Fielzers Visit

Some of our dear friends- the Fielzers- from Fargo came for a visit. Can I tell you how much I love visitors!?
Lucky for us- Teri's mom lives in Montana. Hopefully that makes it so we will see them every year or so. [HintHint]
We had a BBQ at our home. Glory adored their dog and even designated herself as the Pooper Scooper. So funny! Tony helped Brett set up the BBQer and made some pretty amazing steaks! And of course the kids loved the Go-kart rides! Teri made us Huckleberry Ice Cream. I'm in heaven!!! {Now that I'm a Montana girl- I am in love with Huckleberry anything!}

They stayed in a hotel for the night and then the next day Tony took all the kids on a hike up Mt Helena in the late morning. (Brett went for a bit of his lunch break but had to head back to work after the cave. Tony braved the rest of the way to the top with 6 kids and a dog all by himself. What a brave man!!! Everyone made it back down. Mostly hot, sweaty, a couple scrapes and some grouchy faces but alive!! LOL) While he was hiking away- Teri, Liberty and I checked out Costco, the fabric shop, the Parrot candy shop and the walking mall.

What a fun visit! They also left us with come beets and some green beans from the garden. We ate like Kings & Queens this week. Yum! Fielzers- Thanks for making us a stop along your way! We love you guys!

Guymon Boating at the Lake

Our friends, the Guymons invited us out for a boat ride this evening. We had an amazing time. They are so awesome to let us join in on their fun!!!
It was a perfect night to be out on the lake.

The kids LOVED tubing!

The water was a bit cold but they also did do some swimming (or peeing as the case may be ;).

To end the night, the Dads took a turn on the tube. They were awesome!!!

Thanks so much for inviting us! We sure luv you guys!

Park Lake Lunch

Some friends of ours invited us to go camping this weekend. Unfortunately, all our camping gear is still in storage and with our Church meetings, we couldn't make it. BUT we did ask if we could come up and hang out with them for lunch.
We headed up to Park Lake to join the Coils, the Stovalls, and the Guymons for some outdoor fun.
The kids played tag with Andy. The big rock was "base". They also ate lunch, made s'mores and played in the dirt. And Glory played with the dog. That's her favorite part!

We also took a little hike down to the lake. Kids waded in the water, played in the sand, threw rocks and did a bit of fishing.

What a fun group of people! Thanks for inviting us!

In Awe....Beautiful Drive from MT to UT

Life really is about perspective. Moving to a new area gives you the opportunity to appreciate what you left behind but also what you have been given.
There are things I miss dearly about Fargo. Some of which are amazing friends, certain GNO restaurants, craft stores, and even my little grocery places.
But in Helena I am daily in AWE of the beauty of the landscape!!!
Granted, I know that others have seen way more beautiful places but from my limited perspective--- it's AMAZING here!!!
On our drive from Helena to the Salt Lake Valley, I wanted to take a million pictures of the mountains! They are gorgeous!!! Brett and I were taking about how we hope that no matter how long we live here- we wake up every morning and say- "Wow!! How gorgeous!  I LOVE the mountains!!!"
Here's a few of my favorites:

Sunday Walk: Ten Mile Creek

For our Sunday walk this week, we took the Payne Family with us up to the Ten Mile Creek Picnic Area. We wanted to make sure we checked out the changing leaves before they are all gone. It's not quite Sardine Canyon (due to the fact that Helena is made up mostly of evergreens) but it was gorgeous! It was a perfect, chilly, Fall evening to enjoy God's creations. Beautiful!

As Justice as our guide (ok.. it was really Mom because he kept taking us the wrong way), we took everyone on the same hike we did for his fieldtrip. It's an easy little hike but through some gorgeous trees. We may have to try out the longer trail another day. 

With all the trees, we thought it would be fun to have the kids "hide" in the trees for a picture. It turned out pretty neat! Can you find all 7 kids?

I think most everyone's favorite part of the night [especially the Dads] was throwing rocks into the creek. LOL Let's just say that more than one person came home wet! ;)

We also spent the evening taking the Payne's Family pictures [they turned out so CUTE! I'm trying to be brave and start taking pictures of other people's families] and checking out the Moose Creek Campground down the street. We have big plans to both buy Pop-up trailers next Summer and doing some camping. This would be the perfect place! Thanks to our friends for joining us for a fun Fall night!

Gates of the Moutains

Today we went on an awesome adventure through the Gates of the Mountains!
The Gates of the Rocky Mountains were named by Lewis and Clark. Captain Lewis wrote on July 19, 1805,
“ this evening we entered much the most remarkable clifts that we have yet seen. these clifts rise from the waters edge on either side perpendicularly to the hight of 1200 feet. ... the river appears to have forced its way through this immense body of solid rock for the distance of 5-3/4 Miles ... I called it the gates of the rocky mountains."

