Montana Vacation

Brace yourselves this is a long post but I wanted to tell all about what happened in Montana. As most of you know by now our vacation to Montana was not just a vacation for us but a surprise party for my mother and father in laws 60th wedding anniversary! It took months of planning by the entire family and the surprise was a complete and total success.

We arrived in Bridger on Thursday the 18th, Mom and Dad knew that Kip and I were going to be taking them to Big Sky ski resort for the weekend to visit Kodi and her boyfriend Walt. We stopped in Bozeman to get groceries for the homemade lasagna dinner that I was making that night. Kip is keeping dad busy picking out deserts and mom is with me doing the rest of the shopping. I know I’m making dinner for 15, she thinks I’m making dinner for 5-6. She thought I had lost my mind with the amounts of everything I was buying including drinks. I told her that Kodi had asked me to make an extra lasagna to freeze and that I was planning on leaving any left over snacks and drinks with the kids as well. She bought it hook line and sinker! Kodi had gotten us a KILLER deal on two condo’s at Big Sky. They each had 3 floors, 4 bedrooms and we counted enough beds in each condo to sleep 15! Remember, they think just the 4 of us are sleeping in the condo (and have no clue the rest of the family is gathering over at the a second condo) so they are again taken off guard by why we needed such a HUGE place.

We explained that we wanted a room with a hot tub and this condo was such a great deal and did have the hot tub… again… they bought it. While I kept mom distracted helping me make my sauce for the lasagna Kip was upstairs texting and talking out the window to the rest of the family while we waited for the last of them to arrive . Then they all came wondering through the front door, Jean stood up right away as the first of the troops walked in however it took awhile for Earle to realize all of those people shouldn’t be there! Then Kip took the floor announced to the bewildered parents that we were all really there to celebrate there 60th Anniversary and that Kay and Tom would be there later. There were happy tears everywhere and we spent many hours going over all of the “stories” we all had to tell Jean and Earle to pull this party off. Kay and Tom arrived later which and capped off the evening for a now mentally exhausted Earle and Jean. For those of you wondering, the lasagna was a huge success in fact Kodi put in an order for another one when she is here for Halloween.

The next day Kay and Tom headed up the cast of chef’s for that nights meal which was 3 Prime Rib. Lori also spent most of the day cooking with Kay and Tom ( I’m going to be doing a separate write up soon in the blog about Kay and Tom’s web site and how they are BBQ champions). The kids had gone golfing and site seeing in Big Sky while the adults were visiting, cooking and testing the wine LOL. After dinner we had a champagne toast and took the parents downstairs to surprise them with one more thing… a slide show of their 60 years together, put to music along with a top 10 list of why dad parks his caps so high on his head LOL. But first… we had to show the finalists of the “Bed Head” contest and announce the winner. Kip had told everyone the night before to take pictures of themselves first thing in the morning and we would elect the best Bed Head. He had purchased a truly Ugly mustard yellow hat to present to the winner so they could cover there bed heads. Kirk judged the contest as it was determined that his crew cut wasn’t going to change be much by the morning time! Little did Kip know when he bought that ugly hat that HE would win it in the contest! Yes folks, the secret is out, My gorgeous husband has the best worst hair in the mornings EVER. It makes me chuckle every day but he usually covers it with a hat before leaving the bedroom. Few have seen the likes of his hair do’s but the world will see it now LOL.

After all of the slide shows and contest we went upstairs for the cake cutting and enjoyed the rest of the night reminiscing. It was such a great time and we hated to leave that next day especially those that we won’t be seeing again until next year. After we returned to Bridger Kip and I took a trip over the Beartooth pass to Cooke City. We can’t go to Montana and not take that trip at least once, we usually take it multiple times as it is there that we do most of the camping and fishing during our normal trips to Montana. It was such a clear day we got some really beautiful pictures of Pilot and Index Peaks and of course I had to have my picture taken with the now famous Cooke City Bear! Kip was able to spend Thursday with Kolter fishing, they didn’t catch any fish but for Kip it was all about spending time with his son.

Those that could join us gathered in Billlings for dinner the night before we left. It has become a tradition to gather family and friends for one last hurrah before leaving town. As usual we laughed during dinner and as always cried when we left. Its always so hard to say goodbye they are such a wonderful group of people. Jean and Earle have truly done a magnificent job raising this family to be the most kind, generous, understanding and loving group of people I have ever had the honor of knowing… We love you all! Enjoy the slide show, it covers all of the events I described above and then of course a second slide show that is the Bed Head finalist and winners!