Thursday, April 26, 2012

Girls Only Road Trip To Montana

(Wow this is only a month late....but here it is nonetheless)

Back in March I had the pleasure of traveling to Montana with my mom for a friend from childhood's wedding. We also met up with  my sister who was there on a mini vacation. 

Here is our trip in pictures...

We left on a Thursday night and drove as far as Bismarck and got up the next day and traveled the rest of the way Friday.  Olivia wasn't a huge fan of riding in the car Thursday night, but Friday she did fantastic!

Here she is all smiles about our long drive. 

My fabulous mom drove the whole way and I entertained Liv.

It was pretty exciting to watch the landscape change the closer we got to Montana. 




Love this one of Liv right outside of Bozeman.


We got to Bozeman that night just a bit before Nikki and Tom.  We were able to check into the hotel and then we all went and ate at a fun restaurant called The Garage.



 The ladies outnumbered the boys for once!

Nikki and Miss Liv

Poor Tom, was a great sport about chilling with us girls. 

The next day Tom went skiing and Mom, Nikki, Liv and I enjoyed an amazing day hanging out together.  The wedding was that evening so we had the day to explore Bozeman. 

We ate breakfast at a delicious little cafe...

Nikki and Liv waiting for our food.

Next on our agenda was a bit of shopping...shocker I know!

Liv and Nikki walking to the next store.

After a few stores we headed over to where Nikki and Tom lived to take some pictures of the lake right outside their old apartment...

Isn't it beautiful?




Nikki was having a hard time remembering why she left this view?

Liv told her she would be sad living so far away from us and she felt better.


After our mini photo session we headed downtown to shop some more, walk around and grab some lunch.  It was beautiful out and it was so nice to enjoy the sunshine and be outside without a jacket!

Here is Liv and I at a local pizza place that was delicious as well!

Nikki and Mom enjoying our girl time.

There were canoes on the ceiling...the boys would have loved it!

Nikki and Liv doing some serious shopping!


After our afternoon of enjoying Bozeman we headed back to the hotel to get ready for the wedding.

Then we drove to Livingston (about 20 minutes away) for the wedding.

Liv was pooped from our ladies only day and I fed her and put her in her carseat but was afraid she would spit up on her party dress so I used her burp rag for a bib.

(LOVE these Aiden and Anais burp rags that actually have a snap and can double as a bib! They are contoured for your shoulder or their necks.  Of course I found them at Adley Anne's downtown)


The wedding was beautiful and I was a bit sad Richard wasn't there to enjoy it with me.

The decorations were perfect and adorable.

I was thankful we didn't bring the boys 'cause it was pretty classy and Olivia was one of the only 4 kids there (one was the flower girl).

Saw this cute wine glass and Bride wine. 

Livingston was adorable and this was the view from the reception.

Here is the beautiful bride and her dad.

Here is the ceremony....officiated by her baby brother and was short and sweet!

Mrs. Dredge

Me and my little lady

That polka dot dress was one that I bought shortly after finding out she was a girl this summer.  I watched the Gap sales rack like a hawk and scored it for $7! I was hoping she could have worn it to a wedding Richard was in over New Years, however her RSV kept us from going. 

Since she is such a peanut she could still wear it for this wedding. 

I Love this one of my beautiful mom and daughter

Beautiful Aunt Nikki snuggling with Liv

The food was spectacular...it was all appetizers and amazingly delicious. 

Here is a "mashtini" I believe...some sort of squash with ribs.

Nikki and I made sure we tried all of them and we may have stalked the lady with the buffalo nachos.

There was a photo booth and we had a great time taking pictures together.

Liv modeling one of the photo props.

Me and the beautiful bride!

Here is one of Mandy and Liv that I love. 

The wedding was a blast, but we had to sneak out early to get back to bed since we were driving ALL the way back the next day. 

Liv getting all psyched up to be in the car ALL day.

The trip home went incredibly well!

Once we got going we joked about how many stops we would have to make and if you told me we would have only stopped twice I would have laughed at you. 

Olivia made it a few hours, we stopped and ate some lunch, Liv had a MAJOR blowout in the gas station requiring a wardrobe change and then we got going again. 

When we were back on the road we saw a sign saying how far it was to Bismarck and joked about making it there before stopping next. 

Olivia passed out and slept for 3 hours and then was happy in her carseat for a bit longer so we did make it to Bismarck!


Goodbye Montana...

Hello North Dakota

We stopped in Bismarck for a quick bite at Wendy's where we had possibly the worst service ever, gassed up the car and were on the road. 

Thanks to daylight savings we lost an hour and Olivia was ready for bed so she fell asleep after we left and made it all the way home!

I am so thankful my mom was able to go and was willing to drive!

I know I wouldn't have been able to go without her. 

It was so fun and we decided we needed to plan another girls weekend for this summer.

I was also thankful for my loving husband who stayed behind and manned the troops so I could go. 

Logistically, taking 4 small children in the car, driving 12 hours one way for a short weekend didn't seem like a good time to either of us. 

They had a blast with their daddy and probably didn't even notice I was gone. 


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