Cruisin’-Day 2

Long Beach: Day 2 found us at Redondo Beach and Huntington Beach. Elizabeth loved it! She was so excited about finding tiny sea shells, the washed up seaweed pods and building sand castles!

 

  

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We then took a drive along the coast until we made it to Seal Beach; a recommended fun spot with beach front shopping and restaurants.

   

     

  

After some souvenir shopping and some delicious food, we moved on to Huntington Beach. I cannot talk about going to Huntington Beach without mentioning that there was a security gate where we had to pay…wait for it…$10 to get in…to the beach…WHAT??? I think he probably knew we were tourists.

We had a lot of fun seeing the coastal plants and flowers, watched some sea birds follow the surf in and out (they were hilarious but I can’t find my video) and got buzzed by a couple of pelicans. All in all, the tour of beaches was a lot of fun!

Cruisin’-Day 1

I’m just going to pretend that I’ve been SO busy having a life that I haven’t had a chance to blog since January.  Well, some of that’s true.  We are usually busy but it’s not always that exciting.  However, I’m not here to talk about the boring stuff like dishes, laundry and taxiing my daughter around!

As I mentioned several months ago, we went on a cruise along the California coast last October. This was our first official family vacation but hopefully not our last.  Because we were gone for nine days, my plan is to highlight each day our trip and although technically the cruise was only seven days, we arrived in Long Beach a couple days early to check out the sites.

  This was Elizabeth’s first time flying. She was very excited!

 

After we arrived in Long Beach and settled in at our motel, Elizabeth and Steve decided  it was time for a swim.  Little did we know, that’s all they’d be doing for the next nine days :)

Once dry, we packed up our rental car and headed to Medieval Times…

  …where we watched a fantastic show…

 

… ate delicious food with our fingers…

… and Elizabeth fell in love with the Red Knight after being crowned Queen of the Tournament :)

 

Although this was our first “knight” in California, we could have left feeling like the trip was a success. Medieval Times was awesome, the actors were hilarious and it was well worth the near-death driving experience we encountered just to get there :)

Miss me?

In deciding to start back up with my blog, I realized that it's been 11 months since my last post.  Seriously, 11 months.  I know everyone says this but SO much has happened since then.  First of all, my blog, although named Made in Montana, is now back in Idaho.  Rather than confuse people with facts, my blog shall remain Made in Montana.  After all, I did grow up there.  Second, my best friend, Karen in Progress, had her first baby who is cute and amazing and so very different from my own pink bundle of joy.  And third, my family and I went on our first vacation; a cruise along the California coast.  These are just a few of the tasty morsels you have to look forward to in the coming months.  I apologize for the lengthy hiatus but look forward to sharing again.  And, HELLO, now there's Pinterest!!!

Kiss Me!

Elizabeth has begun showing an interest in cooking lately, especially baking, so we've made dinner together a few times this week.  Last night she helped me by coating the pork chops with Ritz crackers and Parmesan cheese then she made Peanut Butter Blossoms for dessert.

 

YUM!!

Valentine's Party

As most of you are aware, last Tuesday was Valentine's Day and in true elementary school fashion there was a sugar-laced party.  Also note that February was "I Love to Read" month and because the students reached their goal, they were allowed to dress in Hawaiian/Aloha clothes for the day as well.  I know, a Hawaiian Valentine's Day...I thought it was weird too.

 Elizabeth's version of Hawaiian garb :)

                   The card-catchers!  Here's Elizabeth's------>

A little crafty craft before the sugar coma.

Self-decorated sugar cookies with extra sugar on top!

Elizabeth's Valentine haul!

Above left: The principal, Mrs. Deis.                                                 Above right: parent volunteers.  

Above center: kids decorating cookies.

The kids all seemed to have a good time and before long the sugar started to kick in...

just in time to go home!

Knotty Animals

Last summer during one of our day trips we discovered these creatures along the main street of Red Lodge.  According to my one minute of research, these creatures were made from fallen Rocky Mountain Junipers gathered at the base of the Beartooth Mountain Range.

As you can see from the last photo, the name of the business is Rocky Fork Juniper.  After visiting their website, www.rockyforkjuniper.com, I discovered some of the other goodies that they make including furniture, mantels and this planter that I thought was neat...

Odd how the creative power at once brings the whole universe to order. 

                                                                               -Virginia Woolf

Cheery

Elizabeth attended her first cheer leading game last Saturday.  I did my best with the photos but my camera uses two batteries per picture so this is the best I could do!  

The girls did really great despite several coaches calling in sick that day leaving the squads with substitutes who weren't quite prepared resulting in several looks of confusion and some misplaced poms.  Oh well...

And now...the videos!!