Random Montana pictures...

Here's just a few random pictures from our trip. I got a ton of Willow sleeping, I thought she looked so cute (completely worn out from all the driving!) Here's a shot of what we woke up to on the 2nd day- snow!

Day 1: Leaving for Montana...

We left our house Thursday morning (April 29th) @ 8:40 and headed for Montana. Trav's G-ma turned 100, so we had to go celebrate!
We were thankful to be making our 1428 mile trip in 4 days so we took our time- stopping to eat, let the kids play & stretch our legs. I borrowed my friend, Annikan's DVD player for the kids (so I wouldn't have to buy another one. Ours just broke because someone stepped on it. And because we hardly ever travel, I didn't want to buy a new one just for the trip- you know me, always trying to save money)The kids watched Alvin & the Chipmunks and a little bit of Barbie movie and then we stopped for lunch.When we got back in the van, Tristin touched the DVD player and it shocked him! Well, something happened and the poor thing stopped working. (I wanted to cry because everyone always borrows stuff from Annikan and never gets it back- and here I was breaking her DVD player that had worked perfectly for her for 4 years! I was so mad, but called her right away.) Somehow the kids survived almost 1300 miles without it!

Don't you love the gas station sign? We loved it! But then, we love Dumb & Dumber, so it made us laugh even more!

Day 1: Arriving in Dillon...

We finally arrived in Dillon 378 miles later. We knew that making the trip in 2 days was going to be the only way to go with 4 kids and one of those nursing. We checked into our hotel and the kids went swimming as soon as we could bring in our bags and locate them in our 6 suitcases. We met Edith, Max, Ellen & the cousins at Pizza Hut for dinner. We went back to our room, took baths, put our PJ's on and watched TV until we all fell asleep. It snowed over night and we caught the tail end of a big storm that had just passed through the mountains.

Day 2: Entering Conrad...

Trav grew up in Conrad his entire life. He left there when he was 19 to go on a church mission and while he was gone, his parents moved, which meant, he had not been back since then. It was so fun to see him get excited again, see how things had changed and tell stories about the things he did growing up. Here is a picture of his house, his high school bilboard & the creek he used to play in. It was neat to be able to see where he grew up. Conrad only has a few thousand people living there- so different than how I grew up...

Day 3: At the farm

We woke up Saturday morning and went out to Aunt Reta Rae & Uncle Donnie's farm so the kids could see the animals.They had a lot of fun petting the sheep and playing with their cousins.

Day 3: Dinner at The Moose...

After the party at the church, we all met again for dinner at The Moose Lounge. We had a great dinner- ham, potatoes, beans, cornbread, salad & stawberry shortcake. We visited, took pictures and watched all the cousins run around and play. Trav played pool with the kids and they loved it! Yes, I admit it, this was the kids first time in a bar! ( no worries, we rented the entire place so there was NO alcohol! I just love the beer logo above their heads!)

Day 4: Grandma's 100th Birthday party...

We celebrated G-ma's 100th birthday party at the church. We arrived at 1:00 and stayed until about 3:30 PM. She looked wonderful, beautiful & simply adorable.

Day 5...

We had been promising the kids another swimming pool adventure, but when we woke up we realized the pool was closed for cleaning. We needed to get on the road, so we left with 3 super disappointed kids. We left Dillon about 10:00 AM and drove to Rexburg for a few hours. Neither Trav or I had been back since we left there (as married couple) almost 10 years ago so it was fun to drive around and see all the places we got caught making out! We walked around the campus, bought fun treasures at the book store, ate lunch, walked around the temple and then headed for home. We still had several hundreds of miles to go, so we couldn't stay too long. We FINALLY arrived home last night a little after 9:00 PM after 1467 miles. Needless to say, we went right to sleep. It was such a wonderful trip, we are so grateful that we were able to go and see G-ma for her 100th birthday. We made lots of fun memories, ate way too much fast food and had a blast staying up late in hotels.