Mom’s fall 2011 visit

Well, we lucked out with a visit from my mom. And she brought her wonderful friend, Ed. Double lucky.

We kept them running around and made sure they had a full Montana experience.

It started with a hike to the Boiling River and a soak in a natural hot spring.

On the trail.

A bull elk near the trail. Lucky guy was safe inside the Yellowstone park boundary during hunting season.

This pool was not warm enough. We waded downstream to a warmer spot.

You can’t go wrong with a trip to the Boiling River.

We stopped in Gardner for some hot cocoa to warm up. Anders insisted on getting “not very warm” cocoa.

Mmm…

The next day the boys and I dropped Henry at the airport and met mom and Ed for breakfast before gymnastics. We had a little spare time and took a walk down Main Street.

We tried on hats in downtown Bozeman after a great breakfast at the Nova Cafe.

After gymnastics we visited the Museum of the Rockies. It was a busy day, but we figured as long as we were over there, we’d go big.

Doing a puzzle while a witch cleans bones in the background.

The boys joined a tracks and scat program. Anders is quite surprised. Finn is checking in with Anders to decide his reaction.

We finished the day back in Livingston with dinner at The Murray.

Kids in a bar. You don’t get much more Montana than that.

One afternoon, I had a couple friends and their kids over to make caramel apples. Mom and Ed didn’t stay the whole time, but they stayed long enough to make their apples 😉

Dipping apples.

Some of the kids playing in the living room.

For our Field Trip Friday we attempted a trip to the Bozeman Straw Bale Maze. As we came into Bozeman we noticed it was really smokey. Turns out that 80% of the maze burned down. Bummer for us, but it was a much bigger bummer for the very nice folks that own the maze. They do such a great job every year, and I think they depend on it for a good chunk of their annual income.

Not a good scene to drive up to.

We went to a movie instead.

Then I kind of dropped the ball on the photos. We went to Chico for brunch and a soak, and had all sorts of fun here at home. You can use your imagination to picture it.