Oh, Montana!

We just got back from a 4 day trip to Montana. The drive was a little long, but it was definitely worth the wait! We camped in the forest outside of Ennis, Montana. We had a little debate about how to pronounce the name of the town. For your information: the final verdict was it is Ennis, like menis; not E-nnis like... well, we won't go there.

We had fun riding on the rhino. We put on a lot of miles! We also saw some beautiful country. On Friday we stopped at Nevada City and Virginia City, Montana.

They are really cute little Ghost towns. We walked around, went into all the little shops, got homemade ice cream and the kids got huge suckers.

The kids had a blast too. Easton had lots of fun riding his bike and playing in the dirt. Sadie did some crafts with Nan and had a lot of fun playing with Grandma Great and Papa.

While we were riding I had a lot of time to think about all of the things that I love about camping. Here are a few of the things I came up with...

* Wildflowers. I have never seen so many different kinds of wildflowers as I did in Montana. They were beautiful and they were everywhere!

*Campfire. Camping just isn't camping without a fire. I always look forward to sitting around the campfire and talking with the family.

*Wildlife. One of our families favorite things to do while we are camping is to go looking for wildlife. We saw so many animals while we were in Montana it was great. We saw a lot of antelope, white tail and mule deer, a moose, a huge herd of Elk. It was amazing! They were so close to us and there was probably between 100 to 150. We saw a bear in the wild... then we saw more at Bear World. We saw buffalo, llamas, and the usual cow and horse.

*Scenery. It is amazing the beautiful scenery you see when you are out in the wilderness. Just about the time you think you can't see anything more beautiful you turn the corner and there it is! God is the greatest artist ever!

* Family. For me the Mountains means family! I don't ever remember my dad going camping or hunting when he didn't take the family with him. I love having quiet time to enjoy with the family without the distractions of everyday life.

As I was contemplating all these things while driving on the Rhino I was hit in the face by a million bugs and.....

You end up with the one thing I hate about camping.... BUGS!

P.S. For those of you who think Easton is always smiling... he is. Except when he is pouting, of course.