it just stuck. So now she comes to Abby or Cuss.

Landon started hunting with her right away and now she's addicted to hunting and swimming. This is one of Abby's first retrieves at about 4 months old. Landon was pretty proud of her.

Occasionally Abby helps me garden-either by digging holes for me or by holding down my bag o' gardening fun. Puppies can sleep anywhere.

The Move

On April 30th, 2006, I sold my house and Mesa and I and moved to Fort Peck to be with Landon. We bought the house Landon had been living in and started our long list of improvements.

The Falling In Love Part

The fishing trip was fun, but I didn't really think I'd see Landon again. Then it happened. He kept calling, coming to Billings, spending time with my family, and falling in love with me. I kept answering when he called, letting him stay with me when he came to Billings, letting him spend time with my family, and returning the falling in love part. We fished, we hunted, and we fished some more. Years passed, we traveled between Billings and Glasgow a lot (280 miles one way), and things just kept getting better. (Notice the bobber earrings. We were ice fishing in North Dakota for New Year's with Landon's family. Scariest moment in my life so far-Driving on ice IN A TRUCK! I've never prayed so hard.)

How We Met

I guess we're followers, cuz we've jumped on the blogging bandwagon-thanks to Krissi. I thought I'd start somewhere near the beginning, like how we met.

In June of 2003 I helped my best friend, Cindy, move to Glasgow, MT to take a fisheries job with Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks. She spent the summer up there working and falling for her boss, Ryan.

Enter Landon.

Ryan and Landon worked on different projects but were fishing and hunting buddies. Over the next year jobs changed, and Cindy moved, but continued seeing Ryan. All the while I was in Billings working at FedEx and moving into my first house.

The fall and winter came and went, and then it was spring. In May 2004, Landon took Ryan to North Dakota for his annual all boys paddle fish weekend. They caught fish, drank beer, stayed up all night doing whatever boys do, and had an all around great time. Then it was Ryan's turn to plan the trip. On June 4, 2004, Ryan took Landon on his family's annual paddle fish trip to Slippery Anne. Cindy and Ryan hadn't seen each other for about a month, so she went too. And of course, she didn't want to be the only girl, so I had no choice but to go with her.

So, on June 4, 2004 I backed my fishing bag and headed north. We got there at about dark, when all the boys were feeling pretty fine. We had two tents; one for the girls, one for the boys. That lasted about 5 minutes. I didn't care where I slept, as long as I had an air mattress and didn't have to sleep on the ground. Cindy did care though. Apparently absence makes the heart grow fonder, so Ryan moved in and I got kicked out. I had two choices, sleep with Ryan's dad in the camper and listen to a saw mill, or shack up with Landon. Either way, I didn't know a thing about the two of them. I picked Landon and that is how we met.