The Trip to Montana

Ron's big 4-0 was a blast! We had a Harley Davidson cake made for him... "If you're gonna go over the hill, do it on a Harley!" Dinner was at his favorite Mexican restaurant, where a boisterous band of Hispanic servers sang "Feliz Cumpleanos" and put a big red sombrero on him. Ron was appropriately mortified as they dabbed whipped cream from a big helping of fried ice cream right on his nose and snapped a Polaroid of him trying to wipe it off before the picture could be taken. The kids descended on his birthday dessert while he vowed to make my next birthday a living hell. I believe 'You're done!' were his exact words at the time. I would hunt down a scanner (mine's currently unavailable) and post the picture, but I'd have to fear for my life in that case. It's safer to just let you imagine it.



Eric eating spaghetti. Not from our vacation, but worth seeing.



This is my wiener son, Eric, after he was nice enough to open a bag of brown sugar and spread it all over my kitchen floor. He is sugar coated, if you can't tell from the picture, and completely happy. While I took this picture (thinking I will one day be able to laugh at this), Jack was in the process of dumping out a bag of coarse sea salt. I saw his contribution through the view finder of my camera as the flash went off.



It was raining and sunny on the drive homeward through Idaho, and there were some amazing rainbows. This one was right out Ron's side of the car.



Here's Ron holding Eric during the fireworks show in Missoula. Interestingly enough, all of our children have seen their first fireworks display at this same location. Our very first night in Missoula, just before Clyde's first birthday, happened to be the fourth of July. Heidi and Jacks' first Independence Days were in Missoula. Eric spent his first Fourth here in Utah, but we stayed home from the big fireworks display and he slept while the older kids lit fountains with their Dad. This year was his first real fireworks experience.




One night, after Ron had headed south for the NCOIC conference in Boise, Clyde & Heidi were invited to stay overnight at an old friend's house. The little guys and I were alone for the evening. Taking advantage of Shauna's wonderful gas stove (I hate electric ranges!), we had pasta with vodka sauce (crusty French baguette on the side), fresh rainier cherries, mocha frappaccino, and an entire Cadbury Fruit & Nut Bar for dinner. It was lovely. Using the nifty timer on my camera, I took a shot of myself and the boys, then aimed the camera at the stove and set the two minute timer to get a random shot of me cooking. Yeah, I know it's stupid, but I'm cool like that.



Jack was our only sandal-less kid until this trip to the mall. Here he is, sporting his new flashing Cars sandals. He's pretty obsessed with Cars lately, and makes the Lightning McQueen sound; Ka-chow! His favorite character is Mater, which (ironically) is voiced by the same comedian who's stuffed talking likeness has been Jack's "Teddy Bear" for the last few years.



One of many Happy Meal lunches for the kids. This one had Pirates of the Caribbean booty in them, which Clyde would not be photographed in.



This is our littlest guy fast asleep on the floor of the living room. The bed we were sleeping in was massively high (the most wonderful pillowtop I've ever had the pleasure of sleeping on), and I was afraid he'd fall off it if I left him up there for a nap. I'd lay him down on a blanket downstairs with me instead.



One of our favorite restaurants in Missoula is a Chinese buffet place called (surprise surprise) China Buffet. This is a really weird shot of Jack talking to their fish while Clyde picks his teeth with a toothpick and Heidi... I don't know what the heck Heidi is doing.



Our friends have a piano and it was one of the favorite "toys" my kids entertained themselves with. I was probably more thrilled than anyone. I hopped online and found the sheet music to some of the pieces I used to play back when I took lessons. Amazingly, I can still play Clair de Lune all the way through!



You are looking at the only existing picture of our family altogether. Well, that is assuming there aren't any secret CIA surveillance shots of us that we don't know about. Many thanks, Shauna, for sharing your photography talents with us!

