The rest of the road trip...

Backing up a bit (because my Gram's party deserved and needed a post of its own)...we drove the 1028 miles from here to our hotel in Kennewick, WA last Thursday. We were on the road for about 17 hours. It was a long day. ;P Friday, we slept in a bit and then went to my mom's new house and hung out there for the day. My sister and a couple of her kids joined us and we had a nice day appreciating the new digs, eating plenty of food, helping prep some stuff for the party the next day, and playing some ping pong and corn hole. We also picked up Gram from her assisted living apartment nearby so she could join us for dinner and an early birthday cake for Micah. And throughout the day I neglected to take a single picture. (hanging my head)

Wait! I did take a picture:

Here's Micah with his early birthday cake. The "fries" are also cake. Bekah let Micah cut the cake however he wanted and I wish I'd taken an "after" picture...it was a mess, lol. (He cut from the middle to avoid the frosting.)

After all that, we took Gram home and eventually turned in for the night. The next day was the party (see previous post). After the party, we rounded up all the older cousins to go to the Yakima Family Fun Center. They got fun passes and played mini golf, rode bumper boats, tried out the batting cages (a first for mine), rode go karts and spent some time in the arcade. I took some pictures...

It made for a long day, but it was great fun! It was nice to see the cousins all spending time together. :)

Sunday was a much needed quiet day to recover from Saturday. We hung out at mom's house again and Bekah and Alexis joined us for awhile. (Quinn and Aidan were apparently too tired to come, having stayed up too late playing video games, lol.) It was lovely going through some of the bins mom had in closets and I ended up bringing a couple home to sort. 

Around dinner time, we said our goodbyes and got on the road again. We drove to Spokane for the night. We crashed early-ish and got up early the next morning to continue our drive to Montana and made it to Nathan's parents' new place just after lunch. (They bought 20 acres in Montana last year and sold their house in Yakima this May. They're currently staying in a trailer and building a home!) 

So. We were able to see the property...which currently has a pole building, the base foundation area for the home and a lot of rocks and trees. :) We stayed there and visited for awhile then headed into town and found the world's greatest candy store. (The boys and I may have gotten, um, bags of candy. Yay!!) We also stopped for ice cream and to see John & Nancy's trailer (parked at a friend's at the moment) and then drove to Butte for a delicious dinner on the patio. 

And through all that, I sadly didn't take any group pictures. Sigh. Really bummed. 

After dinner and visiting more, we parted ways...with John & Nancy heading back to their trailer and us heading onward to Bozeman and our hotel for the night. 

Tuesday morning, then, we got up early and finished out our 2500+ mile road trip, making it home in time for dinner. Whew.