A Moment To Myself

We made it safely to Montana on Thursday evening...and as I expected, it's been go-go-go all weekend!  But it's Monday morning now, and thanks to $200 worth of big fireworks that the other uncle brought, and $25 worth of little fireworks that my 7-year old nephew bought with is hard-earned money from pulling weeds on the ranch, it appears that everyone else is sleeping in....so I finally have a quiet moment to myself.

We've been having a great time, albeit it a bit busy.  This little town of 500 has probably tripled in size (at least!) for their Centennial Celebration.  My husband got to reconnect with some of his old high school friends, and I think that he has really enjoyed showing off his pregnant wife.  As soon as we saw his sisters and his mom, they each rubbed my belly.  I was totally expecting his mom to do so, but I was a bit surprised at his sisters.  Other than that, I think that there was only one other belly rub from a stranger (well, "stranger" to me..."family friend" to everyone else).  But I willingly offered to let my nieces feel our Baby Girl's kicks--when my 10-year old niece felt it, her (already huge and beautiful) eyes met mine, and I could tell that she truly comprehended the significance of the sensation when she said "that's awesome!".  The 5-year old was surprised and elated, and asks me multiple times throughout the day if I've felt her kick yet, hoping to get the chance to feel it again.  And then at lunch, the topic of babies came up, and she informed us all that babies come out of the mommy's belly button--to which her mom (the doctor) quickly chimed in "yep...that's where they come from" (apparently they haven't had "the talk" yet).

Today we head to the cabin that we rented for my mother-in-law as a Christmas gift, and then my husband and I will hit the road from there for our return trip.  I felt really good (physically) on the way up, so I'm hoping to feel just as good on the way home.  We did end up stopping at some pretty nasty bathrooms, so I'm hoping that we can avoid those on the return trip.  It hasn't been quite the "relaxing vacation" that we envisioned, but it has definitely been good.

Today's blessing is the chance to go explore the ranch this morning.  They got crazy amounts of rain this spring (and even last night after the fireworks), so everything is so green and absolutely beautiful.  I absolutely love this area, and look forward to retiring here with my husband someday.