James had a good chuckle when he let us know we would be staying in Butte, Montana tonight. Cooper was up sick all night and we finally all dragged ourselves from bed at 8:15am for a late start an hour later. This Best Western was a great hotel and we will plan it in again on our route when coming out. We only have a seven hour drive today and hopefully Cooper will perk up and feel better. He and Brooke are watching Max and Ruby and seem content thus far. Parts of Washington are very pretty with open green fields, clusters of farms, and hills in the distance. There is a little red car in the front of us who has hit the edge of the highway twice now and bears close watching. Having just refueled with gas and snacks in Ritzville, we are back out on the road. Cooper started to feel better and now is not and James is feeling ill as well. I have banished him from touching our food supply of buns, chicken salad, and turkey purchased last night at Safeway. So I am the sole snack getter and sandwich maker, which suits me and everyone else just fine and is a great idea as I continue to have close friendships with our two bottles of hand sanitizer. Passing along the Idaho Panhandle National Forest for the second time - it is really pretty and could be called serene if not for the freeway. Most likely, a hike deep into the forest would bring you to that. Once again the weaving roads are having negative side effects on all of our weak tummies and we are all silent in the van. Brooke and Cooper have closed their eyes and hopefully will now sleep until we are nearly there. They are both excellent travellers. It is great to be back in Montana and I have high hopes for our hotel tonight. We passed an interesting old homestead about half an hour ago on the right hand side. It had a sloping roof with a large dip at the bottom leading up to the non existent eaves...or maybe there were eaves, but I was far too distracted by the old antlers thrown up on the roof. Apparently, they have filled up the walls and chandelier and have run out of room, so the antlers now get tossed up there. Perhaps they are saving them up to build a garage :). Just passed the truck hauling the flatbed holding large bags of onions pulled over on the side of the road. I think he must have finally realized that his load was getting lighter, as we passed a bag of his onions an hour back in the middle of the road while coming through the low mountains of Idaho. We just got back on the road after pulling over to a nice reststop with not so nice bathrooms. Cooper really needed a break and so we walked around on the nice green lawns and made piles of pinecones in the shade of a tree. This, then, turned into a pinecone fight and it was a lot of fun. Cooper was giggling and was in the full spirit of the pinecones war,as was Brooke. I took three of the best pinecones to take home and make memory ornaments of Pinecone Fight 2010 for the Christmas Tree. This was just what we all needed and now we only have an hour until we get to our hotel in Butte :). We just pulled into the Butte Best Western and there is a Perkins attached to it....so, I guess we will be eating there for supper. We have gained an hour due to the time change so it is just about 6:30 pm and we will need to get an early start in the am to compensate for another time change tomorrow. Wondering if our grass has been cut yet and we have our fingers crossed that the bugs have stayed on the outside of our house. We have decided to dine in our room this evening after James had to make a dramatic exit with Cooper most suddenly from the line waiting to be seated -poor little guy. He is devastated he cannot go swimming yet again. I hope tomorrow night he can.