Let Me Tell You A Story About Montana

Hello all. Well, we made it back from Montana and it's been slow going here because both Owen and I have been sick like dog. Luckily, we're both feeling a little better and Carrie can finally stop shouldering sick baby night shifts by herself (huge thanks to Carrie, by the way).

So, we gave a bit of an update of the trip the other day, but here's how it all went down:

We flew into Great Falls Sunday the 21st. Owen was a handful on the plane, but we survived and were in good spirits when we were greeted at the airport by Ron and Debby who were accompanied by -20 degree weather.

We made our way to Carrie's aunt Georgia's house where we stayed the whole trip.


Owen met his great-aunt Georgia (Debby's sister) for the first time and I have to say, those two were bosom buddies from the get go.

We made the 3 block journey (you have to love Montana) from Georgia's to Ron's parents' place where we were greeted by a welcoming party.


Carrie's uncle Scott and his wife Kelly have five girls and this is the first time they met Owen. He was a little overwhelmed by all the attention at first, but he decided rather quickly that having the attention of a bunch of girls isn't such a bad thing.


Owen got to meet great grandpa and grandma Cooper for the first time. It was unfortunate that everyone on this trip was sick at one point or another (except Carrie, oddly enough), even these guys, so they felt compelled to keep their distance. This photo was on Christmas day (more on that later) and Jerry & Billie Jo couldn't help but to sneak in a squeeze.


Needless to say, Ron was in heaven with the two grandkids at his side for a week. I'm really happy that we got to spend a week with both Carrie's immediate and extended family. That's the type of thing that really doesn't happen on its own and I'm thankful for everyone who put in the effort to make it work out.

Ron and Debby, along with CJ, Alexis and Bella, drove for 15 and 14 hours respectively coming and going on this trip. They beat exceptionally nasty weather both ways by a matter of hours and I'm going to have to nominate Bella as the surprise rock star of the trip. She was sick pretty much the whole time she was in Montana, but she was great for these long drives and, under the circumstances, pretty darned good over there.

All-in-all, we had a wonderful time getting to see familiar faces and familiarizing ourselves with new ones. We're very happy that just about all of Owen's relatives have met him in person at such a young age so now people can say, "I met you when you were just a baby." To which Owen will be able to reply, "Uh-huh, how are we related again?"

So, we're back, we're on the mend, and we're going to be back at this as regular. We're kicking around a little formatting chang-a-roonie, so that may or may not be happening sometime soon.

It's good to be back.

Contest Winner:

Thank you for all the entries we recieved, but there was a clear winner to our annual contest. Kevin, in a somewhat unlikely turn of events, wins this holiday season's Sexiest Person Eating A Summer Sausage award. I think it's the heroin-shiek look, which, as we all know, is so tough to pull off without actually doing heroin.