on the oregon trail: days 4 & 5

I was having too much fun in Bozeman with Sarah to take the time out to blog, so here's the recap of our 4th of July weekend. (Sarah, you may need to make corrections!)

We slept in slightly on Saturday, then we embarked on our amazing hike. We stopped off first at Wheat Montana to get sandwiches, then we went over to The Leaf & Bean for coffee. My Big Sky Latte (caramel, chocolate, and espresso--like a Milky Way) was good, but not as good as the one I'd had at the other Leaf & Bean in town the day before.

We went hiking at Highlight(?). It was a mile-ish trail up to a waterfall, and we were able to walk right up to the falls.

Me and Sarah by the falls.

After returning to Sarah's house, we just hung out for a few hours. One of my favorite things about vacation is how time seems to slow down--in a good way! The afternoon seemed very long and very refreshing. We watched Transformers, which wasn't as stupid as I was expecting, and I halfheartedly blogged (see my last post--that's why I had Steph take over!).

In the evening, we went to Big Sky to see a free concert. I can't remember the band's name, but I really liked them. (Val would like you to know that she "danced" in the front row.) We had to walk across a field to get from the parking lot to the pavilion, and I promptly stepped in a (hidden) mud puddle. So my shoe was wet and muddy all night. Actually, it's still muddy, as I forgot to wash it off when we got back to Sarah's!

We left Big Sky before the concert ended so we could watch the Bozeman fireworks. We ended up watching most of them from the road and got to the fairgrounds just in time for the finale. After a late-night Wendy's run (yes, I know--not local food), we all crashed.

On Sunday, we went to Sarah's church in Belgrade. Afterwards, we went to lunch at La Parrilla. They serve massive burritos, among other things. While Nate only ate 3/4 of his, Val polished hers off in record time!

On our way to Sarah's church.

We spent several hours being lazy--sleeping, reading, talking on the phone. I read the latest Karen Kingsbury book, which I loved. (But then, what Karen Kingsbury book don't I love?) We then ventured out to another coffee place--Wild Joe's. It was good, though not quite as good as The Leaf & Bean. Then we drove around Bozeman, seeing the sights.

On our way back to Sarah's house, her sister called to invite us to watch as she and her kids shot off fireworks. Nate & Steph stayed back to that Steph could work on her college class and Nate could work on his Rubik's cube. We watched some great fireworks and ate some great (local!) ice cream sandwiches. Then Sarah, Kristin, and the four of us sat around in the living room talking and laughing for a long time--I think we were very tired, because everything seemed funny :-)