Heidi's Story

One of the defining aspects of my life is that I was raised as an Air Force brat. My father was a career officer in the USAF, a KC-135 tanker pilot. My mom was a multi-talented homemaker, musician, calligrapher, gourmet cook, teacher, and seamstress.

They were married in 1955, and yes, my mother is really that small and my father is really that tall.

Mom makes a home for us wherever we are stationed, which is a lot of moves and a lot of setting up house. By the time I am in third grade I’ve gone to 8 different schools.

My brother is two years younger than me, but as a child I am quite shy and he’s much braver than me in most things: talking to adults, asking directions, swimming in the deep end, and being generally comfortable in who he is. I usually let him take the lead until I build up my own confidence.

Our family enjoys hiking and camping while my brother and I are still quite young. There is some bribing involved on those early hikes - candy to keep us going.

As we get older we start backpacking, using mainly Army surplus and Boy Scout equipment. Nice heavy exterior frame canvas packs.

1967 Backpacking in the San Juan Wilderness Area

Fast forward to my marriage to “C” over 41 years ago. Together we raise three sons and one daughter. We camp often with our kids when they are still at home, and have some large family camp-outs after they have children of their own. Always tent camping.

Family camping 2005 in Arizona

All of our kids enjoy outdoor activities, two of them are pretty hard core. McKenna is one of the ‘hard core’.

We move quite a bit when our kids are growing up, and live in Idaho, California, Utah, Kentucky, and Arizona. Three of our kids still live in Arizona and one lives in Colorado. “C” and I live on almost 8 acres in western Montana, in the Bitterroot valley where we have horses and one ginormous dog.

View from my kitchen window.

We're silly happy.