Washington & Montanta Trip: Missoula Portion

Before I get into the details of the Missoula part of our trip, I have to say the drive from Spokane was one of the prettiest drives of our trip (maybe even in my whole life). We drove through Coeur D'Alene (where we stopped at a McDonald's with a play place for lunch so the girls could play and we could eat a lot for cheap haha). Unfortunately, we also drank a lot of water and before long I really had to pee and we couldn't find a stop with a restroom so we had to pull over in the woods for me to go. It rained a lot on the drive and being in the middle of a forest made it just so pretty. If we had found a cute neighborhood I would've put it on my list of places to move (but all we saw were trees and a lake, no homes whatsoever). We did end up stopping in a little town outside of Missoula (Frenchtown) for gas. Initially I thought it was too small and redneck-ish, but as we drove around it more I could see it as a possibility of a future home place.

I fell in love with ALL the trees

We got to our Airbnb, which was definitely the smallest and oldest of all of the ones we had stayed at, but the cleanest and most updated and cared for. It was in a big college town, which made me nervous when we first showed up (I do NOT want to live in a college town). We drove around that night to look for dinner (we stopped at an amazing bbq place) and to get some groceries. At Albertson's we found a Cat in the Hat Halloween DVD and I just knew we had to get it for Cara - she had done so well with all the driving and everything on this trip so far. That DVD ended up being a great thing to have when we were at the house, Cara wanted to watch it all the time, probably because it was so short (but luckily the owner also had a guest Netflix account so we could turn on some good kid shows for her too).

While in Missoula Larry had a brilliant idea to take one day to drive around the southern and eastern portion of the city and take the second day to drive around the northern and western parts of the city. I wish we had thought of this with the other cities because it really helped. Driving into Missoula and seeing how young the people were and how small the homes were (our bnb didn't have a yard or a garage and barely a driveway for us to park in) I wanted to write it off, but after seeing the real neighborhoods (in Lolo and French Town) I started to like it more and more.

Hard to believe people were paddle boarding on this the day before I took this pic

One thing I really loved about this area was when we drove in there is this very large river running through the middle of the town (apparently this inspired the movie A River Runs Through It) and we saw people paddle boarding on it (it was THAT warm when we showed up). By the next day it was snowing and people were still bicycling along the side of the road and had their kids out sledding. There was a book in our Airbnb that showed all the good outdoor things there were to do and we realized very quickly that this was an outdoor town and I loved that about this area! I loved the idea of being more motivated to take our kids out of the house.

One of the days, after driving around and going home for a nap, we went to a nearby park we thought the girls would like. Unfortunately, it got too cold for me so I took Gwen into a nearby shop to walk around, inside from the cold, and after Larry came in with Cara shortly after (she banged on some drums and realized it was too cold for her too) we saw there was a historical carousel in the building. We bought some tokens and decided to ride it (it was actually a long ride for a carousel). The girls loved it and had so much fun.

Ignore the fact that I didn't do my hair or makeup

Another thing I was grateful for on this trip is whenever we went out to a real restaurant (not McDonald's) we could just order for us and share with the girls and we all ate enough and it wasn't super expensive. We ate at a place called MacKenzie's where a lot of prom couples were going to. It didn't feel fancy, but it was yummy and we all ate really well there.

So as much as I really didn't want to care for this stop on our trip, I think it's been one of my favorite places we've been to. It's feels homey and close and perfect for what I'd want in a new place to start fresh.

Washington & Montanta Trip: Spokane Portion

Our last morning in Tri-Cities was a busy one. I got up, cleaned, packed up, took garbages out, and checked all over about 3 times before I felt we had officially grabbed everything. We decided the girl's needed some good wiggle time before hitting the road again so we stopped at Howard Amon Park. It was such a fun and pretty park too! There were lots of playground equipment, it was near the river, and had lots of trees. We saw tons of squirrels and birds (and even taught Cara to throw some pizza crust for the birds haha).

Right before 12 we ate our leftover pizza for lunch and then headed out. We had wanted to stop in some small cities we found online that we thought might be good start up areas for us. Our plan was to stop in Pullman and Uniontown. What we ended up doing was driving through Colfax on our way to Pullman and decided that was enough of small towns on the road and headed straight to Spokane haha. Colifax was TINY (population of 3,000) and Pullman was a mostly college town (population about 33,000), but still semi small. It's hard when you can't find good grocery stores nearby.

As we drove into Spokane I was very impressed, there were so, so many trees! It was gorgeous! Then we got to Spokane Downtown, where our Airbnb was closer to. It felt pretty sketchy and was small and very old (the kitchen gave me very weird flashbacks to awful houses I've been in before). I got more worried when some random guy came to the front door, put a knife in his pocket and asked or "Nicky"...no idea what that was about. Luckily he never came back.

