TravelingMel

Livingston can be an odd little town at times. Like when you are driving home from the grocery store and you notice there is a carnival in the parking lot of the discount store. "Oh," you say. "A carnival. Of course."

It's one of those carnivals with squeaky rides and weird games and interesting people. You know we went.

Taking flight.

Riding horses.

Anders is excited to ride the dragon.

Until it starts moving... Luckily they stopped the ride for him after two rounds.

Driving cars.

I posted about our trip to Prairie Dog Town on my other site, but I'll add a bit here.

I was planning a Saturday field trip for the boys and I and thought I'd check out Greycliff Prairie Dog Town State Park. I'd seen the signs from the highway (little did I know I'd seen the whole park from the highway) and wanted to check it out. I invited my friend Madeleine and her two boys--Logan, 3.5 and William, 1--plus the little peanut in her belly. We also planned to go to the park in Big Timber either as a back up or addition.

H and I took the boys to the Big Timber park last spring. It's worth looking at the pics if you are an Anders/Finn fan because they have changed so much, or if you want to check out my butt.

Prairie dogs are an important food source for endangered black-footed ferrets. Blah, blah, blah you can look it up if you want to know more.

We mostly followed the "big" boys around and tried to keep the little ones from falling in the holes.

A little slice of prairie dog heaven adjacent to the highway. Those tunnels must be rocking and rolling.

Peering down the hole and checking for prairie dogs.

This kid needs a stylist. What is going on with his hair? (I say that like it doesn't look like that everyday.)

In case you wanted to know.

Throwing rocks and dirt into the home of an innocent prairie dog family.

Prairie dogs trying to pull William into their underground lair.

Logan and Anders ran all over the place, crouching by each hole and demanding we come look.

Next we went to the park in Big Timber because it is so fun. It was hard to convince the boys to leave even though they had to be tired. (Not that being tired ever slows them down.)

Welcome to the park.

William is super adorable.

After the pow wow.

I love their faces!

Finn loves swinging.

You can see all 56 pictures here. What can I do, my kids (and the prairie dogs) are so dang cute that I can't cull the photos.

Last week we spent two nights and three lovely days at the Kings Hill Forest Service cabin. If you don't know about renting Forest Service cabins you can read more about it here.

The short story is that the Forest Service rents no-longer-used ranger cabins to the public. We are the public. We rented a cabin.

The Kings Hill cabin is in central Montana about 28 miles north of White Sulfur Springs. I'm sure everyone knows where White Sulfur is, right? The cabin is on Kings Hill Pass, the highest pass that remains open in Montana in winter. At least that's what I read somewhere.

We originally wanted to get the cabin on a weekend so I wouldn't have to take any time off work, but when I tried to get a reservation in October, it was booked every weekend of the winter. It turned out to be a good thing we didn't go on a weekend because there are a lot of snowmobiles up there on the weekends. I like snowmobiles as much as the next person who doesn't like snowmobiles, but man they are loud en mass. Wednesday and Thursday were peaceful, tranquil and wilderness-y. It started getting louder on Friday.

We drove up after story-time at the library and lunch on Wednesday. My grand plan was for both of the boys to fall asleep in the truck and stay that way for the 1.5 hour drive to White Sulfur Springs. Finn complied. Anders waited until we were about 15 minutes out to fall asleep.

You might want to check out the photos from our September 08 trip to White Sulfur Springs--partly to see how much the boys have grown and to note the new murals at the pool.

Pulling in to the pool in White Sulfur Springs.

H and the boys get in.

This is the face Finn gives us when he is looking to make some trouble.

This is the face Anders makes when he is looking to have some fun.

After the swim we drove up to the cabin. The log cabin is in the Little Belt Mountains in the Lewis and Clark National Forest. The cabin is about 300 feet below the 7,393-foot pass and across the canyon from Showdown Montana. It was dark when we arrived, but we spied the cabin through the trees.

Our first order of business was turning on the electricity and starting a fire. The cabin is heated by a wood stove and it was COLD in there. See-your-breath-cold. Keep-your-down-jacket-on cold.

