Living Vicariously

Four of ours were able to travel to Kalispell to meet up with many of their cousins over Memorial Day Weekend. There was a special wedding that six of our people were attending on Saturday so the annual ‘Arizona Cousin’s Memorial Weekend’ was moved to Kalispell this year. It was a great accommodation to make.

Their VRBO was on Foys lake close to Kalispell.

Our niece Debbee turned 50 in the middle of May and our DIL Laura was inspired to order a special t-shirt for each of the ‘cousins’ with a special moment in their life with their cousin Debbee. The photo above shows the original cousins with Babushka and Dzeda all together back then and then this photo below of the now.

A re-enactment…

Laura found special photos for all these peeps!

It was a wonderful way to celebrate Deb Deb’s birthday.

It was time for these six to leave for the wedding.

These 6 enjoyed a meal out while the others were at the wedding.

Sunday was a full day for all to be together.

On Memorial Day it was decided that a trip to Glacier National Park and a hike was in order. Donning their Memorial day t-shirts and coats they set out at 5:30 am!

Another meaningful, encouraging and rewarding Cousin Memorial Weekend in the books!

Ellen with an E, Hodgepodge

Thank you to Joyce From This Side of the Pond for our weekly Hodgepodge questions.

1. Do you like your name?s

I have grown into it. I do not have a middle name on my birth certificate.

Are you named after someone (grandparent, etc)?

No. After my older sisters got the more traditional Russian names, my mother decided I’d get a name none of her friends would choose for their children. Ellen is not a typical Russian name.

In Russian, the name Ellen translates to Эллен (pronounced EL-len) when used for an English name.

However, because Ellen is a variant of the name Helen, the traditional Russian equivalent is Елена (pronounced yeh-LYEH-nah), which is often shortened to the nickname Лена (pronounced LYEH-nah)

Лена is what I was called by our Russian family and friends.

Ellen, Ellen, Watermelon. That is something I remember some classmates in elementary school repeating to try to irritate me. 🙂

I also had to correct people over and over again when they tried to call me Helen. I’d say, NO, Ellen with an E.

If you have children how did you choose their names?

For our sons we chose strong Biblical names, Joshua and Daniel. For our daughter we chose a name from Greg’s heritage and also a strong name, Katherine.

2. A piece of red velvet cake, a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a slice of blueberry pie? You can only have one…which will you choose?

I’ll go with red velvet cake.

If you could pick any red, white, or blue dessert other than those listed here, what would you choose?

I love a good patriotic berry trifle.

3. What’s a job you’d like to try for just one day?

I’d like to try being a detective and solving a murder.

4. Any patriotic decor in your home currently or coming up this summer?

Yes! And I’m on the lookout for more since this is the 250th year of freedom!

5. It’s the end of May, so let’s exercise our brains. Sum up your month with an acrostic using the word MAY. We can do it!!

M emorials beginning and ending the merry month of May with

A wakening buds and weeds displaying a springtime

Y ard that needs attending to!

6. Insert your own random thought here.

Memorial weekend scattered many of our family to Texas and Montana, far south and far north! The travelers originated from California or Washington State.

Kathy is our oldest sister and turning 80 over Memorial weekend she deserved a celebration all her own. She was in Texas on her day so our sister, Lana, threw a birthday party for her. Our youngest sister, Lana, lives in Texas. Both my older sisters (Kathy and Vera) were in Texas to attend our youngest niece’s graduation from high school. The graduation ceremony was on Friday. Our youngest niece is the daughter of our youngest brother who also lives in Texas. Are you following? Anyhoo, hats off to Lana for giving Kathy a very special celebration.

In Texas our friend, Heidi, sat in for me for this ‘sister’ photo above since I couldn’t be in Texas for the events this past weekend. Lana, Heidi, Vera and Kathy on Kathy’s 80th birthday.

Kathy’s kids and grands were all in Montana for a wedding. Our kids and Vera’s kids were in Montana, too, for the annual ‘cousins memorial day weekend’. This group of cousins sent their mom, nana, auntie a special photo greeting for her 80th. There was some face timing, too.

Meanwhile back in Texas…

Our niece, Hope’s graduation ceremony.

Graduations, weddings, cousin’s annual gathering, it was a full weekend! Why were we absent? We enjoyed taking care of our Grands while their parents had fun with the cousins in Montana!

Each of these loved ones got a t-shirt with a photo of a special moment in their history with their cousin Debbee. She turned 50 in May and our DIL Laura was inspired to celebrate her at cousins weekend in this special way.

The original ‘band of cousins’.

