Adventures in NE MT

Because I know many of you will never be in this part of our wonderful country, I thought I'd include some pictures of what you're missing.  Here's one:

I took some other pictures out the windshield (my apologies for the bugs), but when I looked at them, I realized they basically look all the same.  Some have hay bales in them, but most of them are just miles and miles of some sort of farmland or pasture, or a sad, dry-looking prairie.  I confess it's not my favorite landscape (my father-in-law is shaking his head in disgust right now)... I need trees!  But we weren't up in the northeastern corner of Montana for the scenery; we were there for family.  And that I do enjoy.

We started in Wolf Point; visiting Scott's grandma.  Myrtle just celebrated her 94th birthday, and it was great to finally introduce our boys to her.  It's amazing to think that while we had four generations present that day, there is one more generation that descended from Grandma Myrtle and Grandpa Bob!

^ We had lunch at an interesting spot where you sat down, perused the menu, and ordered over the phone!

^ I was slow getting my camera out; there were 3 or 4 kisses before this one where Charlie kissed Myrtle smack on the lips.  Very cute.  But I'm glad I didn't capture the moment when he first met her, and greeted her with a bop on the nose.  Yes, that really happened.  Not my proudest moment as a parent.

^ After spending time with the boys' great-grandma, we continued on to Glasgow, where we met up with Scott's aunt and uncle, cousin and her family.  Then we were in for a treat - one of their daughters was in the play Willy Wonka, and we got to check it out!  Lily was Veruca Salt (in red), and she was the perfect little snot (on stage only!).  The boys loved the show; Charlie was especially enamored of the Oompa Loompas. (Pictured are Maryn, Zach, Bryn, Lily, "Charlie Bucket," "Violet Beauregarde," and Olivia - Lily's 6 year old sister)

^ Mandy, Bryn, Maryn, and our little family spent the night at Scott's cousin's house (Thanks Allison & Pete!).  The kids had a blast playing with their 3rd (???) cousins, and we adults enjoyed some great conversation, food, and drink.

^ Charlie thought I needed to see the sunrise.  It was pretty, but he was wrong.

^ After a Willard family traditional breakfast - pancakes with chocolate syrup - at Aunt Carmen's, we hit the road again.  Does the scenery on this part of the drive look any different to you?  And more importantly, have you ever been on a road trip where you've gone 134 miles without a gas station??!?!?    We did!