Montana Trip

So, way back in October, we went to Ennis, Montana. Sometime ago, I had gotten a hotel voucher and then set it aside until Russ was back from Turkey. Then I forgot where I had set it (this is NOT uncommon! I did it will movie passes as well--but found & used them also LOL!) and so we thought we were just out of luck. Well, fortunately I did find them and we drove up there one Friday after school. We had so much fun!

It was a nice drive up there, even in the dark! We found a pizza joint for dinner and watched T.V. that night. The next morning, we went out exploring Ennis. Had a great breakfast, then wandered around town. (The whole one street.) There were some fun stores to go into. But, many were closed for the season.

After lunch--and a nap--we went to Virginia City. It was only about 14 miles away, but with the mountains, it seemed farther. Virginia City, for those of you who don't know, is a historic mining town that was on the verge of ruins, and was purchased and is being restored. They have alot of neat stuff there. The architecture of the town was cool, so we have many pictures of the buildings. In some of the buildings, they have picture windows and show what they may have sold in the shops. The stables had carriages that were found around the area. We also went to see the graves of some road agent robbers. They were hung until dead at Boot Hill.

We spent quite a while wandering around town, looking at the buildings, because, as you know, we enjoy going to museums and looking at stuff like that. We were just finishing up, when Jake was stung by a bee (wasp). And then he lost his mind--jumping up and down screaming. Then, on top of the bee (wasp) sting, he gave himself a bloody nose! So, at that point, we cut our visit to Virgina City short (well, we had seen most of what we wanted to already). We went back to the hotel, took another nap, then went to the hot pool and played in it for a while. It was great. Kyler kind of swam. He stepped off of the bench and went under water. He managed to push himself back up, got a breath of air and yelled. I grabbed him, plopped him back on the bench and told him he swam. With that knowledge, he didn't panic, but he did hang around on the steps after that. We got out and went to a fantastic dinner.

The next morning, after another good breakfast, we piled into the car to head home. We stopped at Earthquake Lake on our way. It was very pretty, but a bit sad. A sudden, unexpected earthquake happened, causing the mountainside to slide into the river making a natural dam, and within 90 minutes, the area was flooded. I think about 50 people died. That was over 50 years ago, and the mountainside is still devastated.

It was only about 4 hours driving each way, so it really wasn't too bad. It was so much fun!