Event-FULL Day

I was always one of those lame-brains who could never remember the difference between Labor Day and Memorial Day. Ok, I still am. But now I have reason to remember the biggest difference of all - that one is in September, and one is in May - because of Jacob and I's wedding anniversary. (No offense to everyone who is honored on these holidays. I mean no disrespect, I just really am that slow.)

But that wasn't all; May 29th also marked Louis' EIGHTH birthday, and the start of my last two weeks at the law firm.

In deciding our wedding date, Jacob and I went around the block and through the calendar. I had my heart set on June 20th because that was the day we re-connected (full story here). I don't think it landed on a Saturday, and I'm not one of those wackos who gets married on a Tuesday morning. Furthermore, June weddings are by-far the most popular, and every other bride-to-be had already booked 3 years in advance. We eventually settled on a date in August. Neither of us wanted a long engagement so August was as far as we were willing to go. And then about a month and a half after we got engaged we learned we were going have little Miss Zo (wear a condom the night you get engaged, people; that's all I'm sayin').

We didn't want to wait until after the baby was born to get married so we settled on May. In tossing around ideas, my brother told me he had tickets to a Screaming Weasels concert on the 14th so not to make it that day. The 22nd was booked so the 29th it was! And we realized later that that date was also Louis' birthday, and we'd always have a 3-day weekend in which to celebrate our anniversary; not that we've done anything close to that in the last 2 years.

We did have a very nice weekend together. Our actual anniversary fell on a Tuesday, which made it a little harder to celebrate. Jacob had to deal with stress at his work, and I was giving notice at mine (which is never a fun experience), so we did what any married-for-two-years-couple does: we took it out on each other. It's not the way anyone envisions spending a special day, but I'm sure we weren't the first couple, and I'm sure we won't be the last. In the end, though, we always know that we don't want to be with out each other, and we don't want to be with anyone else.

We watched our wedding DVD our BFF, Derek, made for us and drank some Moscato champagne Rachael accidentally left in our fridge. I'm not particularly fond of the fact that he made me look a bit more pregnant that I was.

We did do some celebrating. Jacob surprised me with flowers in a ceramic, eco-friendly go-cup and a gorgeous scarf.

In person, a conversation between you and I might go something like this: "Is that a Pashmina?!" "Why, yes; yes it is a Pashmina." "Ooooooo."

 We did celebrate the dogs, too, they each got a new toy and were minimally yelled at.

 Oh, he's just getting started.... "Thank you, Mama!"

We aren't exactly sure when Durbin was born, but we know him and Louis are the same age, so we celebrated both their birthdays. They both thoroughly enjoyed their presents, then fell asleep on the living room floor amongst their mess.

Giving notice at work was fine, as it generally is. The only unfortunate part is that given my schedule, my two-weeks will only amount to about 5 days. I was straight-up honest and told them I was really nervous, and they told me not to be and that everything was fine. My wonderful husband is taking over the part-time reigns (SO thankful ABC/FOX is so wonderfully flexible and understanding and appreciative of my husband!) while I take on the Administrative support and Office Manager-esque duties for engineers and community developers. It is definitely a change from working with legislators and lawyers, but that is what I'm excited about - doing new and different things, and hoping that it might just lead to my next big thing (maybe they'll want a representative to lobby the government *wink, wink*).

I'm trying hard to be ok with going back to work full-time. But definitely making it easier is Jacob being able to stay home with Zoey. It would be very hard on me if we had to put her in daycare full-time. At the same time, Zoey really enjoys her "play days," and has lots of friends. She learns a lot (she's coming around on the alphabet) and - in the words of my daycare lady - "she plays HARD." But Jacob and I are excited for this new opportunity; everything about it we see as a positive.

Today, everything is as it should be. The dog toys are destroyed, so there's no working on those anymore, and it's another day of keeping up with the Zo.

More Trippin'

This weekend's weather didn't exactly facilitate any sort of summer activities - like a road trip - but we couldn't just stay cooped up in the house, especially since we woke up to this on Saturday morning:

We desperately needed the rain but I wish it didn't get so cold. But The Law of Mountain Weather determines that no matter how nice the Spring is, we will endure one last snow before we can officially declare it "summer." (P.S. That's Louis.)

Due to graduations and the holiday, our day-care lady had to close last week so Zoey got plenty of time to be home and get over her sniffles (which she did a lot faster than Mommy and Daddy). Jacob stayed home with her the beginning of the week while I added an extra day off to my schedule, leaving me with 7 full days at home. As you can imagine, I detested it greatly.... :-) I wish I could have done more, I would have gotten a lot more done, but I developed a head cold, or sinus infection, or something that kept me pretty under-motivated.

