finito.

 this will be my last post ever from the house we live in now. so crazy to think that... our boxes are packed, junk given to DI, walls painted for kassie to move into, killed the fish we were selling today {turns out they only wanted the tank anyways so nbd}... now all we need now is some movers to come take it away tomorrow. finally! i feel like i've been waiting for this for AGES!

anyways, our vacationing is over. feels like we've been doing it forever. not like i'm complaining, but i'm pretty sure we've spent more time away from our house than home. how can we tell? because snickers becomes more and more neurotic the more we come home. poor kitty. she needs a good home, but i guess we won't be traveling for a while so we can keep her. i keep telling my husband we need to get a friend for her, but he refuses. now back to the details you really wanted to hear about, the middle of nowhere.

i thought for sure when my husband said they went to montana on vacation, it would be some resort like thing with things to do around it because it just has to be in montana, buuut i was kind of wrong. it's on a golf course... in the middle of nowhere. with nothing to do. and as we are driving the 11 hour drive there, we see this:

 interesting story about this, the road we were on had NO gas for probably about 100 miles at least. this place called Ovando {we should have known by the name} had a huge sign for gas, and we were veeerrrrryyyy low so we pulled off to go to their little town. and this is what we saw. not only that, but we were about 30 minutes past closing time at 5:00. so no gas for us. however, you'll be happy to know that we did find one about 20 miles down the road. thank goodness.

you know you like this stoplight. how montanan's get it done. do you like the road that cuts across? oh wait, it isn't a road. do you see the ton of people coming from the way in front of us? nooo you don't. turns out there was construction about one mile ahead of this stupid light... good thing my husband didn't listen to me when i told him to screw it and go around like several other cars did. that would have been embarassing.

there are no bathrooms in montana. i had to pee. so i peed behind a bush, which is something i've never done before. someone also honked at me. i hope they got a good view of my delicious booot-ee. and this picture documents the view i saw as i squatted. you know you all wanted to know that as well.

i may or may not have been terrified of this place. i'm not a real country girl in case you couldn't tell. i don't hike or camp. i did not bring tennis shoes to walk in the dirt in. or jeans to get dirty. and then we passed some trailers on the way into the resort and he said that's what we were staying in. trying not to say anything rude.... i just laughed to myself, turns out he was kidding. jerk.

on a lighter note. my baby did sooo good in the car! i was a little worried from previous car experiences when he screamed the entire way to phoenix, but he was an angel! we kept feeding him and he was pretty much good to go. we let him out in the play place at mcdonald's {yes, i sacrifice my food so that my child can play around. mcdonalds may be the grossest fast food place ever}and he was a wild thing. when he got grouchy, we turned on some ke$sha and he was good to go, seriously though, he loves music. 

dad is bored. 

i don't have very many pictures of us while we were actually there, since it rained pretty much the entire time. ugh. luckily this was not like the previous lowry vacation which involved us 1. being married 2 weeks, 2. sleeping in a tent because there was no room for us on the houseboat 3. it raining the entire time while we are sleeping in the tent 4. me having a uti and thinking i was going to die. that time we went home early because i was going to have a breakdown. this time, we survived the rain because they had a pool. and a semi-mall with a store call herbergers {in between macy's and jcpenny, but terrible name right??} where we got some makeovers, and our own room.

but the first day we visited some other lowry clan and had a grand ol' time. 

 they have a fabulous yard on the lake, which i think i need someday. the little kiddos had a blast rolling down the hill, sitting in the innertube, trying to slide down the hill in the innertube. also, i can't say enough how badly i need a girl the next time around. madilyn is soo stinking cute.i'm cursing myself writing this, i just know it.

