olsen family: Montana trip

so we headed out monday morning of last week to go see my mother in law (tina) at 4 a.m. we were soooo tired and were totally not looking forward to the 15 hour trip in a cramped car with a 2 month old baby. things started out okay. we both had nice big mugs full of coffee that we were chugging trying to give ourselves a good boost of energy. hours past by SOOOO slow and tyler and i were both getting tired fast. it seemed like the day was never going to end. we had to make a lot of stops for laylee feedings and such. it put us behind a lot and both ty and i were getting severely frustrated. as most of you know my husband struggles with classic lead foot problems (which gets worse when he's tired and or frustrated.) as fate would have it, we got pulled over in casper, wy. the police officer had clocked us going 15 over and wrote us a citation for $150. needless to say that was NOT what we needed after already having driven 9 hours. the tension was pretty thick after that between tyler and i and we thought it best to just focus on getting us there safely. over all laylee was a TOTAL trooper! she slept a good portion of the way and only fussed when she was hungry or dirty.

sweet dreams

monkey face!

sunrise on our way out of town

at this point in our trip the sun was going down and we were realizing that the trip was going to get alot harder. we couldn't see road signs (not that there were many around to be read anyway) and we felt like we were getting more and more turned around. laylee must have felt the tension because she became very fussy and insecure. she had an other worldly death grip on my finger.

as we approached circle (the nearest podunk town to wolf point) we got totally lost. we drove for what felt like forever! and to make matters worse, we were trying to contact tylers mother to make sure we were headed in the right direction... but neither of us had ANY cell service. to make a long story longer, we FINALLY made it to wolf point.. and can i just say that it is the smallest middle of no where town i have ever been in... and ty and i live in the very small town of la jara colorado (which for those of you who haven't been there consists of a family dollar, two liquor stores, a gas station, a small grocery store and a laundromat). tina was SO excited to see us and meet baby laylee she met us outside of the house and immediately gave us all big hugs and kisses. completely exhausted, we dragged our bare nessecities into the house and set up shop in the spare bedroom mom and tobin had prepared for us. the three of us stayed up for a few and caught up while mom enjoyed holding her grand baby for the first time.

tyler and i turned in for the night at about 1 a.m. with little baby laylee snuggled between us. we all slept well. laylee only woke us up once that night to eat. when she woke up again at 7 a.m. nana tina was more than happy to take her off our hands so we could catch up on some much needed sleep. tyler and i slept peacefully and baby free till' 1 in the afternoon. we got up, took much needed showers and got ready for the day. mom had to work so we packed laylee in the car and decided to go check out the town of wolf point, Montana (which took all of about 10 minutes). we visited mom at work and showed off our cute little laylee then hit up a few local stores (laylee slept the whole time)

when we got home we all laid back and just took some time to really relax and recover from our crazy hellacious drive. we set up the baby swing and let laylee spend a little fun time in a familiar place while ty and i watched t.v. and i worked on my hats.

later that night when tobin and mom both got home from work, they got to really spend some quality time with laylee. tobin even got brave enough and changed a dirty diaper!

we passed out early that night after we put laylee down to sleep in her swing. mom had the day off the next morning and told ty and i that she wanted to take us down to see the museum and some historical sights. we packed up and left the house around 10 a.m. and made the 45 minute drive to the fish hatchery. we weren't sure if they were closed or it was just super boring but we spent just a few short minutes walking around and looking at the fish they had stuffed and placed behind a glass sheet with information on all the different kinds of fish they hatch. we headed off to the museum (which was actually REALLY cool.) laylee had alot of fun looking at all the different sights.

after a LONG day out seeing the sights laylee was exhausted and totally ready for bed. we made her a nice big warm bottle and she passed right out on her daddy's lap.

after baby laylee was resting, tina suggested tyler and i go out on the town and have a date night since we hadn't really been on one since we brought the baby home. tina dolled me up and tyler and i headed out to the elk lodge. we listened to music and hung out with a few of mom's friends. over all the night turned out okay and it was great to spend some alone time with ty and blow off a little steam.

the next morning tyler and i slept in because we had made plans with tina and tobin to go out and have a good time before our trip was over.the day flew by and before we knew it we were getting ready to go to stockman's bar (where tina bartends). it was karaoke night and every one was having a blast singing tunes to all there favorite songs. tina asked some one to sing "simple man" (her song to tyler) and drug ty onto the dance floor for a memorable mother / son slow dance. it was so sweet to watch and i couldn't help but think "that's why i married that man." he has always so good to his mother. i LOVE that about him.

tyler and i enjoyed a few dances together before the night was over

the next morning we were all pretty zonked, so we took turn napping with little laylee

later that day when we were all feeling a little more alive, we gave laylee a bath. she seemed to enjoy it alot.

after laylees bath we got dressed and ready to take pictures. mom had really wanted some nice family pictures of all of us together before we left. heres the whole crew!

when family photos were done we finnished packing everything up so we could make the long trip from montana to salt lake city the next morning. we woke up at 5 a.m. got our things together and enjoyed a hot cup of coffee with mom. we gave eachother hugs and kisses and prepared to say goodbye