We ended up hitting up Target for some groceries and stopped at this Italian restaurant that was AWFUL, so disappointing! We did end up driving around downtown Spokane for a bit, which just made me wish we had gotten a place closer to Spokane Valley. It ended up being a late night and we found that having one shared bathroom in the whole place was a bit difficult, but we were excited to check out this new area the next morning.

Our official whole day for Spokane was very well spent! We got up, ate, and got ready for the day and then hit up a playground. Unfortunately, we had no idea it would be 45 degrees - much to cold for no sweaters or sleeves. I made a plan to hit up Target to get us some sweaters for the rest of this trip (because I only packed for warm weather). We ended up walking around this large park (with very large trees - can you tell I'm obsessed with the nature here?) to warm up, but even at the end Cara kept saying "I'm cold" (a first for her haha). We did end up hitting two custom builders after the park. One's office was just the design center, with no one inside to help us, and the other one was even less helpful! The guy didn't seem to want to sell to us and the things that weren't included in the price was ridiculous (no driveway and we had to pay for port-a-potties to be there, among other things).

We headed back to the Airbnb for lunch (salads and pb&j) and naps. During nap time I found some cheap homes in the area to check out.

After nap time we went to Target to get sweaters (I could only find a decent one in the men's section, so I got a small) and then we went to a Children's Museum for a fun activity for the girls. This place was amazing! It definitely went on the "reasons we should move here" list. It had lots of great activity ideas for kids of all ages and both girls really loved it. After that, we drove around neighborhoods to check out the homes for sale and then headed to a steakhouse for dinner (one that ended up on a top food places we stopped by on this trip).

The best part of this leg of the trip is Cara started pointing out shapes and letters she saw on the road signs and randomly singing ABCs and doing her 123's. I felt at this point that if we accomplish nothing else, at least we know she learned something on it.

Unfortunately, Spokane wasn't as great as we had hoped, but it was still a great stop and we're having fun on this trip!

Washington & Montanta Trip: Tri Cities Portion

Fun toys at our AirBnb

Oh man Tri Cities might be my favorite area so far! I know we just started, but the people are friendly, the trees are amazing, and we found tons of homes, lots, and builders.

Our first day I was up (once again) at 5 AM, I guess going to bed at 9 will do that to you. At least it gave me time to look up some builders to check out. We didn't have much food except snacks in the house so we went out for breakfast, but not before we saw the ducks in the pond right outside our door. Breakfast was so yummy and we got just enough for all 4 of us to eat and not have any leftovers! We then went grocery shopping (where the ducks seemed to follow us) to get some food to hold us over (I needed water since I don't trust tap water). After dropping off the food at the apartment we had, we drove around Richland while the girls napped. The homes and neighborhoods were so pretty. The homes might be pretty pricey, but they are so pretty.

After driving around we went home for lunch and wiggle time for the girls for a couple hours. After that we drove quickly around the Pasco area. This area was even more beautiful than Richland. It was a new area, like Eagle Mountain, which is what we're looking for! Although the home and lots were HUGE and so it made us feel like they were quite out of our price range. Didn't stop us from dreaming.

After that driving around we decided to go the Playground of Dreams, which was nearby (Larry even got to drive over the blue bridge haha). There was smoking right when we got there, but it went away quickly. There were tons of different families there, lots of fun things for the girls to play around on, it was near the Columbia River (which was gorgeous). We ended up staying for an hours and had to leave because G was getting so sleepy (much to C's displeasure). So we drove around Kennewick while G got a mini nap in. We were finally getting used to the place and falling in love with it! It has so many amenities we like (trails, water/river, community feeling, etc.).

We ended the night back at the apartment, having Jack-in-the-Box delivered (free door dash for the win!). Larry watched the new Willy Wonka while the girls played and we just relaxed.

Our second day, I was up at 5 AGAIN (what is sleep?). We decided to hit up another, nearby playground in the morning. One the girl had a lot of fun at. After a little while there we decided to check out this big plot of land we had found before our trip. I thought it was going to be out in the middle of nowhere, but it ended up only being about 20 minutes away from the city area. The houses that were built nearby were really big. We even talked about maybe buying a manufactured home to put on the lot to live in while we saved up enough for a custom home and then after that was done we could rent out the manufactured home (via Airbnb) or use it as a guest house for visitors. Even though I always said I'd never live in a manufactured home we found some really nice ones that I don't think I would've minded so much.

During nap time Larry showered while I played around with our budget (it wasn't as great as I had hoped though). After nap time we went to a close by mall. We were going to go to another playground, but the mall had a play area that the girls were having fun with. Larry was nice enough to let me walk a circle around the mall by myself. When I came back C had made some friends and was playing "gonna get ya" with them. It was so cute to watch them run and run.

