Home, Sweet Home!

Yay! I'm so happy to be home! I missed my cats, of course, but there was something I didn't expect to miss so much... the mountains! Yes, Montana did have mountains, but they were more "blah" than Utah! Utah, I love you!

I am now going to record all of the events that happened, more for my benefit of remembrance than for your benefit of caring.

So. We got up there last Saturday. I went to a barbecue (which was awkward since I didn't know most of the people and the, uh, *not normal* topics of conversation) and then I went down to Sam's Pond with my second cousin/cousin once removed/some type of relative and yet another unknown relative, Shana. It was fun! Although Sam's Pond is smelly and gross, it's fun to have slime fights! Seriously, the stuff looks like a giant has a secret storage for his snot in there! Then we had a sleepover, and I got the first spider bites in the history of my remembered existence.

The next day, Lacey (the relative) and I spent the time watching movies! We watched Top Gun, Patch Adams, and October Sky. Top Gun was okay, but I really liked the other two! That night my mom's cousin (Lacey's mom) gave stitches to someone who may or may not have been another relative! On the dinner table! The family decided they did not want to go to the emergency room, and "besides, you can't just get handed meatballs in the emergency room!" I was amazed that the kid didn't cry! A tear! More self control than I would have exhibited. More control than I *did*. I admitted sometime during it that I felt a little pukey. But I contribute that to the fact that my blood sugar was low.

The next day we went to the Lake (I suddenly forgot the name) and I read like mad! I now have half of my summer homework done by reading The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (best book ever... well, at this moment), even though I don't think the teachers wanted us to read about fictional cultures. When we left, we left my cousin Miranda behind! We were almost back before we figured out that she wasn't with us. Some family we are, eh?

The next day we went... somewhere. Missoula, I think. While we were eating lunch, my brother got a laugh attack. Then another one shortly after. I am unsure whether or not the first one was induced by the word "chalupa".

The next day we went to Philipsburg (and why do I keep on wanting to put an apostrophe in "went"?) and that was okay... but it turned to fantastic! There was an awesome antique and collectibles store there! I would have been there DAYS if it wasn't for my family that insisted on making me leave. Then we went back to Pinesdale and some people came over and we made drinks (I found it hard to believe that everyone has a billion and two straws at their house). Then I went back over to Lacey's house and we had another sleepover and I think I fell asleep a short while after the bear pulls in the bed in Bedknobs and Broomsticks.

The next day I got dropped off early because Lacey had to go to Girls' Camp and my family was going to be leaving Pinesdale! I must say that I miss my cousins. Luckily, they will be coming here in a week. So that is good. Anyway. We left on our way to Ennis, and stopped at Anaconda and Butte. I don't think I would ever survive living in a small town, because rusting cars and guns seem to be the typical maybe true stereotypes. All I can say is that there were a billion and two rusting cars and hunters.

So the next day we went to Virginia City and Nevada City. At Nevada City they had a neat open air museum, so you could walk all around the town and learn about some places and look in them and such. Virginia City was much more tourist-y in the way that they had a billion and two (there I go again) stores, even though they did still have cool facts on the buildings and the people.

That night we (excluding my sister, who would have gotten scared, and my dad, who stayed at the hotel with her) went on a Ghost Tour of Virginia City. It was cool! (Except for the fact that I had a few coughing fits during it. Am I coming down with something?) First we went to the old infirmary. Apparently some people have had some weird experiences in three of the rooms, but I guess they are used to it, so they talk to the "ghost" until it goes away. Then we went to the Sisters' house. The sisters were nuns that ran the infirmary. Apparently the ghost of Sister Irene walks up and down the porch down to the end of the infirmary, and if anyone who is staying in the house is sick, her ghost actually holds the people's hands and nurses them back to health, even talks to them. Then we went to the Lightning Splitter (named by the steepness of the roof) and heard about some sort of animal that goes up and down the stairs after the sun goes down and the disappearing lightbulb. Then we went to the Hangman's Building. Five men were hanged in the unfinished building by the Vigilantes. Spooky. They don't seem to be very welcoming, according to the accounts. Then we went down to some street and heard about Slade who was hanged on that street and the lady who lost her husband to flu in the house on that street and a few years later got dressed up and shot herself. A lady who lived there after was named Lucille and would tell people about the shot lady's ghost, and no one believed her and began to call her "Loose Wheel". Then we went to the Inn and heard about room 10, which has some unwelcoming freaky presence in it, and room 2, that when two young girls stay there, they will wake up and find two other girls sitting on the bottom of the bed and talk to them before they float up into the ceiling. Then we heard about the Vigilantes' headquarters (oooh, I dislike those Vigilantes!) and that was that! It was pretty cool, I think.

Then today, we drove for hours to get back here! Yaaay!