We made the torturous drive to Montana again this summer. Once we are there we love it but the drive is soooo long! I tried to make it entertaining and educational for the kids so that they had to earn watching movies by filling up a sticker chart. I brought along tons of books to read, coloring pages for Cait and workbooks for Carson. They loved this reward system! It was a little more work for me but I will be doing it again whenever we travel the distance.
This year it was fun to have the company of 4/5 Morgan brothers! We did most of the same stuff as last year with a few new additions.
We visited another more commercialized ghost town called Virgina City pictured below.
Cait was right at home in an old fashioned PINK fire truck!
We were starving but ate ice cream for lunch instead of food...not the smartest idea but it was sure tasty!
I thought it was funny how she posed all on her own!
Literally, kids in a candy store! The kids weren't even sure where to look or what to choose.
Cait ended up with gummy bears and Carson chose a gigantic pixie stick.
I think Eric was missing work because he parked right next to the post office to check his phone!
Papa and Caitlin
We went to Bannack last year and enjoyed the deserted old town mostly all to ourselves well this year we were in Montana during Bannack days and it was a whole new experience. There was a shoot-out re-enactment, candles making, panning for gold, vendors (our favorite being homemade lemonade and sno cones and kettle corn of course!)
The rickety old fashioned merry go round was the kids favorite entertainement. We loved watchigng thier eyes get wide, hearing their squeels of laughter and delight as they held on tight and went round and around. We practically had to pull them off of it!
Owen of course was a happy camper. We are so lucky to have this sweet little boy in our family.
The kids were worn out {not to mention dirty} after all of our Bannack Day activities and they rested up on the drive home before we headed to our very first demolition derby.
I will admit I was hesitant and didn't know what to expect from the derby but it was great entrainment and I really liked it. I'm pretty sure it was the kids favorite thing that we did. When the cars would crash, Cait would clap! I think she might have liked it a bit too much!
A tradition we started last year was "racing" boats down the creek that runs through town. Here are the kids pre-race showing off their boats.
Gotta have the net in order to catch the boats!
Carson's boat won last year so he was pretty confident and excited this year!
...and their off!
Run fast, gotta catch the boats!
Last minute save!
The kids are always sad to leave Montana; they have a great time and I think they dread the long drive home as much as we do! We like to complain about the drive but we will be doing it again next summer! This yer on the was home we stopped at the Snake River the stretch and see the amazing view.
2012
