More Travels

Tuesday felt exceptionally long. We left the hotel about nine and went to the grocery store to get some more snacks. The grocery store was amazing! They had so many vegan and raw options, it was incredible! If the stores near where we lived in Cleveland had had these options, being vegan would have been so much easier! So many different cheese, drinks, snacks, and they actually said "certified vegan" which meant it was easier to figure out what to get. Not as much reading the labels.

Natalia is hating being stuck in the car. I sung every song I could remember from The Sound of Music, Oklahoma, The Music Man, The King and I, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and Mary Poppins. And then I moved on to the ABC's, the wheels on the bus, and so on. I also sang a moving rendition of "Waking Up is Hard to Do" to the tune of - you guessed it - Breaking Up is Hard to Do. Natalia had woken up from her nap in a rather grumpy mood. Wouldn't you if you were still in the car?

Leilani isn't liking the drive too much more than Natalia. She's randomly not watching movies, trying to figure out how to bust out of here, or staring out the window saying "there's a hotel, lets stop there!" I think all of us just want to be in Seattle already

The hotel, however, was pretty fantastic. There was a pool that went up to three feet, so Leilani could stand up in the whole thing, there were two big water slides and a kiddie area, all indoors! Leilani got bored with the kiddie area, so we asked the lady at the front desk to turn on the big slides. There was a 100' one and a 210' one. The smaller one we did countless times, then we decided to see if the bigger one would be too big for Leilani. I wasn't sure how much she'd like it since the first part was in total darkness. She loved it. I mean, really loved it. The first time she went down, I had to climb up the steps with her, and she had to give me and Natalia several kisses before saying " okay, I'm ready, push me down!" After that, there was no stopping her. Natalia loved being in the water, which was nice and warm. I got a few photos, but once again, they'll have to wait to be posted until I actually have a computer.

We got a later start this morning, since a semi decided to block us. He was really only in the way for about ten minutes, it just felt like forever. It's been raining/snowing almost all day. At first we couldn't figure out which it was, but later it became obvious - it was snow. Big fat snowflakes, and they were sticking, too. And then it hit me, Natalia doesn't have a heavy winter coat. She's warm enough at them moment, a nice warm sweater, socks, etc, but I'm going to have to get one. I have no idea how I overlooked that. We stopped for some gas, and - did you know there are actually a lot of "accidentally vegan" foods out there? I not saying they're healthy, but at least there aren't any animal products in them. I got Natalia some crackers, and as I was giving her one, I asked her "Tally wanna cracker?" (That's pronounced like Polly, btw). She couldn't stop grinning at that.

We stopped in the big ol' town of Billings, Montana. There were like three hotels to choose from, Cheap Inn, Pay-Little Motel, and Best Western. (First two hotels not their real names). The time change is making it very strange, Natalia was usually going to sleep around 9:30, which means tonight, she was asleep by 7:30. She usually wakes up by 9am, so that means 7am will be the new wake up time. Do you realize that means on Pacific Time, she'll be awake by 6 in the morning? I'd say I'm not looking forward to that, but I can just go to sleep earlier, I suppose :).