The Payne Family and us headed 20 minutes north on I-15 towards Great Falls. MT to a private marina [shown with the A marker in the map] off of Upper Holter Lake for a 120-minute cruise in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. We bought and ate lunch at the little cafe before we loaded on the boat.

They had 2 boats going out on this tour. One was the Sacajawea, a comfortable open-air boat (covered in case of rain). But we ended up aboard the BIG boat named  named the Canyon Voyager. It was huge! We had to stay seated while we got out of the marina but then we were free to walk around and out in the open-aired back. Way fun!

Here's the view as we entered the Gate of the Mountains:

On the tour, Steve- our guide pointed out all sorts of rock formations. We saw things like the Stony Elephant, the Devil's Slide, the Rock Monster, the Rhino and an Arch big enough to fit our boat through.:

We got to see some wildlife including big horn sheep, turkey vultures and an eagle's nest:

Steve took us by and told us the "tear-jerker" version of the Mann Gulch Fire.

But the highlight of the trip was as we turned around to head back. We got to experience the Gates of the Mountains opening as the boat came around the corner. So neat!

What an awesome experience! Thanks to the Payne's for hanging out with us! We luv you guys!

Water Watchers Fieldtrip

I was asked to be a parent volunteer for Justice's 5th grade Water Watcher's Fieldtrip. It was pretty awesome! We had a lot of fun. It's put on by the Water Quality Protection District of the City of Helena.
We started the morning out with a bus ride up to Rimini Road [2396 National Forest Development Road 218, Helena National Forest] to a campground near the Ten Mile Creek. I believe it's called Moose Creek Campground. It is Beautiful an only about 20 minutes from Helena!!!



The class was divided into 3 groups- Mrs. Siroky took one group, Mr. Gary Burton, from Water Watchers took a group and I took the last group. Each group did a different activity. Then we rotated.
1- Ten Mile Creek Stream Monitoring- Water Quality (The Chemistry of the stream)
2- Ten Mile Creek- Stream Investigations (The Physical Properties of the Stream)
3-Riparian Scavenger Hunt (The Biology of the Stream)

I was in charge of the Scavenger Hunt. We found things like moss with wet feet, horsetails, a leaf bigger than your hand, white and red berries, a root cage, and the bathroom [everyone needed a potty break by the time they got to me. LOL].
Here's some of the things we found:

At the Campsite there was a water pump. You had to have one person pump while one person held up this little lever just so that one person could get a drink. I think it was the kids favorite part!

Next, we headed down the road a bit to a Picnic area for a short hike. They dropped the kids off at different spots along the trail to sit quietly and observe nature. They had to fill out a journal with things like sounds they heard, writing poems about something natural that caught their attention, different textures they could rub on their paper, and drawing a hawk-view map of where they sat. It was neat!

After the hike, they gave the kids some time to eat lunch and goof around at the Picnic area. Then they hopped back on the bus to visit the next place.

Our final stop was to the Helena Wastewater Treatment Plant. Let's just say- STINKY and informative. LOL

Thanks Justice for letting me join you!

George the Sleeping Giant

When you visit or drive through Helena Montana, the mountain range to the north is called the Sleeping Giant.

The Sleeping Giant, is located north of Helena, MT and can be seen from the south hill. It is called The Sleeping Giant because it looks like a giant man lying down sleeping. It is easily viewed from the south end of town, especially if you are on the south end of the hill, like Montana Ave. This main road through Helena, MT is a perfect view to get a glimpse of this spectacular site. To get a close up view, you simply drive a few miles north on Highway 15, heading toward Great Falls, MT. 

The Sleeping Giant is one of our favorite things about Helena. For some reason, the kids started calling him George the first week we got here. And the name stuck! So now every time we drive into town, we look for George, the Sleeping Giant. It's kindof a fun family tradition! We even got to drive up pretty close to him when we visited the Gates of the Mountains. We love George!
*These are a couple of pictures that we actually took of him ourselves.

Deer Sighting in Montana City

Since we don't know anyone ad we have nothing in our apartment yet, we decided to take a drive to Montana City today. It's a couple miles south of Helena. I forgot how beautiful the mountains are! Gorgeous!!!

As we were heading home, right on the side of the road- we sighted a deer next to the road. I got out and took a couple pictures of it before it headed over to the next yard to find something else to munch on. You don't see that much where we came from. ;)