Whew! That was a very busy weekend. Our Colville kids made it back Monday evening and our ‘sitting’ duty was over. We shared our time watching over our Grands with our DIL Jamie’s dear mom. She got the evening/overnight duty while and we got the daytime duty. I’m sure our Grands had stories to tell about their caretakers and didn’t hesitate to throw us ‘under the bus’. 🙂

And just like that, May is almost over!

Cheyenne to Billings and Home

Wrapping up our Land That We Love Tour with this post. On Saturday October 9th after we left Cheyenne we headed north on Interstate 25 with a cruise through Casper Wyoming ending up in Billings, Montana for the night.

It was a 455 mile drive. We filled up at Jerry’s Interstate Gas Station in Casper for $3.989. One of the highest priced gasoline on our trip. When we got to Billings we filled up the tank again at Costco for $3.149. On Sunday October 10th, on our last stretch to our home we bought gas again in Missoula at Costco for $3.299 and finally at our usual gasoline stop in Spokane, Washington at Costco for $3.489. Our drive from Billings to our home on Sunday was 609 miles. We originally planned to stop in Wallace, Idaho overnight on Sunday and drive the last stretch home on Monday the 11th of October but we were so ready to be home again we cancelled our night and headed straight home.

Here’s what we saw on our drive on Saturday October 9th.

Jackalope of Wyoming

After Casper I probably drove so photos ceased.

We arrived in Billings, filled up with gas at Costco, checked into Fairfield by Marriott for the night at $159.68. We freshened up and had one of the best dinners on our trip and I wrote a post about it here.

On Sunday early morning we packed up for the last leg of our journey home.

We made it home before dark and turned the heat back up and had a relaxing evening.

We are talking about where we should road trip next, Lord willing. Time will tell where and when. Thanks for following along with us. We do Love the USA and pray God will have mercy on our Homeland.

Montana Back Roads

On our Land That We Love Tour Day Two we left Helena, Montana on a back road connecting us to I-90.

These are statues.

We got to I-90 and before I could yell stop we passed Wheat Montana. We circled back because I was intrigued.

So happy we did. They had so many great products.

We were happy to find these mugs to use instead of the paper coffee cups that hotels are putting out these days. They were only $4.95. We patted ourselves on the back when we didn’t see any other mugs at the souvenir shops for under $12.00.

And did we mention the baked goods that they sell. Cinnamon rolls, bear claws, muffins, pastry twists, etc. They also sell sandwiches and other savories. The cinnamon roll was so good and it fueled us all the way to Wyoming for our next stop.

Before we left Helena we purchased gas at Costco for $3.199

Inside Cathedral of St. Helena

Continuing on our Land That We Love Tour here are the photos I took inside the Cathedral of St. Helena. This is a photo intensive post. Couldn’t leave out any of the photos I took. Dear and I had the cathedral to ourselves on this Tuesday afternoon.

The Cathedral of St. Helena was constructed at the turn of the century during the episcopate of Bishop John Carroll. It is an outstanding example of Geometric Gothic architecture, patterned after the Votive Church of the Sacred Heart in Vienna, Austria. Stained glass windows, white marble altars, statues carved of the purest Carrara marble, and genuine gold leaf decorates the sanctuary. The pews and woodwork are all done in hand carved oak. The magnificent lighting fixtures are of hand-forged bronze with a special lacquer finish. Outside, majestic twin spires rise 230 feet above the street.

In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. Genesis 22:18

Abraham and Isaac

He is risen.

Jesus said to him: Feed my lambs, feed my sheep. John 21:15

All power is given unto me in heaven and on earth.

Baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. John 3:5

To read about some of the history of St. Helena Cathedral click here.

Cathedral of St. Helena

Before we left on our Land That We Love Tour I noticed there was a cathedral in Helena, Montana. After we toured the Capitol and had our meal in downtown Helena we used our phone google map to find the cathedral.

The outside today and I’ll share the amazing interior on another day. We were happy to find the front door of the cathedral open.

The Cathedral of St. Helena

Land That We Love Tour ~ Helena

We left our home on Tuesday September 21st for Day 1 of our Land That We Love Tour. We filled our tank with gas at the Costco in Spokane, Washington at $3.489 per gallon and made it all the way to Helena, Montana on that tank of gas. Our first stop was at Montana’s State Capitol Building. We parked in the rear of the building.

Wilbur Fisk Sanders (1834-1905) one of Montana’s first senators.

It was a very impressive interior with a lovely rotunda and grand staircase. This link speaks of all the art in the rotunda.

This link speaks to the art on and around the Grand Stairway.

Thomas Francis Meagher

Lady Liberty.

