first true vacation ever / part I:

we left sherwood at 6 am monday morning and the skies were sunny and beautiful! we sped across oregon toward pendelton, crossed the columbia river over to washington, worked our way up to spokane, entered and quickly exited the top of idaho, and sat down for a fabulous pizza dinner in missoula, montana. (biga pizza - a killer homemade pie with toasted walnuts, sweet potatoes, bacon {local, for dan...i held out as long as i could}, and a bbq-chipotle sauce, nicely toasted in a brick oven.) we returned to the car for a short trip to butte, where we checked into a hotel and rested our weary bodies in a hot tub. ;)

we scheduled some extra time in butte at the last minute, because we HAD to see some things, but the following morning we awoke to a winter storm and had to high-tail it through the mountains before we were stranded. our dreams of seeing the berkeley pit and the historic brothel were dashed! dan weathered the storm while i slept on our way to billings, where we made a short stop to eat at grains of montana (another pizza...homemade dough, sundried tomatoes, peppers, onions, and eggplant {that sounds more vegetarian, huh?}) by ten o'clock that evening, we were eating dinner at wonder bar brewery in casper, wyoming, where ironically dan DIDN'T EVEN TRY one of their brews.

then we crashed. big time. 

today, we made it to castle rock, denver, where we played and had dinner with ryan, sarah, lily, and anna! sarah is one of my childhood best friends and we had not seen her, ryan, and lily since our drive out to oregon when we moved (and sarah was only pregnant with anna!) now. here it is, past midnight and we're finally going to bed. sarah and i did as much catching up as possible, while dan and ryan talked politics and watched hockey.

not a bad start for a spur of the moment vacation!

so much has been going on the past three weeks, and i have hardly posted. after three days without the internet, i'm happy to be "in touch" again. i couldn't go to sleep tonight without posting, and there is certainly more to come. hopefully photos, too!

;) xoxo