Montana

Our trip to Montana began with a visit to Yellowstone National Park. Even though I grew up in North Dakota, I'd never been to the park. We have places in North Dakota where the wildlife is visible (buffalo, deer, etc.), but the mountains added a very beautiful background. The hot springs were also a pretty amazing sight. The buffalo came right up to the vehicle. Claire was such a cutie, wanting to pet each buffalo and climb every moutain. We did get out a hike a relatively small mountain, but Chris claimed to have experienced a "collapsed lung," which concluded our hiking adventures. We also had a little driving situation, which I am sure Chris will be thrilled I am sharing in which he nearly ran a car off the road because our rental had no guts. Anyway, we later saw the vehicle we were attempting to pass at a gas station and in true Chris fashion, he felt the need to apologize. The guy made some remark to being from Massachusetts. Our rental had Wyoming plates. Needless to say we were all silent, trying to process his comment and figure out how he knew where Chris was from. Anyway, after Chris admitted he was in fact from MA, the guy laughed his nervous laugh and said he was from Maine. I guess he thought only a 'masshole' was capable of such stupidity when driving. hmmmm. We proceeded through the park and around to Bozeman. It was fun to see all the changes and growth that had taken place since our last visit nearly 10 years ago. It is a nice city, which seems quite large, but definitely tries to keep a small ski town feel. The little shops are pretty neat too. It was two days full of driving. Our kiddos were fantastic. Thankfully we had a dvd player that kept Claire entertained and introduced Nate to the world of Steve's Songs. He is now a fan.