Saturday it rained off and on so we continued the Tinkerbell and the Great Fairy Rescue marathon Zoey started on Tuesday with Daddy. She hasn't watched the movie in forever, being stuck in [Yo Gabba] Gabba Land, but Jacob said she asked to watch it while sitting in the big armchair and thus the morphing of the downstairs into Zoey's hideout commenced.

 Some morning Cheerios and "moo."

 She loves chairs so her tush makes sure to spend equal time in all of them.

 Zoey and all her friends - "Bankie," "Schute," and "Foofy" - settling in to watch A Bug's Life. Daddy wound up being more interested in the movie and Zoey eventually asked to put Tinkerbell on.

 Yet another place to do her coloring.

 And eat lunch, as in this case, Spongebob Squarepants macaroni and cheese; which she enjoyed, telling me, "mmm it is good."
(You'll appreciate this, Mom: The other day I asked Zoey, "What do you want to watch?" And she replied, "Bob Bob Square.")

I did get a certain amount of housework done; I made sure this room was clean for her to play in.

So after hibernating on Saturday, we had breakfast, cleaned up and were on our Montana road trip an hour and a half later. Then finally out of Billings another hour later.

We're officially done shoving any food in her face. She won't allow it, exclaiming, "No Mommy! My spoon! My eggs!" The only troubling thing is that sometimes her spoon is usually dumped somewhere between the plate and her mouth. Well, it's an art we all have trouble with sometimes.

We weren't exactly sure where we wanted to go, once again we were foiled out of going up the Beartooth Pass. It is usually scheduled to open the weekend before Memorial weekend but the roads hadn't been cleared yet. Then, while we were getting rain and snow-ish, the mountains were getting snow, pushing the opening date back even further. So we loaded up and headed for a town we've never heard of.

 As usual, in charge of all road trip necessities: cooler, book of the sites, camera, and can't leave home without my socks!

 Entering the town of Broadview, Montana. 

 Despite the picture, Broadview appears to be a bigger-than-most towns, with buildings stretching over the hills on either side of the main street. But Jacob pointed out that many of the commercial buildings are for sale, including this one.

 Some scenery pictures.....

 The scenery was pretty dreadful and Wyoming-esque for a little bit, long enough for us to comment on it. But it eventually turned mildly interesting.

 And sort-of hill-y.

 If you're wondering why all of the pictures feature the road it's because the interesting parts didn't extend beyond it.

 The Musselshell River.

 Entering Lavina, Montana.

This is why I can never get cozy; I needed the people of Lavina to show me how. Duh, why didn't I think of liquor, beer, and food?

Entering Rygate, Montana, the only interesting factoid about this po-dunk town so far is that I work with a girl who grew up here. (I intended to read that section of my Roadside History of Montana book but I promptly got distracted)

Our "destination" - if you will - was just up ahead.

 Deadman's Basin Reservoir.

 The water is actually that color. With the shadows of the clouds and their particular color, it made for a very eerie scene. I couldn't stop taking pictures, positive some alien life-form was going to come down and tell me to continue on with my purpose in life (obscure Contact reference).

And in case you couldn't tell it was very windy and cold there...

 She wanted to go near the water more than anything, and begged through trembling lips.

 I couldn't decide which one I liked best so I posted both. Our homage to the seemingly obligatory breezy, East Coast, black-and-white, vacation beach shot. Only we're in Montana so it's way better.

 Since it was just too cold and unfortunate outside....

 Picnic lunch in the car it was!

 Here she is exclaiming, "CHEEESSEEE!!" but that is, in fact, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, as evidenced by the sticky, jelly hand prints all over the car.

 We turned around at Deadman's Basin and headed back home so I got some shots I was previously on the wrong side of the car for.

 Something happened to this bridge, we don't know what.

 But it was something....

 Back in Lavina, I was able to get this very old hotel called The Adams.

It was completed in 1908 and was the most elegant of its kind in the area (I'm not sure that's saying anything). The building remains as it was originally built, as you can see by the blatant lack of up-keep. It's owned by a private residence now, God only knows what they do with the 22 rooms, or what they even look like.

 Back in Broadview and I was able to get the Broadview High Super Dome.

 Hey, my football stadium never had a junk yard in back! We did have the reclamation pond, which was green so, go us!

A picture to attempt to highlight the grandeur of Broadview.

Zoey is slowly getting the hang of this road-trip thing, she at least understands that when we're in the car she has to be buckled and there's nothing she can do about it. But she is little so she has the attention span the size of a raisin so I shouldn't expect much from her.

I swore we wouldn't be those parents, but we brought along the DVD player and put in Tinkerbell on the way home. Quiet as a mouse the entire way home, I totally get the allure of letting technology raise your children.

Back to a new week, but the start of exciting things to come.

(Don't you hate a cliffhanger?)