Montana family fun!

I look forward to our visit to my Dad's cabins in Montana every single time. We try and get up there at least once a year but lately its been pretty tough with gas prices being what they are and trying to save up the cash to buy what we need to get there.

It was soooo much fun this year! We started out our drive on Wednesday the 30th at 12:30 as the kids only had a half day of school. So we picked them up and headed north without delay. The kids have been absolutely giddy waiting for Wednesday to come. Tatumn actually wrote out a calendar on her new easel she got for her birthday just so she could count down the days until we left. Cort would help her each day by helping her remember to cross of a new day before they went to bed.

It so nice seeing the kids get so excited about something. Some days I feel like we get into a routine of just school, homework, cleanup, bed...and who wants that for their kids? There has to be a little fun thrown in there right? I remember when I was little my sister used to think up the funnest games for all of us to play. One time she gathered up a whole bunch of old toys and collectibles and such from wherever she could and did a game show type game where we could all "win" things from behind the counter. I couldn't have been much older than 8 or 9 but I still remember it well...who knows? Maybe Cort and Tatumn will have fond memories of trips up to Montana.

Not to mention poor KC who works all day every day comes home just in time for dinner, some homework, maybe a show and then bed just to do it all over again. He needed a break more than any of us.

So we headed up after school Wednesday and drove for about 6 hours. (It should have been about 5 but I swear my kids bladders are smaller than normal) We got to the cabins with the help of our good friend "Ken Ken" (its really the Tom Tom my mom got us for Christmas but we renamed it Ken Ken cuz we have the voice of "Ken from Australia" on it...we still giggle when he says in that thick aussie accent "You have reached your distination") haha see? it made me giggle just now...

When we got there we unpacked and headed to our cabin that was all ready and waiting for us with the heater on and everything. It was wonderful! My Dad has made some amazing improvements on them since he has been there. I looked forward to that amazingly wonderful shower each and every night before bed.

Here is the front of our cabin we stayed in. Lucky number 9!

Charice, Carissa and Cade and Chancy, Tanya, Bridger, Aspen and Emery got there in the wee hours of the morning so the next day we all saw each other and there was at least a good 4 inches of snow on the ground so what do we do? Make a snowman of course! Check out the kid's masterpiece.


Here is Uncle Chancy helping Tatumn get the eyes and nose on straight.

And we tried to get Aspen to do the Charlies Angels pose with Carissa but she wasn't having it. haha

Later we realized that they made too many balls for the snowman so they made this fellow here...

Poor fella...didn't have a chance with those buck teeth and goofy hair.

But we love him anyways...it was really snowy the next day...May he rest in peace.





OK this made me laugh. So the next day we decided to head up to Ennis where there is this fishing pond just for kids and its free and you don't have to buy a fishing license so we try to get the kids up there each time we go. On our way there traffic was stopped so that these cows could be rounded up and crossed the road. And this rather serious cowboy was yelling at cars so that we didn't spook the cows. He did eventually clear the road for us though.

Thank you mister cowboy man!

So thankfully Mom and Dad brought our fishing poles up from their house and we took them up to the pond in Ennis. We decided that Tatumn has graduated from her "princess fishing pole" and let her use Cort's old one so that Cort could use KC's "Manly Fishing Pole".

We headed in to town to gather some supplies from a sportsman's store and then headed to the pond. We waited a good while until Cort got his first nibble. Then it got exciting for the kids. They would sit and stare at that bobber for hours. I've never seen them dedicated to one task for so long. Then after a while Cort landed a big one!
I'm so proud of myself for getting a picture while he was reeling him in.

So now Cort was having the time of his life.




Now it was Tatumn's turn. Now don't tell the rangers but I was casting in the line and holding the pole for her...OK I was hooking the fish too but SHE reeled it in! So I don't think I was realllly cheating....right? She was so excited to pull that monster up too.

OK so we couldn't get her to hold the fish for a picture but Daddy was very brave for her and held it for her.


Now at this point we figured we were probably done for the day as we were actually planning to eat these fish any more would be a waste. So KC and Cort took a last trip to the bathroom while me and Tatumn waited at the pond. Well while they were waiting I landed another one and tossed the pole to Tatumn to reel it in. Well she is so excited she starts throwing her hands all over the pole and reeling in just as fast as she can. I'm watching the bobber and its getting further and further away...I was a little confused until I realized Tatumn in her excitement had hit the release button on the rod so the fish was just swimming away with it haha. Well I fixed the rod and handed it back to her and she started just a reeling away for quite a while so that I could get to the net. By the time I got the net and got to the edge of the pond she had it right up to the edge. I stared at it for a while and just wondered...how the heck am I gonna get this on land? ITS TOO BIG FOR THE NET! It looked like Monstro the Whale from Pinocchio. So I sort of scooped its head into the net and kinda had to fling it up on land. Perfect timing cuz right as I did the hook came off of the fish. So I keep pushing it up further and further until KC and Cort got back from the bathroom. Tatumn was doing a little dance she was so excited to show Daddy what she did. Well as I was getting the fish into our bucket I realised that this thing had another persons hook in its lip that must have snapped the other guys line cuz all you could see was the hook and a swivel. That's right...she caught the one that got away. I couldn't really do this fish justice with just a picture so I had Tatumn lay down next to it so you can see...its actually the size of her leg.
See here you can see it is almost as tall as her from her knee up.


And here she is laying down (well..as close to it as we could get her to) and its about from her hip to her toes.



We headed back tot he cabins after that bit of fun. Then we got to start the dirty work of gutting and cooking. So I made some before and after pictures.






Mmmmm Fried fish...it was delicious. We froze the other two and took them home. I'll be making them for dinner tonight.

So the following day we headed to West Yellowstone to see what kind of trouble we could get into. KC found this really fun place. It was a reserve for Grizzly bears and wolves. So we had to check it out. This statue was in front of the place so Tatumn decided she needed to have a picture in front of it.


We learned all kinds of interesting facts about bears and wolves and the kids got to play in a wolf den.


Then we got to meet this monster. She weighs 918 pounds!!! And the funniest part was that she had dug out a hole for her to recline in and basically sat there and swatted at the raven's and stared at the humans. At the end there was a play area that Cort and Tatumn had some fun at as well.


This was a photo op if ever I saw one.

So then we headed back to the cabins to hang out with the Family and try and stay warm. How better to stay warm then a bonfire? My dad's cabin camp has a HUGE area set aside for people to set up tents and there is a huge fire pit there that we always have to set up a big fire and then cook tin foil dinners. If you have never had one of my moms tin foil dinners...you havent lived. Its like a whole pound of hamburger, onions, potatoes, salt, pepper, bacon, cheese...lots of gooey delicious cheese...mmmm



Rissa's orange hat...need I say more? I'm so jealous.

All in all it was a great fun trip! I'm looking forward to next year already.

~Ciao