vacation part 1: Montana

We recently had the opportunity to take an extended vacation to Montana to stay with my sister Tanya, and her husband James at their house in Bozeman. My parents were able to drive down and stay for a few days, too. Patrick and I actually left the kids for four days and flew to Boston, but I'll save that part of the trip for another post.

The Cotterells: Tanya, James, Emma, Lydia, and Eila

All of the grandkids with my mom & dad

Whenever we drive to Montana, we cram all 700 miles into one day. Our thought is that we'd rather have one incredibly torturous 14 hour day filled with whining, snack gluttony, and potty stops, than two shorter, yet equally as painful days. I know that we'd have to wrestle both kids into their seats the morning of the second day, too!

We packed the kids into the car at about 4:45 a.m., grabbed a mediocre cup of coffee at McDonalds (sidenote: they brew Seattle's Best Coffee which, even though it is owned by Starbucks, tastes much better), and hit the freeway. The first few days in Montana were beautiful—75 degrees and sunny skies. Patrick and I only stayed for one day before heading to Boston, so we were a bit jealous of the nice weather the kids were enjoying.

Tanya and James are temporarily living in James' dad's place while they are building a new house, and his dad was kind enough to let us crash there with them. The house is what I think most people would imagine when they think of Montana... it sits at the edge of town on ten acres with beautiful mountain views from every angle. It's very different from the area of Montana that I grew up in, which is mostly wheat fields similar to eastern Washington. I just couldn't get over how serene it was. We've had a very chaotic spring, so to just sit outside with only the sounds of birds, the breeze in the trees, and the distant sound of our kids chasing each other, was absolutely restorative.

By the time that Patrick and I returned from Boston, the weather had taken a turn for the worse. In fact, it seems like with the exception of the first day we were in Bozeman, our gloomy Seattle weather just followed us around the country! Our flight landed in Billings (2 1/2 hours from Bozeman) just before midnight, and after pulling over at a rest stop to take a nap, we hit a blizzard in the Mountains at about 2 o'clock in the morning. You never know what kind of weather you'll run into in Montana! The rest of our time there was cold, rainy, and windy. Note the pictures of Alden and Tula in the pasture outside of Tanya & James' place.


Alden had a great time playing with his three cousins. Emma, the oldest, is 7, Lydia is 5, and Eila (pronounced EYE-la) is 17 months. I think he wishes that Tula was a little older so that she could play with him a little more instead of just swatting at his perfectly parked line of matchbox cars. There were countless games of hide-and-seek and sardines, and most of the time the kids all just played contently with each other. James' dad is a big hunter, so he has an enormous elk head hanging high on one of his walls. Alden thought it was the coolest thing in the house. He talked all day about how the elk was going to come down off the wall and gallop around the house with him. Then he'd make his uncle James pretend to be the elk and run in circles with him through all of the rooms in the house. He'd stand in front of it and pick up fuzz from the carpet and throw it up to the elk to "feed" him.

The kids dressed up as monsters (Alden needs some practice being scary)

There's lots more to write about but I'll leave that for the next post...