Road Trip to Montana

Last week Hubs had to go to Montana for work and said, "You guys want to come?"
Uh, yeah! So we loaded up the car with Sam's ten suitcases and our one and headed off to the big sky country.
Highlight #1: Sam was an amazing road tripper! He slept when it was his nap time, and he babbled and played when it wasn't. He put a lot of hours in that old car seat and never really complained at all about it. He was so good the entire trip. Whose child is this anyway? =)
Highlight #2: Driving through Glacier and West Yellowstone during October is spectacular! The views were gorgeous. The weather was a little colder than home but pretty much blue skies and stunning the whole time. Sometimes I wanted to do my usual car snoring but it was too pretty to miss! (There are parts of Montana, however, that are a whole lot of nothin' and then it was okay to sleep! It was crazy to come out of Glacier and then half an hour later we're driving through the flatlands, with no mountain in sight.)
Highlight #3: Hotel life, need I say more? Sam and I could really get used to the hotel life. Breakfast buffet in the morning (a waffle and whatever else was being served + hot cocoa for me, bread, oatmeal, whatever from mommy's plate + apple juice for Sam), someone else cleaning our room and making the bed, swimming in the pool, lounging in bed watching cable TV, and then off to explore a new place--we loved it!
Highlight #4: Exploring new places--we were in Kalispelle for two days, Great Falls for one, and Bozeman for one day. Kalispell was definitely our favorite. We went for a long walk to the historical downtown part of Kalispell and strolled through the different shops. I bought a couple of books (of course). One of the books was a children's book about Jesus that is from the 1920's. I like old books! Sam got some toys (of course). And we had a good time. I also found my new hobby at one of the shops--mosaic art! Yay! I can't wait to try it!
Highlight #5: We were only a few hours away from Spokane, so we decided to drop in on Heidi and the kids. It was soooooo good to see them. We had dinner together and got to spend a couple of hours together, and then we had to get back on the road again. Hubs played barbies with the girls and later went into a gas station with princess stickers plastered all over him. Will and I talked cars (we both agree that the ferrari is one cool car!) and I got to play with play dough (a secret favorite pastime of mine).
Highlight/Lowlight/freak-mom-out-light #6: Sam's great escape--Heidi lives up in the mountains, and as we were driving down the winding road toward Spokane, suddenly Sam tugged on my hair and said, "Momma?" In all the good-byes, Nic had thought I had buckled Sam in his car seat, and I had thought Nic had done it. The result? Sam was riding free and easy, no seat belt or buckles to hold him back. The minute I realized that Sam was standing in his car seat and not buckled in, I freaked out. I was yelling for Nic to pull over immediately and Nic was trying to find a good spot to pull over. Meanwhile, Sam tipped over and was hanging upside down between the car seat and his stroller, laughing his head off. I didn't find it so funny at the time! Once we got Sam properly buckled in, Nic and I just kind of stared at each other in shock. Yes, we had become those parents! After we, mostly mommy, had settled down, we had to give the grandparents a call to share with them Sam's capers.