One thing that has truly been difficult for us because we lived overseas for so many years was being so far away from our family. It was nicer and closer when we lived in Europe, of course, but still we didn't exactly make it a habit to visit our parents for every major holiday. Ever since we moved to the states we had been planning a big trip out west to see grandparents/parents/cousins and finally we made time and had enough days off (since Robert had no paid time off the first two years except holidays) for us all to go to Montana! We were excited for over six months because that's when I had to buy tickets to get the best deal.
We were having our Watson family reunion in Rexburg, Idaho this year, so we flew into Salt Lake City, UT before driving up north to Idaho and then up to Montana. We stayed one night with our great friends, the Farnsworths. It was super fun to catch up with them! We didn't choose them just because their house was close-ish to the airport and because it was enormous and newly built(yes, we did) but because it is great to keep up with our relationships from the old military days and kind of remind our kids that they have always had close people near them even when we were so far away from family.
We didn't have much time in SLC area at all as we were supposed to start driving to Idaho right after lunch. First thing in the morning, though, we headed to Sandy where Grandpa Holtkamp and his wife Marion are staying. Although Katya and I visited them in April on our impromptu trip to UT, we wanted to make sure Robert and the boys would also get a chance to see them before it's too late.
Sadly, we don't know when will be the next time we see Grandpa but we do hope that memories like these will live in our kids minds forever.
From Utah, we drove about three hours north to Rexburg to meet up with the rest of the Watsons for a three day party-reunion. I'll write about that in a separate post.
And on Saturday, July 28th, we drove out of Rexburg further north to Fairfield, Montana--the place where Robert grew up and lived till he was fourteen years old! It was Mark's first visit to Fairfield EVER. Katya and Alex had been there once eleven years prior, so forEVER ago.
First and foremost, we wanted to see Robert's Grandma. This is Grandma Watson. She is a woman of incredible energy even at her 90 something. She lives on her own in her house but really close to Robert's dad and a whole bunch of other family. She played a very important part in Robert's childhood as he and his siblings frequently hang out at grandma's house and spend a lot of time with her.
We also got to put our thumb prints on her huge family tree. She has these two pieces of papers in her dining room where, if you are a relative, you get to "stamp" your place on the family tree. Kids liked that.
Back on the farm (a few minutes drive from central Fairfield), is where Robert's dad and Linda live now. Although we had just a few days to spend with them, we had a great time. It was sort of surreal almost to be so faraway from the hustle and bustle of our normal life with the kids' activities and all the cooking.
One morning, Dad, Robert and the kids set up a real teepee! This is the BEFORE picture-haha.
That same morning, I needed to get some exercise in, so I went speed walking down the road that goes by the farm. My views were gorgeous! I mean, waking up to this in the summer months is just amazing!
My music list was the best, humidity was low, I was pretty much frolicking, not really speed walking and then SUDDENLY-----Dot--Dot--Dot---
I saw a snake!
This is very zoomed in, of course! But it was really-really long! At least it seemed to me.
I was about half a mile away from the house, so I texted the picture to Robert and he said that the snake was just fine. It's a good thing I am not crazy scared of snakes (but I AM scared of rodents). So I took another picture of her in the gutter and hoped she would just be faster than me and slither quickly away.
That was the culminating point of my story...there is nothing more to it...kind of a let down, BUT it's still pretty cool that I was on my own, saw a snake and didn't scream. Yep.
On July 30th, we celebrated Linda's birthday! So first we drove over to the dinosaur museum in Choteau, a few miles away, where Linda volunteers. We walked through the exhibit and had ice cream for lunch there.
In the evening, we drove to Great Falls for some fantastic Vietnamese food--it was a buffet so we could make our own noodle bowls. Yum! And after dinner, we celebrated with cake.
We forget how late the sun sets in Montana during June and July! It was still light outside when we gathered in our teepee for some chatting and s'mores.
