Road trippin'

Last week, the kids and I hopped in the car (more like shoved our stuff and ourselves into the car),... drove 10 hours across the great plains of Wyoming and through the ginormous towns of Thermopolis and Meeteetse, finally to arrive in the wonderful town of Red Lodge, Montana to see the best nana & papa around.My cowboy dad and awesome 2nd mom, Shirlee, come down to see us far more often than we get up there to see them. So it was high time for a road trip. We had such a great time just being there with them. The kids adored their 2 dogs, Duffy & Bonnie ........ loved following nana around the greenhouse/room,
... and loved seeing the horses right next door. Look at my city kids out on the ranch. :)Easily Christian's favorite part was shooting the bb gun with papa, and eventually the girls got into the action, too. My dad is a gun guy and most of his grandkids have had a chance to shoot some type of gun with him at some point.We went to the local zoo, which is actually a rescue center for orphaned and hurt animals. The best part of that outing was Paige announcing on the way there that she wanted to see a "ferocious bunny rabbit." That phrase alone made us all laugh but when you add her inability to say her r's (a fewocious bunny wabbit), it was even funnier.Those are real dead mice by the owls. One had its head bitten off. Even Christian wasn't so sure he liked seeing that.What does a bear say, Elle?This little moment made me cry. Seeing all of my kids with my dad who's in the fight of his life right now. I love you, dad.The kids thought it was great riding around in the back of papa's truck.We played at the park...... and drove to the top of the Beartooth Pass, which heads down into Yellowstone if you keep going.My beautiful Haley at the top of the pass.The kids LOVED the hotel more than I expected they would.Every time daddy would call, Paige would tell him excitedly, "Dad! You should see this place! We have TWO queen beds here!" Clearly, my kids don't get out much. We swam every day and I appreciated having free breakfast every morning. Especially loved maid service. Gotta get me some of that at home.

The drive wasn't anywhere near as bad as I had feared either, thanks almost entirely to modern technology. At any given point during the trip, one kid would be playing the Nintendo DS, one would be listening to an iPod and the other 2 would be watching a movie on the portable DVD player. There was still a fair amount of good old-fashioned fun (coloring, playing with Barbies, reading) but I was amazed at how well everyone did during the long drive. Elle would occasionally get antsy so I would try to divert her. "Look, Elle! A cow!" She'd grumpily reply, "I hate cows!" "Look, baby - horses!" "I hate horses! " Cracked us all up, which I'm sure wasn't the response she was going for.

Other memories: rummaging around nana's kitchen while she was at work to make cookies, showing the kids Remington Ranch (dad's vision and their first home in Red Lodge), making bubble beards with the foam in the hotel's hot tub, shopping with Shirlee in the boutique'y shops downtown, good old-fashioned fried food at the Red Boxcar, Paige asking why I was forcing her to "break the Sabbath day" by suggesting we go swimming on Sunday (she's apparently the morality police), the kids choosing Macho Man bubble gum cigarettes for daddy, giant blueberry pancakes, being pulled over for speeding by a Wyoming cop while Paige asked, "Why were you breaking the law?" (again with the morality police!), my inability to find a fountain Diet Coke in the entire town thanks to a Pepsi plant being up the road, getting up close and personal with a buffalo, having cart blanche in the toy aisle at nana's work (surprisingly hard to make a choice when given so many options), watching the branch president's eyes bug out of his head when he saw a new family walk into church and considering the possibilities as we increased their numbers and then seeing him deflated when he heard we were just visiting, squeaky toy games with the dogs, and just loving and hanging out with nana & papa. We love you guys! Thanks for a great time.