Cruise Trip Day 1-2

Our trip started out on a Thursday night. After Dennis got home from work we headed up to my parents house where the girls were going to stay while we were gone. Mom and Dad had Michael (my 16 year old nephew) visiting so he could help watch them. Here are the girls excited to head to their grandparents house:

That night we took Charity and Danielle to the Carnival in Preston. Rebecca, we thought, wasn't really old enough to enjoy it so we left her with the grandparents. Unfortunately, I left the camera in at their house so I didn't get any pictures! :( But the girls had a blast! Charity's favorite ride turned out to be a roller coaster! One of the kiddie ones of course, but still, she liked the roller coaster best. I was lucky enough to run into Sam there and I got to ride the Ring of Fire with her! That was great to get to see her for a little while since it's been a long time.

The next day, I had planned on us leaving bright and early (6am) but we decided that was too early to start our vacation so we didn't leave until around 8, I think. We still managed to get to Renell's by a decent time so that was good. I think it was 7 her time that we showed up, so 8 our time. More on that in a minute.

Here's Dennis, bright and early in the morning:

Just to give you an idea of the scenery. We went from this:

 to this:

A bit greener? We thought so. It was a great day! We talked some, and we listened to a book some. We'd brought a book to read (Number 6, I believe, in the Wheel of Time Series. We've been working on the series for a while!) and then a couple of books to listen to (The Eragon Series, we still haven't read number 4!) If you don't know about it, at least in utah, through your public library there is the overdrive system where you can check out ebooks and audiobooks to listen to. It's a great resource! At least, as long as you finish them in time! lol.

Mom and Dad, the last time they had gone to visit Renell had stopped in Missoula, MT at a pasty restaurant and I had really wanted to try it, so even though we'd only had lunch an hour or so before we got to Missoula, we stopped at Lisa's Pasty Pantry and shared a Pasty meal. It was yummy! It was so good I had to buy 1/2 a dozen of her pasty appetizers to take with me, and they were even yummier! So nice to get to sit and eat a pasty that someone else made! (They are a lot of work!)

In the middle of nowhere Montana, we stopped for a rest break and found an awesome gift shop! They had a "trout aquarium" and some huge trout in it and we had fun looking around. We also found a few souvenirs and one of my favorite finds of the trip, I was able to replace a little snowman ornament of Danielle's that I'd bought for her first Christmas that had gotten broken! I was so excited! And I'm going to guard the new one carefully so that it doesn't happen again!

Like I said before, we managed to make it to their place by 7, 8 our time. So we picked up Gabe and headed over to Renell's work for dinner. It was nice to get to see and visit with Renell for a little while. Then, we went back to the house and played card games with Gabe for a little while before bed. We were exhausted and ended up turning in early. I think it was 9:30 or 10, that isn't really that early considering it was 10:30 or 11 our time, but it felt early. The next morning we had breakfast and visited for a while longer. We had planned on leaving by 10 but didn't get out of there until 11. It's been a while since I saw my big sis so it was hard to say goodbye :) And then we headed onto Seattle.

Well, now that we're on to day 3, I'm going to take a break here and I will update with more later!