Thursday, July 10, 2008

Life in Billings Mt

We just had a wonderful road trip over to Billings Montana to visit my best friend Jessica and her husband Steve. I love Billings! I really hope to be moving there soon! We had a good drive, it was a 12 hours, and we got to have Sonic in Post Falls Idaho on our way there! YUMMY!! We leaft on July 3rd and got there around 5pm, just in time to help Jessica celebrate her birthday with a nice BBQ dinner. We also got to see Sarah and Kloey (Jess' sister and niece) and Sarah is pregnant and her belly is looking so cute!






On the 4th we hung out at the pool to cool off since it was over 100 degrees! We first had breakfast at the Cracker Barrell, it was delicious! I had some great country fried steak and eggs! Later that evening we went to Laurel, a town about 15 miles away, to watch "The Biggest Fireworks Show in the Northwest" or so it was called by the announcer. We took a lot of great photos during the day of everyone relaxing. Steve and Ray got a styrofoam cooler with Coor's Light...how ghetto! It was funny! I ate WAY too much that day as well! The firework show was pretty amazing! We got VIP tickets since they knew Dave, the morning show guy on the radio station. We were as close as you could get to the fireworks, which was amazing! I took so many photos that I had to delete a ton. The scary/funny thing though was that when we were watching the fireworks we all started to realize that the fireworks seemed to be getting closer and closer. Oh, they were. The tube had fallen over and some of them landed right in front of us! We all tried to scoot back as fast as we could with lots of screaming! There were two small fires as well. It was a good thing the show was put on by the local fireman, and that they were there to respond quickly! They had a great tribute to all the troops with candles in a part of the show which was great. Of course I cried during that. It was really special too to have Steve there for that part!






On the 5th Jess took us up to Red Lodge, a little town South of Billings. We stopped at a Drive-In that has 'Elvis Shakes' and over 24 flavors of soft serve ice cream. The food was great! Jess got the shake which was chocolate, peanut butter and banana...so good! I had Black Cherry soft serve...I LOVE soft serve! And Ray had a huckleberry shake. We walked around town and went in all the cute little shops! For dinner that night I made lasagna with salad and french bread. It was good but it wasn't my best...:( We then played Scene It Squabble, a game we got for a wedding present. It was a blast! I really recommend it! Come on over and play with us!






On the 6th we took the dogs to the park and let them run around and be crazy! :) We had Pepper (Sarah's dog) since she was going to be driving Kloey to camp all day. So we each had a dog and they had so much fun just being pups! Jess and Ray got eaten alive by mosquitos! When we got home I made a chocolate chip cheesecake. :) YUM! Then after Steve got off of work we drove around Billings, went to dinner and to see Hancock. Steve & Jess showed us all over Billings. It is a lot bigger than we had thought! There was a lot of nice neighborhoods we looked at and saw some great houses for sale! We had dinner at Texas Roadhouse. It was so much food for not much money! Awesome! They have these great rolls with some cinnomon butter.....oh my! I had the ribs and they just fell right off the bone! I just picked up the end of a bone and it came up clean! AMAZING! It was a great movie! I don't usually like super hero movies but I love Will Smith and this one was hilarious!





On the 7th we drove and looked at a couple of houses that we were interested in. One of them as we were driving by the owner waved us on in and gave us a tour of the home! I really loved the house! It was a 4 bedroom 3 bath home with new carpet, roof and kitchen. It had a big fully fenced backyard, perfect for Max! A corner lot with a park directly across the street! All of this for only $239,900!! Can you imagine what that would cost in Washington?? We then went to the mall right near Jess & Steve's apartment. We had lunch at The Pickle Barrell, a small sandwich shop. We also had smoothies at a little place kinda like Emerald City Smoothie. That night for dinner we just ordered pizza and watched Vantage Point.


It was time to go home on the 8th and I sure didn't want to leave. It was so relaxing the whole trip and it felt like everyone in Billings was more friendly and relaxed then here in Renton. I felt bad for Jess since she had morning sickness while we were there. After watching her I don't look forward to that part of pregnancy! I can't wait to go back, I've already started applying for jobs over there!

1 comment:

Left Coast Wifey said...

I miss Sonic and Cracker Barrel! Grew up with both in the midwest, and there are none here!!! =(

Glad to hear you had a great trip out there... though I will be sad to see you go when you go.

I'm assuming your friend Steve is in the military - so, I'd like to say: Thank you Steve for everything you have done for our country! =)

Billings sounds a lot like where we grew up.... mellow, friendly, value family and friends, and cheap homes! =) I don't even wanna think about what that house would cost here... sheesh...!!

LOVE that last pic of Max :)