Recently, especially now since school is out, I've been trying to make the perfect chocolate cake. Not too chocolatey or rich, but not bland or blah either. It's been a rough process, that's for sure! I'm trying to find the best chocolate cake ever because I am in a baking competition with our good family-friend, Matt Kuzio. We have three rounds to our competition: 1st round- chocolate pie, 2nd round- chocolate cake, 3rd round-chocolate chip cookie. Though there can be separate winners for each round, it's not based off of how many rounds each competitor wins, rather, it is based off of the cumulative scores of the contestants at the end of the bake off itself.
Another cool thing that I've been up to was I just got back from Montana for my cousin, Chris', high school graduation. Surprisingly, my dad and everyone on his side of the family used to live in Montana for years and my dad even went to college there, but I've never been there before, and neither has Tracy. We took this opportunity to head out a couple of days early so that we could kind of take out time and go through some towns in Montana that my dad really wanted us to see.
My favorite town that we visited was probably Missoula (or Livingston... both are great) due to its cleanliness, sense of community, location, and not to mention all of the cool little shops! Missoula was actually our first stop, we left Boise then once we got to Missoula we walked around a bit, ate dinner, and pretty much went to bed after that. We woke up the next morning bright and early, had some breakfast, and then toured the University of Montana campus! I love love loved the campus! It was gorgeous, spacious, and, although known to be a big party school, it felt like it was located in a neighborhood that reminded me so much of my own.
After leaving Missoula, we took the long way to Livingston, because I wanted to see the campus of Carroll College in Helena. The campus was pretty, but I felt that it didn't give me a super homey-feel, which I feel is important when choosing a college... you gotta feel comfortable, right?
After Helena, we stopped through Boseman... or was it Billings? Either way, we stopped to get lunch with my Aunt Mary and Uncle Ron while we awaited Aunt Nancy's plane arrival. We headed down to Livingston once her plane landed and got settled in our super-cool, super-old hotel--The Murray-- right in the heart of downtown Livingston, Montana.
After we got settled, we went over to Chris' house to chat and say hello to everyone before going to bed.
First Full Day- Saturday-Livingston, Mt:
The first day was basically a laid back kind of day. We woke up, got lattes at our hotel's awesome breakfast café, and headed downtown to explore. Little did I know, there was a car show downtown occurring, which was pretty cool! While we looked a the cars, we wove in and out of shops on the sides of the same street as well. The shops were really quant and cute, and I could've spent all day looking in them!
Around noon, we walked to Chris' house. (Yes, walked... you can walk everywhere in Livingston!) We met the family and had a fun barbecue and sort of just chilled out and caught up with each other.
Day 2- Sunday-Graduation:
On Sunday, the day of the graduation, Aunt Mary and Aunt Nancy, as well as Uncle Ron, wanted to go up to Chico Hot Springs which was apparently 22 miles away from Livingston. I went with them, as I wanted to see more of Montana and it's scenic mountains. Well... I definitely got to see more of Montana! We ended up passing the sign for Chico by a long shot, and drove all the way to Gardiner, Montana, which is a little touristy town right before the entrance to Yellowstone National Park. It was cool, though. We walked around a little bit and I could tell that it brought back memories for my Aunts and Uncle. We even saw an elk right across the street from us, just roaming freely like it was no big deal to be walking right downtown!
We made it to the graduation on time, and I loved it! We are all so proud of Christopher, he's such a great person and I am so lucky to have him as a cousin. It was really fun to watch him walk up on stage and get his high school diploma!
After the graduation, it was more food and family time...
and everyone that was there knows what happened then.
On our way back, we drove through Yellowstone, so, I got some pictures from there, too.
I'm really glad that I got the opportunity to see as much of Montana as I did in so little time because it truly is gorgeous!
"I had a ball at the testicle festival!"
Chris and Aunt Nancy
Rudy.
Car show.
Road-trippers.
Chris and I.
Aunt Mary, Uncle Ron, Christopher
Chris and his dog, Rudy.
Ladder golf.
Rudy... again.
Entrance to Yellowstone! Except, it was under construction, so... technically, it's not the entrance to Yellowstone... for right now.
The elk we saw in downtown, Gardiner!
The graduate and his proud parents!
Lower Falls, Grand Canyon of Yellowstone National Park
Lower Falls
Buffalo
Inside of the Old Faithful Lodge! Amazing! You'll never see anything quite like it!
No comments:
Post a Comment