Off to Montana

Back to a recap of our vacation.

Coeur d’Alene, Idaho

Just over the border from Washington, Coeur d’Alene is a very nice vacation spot. We got to see the hotel and eat at a nearby shopping center. We got to see the lake from the car but didn’t have time to see any sites. It looked like they had a nice play area by the lake, definitely worth checking out if we go through there again (hopefully with better planning).

Mullan, Idaho

This is a little town of about 800 with a tiny downtown. They did have a small park and museum in the town center. When Andrew started saying: I WANT OUT NOW, this is where we stopped rather than going on another 10 miles to the next rest stop. We checked out the tiny museum and the kids had fun climbing on the stuff in the park. A brief but necessary stop along the way.

Darby, MT

When we first arrived at my dad's it was late in the evening so we headed out to a nearby resort for dinner. Here is Dylan taking a look at the bear in the dining room.

On our first morning at my dad's house, the kids were up and busy. My dad kept them entertained by taking them out to feed Buck the horse and explore the creek and pond. They came back in their pajamas, wet, muddy and happy.

In the evening, we grilled sausages and hot dogs on an open fire and then made s'mores for dessert. Gina and Andrew had fun turning marshmallows into charcoal though it was a little stressful keeping Dylan away from the campfire.

Here is Gina swinging on a rope that my dad put up in a tree.

While on the trip I discovered that I needed to put some money in my checking account. So where do you go when you are far from a city? It turns out there was an ATM where I could deposit a check in a little town called Stevensville, about 35 miles from my dad's house. Far, but not as far as driving back to Missoula. So we left the big kids with Boppa and took Dylan with us to Stevensville (the same town where SF mayor Gavin Newsom just got married). After driving 45 minutes to deposit a check that took all of 2 minutes, we had time to explore the town. We ended up at a very nice cafe and had a delicious lunch and then bought pastries and freshly made bread for the next day.

On our third day in Montana, we visited Big Hole Battlefield Museum, a memorial to the people who were killed during the Nez Perce Indian War in 1877. Our visit to the museum coincided with a visit by a member of the Nez Perce tribe and so the kids got to hear some of the stories that are told by the tribe, handed down to each generation. Andrew and Gina were fascinated by the stories, while Dylan was not about to sit around so I only caught pieces of the stories, mostly involving Coyote and other animals of the area and how the Nez Perce came to be. They both said that they really enjoyed listening to the stories.

Then we went to a swimming pool filled from a mineral spring at a nearby resort. Dylan walked around the shallow area while Gina and Andrew tried to swim a bit. I really should have gotten them into swim lessons before vacation so they would be more comfortable in the water. I’ll have to remember that for next year.

Andrew is now 4

Last weekend Andrew turned 4. Unfortunately he started out in a bad mood. Nothing was right and he was grouchy all day. My sister Alice came and that brightened him up for awhile since he got more presents but by the time dinner rolled around he was in no mood to go out. So instead, I went out to dinner with Alice and my mom, as well as Gina and Dylan, while Andrew stayed home with Vic and they worked on his legos together. He probably did have more fun playing with Vic than he would have sitting in a restaurant so it was a good call.

Last Saturday was his birthday party. Four of his friends from preschool came as well as another friend from Las Madres. With a couple of additional siblings, it was still a pretty small group compared to Gina's last two birthday parties. From this party I have learned that small is good. Andrew had a great time interacting with his friends, the jump house never got too crowded, and it was fairly easy to keep track of all the kids.

Here is Andrew surveying all his presents:

I made a rocket shaped cake for the party. The details of the cake are here. It turned out pretty well and tasted good too.
So far, 4 hasn't been much of an improvement on 31/2. He is easily frustrated when things don't go his way and then he becomes nonverbal, expressing his feelings in screeches and screams and refusing to talk. I'm hoping things will improve when he moves to the PreschoolIII room in a week. I am also working on how I deal with him before he gets to the frustrated part, emphasizing the positive when he does something correct. It is not easy being 4.

Off to Woodinville

Our first destination for our vacation was Woodinville, just north of Seattle, home to our friends Tom and Jone and their two kids Tom and Alex. I had the idea that we could get up early and get the van packed and leave at a very early hour. However, Vic ended up with a lot of last minute stuff from work, stayed up until 3am and so we didn't get on the road until 11am. This meant that we didn't make it as far as I had hoped and we had to search for a hotel at 9pm around Ashland Oregon. Ashland was of course filled, but we found a small motel outside of Ashland.

The next morning the kids were up early, Gina and Andrew got dressed right away and we were able to get on the road by 8am or so. One of our stops on the way was a small museum in Roseburg, Oregon. It was a nice little museum with lots of animal diorama exhibits as well as old tractors and cars. The kids had fun running around and it was a nice break. Of course, I discovered that my camera was out of batteries at this point so no cute pictures. We drove through Portland, then through a bit of rain, and headed for Seattle. We arrived at our friends house after dinner, definitely a long day of driving.

We spent our first day hanging out at the house with the Vrhels. Tom's parents also joined us as well as Tom and Vic's friend Matt with his family. It was full house with lots of kids. They had fun playing soccer outside, putting trains together inside and video games. Andrew and Gina had a great time playing with Alex who is 12 and is very good with little kids. I hope they didn't wear him out.
Our second day was spent visiting my friend Ruthann who lives about 40 minutes away. I hadn't seen her since our wedding and now she has two kids: Ingrid age 7 and Dan age 2 1/2. The kids had fun playing in the yard, making bubbles, and watching a little TV (so we could get lunch together). It was fun catching up with Ruthann and comparing kid notes. I hope it won't be another 7 years before we see each other again.

The picture below is supposed to include all the kids, however, Gina and Andrew decided that hiding behind me would be more fun.

Next, off to Montana.

Home from Vacation

We were gone a long ten days with a whole lot of driving. Way too much driving. For only a half an hour on the entire trip were all three kids asleep in the car. Dylan was often asleep as we were driving past some interesting place, so we often just kept driving only to have Andrew start complaining fifteen minutes later and wake Dylan up from his nap.

I loved seeing the countryside along the way. We drove through California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and Nevada and it was interesting to see how the terrain changed along the way.

I will post more about the trip is a day or two with pictures, once I've recovered. The last two hundred miles home were particularly hard. Andrew fell asleep while we were driving in the mountains and woke up in Sacramento soaking wet (this after 3 bathroom stops within 20 minutes). He was completely unhappy at this point and it never really got better.