Nick and I were looking forward to this trip for months and it did not disappoint! We were going for Brittany's wedding (college friend/roommate), and neither one of us had been in this area before. We both worked right up until the night we left and Nora had croup a few days before as well. Even though it felt hectic before we left, we still got in lots of games...
Bryn (the early riser after Nick) has a new routine of reading books to Nora when she wakes up (so I get 10 extra minutes of sleep!)
Bryn also loves giving Nora her bath. She is such a great helper and sweet sister!
We also bought a piano for Liam (and the girls eventually) to learn on! It's an oldie (1940s) with real antique ivory keys and while it needs some love, we are already so excited!
I've also been studying for my upcoming lactation certification exam. Nick took this picture as he thought the irony of it was amusing :)
It was finally time to leave for Montana! We left around 8pm and ended up getting to our house in Big Sky around 3am the next morning. A flight delay plus a long drive in the middle of the night, but it was worth it.
We rented a house with the Toy family and Darci that was very funny with many odd rooms and about 10 different types of flooring. The most unique feature was that they turned a hall closet into a shower...
However our location was great, and you couldn't beat the views from our back windows!
With no time to waste we slept about 5 hours and then were up. Breakfast at a little diner, sitting outside in the amazing weather with an even better view..
We walked around Big Sky a little then drove on to Yellowstone for the day...
We were handed a few handouts upon entering the park telling us the many ways we could die...bear attack, gored by elk, sink holes next to geysers...
After all that hype, I think Nick was a little disappointed the only animals we saw were deer...
Of course we had to go see it...
Thousands of people line up and wait up to 1.5 hours...
To watch water shoot out of the ground :)
It was pretty cool and such a landmark, I'm glad we got to see it...
I didn't realize there are so many other geysers all over there as well....
The closest Nick got to a bear :)
We were both pretty tired driving back from Yellowstone that afternoon and because we don't really drink soda/coffee, we decided to get some food to keep us awake. In a super small town, he managed to find the one chain restaurant!
Saturday morning Suz and I went to Britty's bridal luncheon at the Yellowstone Club back in Big Sky. The lodge and grounds were just beautiful and it was very fun to catch up with girls from Vandy...
Saturday night we were back on the patio at the lodge for the welcome dinner. It was so fun getting to hang with Darci and Suz all weekend!
A panini station with nutella, marshmallow fluff, peanut/cashew/almond butter, jellies, fruit=heaven!
The bride-to-be! The 4 of us met freshman year when we lived on the same hall :)
Driving home that night we had to stop to take a picture of the moon which appeared to be eye level when we were up in the mountains. I forget the sunset is later the farther north you go, and it didn't get completely dark till almost 10pm!
The next morning we got treats at the lodge (dried fruits, granola, nuts, smoothies...I could get used to this!)
We then picked up our canister of bear spray (must be carried) and went for a hike...
Suz was a champ, hiking with a 2 month old!
The only animals we saw other than deer...and I was fine with that!
We watched the World Cup final, cheered for Germany, and then headed to the wedding. It was a beautiful ceremony and afterwards we headed to cocktail hour...
It was hard to capture the venue, but the setup was amazing...
One of the (many) desserts was coconut cream pie which Nick was pumped about...
The first dance...
After trying some of the bbq chicken, shredded pork bbq, fried chicken, brisket, bison, prime rib, salmon plus sides complimenting all of them, and then cake, pie, and cupcakes....we somehow made room for the gourmet s'mores in the fire pit :)
Just like we arrived, we left at 3am to make our 6am flight home...at least it was a beautiful sunrise!
We brought the kids all our goodies from the wedding..moose munch popcorn, cake pops, cinnamon rolls, Virginia peanuts, picture frames, ornaments...but their favorite was the one thing we bought them at the local store :)
We are so grateful to get to do these vacations, knowing it's not an easy task to leave all 3 kids behind under someone else's care. Thank you, thank you to Grandma, Lindsey, Mallie and Dallie for entertaining the kids...they truly felt like they got a vacation as well, they had so much fun!
