Montana

Pictures are Gabe at the skatepark in Great Falls, the kids dressing like Lewis and Clark, a glacier at glacier park, all of us at a snow bank in Glacier and John as our boat Captain.

From Livingston MO we drove to Great Falls. This was a neat place with a river and an awesome skatepark and waterpark. The KOA campground we stayed at was the very first KOA in America. At night we got to listen to the sounds of a man and his wife playing all sorts of western songs while we all sang along. Between Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire and You are My Sunshine it was a highlight of our trip. The guy was a great story teller and hilarious.

We visited the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center on our way out of town. We all learned a lot about these amazing American explorers. We have a new appreciation for how we get to see American vs. how they did.

At 21 weeks pregnant I was able to see a midwife in Great Falls. She informed us that all is well and that she thinks we should only expect one baby. A relief to John. From here we headed to Missoula, MO. This is one of the larger cities in Montana. We again visited a skatepark. This one was just as fantastic as the one in Great Falls. Bowen is really learning to move on his board. Watching his brother keeps him on his toes.

We left Missoula after two days for Glacier National Park. This is located in the Northwest corner of the state. The campground here proved to be one of the nicest we have stayed at. We also met a really great family that are also fulltiming. They have been living this life for almost three years with their two children. Gabe made instant friends with their son, as they both were skaters. Jadon and their daughter didn't get together until our last night there unfortunately.

Glacier park was gorgeous with it's glacial lakes, mountains and wildlife. The Going-to-the-Sun road is one for the books. It is an engineering marvel. Again we got to see a bear, this time a black bear.

In Glacier we took a motorboat out on Lake McDonald with John at the helm. The kids loved this as their daddy flew like the wind. All the kids earned their Jr. Ranger Badges at the park and got sworn in by a really nice ranger. The park named for it's abundance of glaciers once had 150 and now only has 26. They say this is due to global warming.

Each night the campground had fires so we got to burn some marshmallows and talk with some interesting people. The kids loved the huge paved hills in the campground which proved great for riding bikes and skateboards at 100 MPH. All of them have skinned knees as trophies.

Yesterday we left Montana, which John said was his favorite state so far, for Idaho. This too is a beautiful and rugged state. We are not staying to explore however and will be in Spokane WA later today.

We have been on the road for 50 days and driven over 4600 miles. It feels like we left just yesterday.