Alright, pictures aside, the trip was wonderful! We got a very late start and stopped in a moonlit parking lot somewhere near the Utah/Idaho border to catch a catnap around one in the morning. As the sun rose, the family woke up and got back on the road. Missoula was unusually hot this summer, and we were staying in a house with no air conditioning. It was an exercise in survival for me, as I am not a heat tolerant individual to say the least. I wandered around, familiarizing myself with the house while Ron caught up on some sleep. Our first dinner out was at The Staggering Ox (www.staggeringox.com), which took second place in a sandwich contest in Maxim magazine. I am so lucky that they don't have one of these in Utah yet-- as white bread, mayo, full fat dairy, and that killer ranch sauce they have are all pretty much off limits for me.

We caught up with my friend, Cheryl, pretty much right away. She was, after all, the original reason for the trip. Long story. Just go with me on this.

Since I am somewhat dim, and neglected to write down many of the details of the trip, I cannot tell you exactly what transpired over the next few days. I have a few random stories to tell, however. Our first morning in that giant marshmallow bed of theirs, Jack (who was sleeping between us) woke up and calmly looked around the room. "Home?" He said. Checking to make sure I'd heard him correctly, I repeated "Home?". "No." He said very softly, "Not home." Most of the vacation was spent socializing and relaxing. The kids played on the trampoline, tire swing, Game Cube, and had squirt-gun fights. Ron and I visited with friends, got our vehicles registered, and played with the kids.

Ron had to drive down to Boise the day after his birthday for a conference, and I stayed up in Missoula with the kids. One of the high points of the whole trip came after he left on Thursday, when I met a bunch of my Missoula friends at McDonald's. Our children caught eachother up on the last two years and played in the Playland while we sat and talked. It was so great to see them! They are all still beautiful, smart and funny, and I am so blessed to have them in my life.

There was a very poignant twist to this trip. I'm going to do my best to summarize this without breaking anyone's trust or violating their privacy. The trip to Missoula was originally planned so that I could be the matron of honor at a friend's wedding. The wedding was cancelled, but we hadn't been to Missoula in so long that we decided to go anyway. In a bizarre coincidence, the day after the cancelled wedding was to have taken place, some really horrible things were discovered and a lot of big changes were set into motion. Instead of being in Missoula to be by my friend's side for her wedding, I was in Missoula to be by her side and support her in a very difficult situation. I love her dearly, and I hope that I was able to make a difference. Everyone knows that I talk way too much, but I really did listen, and I hope I gave her enough airtime to vent. If you're reading this-- which you'd better be, because I'm emailing you the link!-- I hope you know that you are so enormously important to me and you are in my prayers daily. I keep thinking about how incredibly beautiful you are! I felt like a sweaty, stressed out, frumpy Mom most of the time I was there. Whenever you showed up, you lit up the room with your tall, blonde, blue-eyed self, your effortless style and grace, and I felt like a kitty-litter sprinkled greasestain on a garage floor when standing next to you. OK, so that sounds bad. I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone it, people like me! I've made a lot of positive changes in my appearance lately that I'm pretty proud of, but I am in awe of you. It was so much fun to see you and I really hope you are able to come down and see me sometime soon. Anytime you need to talk, please call me. Don't worry about the time or anything else-- just call. Hey, we're both Verizon customers so it's free. You have no excuse. PS, did you get the emails with the dancing comedian guy (the history of music) and the one with the diet coke fountain? Oh man that stuff is funny!

Alrightee, so we're back in Utah. Clyde just picked up his orange belt, went to a week long Karate summer camp where he used a staff and learned some cool stuff I can't pronounce. Heidi decided to sign up for another session of Karate lessons, and is getting ready to be a full-time student this fall. It's gonna be weird. The younger two are trucking along. Jack's still adorable and Eric is cutting molars. It's a nightmare.

I'm in my second week of German Volume Training-- a grueling program designed to build some serious muscle. I'm lifting heavy and eating all the time. I've never eaten this much in my life. Hopefully I can start gaining some weight back now. I stopped doing cardio and increased my calorie intake to try and get back on track. My stupid metabolism won't let me bulk up without a fight. Weight lifting is such a fun sport!

OK, I have to go calm down my hyper children. It's bedtime. Ron's still at work-- go figure. If I remember anything else noteworthy from the trip I'll jot it down.