Over Some Rivers, Through Montana, to Grandmother's House We Go

On the next leg of our trip we drove through Montana. We made just a few stops and stayed the night in Bozeman, which seems like a really cool town. I can see why my sister didn't want to move away from it. Along our route we were in search of a location for our future retirement cabin.

I think this little Valley would be quite nice. Don't you agree?

What's that? Oh, you don't think snow is fun for "SPRING" break? Neither do I, but snow we found. And it was cold and blindingly bright. This is the Big Hole National Battle Field. It was really interesting and of course Trum earned another junior ranger's badge. If you enlarge the photo you can see that he is wearing them all at once. This site is just ever so slightly out of the way, so I don't think they get too many kids visiting. When Trum got his badge they loaded him down with lots of other free stuff. He loved it!

We left Montana and headed into the home state of Idaho!!! We stopped at my sister Jodi's house for a short visit and then we went on to Grandma & Grandpa Rowe's house. Where we proceeded to treat Trum to all the good time Idaho fun he could handle.

#1 Hot Tubing in some super cold Idaho mountain air.

#2 Shooting guns. Of course.

Jack gives instruction.

A manly procession to check the results.

Trum, it turns out, is a good shot. He hit the can with the rifle and then later with the pistol. He also hit another target later, but this story is already getting to be redneckish and if I tell that story it will just head right over the edge.

 That's right, I shot the gun as well.

Jack getting crazy with the pistol. Do you think his work should know about this?

#3 Horsey rides.

Started off being led.

 Then riding with Dad.

Then all on his own. He was feeling pretty good about himself.
Yee Haw!

Rowe Spring Break 2012 (i.e. the annual trek across many US states)

Well, as is becoming our tradition, when spring break rolls around we get itchy feet and just feel a need to wander. This year our wanderlust lead us through Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, South Dakota, Minnesota again and then back to Wisconsin. Most would say we are crazy, we just say we are adventurous.

So our first stop was the great state of North Dakota. We had never been there and it isn't really a place we envisioned ourselves having a reason to visit at any point in the future, so we figured we had better include it in our road trip. Now we can include it on our list of US states we have visited.
I have to say we quite enjoyed ourselves in Northern Dakota. We visited some great historical sites and national parks. Plus Jack counted, like, 50 pheasants in one day while driving and thinks he should go back and try to shoot 1 or 2.

Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center & Fort Mandan

 (Near Bismark,ND)

Haven't you always longed to visit the place where Lewis & Clark met the Mandan people and to a replica of their fort and to learn about the way of life of the Mandan people and to debate the correct pronunciation of Sacajawea's name? Well we did and so we just took ourselves to a place where all of that could happen!

 Who doesn't love playing dress up? Not Jack, that's for sure.

Interactive displays??? Count me in!!

 Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site

First Junior Ranger Badge of the trip!

Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Jack has been reading about Teddy quite a bit lately, so of course we had to stop at his national park. It is where Teddy ranched and hunted and is a northern section of the Badlands.

Jack looking tough? thoughtful? in Teddy's actual cabin.

Quiz for the day: What are these types of rock formations called?

Wildlife of the park.

 I should have taken a picture of the ticks we had on us after our hike. They were certainly a part of the wildlife we experienced.

Trum gets his second Junior Ranger Badge.

See! North Dakota is cool and we just didn't know it!

Trumanious Triumphs!

We-e-e-ell, I certainly cannot be called an active "blogger" now can I? What happened to February? What happened to most of March?  Frankly, lots of stuff has been happening, I just couldn't bring myself to hook my camera up to the computer and load the pictures. But since I am heading out tomorrow for the great American West, I figured I better get it done.

 February was all about the Trumanator. 

He turned EIGHT this year! 

Which is an important birthday for us "Mormons". He was baptized and we are so proud of him. And as usual I went crazy & we had some fabulous birthday fun!

Any-who, here we go...

The Birthday!

  This year Trum's birthday fell on a Tuesday, which just happens to be our craziest day of the week.

We started off with a stack of mini pancakes and a candle.

