The Joy of Unplugging...and plugging back in

I spent the last few days at my grandparents cabin in Silver Gate, Montana, just outside the North-east end of Yellowstone National Park, unplugging from technology. It's a forced unplugging since there is no WIFI/Internet/phone service to the cabin (just this year they added a land line for emergency use).  It's a relaxing time to chat, play games, read, create and enjoy nature.

I met up with my sister and three of my cousins, ranging from early to late fifties, a span of years that seemed huge as children and now, nothing at all.  We are the five living daughters (two sadly have passed on, way too young) of four sisters from a little town in Montana. Our lives are spread from Utah to Montana to Wisconsin to California...almost reaching each border of the United States. We can credit Facebook for connecting us as adults.

We share a family and religious history but only recently began sharing our current lives and wide spectrum of life experience and circumstances.  Being plugged into Facebook gave us the chance to connect to each other and being unplugged at the family cabin gave us a chance to delve deeper into that connection.  Of course, various points in location in and out of Yellowstone Park allowed us to plug back into our own lives and family for short spurts.  There is joy in both the unplugging and plugging into technology...each a gift the other cannot give...balance is the key.  It was a wonderful trip and I hope we can look forward to deeper connection in the future.



Some of my favorite moments at 'Cousin Camp' in no particular order:

• Walking to the waterfall from the cabin, just as we did as children.
• Playing Cowgirls Ride the Trail of Truth and Mormanity.
• Sitting in the Yellowstone "Boiling River".
• Evening Concert while sitting in Bozeman Hot Springs as well as Chico Hot Springs on a cold day.
• Learning to rock hunt and find agates and petrified wood.
• Eating Grandma Anderson's traditional Swedish pancakes. 
• Watching a little osprey family nesting.
• Lots of good food, chatting, hiking and relaxing.
• Discussing Carol Lynn Pearson's new book "The Ghost of Eternal Polygamy" that my author. cousin, Carole Thayne Warburton, thoughtfully got me an autographed copy of because I submitted my own story during Carol Lynn's research for the book (along with 8,000 others).
• Finding sapphires in a pile of rocks at Fancy's in Livingston, Montana.
• Taking fabulous Wonder Woman photo shoots. 
• Watching the antelope play, bison roam and elk standing stoically, I didn't get to see a bear but some of our group did.
• Enjoying time with my sister that even though we live pretty close, we don't get much of.
• Being my own goofy authentic self among a group of fabulous women.