As you can see we had a warm sunny day. After our time at the Capitol we headed downtown to find a spot to have a meal. It was Tuesday so we enjoyed a Taco Tuesday meal at the Windbag Saloon and Grill. Helena was a pay for parking downtown. After our meal and before we checked into our hotel we found and toured the beautiful Cathedral of St. Helena. I’ll save that for another day.

Our night in Helena was our most expensive night on our whole tour in a Hampton Inn. The further east we traveled the less expensive comparable hotels were. We experienced the Covid all disposable product phenomena. No mugs for coffee in your rooms or at the ‘free’ breakfasts. Everything was paper disposable. Our disposable cups for coffee deteriorated and we decided that we needed to purchase some mugs of our own for the rest of the journey. One of the things we decided on was to take an inexpensive coffee maker, our own coffee beans and our grinder to make our own coffee each morning in the hotels. We are not fans of the small coffee makers and coffee pods, etc. hotels offer these days. We would do this again whenever we travel. These days hotels limit bath towels, hand towels, and washcloths to one per person but you can request more. No cleaning rooms if you stayed longer than a night. All of our stays were one-nighters except for our VRBO in North Carolina and our stay with my brother and his family in Dallas.

It’s been good to catch up with a lot of your blogs and see what is new. We have a lot of fall clean-up to accomplish on our property but it looks like we will not need to mow again until Spring.

Rex Hotel

On our last night of our Land That We Love Tour we had our favorite meal at the Buffalo Block Prime Steakhouse at the Rex in Billings, Montana. The barbecue we had in Kentucky was real good, too, but Buffalo Block won out with the ambiance.

We chose this spot to eat because the Historic Rex Hotel caught our eye. Dear’s dad’s name is Rex and he was born in Montana and we enjoyed paying homage to him while in the Treasure State of Montana. Montana is also known as Big Sky Country.

French Onion Soup

Bone in Chop crusted in all kinds of yumminess on top of garlic mashed potatoes.

Prime Rib Sandwich with horseradish, aujus, coleslaw and fries.

creme brûlée

Lemon Pound cake with fresh strawberries and whipped cream.

If you are ever in Billings and want some upscale food at upscale prices this is the place.

I’ll be recapping our trip with lots of photos starting at the beginning soon.

Montana and Wyoming

We have moved further east on our ‘Land That We Love Tour‘. We took a back road out of Helena to get back to the I-90 interstate east to Wyoming.

This little church was in Montana.

Fall colors were pretty off the interstate as we approached our Wyoming destination.

We arrived in Sheridan for the night and right away Dear was in trouble.

Better put your hands up, Dear!

On our travels on Wednesday we listened to some more sermons in 1 Peter and some good music and also enjoyed periods of silence except for the tires on the pavement. We are pondering the attributes of God and these verses.

Isaiah 55:8-9

⁸For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
⁹For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Montana Land That We Love Tour

Our day one destination for ‘Land That We Love Tour’ was Helena, Montana. Helena is the state capital of the state of Montana. We stopped at the Capitol building and were able to walk about inside and out.

On a gentle slope surrounded by 10 acres of spacious lawns and other state buildings, Montana’s Capitol looks north over the beautiful Prickly Pear Valley. The building is constructed of sandstone and granite. A statue depicting Liberty sits atop the copper dome. A walk through the Capitol will allow you to view many beautiful paintings, including Charles M. Russell’s magnificent historical depiction of “Lewis and Clark Meeting Indians at Ross’ Hole” on September 5, 1805. The main section of the Capitol was completed in 1902. The two wings were completed in 1912.

Dedicated on July 4 1905, the Thomas Meagher Statue stands tall at the front of the Montana State Capitol Building, the largest and most distinctive sculpture on the grounds of the capitol campus.

More on Thomas Meagher’s interesting life can be read here.

The state Capitol building was opened for use on the Fourth of July, 1902. The story of the Capitol building really begins at the top, with the “Goddess of Liberty,” as she has been known for 100 years. It’s the statue that stands on the copper dome outside.

After our visit to the Capitol we had a meal in town and then found The Cathedral of St. Helena. I’ll share more from the inside of the beautiful Capitol building and St. Helena Cathedral later.

We traveled through Washington, Idaho and into Montana on Tuesday September 21st.

During much of our 5+ hour drive Tuesday we listened to sermons on 1 Peter by John MacArthur (Grace to You). We didn’t get past verse 2 after 3 sermons. That is what you call expository teaching. Tomorrow Wednesday we’ll be listening to these verses exposited.

1 Peter 1:1-5

³Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, ⁵who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

Today is Wednesday September 22nd and the first official day of Autumn/Fall. We will be traveling further on today.

Happy Fall Y’all.

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

Category Archives: Montana