America the Beautiful!!

On Thursday, we went on our first official outing. We went to Glacier National Park. The girls were not very excited about the 3.5 hour drive. (I don't think they have forgiven us for the 3 day drive here yet.)

Anyway, we left early for St Mary, Mt. As usual, Bart wanted to stop at ALL the historical markers along the way, but I convinced him that we lived here now and he could view them at his leisure now. The drive was fun. When we went through the mountain passes, I wasn't sure who to watch more; Bart or the girls. The girls were having fun pretending to be on a roller coaster when we went down the pass. Bart was white knuckled and holding the steering wheel. Apparently he chose not to listen to me regarding the 6% & 7% downhill grade. (For those of you who are not familiar with what that means, lets just say the roller coaster analogy is very accurate.) You see, when we lived in Denver, I had the privilege/stupidity to experience Wolf Creek Pass in DECEMBER. (Second gear became my best friend.) I offered him the information, but I think he thought that since it was summer, there wouldn't be a problem.

Well, we arrived in one piece. After paying admission, we proceeded to stop for a picnic. The girls were a little worried about bears. We tried to reassure them and it was working. Until we got to the picnic table. There plastered very largely on the table was a warning about bears. They settled and we enjoyed an almost idyllic picnic lunch. It was kind of like Yogi bear meets Gone with the Wind. The wind gusts were probably around 40+ mph. We literally had to hold our sandwich and drinks so they wouldn't blow away.

After lunch, we proceeded into the park. We chose to drive the "Going to the Sun Road" I will tell you that I have never seen anything more beautiful in nature than I did on that drive. I finally found the cable to the camera, so I will get to show you what I mean. (YEAH!!)

This is a view of Wild Goose Island (St Mary Lake) with Jackson Glacier in the background. For those of you familiar with The Shining (Jack Nicholson), this was in the beginning of the moving.

(I have an album I will be emailing out with about 19 pictures. I didn't want to put them all on here. Too many. If you don't get your email and you are interested, let me know.)

Our day ended with a shorter drive then we had hoped for. The Going to the Sun road was not fully open, but we plan on returning very soon.

I will say that the drive home was less eventful. Bart decided to heed my instructions regarding the downhill grades. Alert the media!! A man took driving advice from a woman!!!!!

One down...

Well, we have been here a week. We are still trying to conquer the boxes, but I think they are getting the upper hand. I dared mention, "Garage sale", and I thought Bart was going to lose his mind. I told Bart, "Let's face it, we are pack rats." Now getting Pappa Rat to part with some of his precious "pack" will be another matter.

The Girls
Rachel and Julia have been enjoying going to vacation bible school at St. Pauls's Methodist Church. They are making new friends and giving us a little bit of peace and quiet at the house. Rachel has found out that her "accent" is getting her quite a bit of attention. She loves it!!!

Kittie is not so thrilled with her sisters being out of the house. She is really wanting to do all the big girl stuff too. She and I are going to visit a daycare center tomorrow.

On the job front, I have a phone interview with Blue Cross/Blue Shield tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed. To be honest, when I received the email requesting a time, I had forgotten what I had applied for. I have applied for quite a few positions. Some are education related, but most are state government.

Bart has done his fair share of applying too, but I started mine just before we left Texas. I am positive his will catch up with me.

I promise that I will post pics of everyone. We are still looking for the elusive box that has the USB cable in it. (Don't worry Kacy, I packed that one.)

We Have Arrived. Finally!!!

Well, I wanted to start out our new adventures in Montana with an account of the grueling 3 day drive here.

After making our farewells to family and friends, we embarked on our journey to Helena. The girls were very excited about starting the drive, but within 3 hours, Julia decided that we had driven far enough. So from then on, the ever famous "Are we there yet" echoed throughout the car. Fortunately for me, Kittie has become very good at copying her sisters every comment and also engaged in that famous kid car ritual.

Our drive itinerary was: 1st day- drive 12 hours to Lamar, CO (40 mph gust in TX/OK/CO)
2nd day - drive 14 hours to Billings, MT
3rd day - drive 3.5 hours to Helena

Bart is determined to have Uhaul put cruise control in its trucks. I am too for that matter, because I wasn't able to use mine either. Our feet still haven't recovered from the flex position.
But cruise control was the least of Bart's problem. It seems that the company we had load the Uhaul wasn't really into "balancing" the load. The truck tilted heavily to the right and turns were "challenging" to put it nicely.

But, we arrived and are now in the FUN task of unpacking. It is funny how you think you have weeded out the junk, just to discover when you unpack that more junk seemed to follow you. So to say that it looks like a bomb went off in our house is putting it mildly.