Going Home

Whew! Last vacation post!

Saturday was to be our longest driving day of the trip (9.5 hours driving time) so we planned to leave bright and early.  We were going to leave at 6am South Dakota time which was 5am our time, but our friend J thought we were leaving at 5am SD time so he woke us up at 3:45am our time! Yikes. Since we were already awake we decided to just go ahead and hit the road. 

We pulled the kids out of bed and stuck them in the car.

It was dark and the kids tried hard to fall back asleep but Boo was the only one who really got any good extra sleep. 

K and A only slept for an hour but that was better than nothing.

However we did manage to drive for three and a half hours straight…our longest stretch yet, and made it to Sheridan, WY by 9 in the morning. 

By 11 we were in Billings and found a park where the kids could get some energy out.

Playing with her “bah-game”.

They ran all over after being cooped up in the car for 5.5 hours!

We made it to Butte and were checked into our hotel by 4pm! Not bad for our longest day!  Peanut hadn’t had a nap that day and was totally wired.  It was too late to try to put her down so instead we changed into swimsuits and hit the pool…after a quick game of hide in the dark closet!

After the pool the guys went and got gas in the cars and pizza for dinner and brought it back to the rooms where we ate and watched the Mariners on TV.  Peanut and Boo fell asleep by 6pm (our time) and Bug was asleep by 7.  T and I followed shortly after. 

The next day we had an easy 5 hour trip home so we ate breakfast and went swimming before hitting the road.

We stopped and shopped at Target in Missoula (no tax!) for some school supplies.  A few rest stops and gas stations later and we were back in familiar territory.

Here’s Boo and those long legs again.  This skirt fit just fine at the beginning of summer…now it’s quite short!

Noni had been on a two week trip and returned just three days into our trip so the girls were dying to see her after being apart for 3 weeks!  We drove straight to their house where birthday presents and souvenirs were waiting!

Noni bought them these beautiful hair things! I have never seen any like them!

They are more like a necklace than a hair thing!  It’s attached to two clips.

Peanut’s expression here cracked me up! 

Boo helped Peanut open her present from Mama.

Her own laptop!  Perfect!  She LOVES anything electronic!

And Noni made her a sweet question/answer book with pictures of herself.  All three of the girls have received one on their 2nd birthday, and they LOVE them!

We stayed for dinner and then got back in the car to head home.

What a fun trip!  So many new memories made! 

In the words of Porky Pig….

We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.