National Equality March

We spent the weekend in Washington, D.C. where we took part in the National Equality March. We flew to DC with our friend Rikki, Amy, and Sherry. Randi and Matt also joined us. It was one of the coolest, most meaningful experiences of my life. I'm so proud to have been a part of it. We all must continue the fight so that ALL people are treated equally EVERYWHERE.

John Oliver from the Daily Show was there. The segment aired last night Oct 13th.

We marched from the White House to the Capitol.

Here's our Iowa group!

There were so many great signs! There were only a few haters along the way and we peacefully and respectfully drowned them out!

Heading up Pennslyvania Avenue. The estimate of the crowd was 200,000!

We marched right past the White House.

To learn more to donate or to learn how to lobby for equal rights check on http://www.nationalequalitymarch.org/ on the web or on Facebook.

Westward Ho V

We have our National Parks passport book that we like to fill. Another stop we made was at Grant Kohrs Ranch in central Montana. Rain was threatening and we still had a long ways to go, but it was a nice place to get out, stretch, and have yet another ham sandwich!

The ranch has a ranch house and out buildings, cattle, teepees, and a railroad running through it. It is a working ranch.

We peeked in here.

The blacksmith lady made us nail puzzles which kept the kids occupied for a while. Then we piled back in the truck and continued on our way to Idaho where we'd rented a cabin for the Yellowstone portion of our trip.

Westward Ho IV

As we headed south out of Glacier toward Yellowstone (an 8 hour trip!) we stopped at this Indian built Mission. There's not much else to the town. We listened to Clive Cussler's "the Chase". Flathead Lake is featured in the novel and we got to drive right past it!

We love our little off the beaten path guide books!

The murals were gorgeous!

Westward Ho III

In Glacier we spent a night each in two of the historic park lodges. (They were the only 2 of 5 that were open). The Lake McDonald Lodge was smaller - more like a private hunting lodge. It had animal trophies and really cool chandliers. The room we had was teeny tiny. The bathroom was miniscule. The location, however, was great!

The first lodge we stayed at was the massive Glacier Park Lodge.

This is one of the Jammers that you can take on a park tour. It was WAY to expensive for the four of us especially since the Going to the Sun Road wasn't open all the way yet. We later learned the road was 100% open until June 30th!

Nick is reading in the lobby. These logs are 40' tall! You can see the marks from the chains that strapped them to the trains that brought them to the building site.

Catch up and Arts on Main

Marnie and Ryan were up a couple of weekends ago. Marn caught this "whopper:.

Ryan was really good when we were visiting Big Grandpa in the hospital. He and I hung out on the floor and marveled at Grandpa's hospital gown.

Kurt and the kids with the Flying Car from Harry Potter. The rest of the exhibit was cool, too. They're both wearing Tshirts we got on Westward HO. They wear them constantly!

The flower is on my desk.

The painting is above my desk. We got them both at Arts on Main last weekend.

Julie and Julia

Kurt and I went and saw this movie Friday night. I liked it a lot. Julie was a little whiny but she was that way in the book, too. Meryl Streep really nailed Julia Child. I loved Julia's book "My life in France". It was fantastic.

Eat. Pray. Love. is another book I loved. It's being made into a movie starring Julia Roberts. I'm not real excited about her being the lead. She's never a character in movies anymore. She's just Julia Roberts. Tara asked who I'd rather see playing the part. I've been thinking about that and I just don't know. Maybe Michelle Pfeiffer? Have anyone read the book? And again...I read it before Oprah recommended. That's important to me for some reason.

I think I would blog more I if I had images saved to the laptop. Instead they're saved on the desktop. When I'm in the mood to blog it's in the evening and I'm in the bedroom on my laptop.

We had a busy weekend. We went to the movie Friday night. Saturday, we went fishing with Dad, Marnie and Ryan. It only lasted about half an hour but it was fun! We had lunch at the farm then stopped at Grandpa's and watered the trees we'd planted. Too short naps were had and then we went to CR to see the Orchestra Iowa perform Orff's Carmina Burana (look the title up on youtube)(you know the music). It was awesome. It was outdoors on the lawn at Brucemore. It was a perfect Iowa summer night made even better by Brie, french bread, grapes and Moscato d'Asti.

Sunday we went to Jakway Park for their "day". We had homemade chicken and noodles (kinda short on the chicken and the noodles but still yummy) and then we beat it CR (again) for a Kernels game. I hate baseball but friends asked us to go. It was perfect blue sky puffy cloud day to be at the ballpark eating peanuts and hot dogs and cotton candy and beer. I entertained myself by taking pictures (and drinking beer). We came home exhausted. I've had a head ache ever since. I hope we have zero plans next weekend!

