Summer road tripping - Fort Peck, Scobey, and Helena!

There is lots to explore here in the Big Sky state, and this summer we have been doing just that.  Even though we may have moved from Scobey, we just had to go back to visit! We really love that place.

We started things out at Fort Peck on Friday.  We first visited the reservoir, then we went to dinner at Dairy Queen, then we went to see Mama Mia! at the Fort Peck theater, which was fabulous.  Emma has always loved that one and sang and danced to the songs with Grandpa and Tayla growing up.  So she was psyched and loved it all.  Then we stayed at the historic Fort Peck hotel.  The kids said it wasn't historic but rather haunted and had a blast creeping themselves and each other out.  They were saying the paintings on the walls were even watching them.

Saturday, we woke up and drove the rest of the way to Scobey, just in time for the Pioneer Days weekend.  We had our pancake with chokecherry syrup and sausage and juice breakfast in the cook cars, played around at Pioneer town, caught the always excellent Dirty Shame show, met up with wonderful friends at the park, Emma went to hang out with friends Leah and then the Williams twins, and then we finished the night off with a BBQ with friends over at the Cole's.  They had us over for the night so we had fun catching up and Emma and Ivy had a good time!

Sunday, we got to go to our old Plentywood Branch for church, which was a treat, but many friends were out of town.  Man, we miss that Branch!  Then we went back and drove around a bit to see the changes that had taken place in the year since we've been gone.  They are finally pulling out the old pipes underground and we saw big piles of the yucky rusty old ones.  About time! Finally we had a piano recital for Kadence Oie, who is still taking piano lessons from me.  She did a great job and I love her spark!  We went back, all super tired from our quick weekend.  We love NE MT!

A couple of weeks later, we visited Helena, our capital city.  Dave has been there, and I had been as a girl once, but we haven't been as a family yet.  We got there in the evening, but drove through part of town to check it out a bit.  We got some donuts and watched a movie at the hotel and then went to bed.  The next day, Dave had conferences all day so the kids and I went to play.  We went to eat breakfast and then to the pool at the hotel and we had it all to ourselves, making up games and doing contests.  Then we drove to Centennial Park in Helena and walked the trails, played at the park, climbed the rock wall and then went out to lunch. When Dave was done with his training, we went on a tour of the State Capitol.  It was beautiful! The works of many American artists went into the building of the capitol erected in 1906.   The murals were breathtaking and the architecture and everything else was amazing!  Intricate brass doorknobs, marble floors, a beautiful rotunda, stained glass windows, even the bathrooms were classy.  Then we went downtown to check out a few historic buildings, some artwork, got our pressed penny and explored a few shops on the main street Last Chance Gulch in the business district.  Pretty eclectic little place!  We stopped off at Wheat Montana to pick up a few things and then had dinner at the Olive Garden in Bozeman before coming home.  I love little getaways during the summer!  Our state has lots of places still to visit!