Tues., 8/6/19...Max and I went to Pictograph Cave State Park and hiked

Entering Pictograph Cave State Park

Max was pretty excited to go to this

Me

Max with one of the caves behind him

Max in the tee pee

Max by the tee pee

Sign showing all the kinds of animals they have seen in the park

We saw this sign right as we were beginning our hike there.  I was praying we wouldn't see any and Max was praying we would.  My prayer was answered!!!

Max

Max in a cool spot on the hike...it was so shaded and had a really neat tree

Max on our hike

Max on the trail going up to the caves

Looks like a face on that rock behind Max

Me and Max in a selfie there

Max in front of one of the caves

By the caves where the pictographs are

Me by the cave

Picture of the cave when lived in

Cactus on the trail

We both loved this cool tree.  It was so spread out that it made a huge shaded and dark area to relax in.  Max enjoyed being under the tree

Max in another one of the caves.  It showed what the pictographs originally looked like.  They have faded a lot.

Pictographs that are still there...in red

Notice all the nests

Max loved seeing all this stuff and walking the trail

Saw an Eagle flying there

Max in front of the display in the store with what the pictographs originally looked like

Max found a porcupine quill by the tee pee just like the one in this display case 

Max at McDonalds for lunch

Max eating ice cream while I had lunch and a blackberry cobbler

Max in the hot tub

Max in the pool

Max enjoying the waterslide

Travis, Kenzie and Travis's sister's baby

Kenzie and Travis's niece

Bill and Max ready to see Toy Story 4

Max in front of the Banana Smoothie Store

Bill and Max at the movie

Ate scrambled eggs, potatoes and and bacon at the hotel.  Every day their continental breakfasts were delicious.  Bill walked to the conference center for his meeting.  Max and I got ready and went to Pictograph Cave State Park.  It was a fun drive there.  There was beautiful scenery along the way..  We started walking and saw the sign saying the snakes there were active and to keep kids close to you. Max was hoping to see a snake or mountain lion, but I was praying hard not to.  We didn’t!!!  It was a fun hike and we got lots of exercise going uphill.  We saw an eagle fly over too!  Came back to the hotel and hung out.  Bill came to our room for a while too.  I took Bill back to his meeting (he has walked every other time).  

Max and I went to McDonald’s where he wanted to eat, and then we went to Cracker Barrel where I wanted to eat. I had the meatloaf special and Max had ice cream with chocolate and caramel.  I had a blackberry cobbler too. We came back and swam for a while and had some races.  Ate our leftover spaghetti from the Olive Garden for dinner.  Went on a wild goose chase to find a conservation park.  When we finally got to it, it was small and nothing like what google made it out to be.  Our GPS girl never did get us there. We had to find it on our own.  Went to see the movie Toy Story 4.  Max and I sure laughed hard.  Another fun day!

Monday, 8/5/19....Bill went to his convention, Max and I went to Zoo Montana and Taco Bell, Swam, Went to Olive Garden with Bill at night

Max where we thought Zoo Montana was

Max and I had to walk all the way down to where the hill is in the background to get to our car

Max when we finally got at Zoo Montana

Me at Zoo Montana

Max with an eagle in the background

This is the Osprey Nesting platform on the cut off telephone pole like we saw on our way

Max with a tiger laying down in the background

Max and I took a selfie at the zoo

Red Panda

Max with a wolf behind him in both of these pictures

Kookaburra

I was pretty disappointed when I saw lots of cars around this Shopko, and then went to go in and found out it was closed!

Max liked the waterslide and pool

Dinner at the Olive Garden was amazing.  Zipoli and chocolate dip for dessert afterward

Ate a yummy breakfast downstairs.  Bill went to his convention, and Max and I went to the zoo.  The GPS took us to the wrong place twice. We passed it and then turned around and she said it was there again.  Didn’t see any parking, only a rail trail with a fence along it up way far.  We ended up parking on a side street quite far away and walking to it.  I saw a guy on the trail so asked him where the zoo was.  It was five miles down the road.  We turned the car GPS off and went by my phone. It took us right there. We both loved the zoo.  It was beautifully landscaped with lots of plants planted by master gardeners, many who were there working on the gardens.  Loved the animals we saw.  It was so fun seeing Max so excited, taking lots of pictures and leading the way.  He was really happy when we went to the gift store and they had live displays in there of different snakes, spiders, an armadillo! They also had a  laughing kookaburra , and many more critters.  

We went to Taco Bell, his favorite fast food restaurant, for lunch and then went to Walmart and got a pair of shoes for him. His other shoes broke.  We found the same type and they were on sale so we got a good price.  I was very excited when I saw a Shopko with lots of cars in front of it.  We went to go in, and it had closed just like the ones in Michigan. Bummer!  We came back to our hotel and went through our pictures.  Max and I went swimming at the hotel.  We had some races and he really tired me out!  He reminded me of Kenzie when she would want to race and play games in the pool.  Bill got back at the hotel at 4.  We relaxed, and then went to eat at Olive Garden. It was his first time, and he loved it!  He even tried  a tomato in his salad, but didn’t like it!  He wanted to know if we had one of those restaurants in Saginaw too.  We had a super fun day!

Sunday, 8/4/19...Drove 500 miles, Got caught in a storm, Ate at Cracker Barrel, Swam at our Hotel

Max before eating breakfast

Storm just ahead of us

Pictured Canyon

Entering Montana...Yay

Our nice hotel lobby

                                                    Where they serve the continental breakfast 

Max

Max

Our view from our hotel...I took the road sign because it was funny we were by Midland Rd.

Max playing the game at Cracker Barrel

He got better every time he played it

Papa showing him the best plays

Max and Papa eating

We read our Bibles, ate breakfast and left. 500 miles to go to get to Billings.  We saw a storm off in the distance while driving on 94 near Dickerson N.D.  Soon we were in it !  It rained and began to hail.  The hail stopped, but it rained so hard we had to pull off, like the other cars were because we couldn’t see.  A couple semi trucks passed us and I was wondering how they could see anything.  The rain slowed down, so we started out again.  There was a semi pulled off about 20 feet ahead.  We were pulling off again because of the rain and saw a semi stopped in the left lane ahead of the other semi. Right ahead of that was a jackknifed semi across the whole road.  Good thing we pulled over and didn't try to drive when it was so hard to see.  We wouldn't have seen the semi across the road because no lights were showing.  Thank you Lord!  We had one mark on our gas gauge, and it said we could go 40 miles.  A semi driver let us know we could drive on the grass and get around the jackknifed semi.  Luckily there was a gas station at the next exit.  Gas stations out here are few and far between! We went through Pictured Canyon.  Very pretty! Got to Billings at 3.  Stayed at La Quinta Hotel.  So nice!! Drove around to see where everything is and then ate at the Cracker Barrel next to us.  Max loved the Cracker Barrell and wanted to know if there was one by us back home.  Swam when we got back to our Hotel next door.