The thing that most worried me about this trip was the thought of putting the boys to sleep in the same room. At home we STILL put Finn to bed in our room and then move him in with Anders when they are both asleep. It used to be that Anders was a real challenge to get to sleep. Now it's Finn.

Of course, what I think is going to be hard never is. Anders asked to go to bed at 7:30. We put Finn down at the same time and they both went right to sleep. What? Who are those kids?

Since it was so freakin' cold in the cabin we were a little worried about Finn. He doesn't stay under covers. His little hands were freezing. H kept waking up throughout the night and putting him back under his covers. I kept getting up to add wood to the stove. Finn survived.

There was no way I was taking off my hat or jacket to read Anders a bedtime story.

H reads next to the stove after the boys fell asleep.

That"s Rigby's unhappy ear position. He prefers to sleep at his own house.

Well, there is a lot more to share, but I got a little chatty here and I need to leave the house by 7 tomorrow to get to work. I'm taking an equitation class (that's horseback riding) so I've been going in early and taking a long lunch on horseback.

Last Saturday morning I was looking at Facebook and saw some pictures a friend had put up about her trip to ZooMontana in Billings. I'd been meaning to go.

Since it was only 7:30 a.m. and I had already fed the boys (all four), cleaned the kitchen, Facebooked and read many books to Finn and Anders, I figured we had plenty of time for a trip to the zoo. And it was a nice day weather-wise, which might not happen for awhile.

I packed lunches, threw a stroller in the car, grabbed jackets, hats etc (just in case), called the zoo to make sure they were open, dressed everyone and loaded the car. Yeah, that took about 45 minutes, nothing happens quickly around here....Two hours after we left we were standing in front of the zoo.

Most of the animals at ZooMontana are native to Montana. Not including two Siberian tigers, two red pandas and a Sika deer. I'm not a huge zoo lover, but this one had nature trails, a big park and was really quite lovely.

Anders watching eagles.

Finn is all about mimicing his brother, mother or whoever else is around.

Two young river otters.

Finn is pretty excited about seeing the otters.

Otters watching two young human males.

Sleepy time for this wolf. Maybe midday isn't the best time to visit the zoo.

Wolf watchers.

Siberian tiger. Grrr

Red panda tail. They probably had cute faces, too.

Anders and Finn are suspicious of the picture-taker.

Anders calls this a littlehorn sheep. It's mom is a bighorn sheep.

Lunching at the park.

Grrr

I don't know why we got a double stroller, this one works just fine.

Anders calls these "giraffe horses". That's Anders-speak for draft horses.

My favorite part was seeing the wolverine. Anders' favorite part was feeding the goats in the barn area. And watching the giant horses. Finn's favorite part was being alive, outside and with his mom and brother--that's just how Finn is.

Wait, there's more? Why yes there is.

A few photos of everyone enjoying themselves at the campsite at Homestake Lodge on Sunday morning.

Uncle Scott and Finn at our campsite at Homestake Lodge.

Scott and Finn enjoy some dino time.

Sarah and Anders also getting in on the dinosaur fun.

I restrained myself to one flower shot. Bitterroot, the state flower.

I tried to make pancakes for breakfast, but without a spatula or a non-stick pan, it just wasn't working. So, back to Butte for breaky at Perkins, then an underground tour of Butte.

There used to be a whole city beneath the city, but much of it is covered or filled in. Below the sidewalks we walked was another set of sidewalks. The underground city really flourished during prohibition and there were bars hidden behind closets in barber shops, speakeasies, and a jail. At least that's what we saw.

Our tour guide was hilarious and kept calling us "Ladies and Gentleman" even though we were the only people on the tour.

In jail on the underground Butte tour.

Ladies and Gentleman...our tour guide.

The underground jail cell that held Butte native, Evel Knievel.

And that was it for Butte. We went back to our campsite, packed up and just as we were about to leave it started dumping rain--huge amounts of precip. On the way home we were bombarded by huge hail and more rain.

Scott and Sarah spent a couple more days with us, including one day in Yellowstone by themselves (I'm sure that was a welcome relief from the chaos that is two wee ones).

Back home at the train table.

Uncle Scott with his nephews. Do you see the resemblance in Finn? Poor kid

It's like herding cats...

...better. At least Sarah always looks good.