Billings Trip (Part One)

Story told by: Lainey

We got to meet Grandma and Grandpa in Billings, Montana for a week! What a blast!

We left last Friday after Daddy got done with work, and drove a few hours to camp in St. Regis, Montana. We got up early the next morning, had a quick breakfast of muffins and bananas, and got back on the road.

A couple hours into our drive on Saturday, Henry threw up everywhere. I got some on me, it went over the seat onto Mommy’s back, covered Henry, and filled Mommy’s diaper bag that was sitting below Henry’s feet. He had been complaining about his tummy hurting since the previous night, but Mommy and Daddy thought he just ate something with egg in it. Turns out the poor guy wasn’t feeling well. After a side-of-the-highway clean-up, we continued on our way, and thank goodness, no more throwing up for Henry!

After a long day of driving, we arrived at the KOA campground in Billings. First order of business was to take apart Henry’s car seat so we could wash it. Unfortunately while doing this, Daddy threw out his back, and had trouble moving for the next couple of days.

Soon after we arrived, Grandma and Grandpa arrived!! And Grandma quickly pulled out her grandma bag!

Snuggles with Grandpa!

After a good night of sleep in our tent, we were ready for another day! We pretty much just used our tent for sleeping, but spent most of our time at Grandma and Grandpa’s campsite.

Brody is helping Daddy while he stretches out his back.

The KOA we’re staying at is the first ever KOA! Pretty cool!

We hit up the pool right away that morning!

Unfortunately Grandpa wasn’t feeling very well on Sunday morning, so he spent lots of time resting, and I kept him company as often as I could.

While Daddy remained immobile, and Brody and Grandpa took a nap, we went mini-golfing with Mommy and Grandma.

It was our first time mini-golfing, and we really loved it!

Grandpa came out to enjoy an ice cream treat with us.

On our first night there, the adults sat outside to play games while we went to bed in the tent. And the BUGS. WERE. NUTS. Unlike anything we’ve ever seen! So Grandma and Grandpa purchased this netted canopy to use for the rest of the trip.

Easily the best purchase of the trip!!

The KOA has bikes for rent, so Grandma and Grandpa rented them for us several times this trip. They were a little tricky at first, but before long, we were zooming around the park.

The KOA serves ice cream in the evenings, so after riding bikes we got a treat!

On Monday morning we went to Pictograph Cave State Park! We started in the visitor center, but after being in there for five minutes, the boys were about to break everything, so we quickly went outside.

Before hiking up to the caves, Grandma gave us some fun bug catchers.

Henry caught a bug right away!

Grandpa was starting to feel worse, so he waited in the car while we went on our hike.

When we got to the caves, Grandma pulled out some flashlights we used to investigate the pictographs.

As usual, Brody didn’t want to cooperate with anything. Daddy was trying to take a picture, and here is Brody being oh-so-helpful.

As you can tell, Brody LOVED the hike.

Mommy ended up carrying him for the last half of the hike.

After the hike, Grandpa really wasn’t feeling well, so Grandma took him to the hospital to get checked out. We went to a delicious cider house to grab some lunch.

The weather was extremely hot all week, so after lunch we took some time to cool off in the camper AC. We watched a movie while Brody napped.

Meanwhile, after lots of waiting and tests in the hospital, Grandpa eventually found out he had an E. coli infection. Oh, boy! Based on the timeline, he somehow picked it up in Illinois before leaving on this trip. Grandpa had to spend three days/two nights in the hospital to recover from the infection. It can be very serious if left untreated, so we’re really glad for good care in the hospital, but we were bummed to miss out on time with him!

Grandma spent the day with Grandpa while he got checked into the hospital, so we got in some pool time.

Then we found a pizza place for dinner, and Daddy had a uniquely-named beer.

Daddy took a picture of Mommy and Henry. Henry chose to make his “princess face.”

The next day Grandma gave us our giant bug nets, and we went on hunts for butterflies.

Mommy took time one day to do some laundry, and Brody was her helper (and brought his net to catch any laundry bugs).

I came running in to show Mommy the moth I caught!

While Brody took a nap, I went with Grandma to visit Grandpa at the hospital, Henry watched a movie, and Mommy and Daddy got to sit outside and read their books. Perfect!