We took a quick trip to Montana after the girls' Parent/Teacher conferences and boy was it quick! We left Wednesday around lunchtime and stopped at my mom and dad's. Thursday morning we got back in the van and drove to Great Falls to see Jon's cousin Shelly and her family and his Aunt Diane and Uncle Ken. This is what the kids looked like in the car on the way over:
[Ethan, Jacob,
Kyra & Megan]
I was a little worried about how the kids would react to kids they had never really met before, but it was like they were twins separated at birth.
Kyra and Emma are identical in personality and had a blast together! Megan and Abby "rejoined at the hip" and it was hard to tell which one was "complaining" at times. They too had a lot of fun together! Jacob and Matt are a couple of years apart, but they have the same likes as far as Cars, dirt, playing outside, etc.
[Matt and Jacob playing in the backyard]
Ethan and Millie are about 9 months apart and well, they're the babies. Ethan was very cute when he tried to "bounce" Millie in her seat. He was very careful and gentle.
[
Millie and her awesome leg warmers and Ethan]
Driving to Great Falls, we drove through Fort Shaw. I told Jon I wanted him to stop on the way back so that I could get a picture of the sign...this is all I got: He slowed the van down to 55 mph and I had to take the picture through the window (he was on the phone with his mom at the time and so he forgot he was going to stop....sure).
[Fort Shaw
blurr...don't blink or you'll miss it]
On our way back to
Lolo we stopped at the
Clearwater Junction about 30 minutes outside of
Missoula. I have passed this junction several times in my lifetime and thought it would be cute to get a picture. Jacob thought that the cow would come to life and eat him and so he screamed through our photo session. Jon even knocked on the belly to prove that it was metal and that didn't help either.
[Megan,
Kyra, Ethan, Jon & Jacob]
After our really quick visit in Great Falls, we drove back to
Lolo and spent some time with my family. We watched movies, had 4-wheeler rides, got a haircut (Megan) shopped and ate...and most of all spent a lot of time looking for tiny foam discs that Jacob shot from his "shooter" throughout the house. (We only made it home with 2 of the 9 discs).
On the mountain pass just coming into Idaho from Montana, there was a tiny bit of snow and I thought that it was pretty so I attempted another picture from the passenger seat this time going roughly 70 mph. Here it is:
[Top of Lookout Pass, Idaho]
On our way home we stopped in Spokane to show the kids the "campus" that I was attending through my
Internet courses. They thought I was going to drive there everyday to go to class and then we had to explain that it was all on the computer...Wow, 6 hours a day driving--I don't think so!
That was our quick trip. I think the next time we head to MT it will be much much warmer in August.