 

zak had a fabulous time with his cousins, last time he saw them at christmas, markus didn't do much, and thomas was too all over the place for zak to follow. buuut now that he can crawl, he's much more involved. the child LOVES to sit on the counter and watch us cook. i blame it on all the times he sat in the bumbo watching, but i'm not complaining, he literally just sits there, no squirming or anything. he also likes to drink soda {not pop}. or pretend to anyways. 

we went to a firepit country-song singing party while we were there. and learned lots about montana history. i kinda dug it to be honest. they played guitar and the fiddle and were hilarious. 

and that pretty much sums up the entire week. levi golfed his brains out, every day for 4 hours in the rain, and we either took naps, or went to the pool. not much else. it was very fun to see everyone and hang out without pressing things to do like graduation etc etc.

next post: leaving utah and coming to san fran! huzzah huzzah! huzzah huzzah! seriously though. i'm so excited.

miracle of miracles.

 

mom and dad: for the win 

lo and behold this weekend my son decided he liked food. it took us eating the food before him and then giving him a piece for him to realize he liked to eat. and not just sandwiches. refried beans, tortilla chips, cafe rio chicken and tortillas, ham, broccoli, alfredo pasta. it's amazing. after 3 months of him eating nothing but scrambled eggs and the all encompassing smoothies {i pretty much juiced every type of vegetable such as beets, carrots, celery, peppers, spinach and blended it up with some strawberries, bananas, apples and some whey protein powder and that is what he ate every day}. this is awesome. you have no idea.

love. beach. barf.

prepare for a picture overload. we returned from the beach this afternoon {yes, i know. i'm so prompt. i have realized if i don't do this blogging thing quick i don't do it at all. and plus my child went to bed veeery early from being sick and not taking a nap today, so i had nothing better to do besides unpack. which sucks.}

our trip was fabulous. every second of it, until today, was awesome. more on that part later. my parents gave us a trip to cocoa beach, florida for graduation, and i was much looking forward to it. my smart mom decided to buy him his own seat, which was awesome considering our flights were packed and he refused to sit in his seat. 

this is what most of the flight consisted of. i figured with him being on more than 20 flights in his little life time that he would be used to it, but being mobile ruined that for us. we had to walk down the aisle about 200 times. good thing everyone thought he was just so cute, because otherwise he was just obnoxious to everyone else on the plane. 

these are the reasons i love the beach, sorry there's so many: 

 i figured the babe and the boy {you can decide who's name goes with who} would be bored out of their minds at the beach, but they did fabulous! levi read many books and built moats and sandcastles, and the beast just helped destroy castles, ate seaweed and sand and played in the water. i was really surprised how much he loved the beach. takes after his mom, i think. there's a lot of these pictures too, have i mentioned how awesome my camera is? but they all prove how awesome he thinks the beach is. =)  

  

one day we went to the kennedy space center to say we did something else besides just lie on the beach. the fact that i was roasted on my back made that decision easier too. {my husband doesn't know how to put sunscreen on me apparently, though he will say it's not his fault and my legs are just as burnt, which they aren't... but ok}. anyways, we had fun there, and learned lots! if you ever go, the imax movies need to be seen! they're awesome! 

 represent! 

isn't he just so cute? yeah, he is. 

 doesn't he look like a little surfer dude? we bought that hawaiian shirt just for this trip. he cracks me up. 

we ended the trip with the beast waking up at 7:30, unheard of this week, he woke up at 9:00 or 10:00 everyday, i should have taken that as a sign. and i thought he was troublesome on the last flights, he was impossible today. it doesn't help when people are not as loving and forgiving about his screaming either. but then we got on the plane from atlanta to salt lake, 4.5 hours mind you, and he happens to barf ALL over me within the first hour. twice. all down my shirt and pants. but not on my new TOMS thank goodness. besides the fact i was gagging and going to hurl myself, i was almost going to cry. i can't handle barf. spit up, poop whatevs, but i can't do barf. and it was bad. it was terrible. and i smelled like barf all the way home. and he continued to do it the rest of the flight and on the way home. luckily he didn't have much left after the first 7 times. and luckily he had his own seat so he wasn't ralphing all over us the entire time. after his carseat and clothes get washed, i will try and dull the lovely memory of this. but we're still glad to be home.