One subject of conversation led to another and pretty soon we were discussing aliens and other spooky stories. After a while, Mark offered his own scary story he was going to share. No one knows where his imagination takes roots, but I must say his story was captivating and hilarious at the same time, BUT what made it most dramatic were his eyes and facial expressions. Wow! I had never seen Mark act so well. And then! And then!
Suddenly, Mark says calmly, "There is a mouse." He was looking straight at Linda, but because we were still thinking he is telling a story, we didn't react immediately to his words. And then Robert turned to Linda and said a lot louder, "No really, Linda, there is a mouse on you!". At that point Linda jumped up, trying to shake the mouse off her, which, by then, was climbing up her arm. I screamed loudly and jumped up on my chair!!! I am so afraid of mice and rats and everything like that! It was quite a moment! Good thing, one of their cats came to the rescue and chased the mouse down....and ate it...or so we thought.
After the initial shock wore out, we laughed and laughed and laughed.
The next day, Mark found a dismembered body of a mouse in the teepee...as you know...cats bring mice to their owners as a gift. So yeah. I get disgusted even thinking about it.
Ooookay....change of subject. Dad has these awesome old vehicles parked in his front yard. The kids thought they were super fun:) This is the place where Robert had some of his senior pictures taken.
On our last night in Fairfield, we visited our next door neighbor, who happened to be John, Robert's brother! He made us some yummy soup for dinner and invited to play the Farming Game. It was a LOOONG game but Robert liked it so much that he asked for it for his birthday! It was great for the kids to get to know uncle John a little better.
We spend only short three and a half days in Montana, but were able to see quite a few places that meant a lot to Robert. Montana is truly a Big Sky Country because you can see the wide sky wherever you turn, especially in this part of the state where there are no mountains.
I do hope it won't be too long before we are back again! It was a great trip!
Lyana.
We were having our Watson family reunion in Rexburg, Idaho this year, so we flew into Salt Lake City, UT before driving up north to Idaho and then up to Montana. We stayed one night with our great friends, the Farnsworths. It was super fun to catch up with them! We didn't choose them just because their house was close-ish to the airport and because it was enormous and newly built
We didn't have much time in SLC area at all as we were supposed to start driving to Idaho right after lunch. First thing in the morning, though, we headed to Sandy where Grandpa Holtkamp and his wife Marion are staying. Although Katya and I visited them in April on our impromptu trip to UT, we wanted to make sure Robert and the boys would also get a chance to see them before it's too late.
We took them for a walk (Katya pushed Grandpa's wheelchair) and then rested on a bench in the backyard, listening to Grandpa share stories never heard before and even sing us a song.
It is so important for the kids to feel the connection to their ancestors--this was a very rare experience for them and they all told us how much they enjoyed it and how they thought Grandpa was hilarious.
I've always been Grandpa's favorite. 😜
Sadly, we don't know when will be the next time we see Grandpa but we do hope that memories like these will live in our kids minds forever.
From Utah, we drove about three hours north to Rexburg to meet up with the rest of the Watsons for a three day party-reunion. I'll write about that in a separate post.
And on Saturday, July 28th, we drove out of Rexburg further north to Fairfield, Montana--the place where Robert grew up and lived till he was fourteen years old! It was Mark's first visit to Fairfield EVER. Katya and Alex had been there once eleven years prior, so forEVER ago.
First and foremost, we wanted to see Robert's Grandma. This is Grandma Watson. She is a woman of incredible energy even at her 90 something. She lives on her own in her house but really close to Robert's dad and a whole bunch of other family. She played a very important part in Robert's childhood as he and his siblings frequently hang out at grandma's house and spend a lot of time with her.
On our first visit to Grandma, she let Katya get some records from the garage and let her choose some to take with her (since Katya got a record player for her birthday).
On our second visit with grandma, she offered the kids 10 cents for every pine cone they collect in her front yard. And what do you think? The boys got $10 each as they ran around collecting pine cones and dumping them into her wagon. She has a lot of pine trees...!
