Montana- Hanging out at Story Ranch

We visited Yellowstone 4 of the 7 days.  When we weren't in the car, we really enjoyed just chilling at the house.  There are horses on this ranch and every evening around dusk they made their way to us.  Koda loved them!  At first she was frightened but by the end of the week, she was right next to them.  Also, we saw deer almost every day!  McKinley learned  how to use the binoculars and even spotted a deer we did not see!  (Daddy was so proud!) It was so relaxing to sit outside and look for wildlife with an incredible view.

Montana- Story Ranch

We rented a house in Montana for a week.  It was on a 11,000+ acre ranch and the family that has owned and ran the ranch for generations still lived there.   The house couldn't have been a better fit for us.  It was 30 miles from Gardiner and an hour from Bozeman.  The house was clean and comfortable with plenty of bedrooms and room to spread out.  The back porch overlooked the mountains and every morning we enjoyed our coffee on the porch.  There was a small stream next to the house that Mac and all of us enjoyed!   The dogs had room to roam and Koda became quite the outside dog :)

The Badlands

Our route from Missouri to Montana took us right by the exit for the Badlands.  Unfortunately, McKinley was very sick and fussy so our visit was brief.  But beautiful!  We arrived early in the morning as the sun was coming up and it was breathtaking.  We were on our way to Wall, South Dakota to the doctor (she did in fact have strep throat) and the drive was incredible.  Even though McKinley wasn't feeling well, she still talks about the Badlands today!  :)

Dallas!

We made it to Dallas and we are so happy we are here.  It was a crazy summer with many twists and turns but it was also a summer of adventure!  Looking back, it wasn't the way we planned on coming home to Texas but we learned a lot of lessons and used this time to travel and enjoy the journey.  Here is McKinley earlier this week playing in the pumpkins at the Dallas Arboretum.  Before I blog about that fun day, I'll re-cap our shenanigans in Montana and Wyoming- we took so many pictures,  prepare for a photo overload!