Friday, May 25, 2007

ROAD TRIP!


























Last weekend my family so generously let me take a much needed 3 day road trip (thank you Kurt). I drove down to West Yellowstone, MT to visit Jen and Clint and their new babies - twins Sophie and Cameron.

It was a 7 hour drive, but it actually went pretty darn fast. I figured an easy way to play my iPod through the tape deck in my car, so I had hours of music at my fingertips. I also listened to the "Manic Mommies", my favorite podcast.

Stopped in Butte on the way over for gas and lunch. I had to chuckle when I went to find the restrooms at the gas station. The "gas station" was a liquor store/casino (only in MT). I drove down through Ennis along the Madison River, a very beautiful drive. I really lucked out with the weather the whole weekend - in the mid 70's.

Jen and Clint live right on the edge of town on the Forest Service "compound" (they call it). They rent a nice, large duplex and their backyard is basically Yellowstone park. There is a walking trail maybe 50 feet from their patio that runs as the park border. Jen was actually out walking alone a few weeks ago and saw some bison (scary!). She informed that I could go out for a run on the trail, but that I'd have to take the bear spray (um, thanks, but I think I'll pass on that one!) One day during my visit Jen was in the dining room and yelled "Wolf!" So we all went to the window to see what we thought was a wolf running right by the house. Turns out it was only a coyote, but a very large one. So it is definitely different than the city life I'm accustomed to. I loved how peaceful it was.

The babies as just so cute and doing so well. They are so tiny to me though (around 7 lbs. now) since I'm so used to holding Katherine. It is funny to think they are pretty much twice the size of when they were born. Jen and Clint are troopers though and survive on very little sleep. I definitely got a feel for how much more work twins is than one baby. I had fun helping feed and doing some cooking and baking. Jen had like a gazillion ripe bananas to get rid of, so we made banana cream pie, banana cake, and banana bread!

When we could get away, we took some drives, did some shopping, went to the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center, and one evening drove into the Park. Saw lots of animals (highlights were the goslings, an eagle, and baby bison). Also saw a beautiful sunset that was just awesome (first picture).

So it was a great trip, thank you guys for such a fun time! Can't wait 'till I can go again...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am so glad you were able to go see the babies--your trip sounded so fun. They are the cutest!

Emily said...

They are so cute... and they look great for only being 7 lbs! They both have their own "look", but I think they have the same eyes.