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.")
(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)
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).
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.
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!
Our "destination" - if you will - was just up ahead.
And in case you couldn't tell it was very windy and cold there...
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.
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?)
