Yellowstone falling into place!

I have wanted to go to Yellowstone for a long time, and we are finally taking that opportunity! We are leaving later this month to go to a dinosaur museum in Glendive and then stay overnight in Miles City. I am excited because I booked the hotel tonight (with a free breakfast and the all-important POOL) at 15% off because I searched for a deal on the hotel's website. (BTW, why are hotels in the middle-of-nowhere-Montana so dang expensive?! Wait, it's probably the oil boom. Dang oil! We should at least get cheap gas out of that, right?) The next day, we will head to Nye, MT to meet up with 13 other Hostetlers on Kristen's land (too bad she and her hubby won't be there--they are fighting fires in Alaska). Kristen & John live in a camper on their land and just finished building a yert that they will be moving into this winter. I think it's funny that they snowbird to Montana for the winters, but hey, what do I know about living in Alaska?

Kristen's yert in Nye, MT

The following day, we will head into Yellowstone to stay at our awesome vacation rental!
http://www.brooktroutinn.com/brooktrouthome.html
It sleeps 18 in 6 bedrooms and is 3450 sq. ft. I am super pumped to get together and see everyone. It's been since October--I just wish Kristen could make it, too! We will spend the days at Yellowstone seeing the sights and the evenings here hanging out together for some family QT. After that, we will probably go to Wyoming for a few days before heading back to Minot. This is my last trip before the baby, by the way!

Speaking of the baby, she is doing great! She was head down at my appointment last week, although I assume she can still easily move around. She does move a lot, but I mostly notice it when I'm still, which isn't often. A couple of times, Salem has patted my belly and said, "Bebe!", and Adora loves to feel her move. We are working on picking out a name, but haven't found the one yet. I took my glucose test the other day to screen for gestational diabetes, and I didn't get a call saying I needed to take another test, so I assume I passed that.

The basement is coming along well. The electrical inspection today went well--Jake has to fix a couple of things, but it doesn't sound like a really big deal. Plumbing is going ok. It is actually really frustrating sometimes, but it is getting done, which is the main thing. We still need to run cable and insulate and then, hopefully, Lutheran Disaster Response will come over to help hang sheetrock. Baby will be born in 3 months, and I feel like we're making good progress! Almost every night, Jake and I are down there working after the kids go to sleep. It's good to see it paying off.

Daddy Daughter Dance

Jake took Adora to the Daddy Daughter Dance out at the base tonight (Adora laughed so hard when I called it the Father Daughter Dance). She had a great time. They decorated balloons and wands, got tiaras to wear, had a big overstuffed chair to take professional pictures in, and danced the night away. Oh yeah, and they had rolls, mac & cheese, and chicken fingers for dinner. Plus TWO different kinds of cookies for dessert.

Adora wanted this headband and all these clips in her hair.

Here she is posing before the dance in her beautiful dress.

Look at my big skirt!

Daddy on just an hour and a half of sleep. He is working 10:30 p. m.-11:00 a. m. with no sleep. He came home and had to finish the electrical because we had an inspection on it today. He got to sleep an hour and a half before the dance and now he is sleeping another hour before he has to go back to work.

Sweet kiss!

Adora at the dance with the wand she made and the tiara and corsage they gave her.

Her favorite part was the crafts :)

Being silly with Daddy at the dance!

Jake told me that at some point, she was spinning and spinning and crashed into the tables :) For some reason, blogger won't let me upload a video of them dancing.