We of course needed some legos with our birthday breakfast.

 

 

That evening we went to Nitty Gritty's for dinner. They have great burgers and fun stuff for birthdays, including a glass mug that you get to keep. It was really for that mug that we moved back to Madison. Now we have three and we can each have a root beer float in one!

Then it was off to our regularly scheduled Tuesday night activities, Judo and Cub Scouts. Except that it was Trum's first official night as a scout with his new uniform and everything.

The Party!

Of course we had a party! We went to a local restaurant called Rocky Rococo's. It is kind of like Chuck'E'Cheese only the pizza actually tastes good.

The Cousins!

We have the best family! Jack's mom, my parents and my brother and his family, all came to town to be with Truman for his baptism. It was so great! The night before, the kids all went swimming at the hotel pool.

My brother employing his MAD cheer-leading skilz!

The Baptism

It was a great day! It couldn't have been any better. Truman was so excited and he was so sweet. He was really trying to be reverent and I think he understood the importance of what he was doing as well as enjoying the fun of cousins, friends and refreshments! I hope that he will have good memories of the day.

Gentlemen: Jed Woodworth, Bishop Rankin, Jack, Truman, Rob, Dad. Our friend Kevin Scheel helped out as well but he was off being a good dad while this picture was being taken.

I made Cady bake the bread and then I made her cut and serve the bread. That is just the kind of friend I am.

Mama Joan serving up some soup to the restless natives.

Little Man

The Family

 Side note: 

Take a look at my natural hair color. I haven't seen it since the seventh grade. I wanted to see what it looked like and to see if I had any white hair. Looks pretty good and so far only one white hair.

Round These Here Parts

Well, as you may know, it is winter time here in the Northern Hemisphere, and the weather has actually decided to act like it is supposed to here in Wisconsin. So we have had lots of snow, ice and below zero temperatures. It is super fun! I remember when we lived here before I had a toddler so if it was snowing outside or super cold we could just stay at home. But now I have an almost eight year old and we actually have to leave the house, like, everyday!!!! One day I had to clean snow off my car EIGHT times! Oh it was a good day. Good thing I invested in some snow boots. Side note: Here are the winter weather guidelines for Trum's school district...
~ Schools are closed when actual air temperatures are 25 degrees below zero, or windchill factors of 35 degrees below zero.
~When the air temperature is 0 degrees Fahrenheit or colder and/or the wind child factor is -10 degrees Fahrenheit or colder, all students shall be permitted to enter the building upon arrival to school, and will be kept indoors during recess periods in grades K-8.
So if we want a day off all we need to do is pray for the temperature to drop below -25. Love it!
Anyway, here are some pictures of stuff that has been happening round these here parts.

 Well this is from a looooong time ago. We had our annual Christmas sing along/gingerbread house party this year and this is Trum's excellent house.

(By the way, how do you like that mat burn on his face from Judo class? He looks pretty tough.)

 The Olbrich Botanical Gardens are one of our favorite places to go here in Madison. It is great in all seasons. At Christmas time they have a beautiful poinsettia and toy train display.

 And it is fun to visit the toasty warm Conservatory on a snowy day! 

 Here is our first REAL snow. Trum isn't dead in that picture below, he is just burrowing into his snow fort.

 So Jack and I are both working with the Cub Scouts at church. And since he has to be there with us, Truman has been participating. Even though he isn't 8 until next month. This was his first "real" pinewood derby. Jack and he actually put the wheels on straight and put some effort into making it fast.

 Trum's car is the yellow #6.

 Here he is with his best buddy Coel. I think the PVC pipe fence around the track is GENIUS!

His car ended up getting second place. We had discussed how to lose gracefully but we had to have a quick discussion on winning gracefully when he started to win most of his races. He was feeling pretty triumphant.

 This picture has nothing to do with anything. I took it a long time ago. 

But doesn't it make you think that we are...

A.Super Religious

B. Super Servicy

C. Super Lucky to Live in Wisconsin

&

D. Super Cool cause we own leather gloves

???

I thought so.