We've had lots of changes over the last month and the photos have been piling up. To start with we packed all of our belongings, except what fits in the car and on our new trailer, and moved them to storage near Sugar City. (It's a pretty sweet place. ha) Thanks to Uncle Mel's craftiness and tools he was able to help us make side racks for our 4'x8' trailer eliminating the need for a Uhaul truck! In summary the move took thirty Sterillite bins, six storage trips, four hours of cleaning, two hot and ready pizzas, and 32 ounces of licorice.
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| The beginnings packing the bins. |
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| Our new 4x8 trail with side racks. |
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| Hauling the last load to storage! |
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| Alan eating his road food (licorice) |
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| Cresting Ravalli hill looking at the Mission Range! |
When we moved into our first apartment we bought a new Bissell Vacuum and it worked great... until you really needed to suck up dirt. So after our second move from Rexburg we decided to look into the infamous Dyson brand. The new price for them was hard to swallow for a couple unemployed college kids so we quickly moved it down the wish list. Alan was determined to get one and discovered a lady in Thompson Falls, MT who would let her almost new one go for a faction of of the new price. The same day we arrived in Montana we unloaded the car and went to get it. On the way back to St. Ignatius we stopped at a spring to try some of the water. According to the scribbles around the spring it is famed as "The best water in the west", "Jesus gave us this water", "No dog pooping," and rated by Tammy and Robert on March third as, "Best water". We both agree that it tastes the same as the tap water at Alan's parents.
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| Alan getting a sample from the spring. |
On Thursday of our week in Montana Ollecka and Pascao had their district music festival in Missoula. Pascao played the snare drum and Ollecka the cello. They both did a great job and it was fun to see talent from both of our families.
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| The cheering squad at Pascao's adjudication |
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| Pascao playing the snare drum. |
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| Ollecka receiving instruction during her adjudication |
Since we don't have much time during our stops in Montana we made it a point to see Clint before we took off for North Dakota and China. He works as a manager at Double Front Chicken in downtown Missoula so we thought that would be the best place to catch him... And it was! We enjoyed dinner with my parents and were able to see Clint for a minute to catch up.
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| Our little xB downtown. |
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| Clint Managing! |
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| The appetizer! |
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| Chicken and fries! |
I spent our last weekend in Montana at Time Out For Women, with my mom, sister, sister in law's and mother in law in Spokane. We enjoyed eating at Red Lobster and listening to the great speakers at this event. After the conference was over we headed over to the big Radio Flyer Slide and took a few photos.
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| Marian, Sherry, me, Ollecka |
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| Suzie, Marian, Sherry, Elaine, Ollecka and me! |
It was a very enjoyable weekend with the girls. I know that Alan and his dad appreciated the quite evening of just the two of them.
After arriving back from Spokane we loaded the car and started the journey to North Dakota, the start of the next four month adventure of our married life. Alan was going to be working in an office for the first time and I was headed back to the same seat I knew from last year. We spent the night of the twentieth at Bryce and Havilah's in Butte then woke up early and drove the rest of the way to Williston ND. Originally we hadn't planned on taking our mini trailer with us but when we loaded the car in St. Ignatius it was apparent that we were taking more stuff than the spring capacity of our car. Alan's favorite part of pulling the trailer was the record setting 35 mpg we got between Butte and Billings. We love our little Scion!
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| Standing on the North Dakota Boarder in Fairview, MT |
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| Our duplex by the Knife River Alva pit. |
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| Our first meal in our new home, chicken noodle soup. |
One evening after work we took a little walk to Spring lake park. We were very excited to find quite a bit of wild life around the park. We spotted everything from little birds, tadpoles, frogs, eggs, geese, and prairie dogs. I think this will become a frequent walk of ours over the summer!
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| A piper we think. |
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| A frog, there were lots of them |
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| Canadian Goose Egg |
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| Prairie Dog |
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| Canadian Goose |
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| what is it? |
On our first weekend in Williston we were ready to get out of town. We had heard about the Glendive Dinosaur Museums and were bound to go on a dinosaur hunt. Saturday morning we loaded up the car and headed south. The first stop was this giant billboard in downtown Glendive.
We headed to the local Dinosaur and fossil Museum. Upon arriving we discovered that this was a creation based museum that explained why the dinosaurs went extinct. It was pretty interesting learning about their beliefs and we loved to see the skeletons!
After the museum we weren't ready to head back to Williston, just yet. We did a little Google-ing and located the Makoshika State park. The park is like the Grand Canyon of Montana. It was surprising to find lots of canyons and land forms that looked a lot like Arizona.
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| Tabletop rocks! |
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| Natural land bridge |
This weekend we went in search of a hike with a cave. Unfortunately we drove 280 miles and missed the hike due to a nasty gravel road that lead to the trail head. We did get a picture with two presidents, saw some of the prettiest parts of North Dakota, enjoyed a good lunch, and survived an Indian Reservation.
On the previous weekend when we were in Glendive we drove back on Highway 85 and president Lincoln hadn't been moved there so we were quite surprised to find him. He was a lot bigger than we realized! Whoever moved him broke his head off as you can see the big crack in his chin. A person has to hand it to the moving crew because it had to weigh a lot being made from concrete.
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Abraham Lincoln on Hwy 85 South of Williston
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When we arrived in Watford City, we spotted good old Teddy Roosevelt and had to stop to continue the tradition of Presidential Pictures.
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| Theodore Roosevelt in Watford City |
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| North Section of Theodore Roosavelt National Park |
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| Bridge crossing the Little Missouri River |
For lunch we stopped in Killdeer and ate at the Famous Buckskin Bar and Grill. It is a fun local restaurant full of old western gear and rodeo pictures.
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| The Buckskin Bar & Grill in Killdeer ND |
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| Roast Beef Sandwich and Chicken Sandwich. |
Continuing on our adventure we stopped at the Family Dollar Store in New Town, to see if there was anything we HAD to have! Unbeknownst to us this place was a wreck! There were boxes, carts and merchandise everywhere. The aisles were difficult to locate anything in. We left the store with toilet bowl cleaner and comet.
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| Family Dollar in New Town. |
Leaving New Town we stopped at the local Tastee Freez for a treat.
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| Tastee Freez in New Town, ND |
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| My Cookie Dough Freezie |
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Alan enjoying a butterscotch shake
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We are going on the fourth week here in Williston, ND and it is hard to imagine that in just a few short months we will be packing our bags for China! Stay tuned for lots more adventures while we are here in North Dakota!
