What a weekend!

     This weekend concluded our month of craziness as we headed over to Bozeman for our good friends Erika and Nicks wedding.  Kelli and Erika were roommates in college and I stayed with the two of them while working in Bozeman earlier this year.  The wedding was a lot of fun and took place at a fantastic setting.  A lovely ceremony was followed by a dance under the stars on the patio.  The time we had at the wedding was made even more special however because Kelli and I celebrated our 6th anniversary today!  We were at the dance until after midnight so we even got to wish each other a happy anniversary during a dance, it almost felt like our wedding night all over again:)  The wedding of good friends of ours was the perfect way to celebrate, what had happened earlier that day sure was a nice little bonus too!

    
     Kelli was one of Erika's bridesmaids and had to meet the rest of the party for hair, make-up, and the rest of the preparatory duties for the day so I asked her if I could play golf before the wedding instead of hanging out at the hotel.  Kelli thought it was a good idea so I invited my uncle Jim and another one of the bridesmaids husbands, Brett, to join me.  My Dad's brother Jim lives in Bozeman and is a member at Cottonwood Hills so we set it up and Brett and I met him out there Saturday morning.  I hit the ball fairly well all day and even though I couldn't quite figure out the greens I was still pleased with how the day was going, plus I was having a lot of fun catching up with my uncle and getting to know Brett better.  We'd caught up with a single on the tenth hole and he joined us for the rest of the back nine, little did he know that by the time the round was over he would have been a part of something special.  As we walked up to the seventeenth tee box I told Brett, "this looks like a good birdie hole!"  In my mind it really did, the 17th is a short downhill par 3 surrounded on both sides by a creek.  With the pin where it was it only played 104 yards that day and any time you have a wedge in your hands on the tee box it feels like a birdie hole!  
     I'd hit quite a few decent iron shots all day and had yet to turn any of them into a birdie so I kept telling myself that this was my chance.  Uncle Jim hit first and found the front right side of the green, he was followed by our fourth Zeb, who missed the green to the right.  Brett went third and he hit a really nice shot that ended up just short and left of the flag, leaving himself an uphill putt for birdie, I told him nice shot and he replied, "all you have to do is hit one a little farther and slightly to the right and you'll be perfect".  If your a golfer chances are you've hit a shot that as soon as it leaves the club face you just know it's going to be good.  I pulled out my 52 degree gap wedge and as soon as I made contact I had that feeling.  I heard Brett in the background say, "oh that looks good......go in"  We all watched as my Titleist listened to him, it landed about a foot short of the hole, bounced once and spun back into the hole!  A hole in one!!!  I threw my arms in the air and we all hooted and hollered for a few moments.  High fives and hugs were going around and I trembled with joy for what seemed like hours!  It was a day none of us will soon forget as it was my first hole in one as well as the first one any of the other three had witnessed.  We played the last hole in a blur, and the four of us went in to the pro shop to have a score card signed and attested so I can hang it up on my wall.  Hole in one's are all special and just like my Dad's that he got in Arizona while playing with me, Curt, and a random fourth form Canada, mine was made even more special because of the group I was with.

                                    left to right, Zeb, our fourth, me, Brett, and uncle Jim

     Now you can see why I couldn't wipe the smile off my face for the next....well I guess it's still on there:)  They say in the game of golf all it takes is one good shot per round to get you to keep coming back out, I am fairly sure the memory of watching that ball disappear in the hole will be bringing me back for the rest of my life!  I don't know if I'll ever leave home without my clubs again, you just never know what the next rounds going to bring:)

Remember, all of the bad bounces you've had in a lifetime can be wiped away with one good one!