Parental Visitation

My parents had mentioned they were going to come visit us sometime here as soon as we told them we were moving.  That time has now come and gone.  So sad.  But it was awesome.  We had such a good time while they were here.  They arrived on Saturday, August 31.  When we were in Red Lodge for our anniversary, we drove along the Beartooth Highway a couple times and LOVED it.  We both knew my parents would love it too so we recommended they take the scenic route.  So they left Friday and got here Saturday and both said it was worth the extra hours.  I didn't doubt it would be :)
Saturday was pretty mellow and short - they didn't get in till about 8.  But we had a yummy dinner and chatted until they were ready to crash.  Sunday was a church, nice dinner, relax, game type of day. 

Good ol' Mexican Train.  One of Tanner's favorites.  Lucky for him he won 2 out of the 3 times we played. 

Monday was Labor Day and after the boys went golfing, we all went to the lake with our dogs and friends - the Merkley's, Althoff's and Andelin's.  It was a glorious day.  The water was so warm.  We were practically the only ones who didn't wear our swimsuits.  Don't know what we were thinking.  It was pretty hot out and the water felt so good, we ended up not being able to resist the temptation and then it just didn't matter we didn't have suits!

The dogs were in absolute heaven.  Samson would not stop playing fetch in the water. We are both convinced he'd drown before stopping. 

The next couple days were really mellow again.  Tanner had to work all week.  I came down with a stupid cold.  And we like relaxing :) Tuesday was the grand Williston tour.  It was sad because my mom LOVES quilting and I was excited to show her Williston's own quilt shop.  But apparently it went out of business and it's last day was the Saturday they got here.  Bummer.  We also did some reading and napping and talking and crafting.  My mom brought up a cross stitch project I had started back in high school and I got kind of back into that.  I was a cross stitching fool in high school.  Betcha didn't know that about me. 
Merkley's had us over for dinner on Wednesday.  Delicious pulled pork sandwiches and I made an awesome cheesecake.  And we played games.  Perfect evening.  My parents were so happy to put names to faces up here.  And they were great sports meeting everyone.  They love that kind of stuff cause they are awesome like that.  Friday we actually got motivated to leave the house :)  We went and hit a bucket of balls.  My mom even got into it too :)  And messed around on the putting green.

And to complete the Williston experience, we needed a trip to the local bowling alley :)

 

 Our final hoo-raw was a trip to magical Medora, North Dakota's number one tourist attraction :)  We left early Saturday morning.  It was supposed to be pretty rainy all weekend so we were quite concerned how that was going to play in with our hiking and musical attending adventures.  First we wandered around town and saw the sights and went to lunch.  Weather was perfect. Cool and overcast and slightly sprinkly.

Then we headed into Theodore Roosevelt National Park and drove around the whole park and did some of the smaller hikes along the way.  Again - weather was PERFECT.  Last time T and I were there it was SOOO hot and we couldn't even enjoy it that much.  It was gorgeous and lovely and so much fun.  It started getting ugly right as we were leaving.

Just enjoyin' a fig newton

Competitive boys trying to throw rocks across the river...

When we got back to the hotel (we stayed in the fancier Rough Riders Hotel - so nice!), it started POURING.  Not looking good for the musical.  We still got on our stuff and headed to the pitchfork fondue.  It seemed to clear up while we were there.  But then waiting in line for food, it started dumping like crazy.  Yikes.

 Not the classiest food - but the steak deep fried with a pitchfork actually turns out pretty good.  It's a tasty meal and an enjoyable experience.  Then after we were done it cleared up a bit.  So we wandered around and waited for the musical to start or it to start pouring again.  Spoiler alert - it didn't rain again.  Major answers to prayers!  I really really wanted my parents to get to see it, especially since we had driven there and paid and everything.  Not that it's that phenomenal...but still.  I just wanted it to work out real bad.  And it did.  And we were extremely grateful!

 Heading down the escalator...

The musical was totally different from when we saw it last year, which was nice.  Not enough testosterone from the guys in the musical, but I guess what do you expect.  It was fun.  My parents really liked it, and the half time show - Cirque Zuma Zuma was SO cool!  African acrobatics and such.  Pretty amazing.  I would have rather watched that the whole time ;)

This chic was INSANE.  Like a rubber band or something else that isn't human.  So cool!

Overall, very fun.  And then we drove back early on Sunday for Tanner to go to his meetings and we had a nice dinner and played some games and then that was the end.  I miss them already. It's nice having them around and it was nice to hang out without the chaos of what is usually our trips home.  I even think they had fun!  My dad said they would for sure come back!  The only bad thing that happened is on a walk at my favorite place here, we came back to shattered out passenger windows in Tanner's truck.  Not cool.  But overall it could have been a lot worse had there been anything valuable in there.  And we scored some sweet pretzels from the most thoughtful person I know...

(one other thing that happened that Tanner was SUPER happy about...his uncle inherited him a sweet record player that my parents delivered.  Tanner has tons of vinyl and loves it so having a big sweet player that's easily accessible is a very happy time for him.  Thanks to them for helping bring it up and get it set up in our spacious abode!)