West Ward Ho II

Taking a break from hiking at Sundrift Gorge in Glacier:

Nick spotted a big horn sheep:

Swift Current Lodge - It wasn't open yet:

This deer was right next to our truck. Christy spotted it.

There are glaciers under all that snow - this is the first week in June!

West Ward Ho I

Heading toward on of the glaciers



On the Cedar Trail


The glacier is lost in the clouds:

Christy is loving the mountains!

Just beyond the "watch for Grizzlies" sign in West Glacier:

Fishing Fun

Dad and I went fishing to a county pond this morning. I wasn't have any luck and Dad was pulling them out one after another.




I finally got one! It was the biggest of them all until.........




Dad caught this bass!

My nephew

Marnie, Ryan and I went to the zoo on Thursday. Snow leopards are his favorite!




Of course, we had to do the penny squasher! Have to start them young!



Turtles aren't that exciting......Notice the Junior Ranger Vest we got him at Glacier? He LOVES it. He's Park Ranger Casey when he wears it.




Here is is pretending he's sick.....




This is the look we got when we asked if he was going to be good at the Restaurant.......

"Ummmmm.......NO!" was the answer (but he was pretty good!)

Scrap Retreat Weekend

My sister and I and the other sisters went on a scrapbooking retreat weekend at the Craft Cottage over the weekend. It was lots of fun, lots of laugh, and lots of creativity. We've always wanted to go an do that! Now we have...I don't know that we'll need to go again though. It was a long time to sit and do that! The place could have used a couch or something to be able to take a break and relax. I got a lot done! I made a card, altered a hideous picture frame, and made lots of pages. I even got in 5 hours for my Master Gardener volunteer time!

Kurt is still in the Philippines. He's scheduled to get home Wednesday night. I can't wait!

Our Next Big Trip

In October we are going to participate in the National Equality March in Washington, D.C. Rikki, Amy and Rikki's bff Sherry are going too! Another girl and her bf may go. Rikki's cousin, Damien, might take the train from NYC and join us, too. (I doubt it thought because he never shows up for anything).

We've booked our air and we're working on the hotel. It's hard to know where to stay in D.C. especially since we don't have much info about the march yet.

Today we went to gpa's and planted a russian sage. It's so pretty! Things look pretty good out there. My dad has done a great job mowing. Stuff we planted previously is blooming. I wish I had taken my camera. The Pooper is zonked out! He had lots of fun running around and getting dirty. Good thing I'm planning on getting him groomed this week.

Thanks Facebook

Been spending way too much time on Facebook which leads to blog neglecting. (It's a lot easier to upload photos to FB). We've been gone again. This time Kurt and I went on a Baltic Cruise with my parents. We got back the 3rd and I promptly succumbed to sinus infection. Urgent Care opened at 8 am on the 5th. We got there at 8:15 and I was patient #5!

We've also be slaving away on the Dear Birthmother letter and profile. I think we finally got the letter approved. Now we have to pick the photos for it and for the online profile.

Kurt has to go to Indianapolis for work next week. Then the week after that he's off to Manila for 2 weeks.

I've got to volunteer at the Fair next week for my master gardener hours. I've also go a scrap weekend with the sisters coming up and the coochie campout. Summer is FLYING by!

More stuff on the way to our Destination

and the world's largest talking penguin



Stave Church in Moorhead, MN




Near Mandan, ND where Lewis and Clark wintered

At the Lewis and Clark Center

Steele, ND home of the World's Largest Sandhill Crane

Road Side Oddities in Minnesota

The World's Largest Crow in Belgrade, MN

The Sign says it all!

The Vikings landed in Minnesota ya know! The Kensington Runestone.

Dividing his snacks (and candy from Cinqo de Mayo) into daily allotments.

4,117 miles and who knows how many $$ later....

We had a great vacation! There was just enough family time. It went sooooo much better than expected! We had breakfast at the hotel, sandwiches for lunch and dinner out. Everyone had a snack box and no one ran out!

We visited Glacier, Yellowstone, followed the Lewis and Clark Voyage of Discovery (although it was deemed too boring to listen to), the Tetons (shrouded in clouds), Mt Rushmore, the Badlands, Wall Drug and many little points in between!

The kids' money lasted longer than I thought it would. I'm surprised there's a rock left to purchase in the West.

We got to visit with Kurt's parents on our way home so that was a bonus ending to our journey.

HOme again!

We are back from family vacation out west. We are exhausted. We have no food and no clean clothes!

Stay tuned!