SD/MT Road Trip Part I

OK, so this was over a month ago now, but I finally found time. So, here goes the road trip to beat all road trips (over 2600 miles in 1 week).

As a last thought as we were heading out the door, I saw some pipe cleaners and grabbed them for Wally. He spent a lot of time in the car playing with them. Cheap "toys" seem the best for Wally's entertainment. Since we were heading to Bozeman for Ruby's birthday, Wally spent time in the car (and then at Grandma Mary and Papa Randy's house) working on a birthday banner for Ruby. He engineered quite a hanger for it with pipe cleaners.

The theme of our trip was rain. It started raining as we got about halfway through SD, and I don't think it stopped until we returned to Iowa. More rain pictures to come...

On our second day, Wally fed Papa's cows treats in the rain.

Bill (the actual owner of the cows) came over and let Wally help feed a calf who's momma didn't have enough milk for it. Wally thought that was awful special as he loves animals.

Grandma Mary made me a table runner as she is becoming quite the quilter. My Grandma, I'm sure, is proud of her. Wally suddenly decided he could use the table runner as a prop for singing "Swing low, Sweet chariot."

We drove up to Broadus for lunch, and then headed to the bank. Wally loves visiting Gramma Kathy's bank. This trip, he brought all of his money from his piggy banks to put in Gramma's bank. Here, he is watching it all get sorted in the coin sorter. He seemed satisfied that he gave the bank all of his money and they gave him a lollipop.

We had Great-Gramma over for dinner and Wally enjoyed showing her his Daddy's ipod. Every trip, Wally seems to find a way to get Great-Gramma to himself and do an activity with her. They both seem to truly enjoy their time together.

On day 3, we drove to Miles City for Kourtney and Wayne's wedding reception. On the drive up, we saw an amazing amount of water in places were Joel can't remember ever seeing water before. Apparently, while we were in Montana, they got about 6.5 inches of rain. Mind you, they usually only get about 10 inches each year.

But, the Bucking Horse Sale parade went on. Lucky for me (I didn't have a hat, hood, or anything waterproof), we didn't make it to the parade until it was nearly over. Wally got to see some steam-engine tractors, hug a person in a dog suit, and pick up soggy candy floating down the gutters, so he was happy.

I love watching Wally when he is excited!

Coming "soon" SD/MT Road Trip Part II.