Grandma Watson (Lillian) is a sweet-sweet lady. Her husband, Grandpa, died when Robert was on his mission, so, unfortunately, we have never met him.
While driving around town (Fairfield) we also stopped by Robert's childhood playground. His childhood home was an old hotel and it is situated right next to the town park, right in the central part of Fairfield. It was also for sale again, as a B&B (for a second we thought oh maybe...oh maybe...we could move to Fairfield and run a B&B). I must admit, a small town charm does appeal to us, it always will.
Back on the farm (a few minutes drive from central Fairfield), is where Robert's dad and Linda live now. Although we had just a few days to spend with them, we had a great time. It was sort of surreal almost to be so faraway from the hustle and bustle of our normal life with the kids' activities and all the cooking.
One morning, Dad, Robert and the kids set up a real teepee! This is the BEFORE picture-haha.
That same morning, I needed to get some exercise in, so I went speed walking down the road that goes by the farm. My views were gorgeous! I mean, waking up to this in the summer months is just amazing!
My music list was the best, humidity was low, I was pretty much frolicking, not really speed walking and then SUDDENLY-----Dot--Dot--Dot---
I saw a snake!
This is very zoomed in, of course! But it was really-really long! At least it seemed to me.
I was about half a mile away from the house, so I texted the picture to Robert and he said that the snake was just fine. It's a good thing I am not crazy scared of snakes (but I AM scared of rodents). So I took another picture of her in the gutter and hoped she would just be faster than me and slither quickly away.
That was the culminating point of my story...there is nothing more to it...kind of a let down, BUT it's still pretty cool that I was on my own, saw a snake and didn't scream. Yep.
On July 30th, we celebrated Linda's birthday! So first we drove over to the dinosaur museum in Choteau, a few miles away, where Linda volunteers. We walked through the exhibit and had ice cream for lunch there.
In the evening, we drove to Great Falls for some fantastic Vietnamese food--it was a buffet so we could make our own noodle bowls. Yum! And after dinner, we celebrated with cake.
We forget how late the sun sets in Montana during June and July! It was still light outside when we gathered in our teepee for some chatting and s'mores.
One subject of conversation led to another and pretty soon we were discussing aliens and other spooky stories. After a while, Mark offered his own scary story he was going to share. No one knows where his imagination takes roots, but I must say his story was captivating and hilarious at the same time, BUT what made it most dramatic were his eyes and facial expressions. Wow! I had never seen Mark act so well. And then! And then!
Suddenly, Mark says calmly, "There is a mouse." He was looking straight at Linda, but because we were still thinking he is telling a story, we didn't react immediately to his words. And then Robert turned to Linda and said a lot louder, "No really, Linda, there is a mouse on you!". At that point Linda jumped up, trying to shake the mouse off her, which, by then, was climbing up her arm. I screamed loudly and jumped up on my chair!!! I am so afraid of mice and rats and everything like that! It was quite a moment! Good thing, one of their cats came to the rescue and chased the mouse down....and ate it...or so we thought.
After the initial shock wore out, we laughed and laughed and laughed.
The next day, Mark found a dismembered body of a mouse in the teepee...as you know...cats bring mice to their owners as a gift. So yeah. I get disgusted even thinking about it.
Ooookay....change of subject. Dad has these awesome old vehicles parked in his front yard. The kids thought they were super fun:) This is the place where Robert had some of his senior pictures taken.
On our last night in Fairfield, we visited our next door neighbor, who happened to be John, Robert's brother! He made us some yummy soup for dinner and invited to play the Farming Game. It was a LOOONG game but Robert liked it so much that he asked for it for his birthday! It was great for the kids to get to know uncle John a little better.
We spend only short three and a half days in Montana, but were able to see quite a few places that meant a lot to Robert. Montana is truly a Big Sky Country because you can see the wide sky wherever you turn, especially in this part of the state where there are no mountains.
I do hope it won't be too long before we are back again! It was a great trip!
Lyana.
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