In June, we took a trip up to Montana and visited James' parents. We got a new car (we busted the seams of our Honda civic with the addition of a third child), a minivan in May, and it feels so luxurious and spacious and smooth compared to the civic. Road trips have been so much fun in it. We had been borrowing James' parents minivan since Alice was born, and we needed to return it, so we drove up separately (James in his parent's van, and me in our new van). I was pretty proud of myself for being able to handle all 3 kids for more than half of the trip on my own in that van (johnny got sent to time out in Daddy's van around half way).
Jimmy and Johnny loved driving in the new van. Jimmy still won't stop talking about the "automatic cup holders" (all they do is pop out, but it's pretty amazing to him).
And Montana has got to be one of the most beautiful, scenic, wide open states. It REALLY does have a BIGGER SKY than anywhere else, I'd say. James' parents live right outside of Yellowstone, so one day we ventured on up to Bear Tooth Pass. This pass is amazing. It zig-zags back and forth and climbs the mountains so fast.
Then all of the sudden you are high, high, high in the snow capped mountains with the most amazing view of the incredible Yellowstone mountain ranges. Not to mention all the animals we got to see.
The boys loved looking out their windows with Grandma and Grandpa's binoculars spotting bison and even a bear along the way!
We also went on a little hike and saw the Yellowstone river.
Here's a shot of my hand by some buffalo poo.
Back at the ranch, James buzzed his old man's hair, now they are twins:
After relaxing in Montana for a few days, James and I flew with Alice to Arkansas on a "pre-trip" to go check the area out and find a place to live. James' parents were so kind to let us leave the boys there in Montana with them.
The pre-trip was so much fun. We ate delicious food, explored beautiful Bentonville, and really relaxed as Alice was so easy and it felt like we were newlyweds/kid less again. Bentonville has this quaint little downtown square. It is where the Saturday farmer's markets are held and it is where the first Walton's five and dime (a.k.a. Walmart) was (it was born there 60 years ago).
Bentonville also has this huge, gorgeous lake named Beaver lake just a 20 minutes drive away.
There is boating and camping there and we hope to make it a family tradition to venture out there each month.
When we got back to Montana, it was so fun, down the road we bumped into Grandpa on his all-terrain vehicle giving the boys a joy ride.
I guess they would go out for daily rides with Grandpa on this. It was the cutest thing to come home to. And oh, how I missed my boys. It was so good to see them again. I felt like they had grown up so much during the time we were apart, even though it was really only 5 days. They just seemed so much older to me.
I didn't take this picture, just found it online at photoshoppix.com, but it is how I feel at times...
