The dust has settled somewhat from our travels so let me give a more thorough accounting of our 10 fabulous days in Big Sky Country.
We flew into Billings on July 2nd. There's a non-stop flight from Mesa to Billings on Allegiant air and we all made it safely without much drama. The flight was extremely early in the morning and it is so helpful to have 2 of us to wrangle Elayna; she did sleep across our laps for most of the flight. And we all took huge naps once we were safely at Aunt Margene's house!
We stayed with Margene Thursday night and all went to dinner at Mackensie River Pizza. Jerry and Carol drove up from Blackwell, OK for the week and also met us for dinner. There's nothing better than Mackensie River!!
Friday we drove down to Red Lodge and stayed in a lovely condo with Jerry and Carol. The weather was fantastic, the condo had a hot tub, and we bought several bottles of wine! Its not a bad way to spend a few days.... On Friday night, Aaron grilled for everyone (Jerry, Carol, Margene,and Gordon) and we had amazing steak and shrimp.
With Aunt Annie
Grandpa Jerry and Grandma Carol
Red Lodge puts on a good show for the 4th and we weren't disappointed. Elayna experienced her first parade and her first rodeo! It took her a while but she finally relaxed at the parade and ventured out to watch the floats. We also had a yummy lunch at Uncle Gordon's house with Jay and Annie before heading to the rodeo grounds. Elayna watched most of the rodeo in awe and enjoyed being passed back and forth amongst her family. She was fast asleep by fireworks time, but we had a great view from outside our condo!
At the Red Lodge parade
On Sunday, July 5th, we drove from Red Lodge to my parent's ranch south of Helena. On the way we stopped at Clydehurst Christian Ranch (on the Boulder, south of Big Timber) for a few hours. Aaron worked at Clydehurst several summers through high school and college and still knows most of the staff. And we happened to be there when Randy Williams, one of our Pastors in Phoenix, was the speaker! Randy and family gave us the royal tour and Aaron loves showing Elayna all the best camp spots. We'd love to go up there for a family camp one of these years - it is so beautiful!
At Clydehurst with her daddy.
Eventually, we made it to the ranch and a very anxious Grandma Missy. My mom was SOOO happy to see Elayna and spoiled her most of the week. She even babysat for us on Tuesday so we could drive into Bozeman for the day. Elayna loved the ranch. She mostly ate rocks and went for long walks down the driveway. She also started calling all animals 'puppies'.
Fixing balers with Granda Cliff
On Wednesday, my Uncle Allen and Aunt Janet arrived from Corpus Christi. It's been several years (ok, probably 10) since I've seen them and it was so much fun to catch up! My Aunt Janet also spoiled Elayna - they read, went for walks, and ate lunch together. Janet watched Elayna for us Thursday night so we could all listen to my brother play his fiddle at an Irish bar in Helena. My Uncle Allen is a GREAT cook and he did several meals for us during the week.
On Friday, my 2 Texas cousins both flew in for the weekend. Andrew just graduated from Georgetown and works for the state department; my cousin Michael attends the University of Texas and is a talented piano player. It's been eons since we've seen them too!
The WHOLE family (except Andrew and Michael) - such fun!
Since Andrew and Michael never offered to babysit (or figured it was a lost cause with my mom and Aunt Janet around), I decided to make it my mission to show them around the ranch on Saturday. Michael drove the swather, we went the the dump and smashed things, and we attempted to drive back to the lake (in the back of the truck of course!). The lake trip was aborted because of obnoxious man-eating mosquitos but it was a fun drive anyway.
At the dump ... smashing things!
We left Sunday morning and were sad to go. It was a busy, crazy few days. While I'm so thankful to see everyone and know these opportunities are few and far between, I also really wanted a nap!
Elayna was a trooper through this whole trip! She's officially transitioned over to 1 nap a day and did really well eating a variety of foods while travelling. She has started making an annoying 'uh-uh' sound every time she wants something - in Montana that meant she wanted to go outside. On her first day back at day-care, her teacher said she was 'dramatic' and on the second she was 'starting to get back to normal'. Poor Elayna - it is hard to get used to having so many people who love her!!!
