Christmas Vacation In Montana… A Trip to the Museum and the Last Night of 2011

Its the last day of 2011! Can you believe it?! Where did the year go? Instead of dwelling on how quickly the year passed we decided to take the girls and head on over with my parents and sister to the Museum of the Rockies. The girls and I visited the museum back in May when we were in town for Jillian’s graduation and they had a great exhibit on frogs. This time there were two exhibits, both of which were very interesting.

The first was a photo gallery of music legends taken from the works of many famous photographers and photo journalists. All of the adults found it to be very interesting but the girls didn’t share our sentiments. The second was called “Mayan Gold” and it displayed artifacts found in a Mayan burial site in Panama. For those who are thinking it, no nothing was mentioned regarding the “Mayan Prophecy or Doomsday theories” as it was completely irrelevant to the site. Instead it was able to give the public some insight on how the Mayan culture viewed death, burial and the afterlife. Their ability to work with gold, other precious metals and gemstones was impressive. Once again the adults really seemed to enjoy it but the girls, BORED TO DEATH!


After trying to enjoy the first two exhibits as best we could, we headed to some spots that the girls would enjoy. The girls had the chance to play and build with some Lincoln Logs as well as see Abby’s favorite spot, the Dinosaurs!


After enjoying the Dinosaurs we took the girls to the place we knew Abby was waiting for, The Yellowstone Trail which is a play area for children that teaches all about Yellowstone and the outdoors. The girls had a blast! Ellie enjoyed the toddler section, rolling and jumping around on the mats that are meant to look like the Lower Yellowstone falls. She found a few favorite toys as well and made a couple of friends. Abby took off and did a bit of fishing and watching through binoculars at the fire lookout. She even started to get a little bossy with the other kids, collecting all of the binoculars and keeping several little boys from taking them. She told them it was time to clean up and they couldn’t have them. Gee, where did she get that from? It took one of the little boys telling Grandpa Jerry that she wasn’t sharing before giving them back. Oh Abby…



Before we knew it the museum was closing and it was time for us to head back to Grandma and Grandpa’s house. We still had a whole night a head of us and the New Year to ring in. Now it was time for the girls to take a nap and Shaun and I to rest. The rest of the evening was spent watching TV, talking with family and eating our traditional Chinese food.



Its getting close to midnight and the girls are still going! Shaun and I are ready for bed but I think the girls are on their second or third wind. I hope they can make it to midnight and then pass out as soon as we get into the car!

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