Bozeman or Bust

Hey, y'all - 

In mid-October, your school was closed for a Thursday and Friday for some kind of teacher workshop / mental health break. Because Sue usually has those days off, I thought it would be fun to plan a little overnight trip somewhere for all of us so we didn't go stir crazy trapped in the house together for a long weekend. 

Let me say a few things about Grandma Sue: she gets that having two kids by yourself can be hard, and she's an excellent sport. For example: midway through your dad's deployment, we discovered that the Buffalo Wild Wings by us has a great happy hour. I was sitting across from you two when Sue sighed and said, "Cheap margaritas. All the food is deep fried. Everyone gets their own electronic device. No one has to talk to anyone else in their family. This is everything right with America." Y'all, I died laughing, and it became our Wednesday tradition. 

I knew that Sue would be up for any adventure I cooked up, so next I thought about what Hagen would like. I knew it had to involve animals, because HOLY GUACAMOLE, Hagen loves wildlife trivia. 

For example:

"Did you know that a moose's antlers weigh as much as the average

8 year-old kid?"

Or here's a minute on the details of the sockeye salmon spawning season he thought I needed to know in the middle of the night. I don't know why he's wearing a t-shirt as a strapless dress, but it's not the strangest part of this video, so let it go.

I swear, sometimes having Hagen in the house is EXACTLY what I imagine it would be like to live with Cliff Clavin:

...And here are a few examples of how Hagen likes to yell "CAMOUFLAGE!!" and then demonstrate how to blend in to your habitat to evade predators:

Keeping all this in mind, I chose Bozeman as our destination, because it's within easy driving distance and is also home to the Museum of the Rockies, which has a kids' wing and a huge dinosaur complex with more fossils than you can shake a stick at. And for Laney, I booked us a room in a nice hotel with an indoor pool, because that's what she cares about. 

Planetarium

I learned nothing, because I don't have a compartment in my brain for Triceratops Minutiae, but I did throw Laney across the pool about eleven hundred times.  

Fun, fun, for everyone. 

Love,

Mom