Great Falls Adventure

Wow! We had quite a fun little outing this weekend. After Church on Sunday we loaded up our new van and headed for Great Falls. None of us had commitments on Monday so this worked out well for an overnight stay.

We stayed at the Best Western. The pool area was amazing, ther was a fun dance floor that the kids played on, and a bird cage stair case (sorry I forgot my camera for all of this!)

This morning we went to see the falls. They were neat to see but less than spectacular. At least we can say that we have been there.

Then we ventured off to Giant Springs State Park. It was really beautiful. This park is on the shores of the Missouri River and it contains a fish hatchery. (I took so many pictures that I had to delete some to take pics of the kids, lol. I will post those another day.)

The kids even got to feed the fish and they really enjoyed that. Chris got in on the action, too. I will post those pics another day too seeing as I forget them. :)

Then we were off to First People Buffalo Jump State Park. This is the world's largest buffalo jump that native Americans used to capture buffalo for food and used the hides for clothing, tee pees, and much more. Very interesting and educational.

Hannah was all about the hands on exhibits. Richard gets a little more nervous around taxidermy.

This tee pee took 14 buffalo hides. It is a replica of those made by native Americans: however those were only made with three hides.

Richard loves snakes and posed this funny way with this snake.

None of us brought hiking shoes so we drove to the top of the cliffs. We saw hundreds of prairie dogs and had a beautiful view of the valley. This is still very sacred ground to the native Americans and it was neat to be up there.

Then we headed to Tower Rock State Park (yes three in one day, our Montana license plate gets us in free to all the state parks!) Again, this was not exactly what we had anticipated. But Tower Rock was written of in the journals of Meriwether Clark (of Lewis and Clark) and it was fun to say we have been there.

Our final stop was on the shores of the Missouri River. What is a Taggart family outing without a little fishing? Hannah and I were not fishing today so we took this photo while the boys were getting their gear set.

Like father...like son.

Hannah got this flower from the Easter Bunny and carried it around all afternoon.

When Richard heard about the rail road photo he wanted to be a part of it as well. I love my little models. Even after a long, fun, adventure-filled day they were ready to pose for pictures.

We all very much enjoyed our family time together. Great Falls is a wonderful city and we play to visit again. It didn't hurt that we saw deer everywhere on the drive in and out of town. Not to mention I was able to have great food at Cafe Rio (I have been craving good Mexican food and that did the trick!) And we even got a little shopping in. It was a great weekend!