Stacey’s 30th Birthday Extravaganza

Two weeks. Ugh. So sorry my dearest blog readers. I’m hoping this is the biggest gap we’ll have on this trip but I make no promises. Unfortunately getting ill the first couple of weeks really trounced my blogging endeavors. I had grand plans to take some interesting day trips, see some countryside, pop into a ghost town or two…basically be a tourist in the state where I spent many summers as a kid. But then the pus grew on my tonsils and that plan flew out the window. So what have I been doing? Not too much that’s blogworthy, really. Of course there was the funeral for my cousin JJ on September 15…and then the birthday party on the 22nd for my grandmother who turned 75. Basically…lots and lots of family stuff which is fun for me but probably not-so-interesting for the rest of you. If you’ll indulge me a little I’ll be posting quite a few pics of said family this time around but will shift back to travel locations later this week.

I’ve fielded several questions lately about the status of the investigation surrounding my cousin JJ’s murder so thought I might type a brief update on what’s been going on. As many of you know, my 26 year-old cousin was shot to death late on September 6 in Fort Benton, Montana (where my grandmother and the majority of my mother’s family lives). The two suspects were immediately apprehended after the man with the gun lead the authorities to the body the next day. Multiple stories have been given about what happened and the murderer maintains the shooting was accidental…but with four shots to the head we’re thinking that’s not likely. The one thing that most agree on is that the outcome was likely fueled heavily by alcohol and drugs for both Cal and Kelsey (the murder team) were known to have drug-related issues. Since Chouteau County hasn’t seen a murder in more than a decade, the state of Montana sent in their own investigators who’ve been extremely tight lipped about what is going on in the investigation. Both Cal and Kelsey have pleaded “not guilty” to their charges (deliberate homicide for Cal and obstruction of justice for Kelsey) though more charges are likely to be filed as the evidence is reviewed. To say this is a difficult time for my family would be an understatement but all things considered, we’re getting on with living which is simply what must be done when something like this happens. Your continued good thoughts would be appreciated.

After the funeral, my mom, step dad Tony, my sister Lindsay and I headed back to my mom’s for a few days where we mostly vegged and got ready for my grandmother’s birthday party the following weekend. The moose head pictured above is my brother’s…no, he didn’t hunt it (Tony did) but he did pay for the taxidermy. As you might imagine, the moose presents a bit of a transportation problem so it remains here on my mom and Tony’s wall until such a time as my brother figures out how to come and get it. Good luck to him on that endeavor. Here’s a couple of pictures from our Wednesday night out at the VFW for steaks and Cheers for a couple of beers. These handsome folks to the left are Tony and Maxine, of course. Some friends of my mom and Tony, Faye and Stew, were out at Cheers on Wednesday night too. That’s them on the right. Faye is the newest Extravaganza blog fan so I thought she might get a kick out of seeing herself posted on it (Hi Faye!).

On Thursday we packed up the cars and headed east to the prairies of central and eastern Montana. After a tough weekend of funerals and sadness, my family really needed a reason to celebrate so decided to continue on with the original plan of my grandmother’s 75th party on September 22. Maxine, Tony, Lindsay, my aunt Joanie and I spent Friday afternoon putting together 13 lasagnas for the party on Saturday. While it was fun…I’m quite sure I do not have a future in the catering business. I don’t like being responsible for so many people’s gastronomical happiness!! To the right is a picture of my sister Lindsay (Noodle Woman) in her chef’s hat with my mom’s sister Joanie. Despite the fact that my grandmother didn’t think anyone would show up, the party was a smashing success by all accounts and fortunately the lasagnas turned out OK. Below is a snapshot of the whole crew with my Granny on her 75th birthday. Aren’t they cute?

The Hankins Seven + Granny Goose

From back left…Cheryl (Tori’s mom), Joanie (Andrea: cousin Alijah’s mom), Marlena (Sheila’s mom), Rodger (cousin Jenifer’s dad) and Dale. In the front row from left is John (JJ and Stevie’s dad), Granny Goose and Maxine (my mom, of course). And in the thumbnails there’s Granny’s cousin Phyllis and her son Michael who traveled 12 hours from South Dakota to be at the party. Also shown is the official emcee of the family…Uncle Dale…and official musician…my mom’s cousin Butch. And of course…the tag team of Stevie and Tori.And with that Tour de Familia I shall depart for now. I should be able to get some more Montana stuff up and posted by the end of this week and I’m back in Madison on Thursday night for the season premiere of Grey’s Anatomy with Colette and Ryan. I’m in the Mad City until October 9 when I depart for Quito, Ecuador…stay tuned for some new culture, new useless facts and lots of great pictures coming from South America starting early October. My best as always and thanks for reading the Extravaganza Blog.

