The trip to Montana

I've written several blogs in my head, its just taken me this long to actually get the computer unpacked, hooked up, internet services, and time to sit and blog.  Sheesh.  Moving is NUTS.  I have lots to catch up on with things that happened before the move, but I feel the need to do this first.  

We left Longview on the December 30th around lunch time.  I'll write more about our departure and all the goodbye later, but I can sum it up by saying horrible, heart wrenching, and emotional.  But, more on that later.  

The trip from Longview to Lewistown is about 26 hours, so we planned on doing 3 days.  We weren't in any hurry and didn't want to add to the already crazy chaos of moving.  Our truck with our stuff would take over a week to get there so it was just us 5 in our car headed north.  We had a tentative plan on where we would stop each day, but we also knew lots could happen to change that plan. The first day we ate lunch in the car to make good time.  We were planning on stopping in Childress to eat dinner with our friends The Greens.  

It was a pretty long trek to get there and this guy was really the only one who put up much of a fuss.  

(I would turn around and point my camera at him to take a video...to send to friends as a joke to let them know what we were having to listen to in the car....turns out he hated it and would sometimes stop when I did that.  Score. )

This little Miss Thang did better than we expected.  We didn't know how she would do when she wasn't asleep since she's still rear facing and she's at a tough age to entertain (at least when I had to be in the front seat.  The back seat was full of kids, so there was no room for me to sit back there and entertain her at all).  She did great though. She had her moments, but overall she exceeded my expectations. 

She had major static hair! 

The stop in Childress at the Greens was perfect! We got to see friends we love and the kids got to get out and play.  Eric and Amber had dinner there for us and Dee and Susan came over to visit while we were there.  So fun to see them!  They kids played til about 8:30, we put them in PJ's and ready for bed.  We still had 3+ more hours to go to make it to Kory's cousin's house in Dalhart where we planned to spend the night.  

Easton and the boys playing on his bed

Aelyn and Auburn playing Mommy to Jaylie! 

Easton and Q giving each other a big hug before we left.

It was dark by the time we left to the boys were excited to get out their new stuffed animals my parents gave them.  They have little lights on the end of their paws! The boys loved them and had so much fun with them in the dark.  Anything that passes the time is OK by me! 

We made it to Dalhart about 1 am. and other than ALMOST knocking on the wrong house we got in fine, kids went right back to sleep and we woke up to fun cousins!!  We ate breakfast and took our time visiting and enjoying the Floyd's.  This was another perk to not having a deadline. We could stay and enjoy everyone and not have to hurry too much.  

This is their oldest daughter Jaylee holding our Jaylie! :) 

Back in the car happy and snacking! 

We brought this DVD player hoping it would provide great relief as our last resort.  Initially it was a disaster.  It skipped, Kanyon couldn't keep his ear phones on and it frustrated EVERYONE. But we figured out a better system and when all the toys lost their fun and mom and dad were done playing games, singing songs, and answering a thousand questions, the DVD player did its job very well!

Our second day we drove about 7 hours to Cheyenne Wymoning and found a hotel with a pool.  We partied hard for New Years...ordered pizza in the hotel and went for a swim! The kids had a blast!

We woke up the next morning (Jan. 1) with plans to make it the last 8ish hours all the way to Lewistown.  BUT the weather got in the way a little the roads were pretty sketchy so it took us forever to make it to Casper Wymoning.  But we stopped there and ate a nice relaxed lunch, did our best research to figure out the road situation ahead of us.  By now, the sun was out and it was clear. People we talked to at gas stations had come from the direction we were headed and said the roads were ok, so we moved on.  We drove til it was getting dark and we made it to Sheradin Wyoming.  The roads were refreezing and the roads ahead were supposed to be worse.  The luxuries of not being in a hurry were nice again because we just decided not to risk it.  We still had 4 1/2 more hours to go and knew the roads wouldn't let us make it all the way to Lewistown so we decided to stop for the night and enjoy another hotel swim. 

This was some of our first glimpses of  mountains.....somewhere in Wyoming.  

This was when we stopped in Casper. Lots of good, bug fluffy snow.  

2 asleep, one watching DVD was a recipe for a little peace for mom and Dad. Kory had an intense day of driving that day. 

Headed in to the hotel in Sheradin.  There were 2 boys who were MORE THAN happy to stop and stay in another hotel!!!  

Juney girl at breakfast the next morning.  I was trying to take her picture but she spotted a bird on the TV and started signing "bird".  

The last leg of the trip was only about 4 hours.  Nothing compared to the 2 days we'd already done but I"ll say that I didn't get anxious, stressed, antsy, etc. until the end of that day.  Its like you know you're close so all of a sudden the noise and the crazy-ness of driving was getting to me.  

We made it to town in time for lunch with the family.  All in all the trip was pretty uneventful and we are very thankful for that.  We had no car trouble  and no major kid trouble either so it was a success.  We were thankful to not get in a car for a while too! :)