Our trip to MT

We got back from our trip to Montana last week! We had such a good time there visiting family and friends. We started out on July 2nd and headed to Boise to spend the night with our friends Joe and Heather. It was fun to see them and their beautiful children (of course I forgot to take pictures!). Then we headed up to Missoula, MT for Justin's cousin Karissa's wedding. It was a mini family reunion, and it was fun to see everyone again. Karissa was a beautiful bride :-)! From there we went up to Flathead lake where Justin's dad had arranged for us to stay in a cabin for 2 nights. The boys had a great time playing on the lake and they stayed with Grandma and Grandpa for a day while Justin, Torin, Lacie, Ben and I spent a day in Glacier National Park! It was so gorgeous- I can't believe I had never been. I am still waiting on the beautiful pictures I took there (Ben has a much nicer camera than I do, so I had to play with his!) After a couple days on the lake we headed up to Justin's dad's ranch in Lewistown, MT. Along the way we stopped and visited other friends in Helena (Klint and Jes Fisher)- they have a beautiful, old home (mansion), and our boys loved hanging out with theirs! I also stopped and visited my friend Erin Turner in Polson (of course I didn't take pictures at any of these stops- I don't know what's happening to me!) Anyway, it was great to reconnect with old friends just like no time has passed! So far in our journey we had seen a bazillion deer, several elk, a bear, a moose, and even some mountain goats- so exciting! We spent several days up at the ranch. The boys loved the tractors, animals, and painting bird houses for Grandma. Zach shot a gun and drove a truck for the first time!!! And Kaleb drove Grandpa's tractor "all by himself", now he keeps asking if he can drive the car because he can drive now! One day we took a trip to the local pool that had great waterslides and diving boards. The kids could have stayed all day- it was so fun for them. Kaleb was apprehensive going down the slide with me the first time, but then he went about 50 more times all by himself :-) Torin even went down with us a few times. After a wonderful stay at the ranch, we headed south to spend the night at Chico Hot Springs (just north of Yellowstone). We took another pitstop in our hometown of Bozeman, MT. It was fun to drive through town and see how it has changed, visit our old schools, and see the various home's we've lived in. We visited our friends the Brewsters while we were there, so that was great fun too! More beautiful kids :-) Then we were off to Chico for a night. We loved swimming in the natural mineral springs and the beautiful scenery (I highly recommend this place to anyone travelling to MT). The next day was spent in Yellowstone seeing tons of animals and geysers! It was fun seeing it again through my children's eyes- they had never seen anything like it! (We also found 41 of the 50 states on license plates on our trip- I'm a nerd, I know!) We even saw a grizzly bear eating a bull elk- that was crazy! Of course I forgot my camera during our stop at Old Faithful, but that was the worst thing that happened that day, so I can deal with it :-)! We spent the next day driving home and the rest is history! Great memories were made by all of us. And for those who were worried for our sanity, the kids were amazing in the car- better than I ever could have hoped for :-) ! Enjoy the slideshow...

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