Ok, I’m back. So sorry everyone for the delay but as I mentioned in my interim post I’ve been as close to my deathbed in the past two weeks as I’ve ever been and am just now starting to feel like a human. In light of this, I have not been able to do as much here in Montana as I would’ve liked so this post may be a bit on the lean side. I promise things will pick up soon… On the bright side…if you’re going to be sick it’s rather fortuitous to become ill at your mom’s house when you’re unemployed. I guess it could’ve been worse but you surely couldn’t have convinced me of that last week when I hadn’t slept in 4 nights and couldn’t breathe through my swollen, pus-covered tonsils. I was thinking about taking a picture of said tonsils as evidence of my blog-belatedness but was worried I’d lose all four of my devoted blog readers out of sheer disgustingness.

You may have noticed that I “Part 2’ed” my recent mileage for this post. That is because the Civvy has been taking a much

deserved break here at my mom and stepdad’s house. Fortunately Maxine and Tony have been willing to drive me around when I’ve been well enough to drag my carcass off of the couch. Before my tonsils revolted, we did manage to make it up
to Plains, Montana for a good old-fashioned county fair. I haven’t been to a fair in a very long time and since this one was pretty small it was quite manageable and we checked out all of the fair goodies…you know…like cattle…and pumpkins…and quilts. Afterwards we headed up the road a bit to Thompson Falls where my cousin Jenifer and her husband Colby and daughter Katie live. The first scenery shot is from Jen’s backyard and the picture is, of course, of Jen and Katie.

After being sick for what seemed like ages it was great to see my dear friends from Madison roll into town on Sunday evening. Matt and Jen (from Mile 3510 – the wedding reception in Ontario) arrived just as I was starting to feel better and decided to stop here in Pablo en route to Glacier National Park where they will be doing some back country hiking for the next week. Since Max and Tony are excellent hosts, the Schmidters (as we affectionately refer to these two) enjoyed a very Montana meal of moose roast with some local Mission Mountain wine. On Monday they were planning a day hike into the Bob Marshall Wilderness and with

some trepidation I decided to go with them despite my recent ill-health. We opted for a popular area near the northeast corner of Flathead Lake called the Jewel Basin in the Bob Marshall Wilderness. The appeal of this area is that there are multiple hikes of varying difficulty so we were going to pick an easyish one for Stacey since she’s out of shape and recently virus-laden. Further…the trail head was at 5500 feet so we could drive there and still get up pretty high but only had to hike about 1200 feet to be near the top elevation. Believe me when I tell you that this was a very good thing for Stacey…maybe not so much for the Civvy. As a California-born-and-raised-car…the Civvy had never encountered gravel (and the requisite dust) before arriving here in the great state of Montana. I’ve included a picture below of the Civvy in what I consider to be her camouflage outfit.

Remember these two?

I’m happy to report I made it through the 5 mile hike and really only felt lousy in the initial climb. We enjoyed some beautiful scenery and fabulous weather. The pictures above are on the trail…the first section was to some alpine lakes referred to as Twin Lakes. The other pictures are looking toward Flathead

Lake (largest natural freshwater lake west of the Mississippi River) though with the wildfire smoke and the reflection from the sun it’s a bit difficult to see. After the hike, we headed down to the lake where Max and Tony met us with the boat and we proceeded to head out to Wild Horse Island which is a primitive state park on an island in the middle of Flathead Lake. We did some exploring on the island and then got back in the boat to cruise up and down the shores checking out the rich peoples’ houses. It’s nice to wish isn’t it? Jen and Matt headed out this morning towards Glacier and since I’m feeling a lot better lately things have been looking up. Well, health-wise at least.

And now for the very bad…

When I started the Extravaganza blog I was willing to admit that a wide variety of topics were likely to be covered in the nine month duration of this trip. Some stories good, some stories bad…but never in a million years did I expect to report what I must today. It is with a rather heavy heart that I share with my readers the untimely and tragic murder of my 26 year-old cousin J.J. in Fort Benton, Montana last week. J.J. was the older brother of Stevie…who you may recall as one of my travel companions through the California section of this trip. The details are only now coming to light but the good news is that the two persons involved are in custody and facing both murder and obstruction of justice charges. I won’t go into the details here but those interested in what happened can check out http://www.greatfallstribune.com/ for details.

Matt, Jen and Stacey (timer shot, hence the pine needle close-up)

Baby Ayden, Kate and J.J.