Zooing and Brewing

We had quite the jam-packed, fun-filled weekend in Montana. Nathan was such a good little traveler. He never once threw a fit or even whined during the five hour drive there or back. I don't know what Steve and I ever did to deserve such a good kid, but we sure are thankful. We stopped in Gillette, Wyoming and let him run around and play for about 30 minutes. Just as we had planned, he fell asleep until we got to Billings.

Then we just fed him candy to keep him happy for the last 20 minutes.

When we arrived in Billings, we went straight to Zoo Montana. It's the worst zoo ever. I think they had a total of about six animals, but Nathan didn't mind. He had a blast. He loved seeing some of the animals that we read about in his books.
He was excited to see the brown bear. He kept saying "Bow beh, bow beh...I see" from his Brown Bear book.
They didn't have any live elephants or giraffes, but they had the next best thing...animal statues.

Nathan ran up to the giraffe and said "zeeba!" We told him it was a giraffe, but he refused to believe us. He insisted it was a zeeba.
Each time we walked away from an animal, Nathan would say, "more ammals."
For those of you who think this is a ram, try telling that to Nathan. He's certain this is a horse.
After we visited the zoo, we checked into our hotel. Nathan had a quick bite to eat before we ventured out into downtown Billings.

Steve took us out for an evening of pubs and breweries. We started off at Montana Brewing Company where Steve enjoyed a couple of beers and Nathan enjoyed a root beer that was guaranteed to put hair on his chest. Good thing I was along to babysit...Nathan and Steve.

Then we went to Angry Hank's. We couldn't pass up a brewery by that name. We had to go there in honor of our Angry Hank.
Nathan isn't old enough to enjoy the beer, but he certainly can enjoy the orange slices offered at the bar. 
We went to one last brewery before we called it a night. We got there right before they closed, so Steve only had time for one beer. I make it sound like we were out all night, but we weren't. These breweries  are only open from 4 to 8 p.m.
Nathan experienced his first bar fight. Fortunately it was just with the table. He barely hit his nose on the table and it gushed this much blood. Good thing it wasn't serious because he was our designated driver.
Just kidding, I drove home, which meant Steve was in charge of Nathan. Not a good idea. He gave Nathan his root beer to drink, knowing Nathan was in a silly, playful mood. Nathan was drenched with root beer by the time we made it back to the hotel.
Steve couldn't leave without bringing a taste (or three) of Billings back home.
When we got back to the hotel, Nathan and Steve took a dip in the pool. 
Nathan fell right to sleep and slept right through the noise as Steve and I got ready and packed up the next morning.
I think the thing that made this trip so much fun was seeing how much fun Nathan had. Everything we did was fun and exciting. Stuff that you wouldn't think would be tons of fun for an almost two year old was a blast. Steve and I couldn't figure it out. Even playing in the hotel room was exciting. Here we are at Taco Johns grabbing some lunch before we hit the road. We were the only ones in there so we let Nathan run back and forth across the restaurant because we felt sorry for him having to ride in the car for another five hours.
On the way back home, we stopped at the Little Bighorn Battlefield. It was actually pretty interesting. We made Nathan run around up and down hills to help tire him out.
As you can see, this is a lot of ground to cover for those little legs.
Here is Nathan giving me attitude when I asked him to stand in front of the horses for a picture.
This site was home to another battle today. It was The Battle To Get Nathan To Leave. As you can see, Steve is still getting used to the idea of Nathan having a mind of his own. I don't think I want to be around the next time Steve asks Nathan to come on and he responds with the phrase, "No, this way." as he points in the opposite direction.
I hate to say it, but it was actually pretty hilarious watching Steve battle it out with a 22 month old. That was the only time Nathan got mad over the entire weekend, and that was only because he was having so much fun and didn't want to leave. Can you blame him, he probably knew we were headed back to Rapid City.
He fell asleep as soon as we got back in the car and slept until we were about an hour from home. Since Nathan is such a good traveler, we're already planning our next road trip. I asked him where he wanted to go next and his response was "three." I guess that means he wants to take three more vacations. If Nathan wants to take three vacations, then it looks like we'll be taking three more vacations.