After a while at the mall we decided to grab some pizza for dinner to have leftovers for the next day's drive. After dinner I washed the sheets, packed up our stuff, and got things ready for the next day.

So far we're loving this area and we're thinking it's going to be hard to beat. Guess we'll see what Spokane and Missoula has to offer us :)

Washington & Montanta Trip: Driving to Washington portion

Our road trip went off without too many issues! I was up at 5 (stupid brain) and just tossed and turned until a reasonable time that I could finish the packing up and getting the car loaded up. I was hoping to be out by 8:30, but we didn't end up getting going until 9, but not too late of a start.

I had been snacking a lot on the road (I had some leftover Crumbl Cookies), but around noon we knew we had to stop to get the girls lunch and change some diapers (and let some wiggles out). We thought some gas station sandwiches would be best and we found a station in Idaho that we noticed, as we pulled up, had a petting zoo out front. Unfortunately, the owner was out and all the sign on the door said was "back in a bit", which wasn't helpful when we weren't sure when they first put the sign up. We ended up leaving the rest of everyone there, it was starting to feel like a horror movie with so many strangers in one spot just wanting to get some gas and maybe some food. Luckily C got to wiggle around and feed some of the animals (I gave them 4 quarters worth of food) and G we just had wiggle around in the car.

Around 3 we stopped at Kroeger Park near Boise (hello town I didn't think I'd love, but it got added to our list of towns to check out). We changed diapers, fed the girls, and let them wiggle on the playground. It was a quick stop, but was a great stop to stretch.

Is this not the most perfect "Random Road Trip Stop" pic?

We stopped for dinner at a Mexican restaurant (Joe's Mexican Restaurant in Pendleton, OR). We thought this town was a dead town, but noticed all the houses were literally built within the hills. It was a little to plain and sparse for us, but I loved all the trees. Dinner was really yummy too!

After dinner we were still a few hours away from our destination. Seeing the sunset on our drive was really pretty, even though G was very clearly sick of being stuck in the car at this point. Luckily she eventually fell asleep.

We decided to stay at AirBnBs this trip and when we found our first one it was such a relief. It may have been because I was so happy to be done with our 10+ hour drive haha. All were 2 bedroom ones so we could give C her own room and then put G in a pack n play in the living room (all came with a pack n play for us, we just brought our mattress and sheet). We got in, unpacked a little, and got everyone ready for bed. Unfortunately, both girls had a little trouble getting to sleep and we both had to rub some backs to get them to calm down. We also had a poop and white sheets incident - whoops! It was a very good start to our trip, and we're very excited to explore more around here!

Summer Activities Recap

We've had a great summer this year! It's been very busy and I wanted to just do a general recap of what we've been up to :)

July 27th:
we took girls to Tracy Aviary as a fun afternoon trip. I'm not sure what it is about this place, but I absolutely love coming to visit. I never came as a kid, so maybe that's why? But it's such a fun place to let the girls run around and see all sorts of animals. Cara had SO much fun feeding the ducks, she actually was able to get pretty close to them. She also loved just wandering around all the different areas, it was hard to get her to stay in one spot for too long.

She had just learned what owls say before our trip so I thought the owl area would be her absolute favorite, but she only wanted to play in the treehouses they had there. We couldn't get her to come down to see the owls for anything!

August 17th:
We decided to take the girls to the Thanksgiving Point Gardens. I thought it would be fun to let them run around in the grassy areas and see and smell the flowers...and who doesn't love the waterfalls?

We had a lot of fun feeding the fish, the girls loved watching the fish squirm around in the water. One thing I was really proud of was how well Cara did with staying with us and not running too far off. She was obsessed with touching all the water parts too, which was trouble when we finally did get to the waterfall area, we had to keep a very close eye on her at that point.

I always love the Secret Garden and Italian bath area, so it was fun to show that off to the girls. They seemed to like those spots as well. I almost forgot we could go see the waterfalls from the top so when I did remember I told Larry we HAD to go out that way to show the girls. We ended up getting a cute family pic and Cara seemed to like being on the top and seeing all the water spots. We're still debating if we're going to be updating our membership so it was nice to get one last visit in. To be clear, we've loved having the membership, but with talks of possibly moving out of state we just don't want to spend the money if we won't be in Utah for another year.

 

This wasn't from the Gardens - it was the Curiosity Museum
It was too cute to note share haha

We've also been spending lots of nights at the neighborhood playground. This has been a great addition to spend nights at after dinner. Cara is getting really good at climbing the rock wall, she's always been such a daredevil! She is a playground queen, but the only problem is she throws HUGE monster fits when we have to leave, so that's the only part I dread. But I do like that she likes going so that's a plus.

September 14th:
We decided to go visit Kangaroo Zoo. We were scouting it out as a possibility for Gwen's first birthday party, so it was a win-win for us. The girls had tons of fun jumping around and even enjoyed playing in their mini arcade...even without tokens haha.

