Enhanced versions of some of my favorite photos, roughly organized by distance from my home in Billings, Montana.

Some of my favorite photos in black and white

The latest St. Jude Dream Home is being built in our neighborhood. We were part of the VIP ribbon-cutting celebration. Some of Rory's handmade candles are featured as decorations in the house. The big drawing is Sept. 27. Information can be found at www.stjude.org.

Vern and Jacqueline were married at Dan-Walt Gardens in Billings.

On July 16, I closed on the house, and we finally go to see it all clean and finished . . . well, mostly finished. Later that day they installed the last ceiling beam, and the next day they had to hook up the bubble tub, add more drawers to the master closets, and touch up some interior paint. Most of the touch-ups are completed now. After closing I walked through and photographed each room, before the view became obscured by boxes! Moving in was uneventful but still a long hard slog. We were glad when my Mom and Dad arrived to help whip things in shape for the housewarming party before we left for two weeks in the Montana and Canadian Rockies.

I am building a house at Josephine Crossing, an environmentally friendly community in Billings that was named the 2007 Northwest Energy Star Development of the Year. This album will chronicle my experience building my first house.

After leaving the geyser basin, we climbed through the Cement Hills to our lakeshore campsite. The next day, we exited the Cement Hills, hiked the north shore of the lake, and came back to the Grand Loop Road along DeLacy Creek . . . in a hail storm!

This was our destination: the nation's largest backcountry geyser basin--possibly the largest in the world. We just had to "ford every stream" to get there!

A three day hike to Yellowstone's Shoshone Geyser Basin--the largest backcountry geyser basin in the world--and Shoshone Lake, the largest backcountry lake in the lower 48 states. I believe we also encountered the largest gathering of mosquitoes in the world, but it was fun nonetheless! Day 1 took us from Old Faithful, past Lone Star Geyser and across Grants Pass to Shoshone Meadows. Day 2 took us along Shoshone Creek to Shoshone Geyser Basin and through the Cement Hills on the north shore of Shoshone Lake. Day 3 took us out of the Cement Hills and along the lake shore to DeLacy Creek, and back to the Grand Loop Road and home.

Congratulations to new residency graduates Jenni Bigback, Kris Cunningham, Zach Meyers, Ryan Schwanke and Neil Sun Rhodes, as well as sports medicine fellowship graduate Ben Phipps!

Spring is always a busy time at MFMR. I'll try to capture as much of it in pictures as I can. We'll start with some photos from the farewell party for Renee Crichlow and Tom James, and continue with some photos of the visit by R. E. Losee (author of DOC) to the residency for noon conference. Then the annual picnic at the James residence, followed by graduation.

Rory and I escaped Billings for a day and drove to Devils Tower National Monument in northeastern Wyoming via the Crow and Northern Cheyenne reservations.

Ben, Rory, Zach and I reunited at Rory's house for some Warren Miller Ski Bum Red wine, some Warren Miller movies, and general merriment. Buddha and Zach provided the entertainment.

I spent five days in Denver at the annual conference of the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine. Janese Carstens, our education specialist at the residency, also attended, and proved to be a most excellent dining companion. We were able to meet up with my old friend Eric while we were there.

The Montana Family Medicine Residency celebrated the announcement of our incoming 2009-2010 residents at the home of Dr. Sharon Mulvehill.

I was a speaker at the Big Mountain Medical Ski Conference in Whitefish, Montana. Even better was sharing a condo with my old residency buddies--Cameron, Emily, Jennell and Kirsten--seeing lots of other alumni, and celebrating Leah and Tim's daughter's baptism. Oh yeah, and winning the ski race!

I won the Montana Meth Project's Dream Ski Getaway to Big Sky. The biggest perk of the trip: skiing at the Yellowstone Club with ski film pioneer Warren Miller as my personal ski guide. I was able to take along 3 guests ; Rory, Ben and Zach accompanied me on the trip.

Photos from a trip to Santa Fe to attend a colposcopy training course. After the course ended, I was able to get out of town and experience Pecos National Historic Park.

Some beautiful winter sunsets over Billings

Mom and Dad came to Billings the weekend before Christmas. On the 23rd, we drove to Paradise Valley for three nights at Chico Hot Springs. On Christmas Eve we drove through Yellowstone to Cooke City and back. On Christmas Day we had a makeshift festive lunch in the room, with Rory's fondue for dessert. This was the first trip to Yellowstone for my parents' new puppy, Sophie.

The annual pub crawl, from Pug Mahone's to Montana Brew Pub, Hooligan's, Walker's and the Railyard.

Because my Kia Sorento, Bowie, was threatening to explode and was spending more time in the shop than on the road, I traded it in for a Nissan Murano. Meet Snow Patrol, named not only for the first band I listened to in it, but also for its inaugural adventure to Yellowstone with Mom, Dad and Maggie . . . through the October blizzard that dumped 2 feet of snow on Billings and 42 inches of snow on Red Lodge. Fortunately, Paradise Valley only got 2 inches, and Yellowstone less than 6 inches, so we ended up quite lucky. And Snow Patrol handled the roads just fine.

An afternoon visit with my cousins Jennifer and Bryce.

Julie turned 50 at Blu in Norman, and was surrounded by a lot of love and laughter!