Home is Best

We just got back from a quick jaunt down to Montana for a long weekend.  It was so great to get away for the weekend to relax....and shop.... and swim..... and eat!

We left on Thursday morning and drove the whole day in heavy fog until just before Great Falls.  Unfortunately, we missed out seeing all the scenery because of the crazy fog.  We arrived just before dinner, got checked into our hotel and had some dinner before hitting the pool for the rest of the evening.  The Girls were thrilled because the pool was empty, so they had it to themselves.  Truth be told, I was thrilled too!

Friday morning, we headed over to the CM Russell Museum with our own, personal guide for the whole morning, provided for us from the museum free of charge because we are homeschoolers.  Yay for us!  The tour guide was a wonderful, 85 year old, spunky lady who was a wealth of information!  She graciously shared much of her knowledge with us, and I really had no idea that Russell was so famous.  He was the highest paid artist of his time, and has a huge painting in the state capital building in Helena, among other places, as well as over 4500 other paintings.  He loved the West, and the cowboy lifestyle, and most of his paintings have a white horse in them, as well as something red.  One painting that was in the museum was bought from the Elks a few years ago, whom he was a member of.  They were going to auction it off, but ended up selling it to the museum for $1,100,000!  It look them a year to raise the money, and over 2000 people donated to enable them to buy the painting.  It was absolutely stunning!  Ellie Mae had my camera throughout the museum, so I have many pictures to remember the day....none of them in focus, of course.  Here is one that Art took outside the museum of us girls....

Of course, we did a fair amount of shopping while we were down there.  We drove to Helena one day (just over an hour south of Great Falls) to hit the Costco and Murdoch's (a new store for us that we were recently turned on to), and hit the usual stores in Great Falls - Big R, Target.  I also did a bunch of online shopping on Black Friday, before we left, and that was all waiting at the hotel for us when we got there.  We went and hung out at the grocery store a bit too, simply because I love walking the aisles and seeing the selection of (junk) food that we are not privy to here in the Great, White North. 

 

One of the best parts of going away is not having to cook dinner every night, so we enjoyed a few nights of pizza by the poolside, as well as another favorite, Sonic, and our old faithful while in Great Falls....Chilli's. 

 

As much as going away is so great, I sure do appreciate getting home again.  Back in the land of the freezing cold (did I mention that it was 30 degrees warmer in MT than it was at home?!), where everyone has their own bedrooms.... (or lets be honest, Art and I have our own bedroom); where I can be reassured that if we get in an accident, it won't cost us $100,000 to go to the hospital; and I pay way more for my home and food to eat and clothes on my back.... home is best.