Well, we survived! At least to this point. I am sitting in a hotel room in Rexburg, ID completely exhausted. So far we have traveled over 2700 miles and have been through 6 states and into Canada! Glacier National Park was absolutely breathtaking. I really wish we had spent more time there, but we were on a mission! We arrived in Lewistown, MT very early Thursday morning. We were up early in the morning and went and had breakfast and then the kids got to ride on the horse buggies in the Lewistown Parade! After lunch it was off to the Central Montana State Fair where we spent all afternoon and evening.

the next Day it was out to the ranch! Lewistown is in the middle of Montana, and a LONG way from anywhere, but the ranch was WAY out in the middle of no where! The kids had great time! They went down to the tack house and got boots and a quick lesson on how to ride horses and they were off! Some of the kids including myself joined in the fun of branding, castrating, and vaccinating a bunch of calves that needed it. It was a lesson in how strong those cute little calves are. Of course someone had to get hurt, so I volunteered and took a hoof to the jaw for the team! I did not get completely knocked out but those around me said it was like watching a fighter go down after a solid blow. They said I staggered around a bit after i got up. but within a few minutes i was back at it. we had a calf dressing competition as well, and i learned that it is very difficult to put a shirt on a cow.

We had an old fashioned steak cookout for lunch and then it was off to warm springs (which actually is a spring, but it is no where near warm!) it is one of the coolest swimming holes I have been too. The water was crystal clear and when you look under the water there are literally hundreds of spots where water and bubbles are jetting out of the ground. There was A LOT of water coming up and kept the small river feed quite nicely. The kids swam and played all afternoon and well into the evening. One of the coolest things about being this far north in the summer is that it is light until 10:30 at night!

Saturday was fun as well, we hung out at the city pool where they have a couple of large water slides and a high dive. The crowed cheered when William, cowboyed up and went off the high dive on his own, no encouragement from anyone!

Saturday evening was spent at the fair again, and Sunday we traveled down to Yellowstone National Park. We got as far as Rexburg and called it quits for the day....