Butte Folk Fest

Butte, MT is our kind of town!  We left Yellowstone Friday after Chad got off work and fully intended on driving 4 or more hours until we were too tired.  We only made it 2 and decided to stop for some pizza.  Normally we're on a dine and dash schedule (but not the kind of dash n dine where you don't pay for you food), but we decided to be a little more leisurely this leg of the trip and wing it a little more (really, we're trying to get to Seattle, but all of the campgrounds are full so we're biding our time until we can get in...poor planning on my part).  Anyway, we stopped and had some great pizza at Mackenzie River Pizza ...they only have them in the Northwest, and surprise to us, one measly location out east...in INDY.  On the Northeast side of Indy!  And we came all the way to Montana to get some of their pizza.  Joke is on us.  They owe us some gas money.  After eating, our lovely waitress started talking about the Montana Folk Fest that's in town THIS WEEKEND and she said we really couldn't miss it.  Chad and my conversation went something like this:  'you wanna?', 'I don't care, do you?'...ultimately we decided to be spontaneous and stick around for the festivities...and I am really glad we did!  Great family fun, great music and totally AWESOME people in Butte, MT.

For the record, I have to admit, I wasn't exactly sure how to pronounce Butte at first.  I really want to call it Butt...because that's just funnier.  It doesn't take much to amuse me.  I have a low IQ.  So I have to force myself to pronounce it the correct way...Butte, MT...as in, she's a Beaut.  But what if the Beaut has a nice Butte?  Again with the low IQ.  My kids are in bed...only they can truly appreciate butt jokes.

Moving on, we had a day full of sunshine, dancing, walking uphill (don't they have ANY hills that go down in this town?), smiles, games, face painting, good clean family fun, and GREAT music.  They had 5 different stages set up throughout the town with all different genres going all day long.  One stage was specific to kids and another for families.

This town really has it going on.  Seriously, Chad and I really like it here a lot.  It's a great size town...not too big, not too small, lots of hills (ups, no downs), a beautiful background of mountains surrounding it, AND a funny name.  Who could ask for anything more?  Those darn cold winters would be a deal breaker for me, though.  We're following the sun!

Pictures to come...unless Chadly swipes the camera before I get to it (Swiper no swiping!...any Dora fans out there?  No?  Just me...), but if so, just check his blog, I'm sure he'll fill in the gaps I missed anyway. :)

Oh...here's one he took with his phone.  See, proof!  I WAS here!  Annie too!  Or at least her hat was.

Getting to Know You, Getting to Know All About You...

Just wanted to let you know that I created a 'getting to know us' tab on our cool family (at least I think we're cool...some say crazy...I say cool...to each their own).  You can click on the tab up top, or just click here.

Also, my hubby has a blog that he is much more diligent at keeping up to date.  He catches what I miss (really he just confiscates the camera and deletes all the pictures before I get to it leaving me no proof to back up what I say and damages my credibility...by the way, did you hear about the Unicorn I saw last week?)

Also, because we live such an amazing and exciting life (yawn) feel free to follow our blogs via email.  (see the box at the right of the screen entitled 'follow by email'...that's the one)...I'm not very tech savvy, but what I lack in technology, I make up in....well, I'm sure there is something I'm good at.  And when I figure it out, I'll blog about it.

Mt Rushmore and Photo Ops

We decided to take the scenic road to Mt. Rushmore.


Yes, we drove our dually through this.
Barely.

And this.

And especially this. 

A bathroom OASIS in the middle of nowhere = Happy Girl!

My 4 year old knows these guys.  Seriously.  She knows all of their names with very little prompting.  

She also decided that George Washington is 'the best'.  Her logic is that he must be the best, because he was the first. 

Can you tell she's going through a competitive stage?

Another phase Emmy just started going through is that she wants her picture taken with everything.  

And I mean EVERYTHING!


See for yourself.

At the Flintstones Theme Park

Setting the stage.
No, that's not right

There we go.
Nice and posed.

Who IS this guy?
Doesn't matter.
Must take picture.

Hangin' out with Barney

Sharing the spotlight...bless her little heart!

Bam Bam!

WILMA!!

Peek-a-boo!

"Now one with the binos, papa!"

We do love the other kids too...

Just another day in paradise.

Custer State Park, SD - Home to Buffalos, Burros, Rainbows, and Cantaloupe????

We are wrapping up our stint in the Custer, SD area of the Black Hills.  Wow.  What an amazing place!  So much beautiful scenery here, I can't even begin to describe...but, here goes anyway.

After asking the park ranger where the buffalo were, we headed toward the Wildlife Loop Drive.  On the ride there we were SO excited to see this HUGE male walking through the woods.  

We stopped, took LOTS of pictures, and were in awe.  

Or at least we thought we were.

We found a few more buffalo.  Or I should say a few hundred more.  More like, they found us. 

They were ALL around us! On every side of our car.  Talk about feeling very small.

Hey!  What are you lookin' at?

Kiss, kiss!

Hungry baby!

Try telling THEM that!

I wouldn't want to be this guy right now.  

He obviously didn't read the sign.

Spectacular!!!!!!

More Prairie Dogs!

Emmy kept looking for 'cantaloupe'.  We thought she was just hungry until she finally found these. 
"Look, CANTALOUPE!!!"

Another herd of buffalo?

These people were VERY excited to see the buffalo.
They had no idea what they just missed coming from the other direction.  

Beggin' Burros!

Look at all those pretty smiles!

Nice ass.

Sweet baby!

They brought bags of corn.  

Kiss ass.

Mountain Goats!

Lots of fires going on right now.  Due west of us maybe 40 miles or so there is one and for the past 2 days the whole town has smelled like smoke.
We just thought Oma was coming to visit.
Hi, mom!

And to top off our 'wild' day, what would be better than a BEAUTIFUL (double) rainbow?

And just in CASE you ever wondered what is ACTUALLY at the end of a rainbow...

It's me.  

I am. 

I also have puppy dog tails and butterflies.  

Check.