Livin' the Montana life

Here we are in Red Lodge!! I finally arrived after enduring the WORST plane experience of my life. It started on the 4.5 hour flight from Raleigh to Salt Lake City. I was in the very back of the plane stuck next to a mom and her two year old son who had to sit on her lap the entire time. He kept kicking me or touching me every few seconds, cried at least six times and pushed the volume button on my inflight movie several times almost causing me early hearing loss. In Salt Lake I thought I had time to grab a Starbucks so I ordered my favorite Peppermint Mocha Twist, paid and then realized I had ten minutes until take off. I ran to the gate a short way away to make sure I had time to wait for my drink and discovered they were closing the gate doors in one minute. I had to abandon my drink and found I was sitting directly in front of two young boys who enjoyed singing annoying Christmas songs and kicking the seat.

FINALLY we landed and Kate and Anna picked me up from the airport, they were REALLY excited to see me and even brought presents! Kate was so excited about the presents that in every picture we took she made sure the gift bag was prominently displayed. Finally their waiting paid off and I arrived!

As we waited for my luggage we caught up on everything we had missed in each other’s lives over the past six months…it took about 3 minutes so we had to stand around in silence for the next 35 minutes until my bag came.

We got in the car, there was barely any room for me with all the luggage but I managed to squeeze in, and I got to open my presents!!!!! I got Ritter Sport chocolate from Germany, lip gloss, beauty face masks and mascara from Kate (is she trying to tell me something?? I think she just wants to borrow it from me later) and Kate’s mom made me mittens and a scarf!

Then we swung by Burger King so Kate could check out who was working, she desperately wanted to relive our last day in Germany that was spent with her ogling men at the BK in the Berlin Airport while Anna and I fended them off. We did find one but since we were going through the drive-thru there wasn’t enough time for a number exchange. He gazed longingly at her as we drove off.

However, not all was lost, when we stopped to get gas we found these Montana truck drivers STARING at us! And they wouldn’t stop! Seriously, they let anyone drive in this state. Gas is only $1.37 here!

Then we drove to Red Lodge, Anna educated us on the latest “hip hop” music and were greeted by Jim, Mary and the Olson’s new puppy, Charlie! He is so cute, we are currently trying to get him to go up the stairs but he is afraid because of the open spaces between them.

(The following pictures of Charlie are from this past summer):

I hadn’t seen the completed cabin yet and it looks amazing! It is so different from two years ago when all we had were cots to sleep on and a toaster. After a dinner of chili and watching the satellite TV, Kate and I hit the town and stopped by our favorite bar, the Snow Creek, and saw some old friends. Tonight we are having a fabulous FONDUE PARTY so I’ll take pictures of that and the cabin tonight and put them up next time.