I was so surprised to see Cara climb the really big slides and she had a blast with them! It was so funny to see the slight moment of terror as she'd go down the slide, but it would  quickly turn to smiles and laughter. She was having so much fun she'd just go from one slide or jump house to the next, there was no keeping her still there. It was so awesome to see her have so much fun.

We've also been working as much as we can on our yard. Larry's been busting his butt on getting the edging in. It's really coming along.
 

Gwen is TEN Months

I am TEN months old!

I like: Being tickled, being held, crawling around, Mom (she's a big momma's girl), dancing, being scared, and food

I dislike: Falling, being ignored, poopy diapers

I am now: No checkup this month, but she's in 9-12 month clothes, size 3 diapers. She's getting close to the ends of these though so I won't be surprised if she's in 12 month clothes before she gets to that age and size 4 diapers within the next month. She's growing so much!

A Typical Day looks like:

7:30) Get out of the crib while mom picks out clothes for the day (though she's been waking up earlier and earlier - I think because of teething - but I don't go get her until 7:30).
7:30 to 8) Breakfast time (whole container of fruit flavored baby food & 4-5 oz bottle of formula). Then I change her diaper and put her outfit next to her for L to dress her in once she finishes her bottle (I get Cara all ready while she eats and then leave right after that).
8 to 10)  Hang out, wiggle, crawl, explore, whatever.
10 to 10:30 ish) Nap time (IF mom is home - dad tends to skip this on

e)
10:30 to 11:30) Hang out, wiggle, crawl, explore, whatever :)
11:30 to 12:30) Diaper change, eat an 8 ounce bottle, and more wiggle and giggle time. If she gets cranky we'll give her puffs or part of a pouch to hold her over.
12:30 to 2:30) Nap time. If she gets up early then she hangs out until her next feeding.
2:30 to 4) Diaper change, eat 7 oz bottle (at 3), wiggle and giggle time, go downstairs while dad works out, and then she'll end up going down for another nap.
4-5 ish) She naps while L showers and C watches a movie
5-5:45) Hang out with Larry and Cara until I get home
5:45-6) Dinner time! She gets a full thing of food (usually a veggie or meat flavored one) and we all talk and visit while eating..
6-7:45) Family time! We go outside if it's nice weather, if it's not we stay inside and just hang out (usually teaching Cara some flash cards and letting Gwen wiggle and giggle or play in the walker/activity table). Around 7 I tend to give her a teether crip thing and we start our nightly show. Around 7:20 she gets her last bottle of the night (usually 6 oz of formula).
7:45) Get ready for bed. We let Gwen now crawl up the stairs to help tire her out and she seems to love it. And, as usual, we do a bath on Sundays and Thursdays (starting at 7:35 since we do both girls). Both girls are down by 8

This Month I: Got a lot more teeth, explored more, grew more, and just became overall more fun!

My parents finally got me a new car seat since I was getting too big for the other one. The new one is more roomy and more cushioned so I've been happier being in the car and I tend to fall asleep for naps in the carseat quicker.

Parent's Notes: Gwen gets more fun and smiley each and every month. She's getting such a fun personality that I just can't get enough of and I love her smiles and laughs and what makes her happy. I'm so glad she's crawling and more mobile, but she does get very clingy to me. We also found if she's crying and we walk away she will SCREAM bloody murder! She lov

es to eat and get snacks all day long and gets hangry quite a bit still.

She also is getting to the point where she doesn't want her baby food and would rather feed herself so we've been giving her bites of our food (with cheerios) to feed herself. I also like to give her the spoon from her baby food (for breakfast) with the last bite and she'll feed that to herself too. Sometimes I think she'll be super independent, but then other moments of the day she seems to crave being held by me. I will say I love that as Cara was a lot more independent and an explorer so I take all the baby cuddles.

We did have a moment this month (on the 15th) where she woke up screaming and crying. I knew it couldn't be teething pains because she didn't have any real new ones coming, but she did end up throwing up on me on that Monday night so I think she had a little bug (poor girl).

We're heading on another road this weekend up to Washington and Montana so hopefully we learned enough during our San Diego trip to make this one go smoothly. It's going to be more time on the road, but hopefully with her new car seat it's more comfortable for both girls.

Update on last month's goals:

• Work on walking: She's getting so used to her walker and she's starting to test out letting go of what she's holding onto to reach for something nearby so we're getting closer!
• Add more solids/different foods: Gwen has become such a good feeder. She'll eat everything we've given her so far. Now that she'd rather feed herself she's moving off of baby foods.
• Start brushing teeth

Goals for next month:

• Work on walking more
• Enjoy another road trip with her
• Introduce her to football season
• Introduce her to Halloween movies/shows
• Get ready for her FIRST birthday!!