Wild, Wild West

(Disclaimer: This's really long so if you have something better to do, you might want to do it:)

Okay, so at the last minute we decided to take our vacation out to Montana. We decided on Sunday, the girls left for Girls' Camp Monday morning and Steve went to the Thursday night campfire to bring the girls home. We left Friday morning (July 3rd), drove straight through to Montana, stayed until the 12th and were home on the 15th, just in time for the girls to go to Harrisburg for Youth Conference. Whew!! It was a little wild, but we had a great time and it went by too fast. I know Steve and I are a little crazy, but we love the drive out west. I would hop in the suburban and do it again right now if I could. What a beautiful country we live in!! I love America!

Steve and I have a pretty good routine down for driving out there. We've done it so many times now. We usually get on the road by about 9a.m. and Steve drives until midnight. We stop and have picnics along the way out of the packed cooler. Then I drive from 12 to about 6a.m. That gets us to Wall, South Dakota where we stop at Wall Drug (google it, it's awesome) and have their yummy breakfast buffet. The next stop we look forward to is in Sheridan, Wyoming where we stop and have a picnic at a great little park there. This first picture is of us looking (and smelling) pretty rough and almost to Sheridan. Yay.
Then when we finally get to Montana we are in the home stretch and we can't wait to get there. Here we're almost there and we're belting out Taylor Swift songs. Woo Hoo!!

My sister, Tennille and her adorable family were in Dillon for the Fourth of July. We loved seeing them.

The tradition of taking Senior pictures in Montana began with Seth and hopefully all the kids will have that opportunity. It's so beautiful in the summer around my dad's golf course. This is one of Brooke's pictures. I'll post some more next. They turned out really nice.

Steve and Jake spent the entire week up at the golf course mowing, golfing, helping out, etc. Jacob did not want to leave. He absolutely loved it and wanted to stay there. The golf course looks so beautiful this year. If you're ever in the area try out Sleepy Hollow Golf Course. You'll love it!

Grandpa Phil is giving Gideon a lesson and Savanna is listening in, too

The kids love to go up to one of the ponds at the golf course to swim every time we're there. Savanna has found a great way to relax in the water

Grandma Rebich came up to visit us at the pond.
We loved visiting with Grandpa and Grandma Taylor. We feel so blessed that the kids have had the chance to know such wonderful great-grandparents.

Too soon our visit was over and we were back in the suburban on our way home. Here we are driving down through beautiful Star Valley, Wyoming and we had just pulled over to take pictures of a moose.

We drove all night and made it to Omaha, NE the next morning to the Winter Quarters visitor's center and temple. What a neat experience to see what the pioneers went through on their way out west.

We were so happy to finally reach the motel in Keokuk, Iowa. The kids were able to unwind in the pool and we finished off the contents of the cooler and had a great night's sleep. We were headed to Nauvoo, Illinois the next morning to spend the whole day and see the pageant.

The next morning we started at Carthage, Illinois at the jail and we stood at the window where Joseph Smith and his brother, Hyrum, were murdered by an angry mob.

Then we spent the day in Nauvoo. We took a wagon ride around the city, rode behind oxen, dressed like pioneers, toured original shops and homes of the pioneers and saw the Historic Nauvoo pageant. It was a wonderful day!

After the pageant we headed for home. Steve and I took turns driving throught the night. We're always VERY glad to get to the PA border - only and hour left. We had such a nice trip and we missed Seth, although there was a lot of extra room in the the suburban this time around. And it was a little quieter. What a blessing modern-day travel is, though, and what freedoms we enjoy!

This is our awesome trip to NYC. This is the second year Brooke and I were able to share this trip. We really enjoy going to New York. There is so much to see and do. First, we were dropped off at Bryant Park in the middle of Manhattan. We found a street vendor selling shish kebob pita sandwiches. De-lish! Then the kids went to a Broadway workshop where they perfected one of the numbers from "Guys and Dolls" taught by a Broadway actor. While they were doing that, a group of us mothers just walked around the Chelsea section of Manhattan.

After the Broadway workshop, we walked to Times Square and ate at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. We love that place. It's delicious and not too expensive and the restaurant has a really fun feel.
After that we walked to the Nederlander Theatre and saw "Guys and Dolls". It was wonderful! Lauren Graham from the TV show, Gilmore Girls, was the headliner. I love Broadway!!

The next day, we had a wonderful time walking around NYC and taking the subway where we wanted to go. We started out at Grand Central Terminal and we took it to the Brooklyn Bridge. We walked all the way across the Bridge into Brooklyn. From there we took the subway to Chinatown and walked through Chinatown to Little Italy. We ate at a quaint italian restaurant and then walked back to the subway.

We then took the subway up to Central Park where some took a carriage ride, but most of us walked through the park and over to the Lincoln Center and we got a glimpse of the LDS Temple. By that time, we were getting pretty worn out so we took the subway back to Times Square and walked to Bryant Park to meet the bus. We figure we walked about 15 miles those two days. It's a great trip, though. So many things to see and do.