Montana Trip!

In June we took a trip to Montana to visit Bill’s family. We left at 7am on a Saturday and got to Kalispell, MT at 5pm (6pm local time). That is about 8.5 hours of driving plus stops. We stopped in Ellensburg after 2 hours for breakfast. The bowl of cereal I had just wasn’t going to cut it until lunch. We ate at McDonald’s. Shaun loved eating some pancakes. Then we continued on for 3 hours to Spokane where we ate lunch and filled up the gas tank. Then it was on the road again for 3.5 more hours. Shaun was awake the whole trip to Spokane and mostly in a good mood except when we were nearing Spokane. We kept him busy with toys and books. We attempted the portable DVD player when we were nearing Spokane, but it did not like the car bumpiness, which got Shaun upset because he wanted to watch “Cars”. Shaun immediately fell asleep after leaving Spokane and slept for about 2 hours or so. He was awake for about the last hour of the trip and in a decent mood. We were all ready to be out of the car at that point though.

Daddies and their kiddos: Shaun (2), Kira (7.5), Kamron (4), & Kayla (5.5)

We checked into our hotel and then headed over to Bill’s mom’s place in Whitefish for dinner and the “reunion” and meeting. Grandma and Seth had come over here to meet Shaun when he was 1 month old, but hadn’t seen him since and all of the others hadn’t seen him at all (3 uncles, 1 aunt, and 3 cousins). We spent the week just hanging out with the family. Shaun got to spend some good playtime with his 3 cousins. One afternoon we went over to the nearby train station, or to see the “choo choos” as Shaun would say. There is a small train museum and the train depot to see all the cool “choo choos” going through.

3 Generations!

We were kind of nervous about how Shaun would do sleeping in a hotel room for the first time with us in the same room too. The first night was a nightmare getting him to sleep! Bill in his frustration was ready to pack up and go home in the heat of the moment. We got back from his mom’s place kind of late; around 10pm. Then it was a struggle until he finally fell asleep about 1:30 am! We think it was a combination of being in a strange place, getting his usually nap in the car ride over and then being up so late and over tired. He would not stay lying in his bed. He would do everything from sitting up to wondering the hotel room and jabbering the whole time. We tried everything from me lying next to him, Bill lying next to him, both of us lying next to him and even for the first time driving around and around town to put him to sleep! We had never done that before. He fell asleep in the car, but by the time they were back up to the room he was awake again! Ug! I think we spent another hour fighting with him until he FINALLY fell asleep; probably from sheer exhaustion. We were all SO tired. Shaun proved it too by sleeping very well after that, even until 9am!!!

The 4 brothers: Bill (32), Jeff (30), Seth (15), and Ethan (20).

Seth, the youngest is now the tallest!

I’m glad to report that the first night was the only one like that! Our strategy for the rest of the week was to tire him out and not get him to bed so late. So, with no nap and running around with his cousins all day he was good and ready for bed! We brought his jammies and toothbrush with us so he would be ready to just plop in bed as soon as we got back to the room. He would usually fall asleep within 5 minutes of the 20 minute drive back to the hotel. Bill would carry him up to the room and he would stay asleep; beautiful!! We could even putter around the room with the TV on low and it wouldn’t even disturb him until we were ready for bed.

We made the reverse journey home the next Saturday, stopping in Spokane for lunch and gas again and then at a rest stop just after the Columbia river gorge. It was a nice get away from our daily routine!