There's no place like home

We have steadily left the state every month this year, the last 12 months actually. To keep up our streak we needed an October trip. The original plan was for Hawaii but there were some scheduling conflicts which pushed that trip to Thanksgiving. Since this year is Halsted Thanksgiving and we had a new niece to meet the only reasonable solution was to make sure we did a make-up turkey day. So it was off to Spokane we went! Really had to twist our arms...

We elected to drive to Spokane rather than splurge on last minute airfare. It is amazing how different road tripping is post deer homicide. Constant vigilance! Head on a swivel making sure there are not any suicidal wildlife heading right for us. The tension set in particularly after dark, we were not even speaking we were so busy scanning. Hopefully this paranoia will pass with time. Otherwise the drive went pretty smoothly. Preston was suffering from molar aches on the way there. Poor kid couldn't eat or sleep, you know it is bad if he is passing on food (cake & ice cream excluded). Even with that trauma he did great on the trip. Breaking the drive into 2 days works well for us, nice that we can reflect on the trip and not feel badly about driving the 1800 miles again.

This trip required nothing of us. No place to be, no events to prep for, no plans to really speak of. The only goal was to spend time with some of our favorite folks and meet Keelie. Has to be said that Keelie did not disappoint. Precious little doll who liked being held and took all the kisses, touches and hugs like a champ. She slept through all the chaos no problem! So glad to meet her.

We broke the trip in half spending the the first half with the fam in Rathdrum and the latter half in Spokane with the friends. Besides spending bonding time with our favorite twins we tackled a turkey dinner, parks, bike rides, sushi, shrimp tacos & mojitos, lots of hanging out, attempts at programming switches, refreshing the pumpkins and shuttling the kiddos to school via golf cart. Taking the kids to school was pretty fun, nice way to start the day. However those sneaks bamboozled Karl by convincing her the first day that she HAD to take them into their classroom and meet Mrs. Voss. Nice to meet a teacher while looking like a scarecrow (she woke up late) with drool dried on her face! There will come a day for vengeance...embarrassing them as teenagers should be a snap. Also got to celebrate Regan & Preston's birthdays with a little B&Rs.

Thanne & Omi headed to Florida and it was good timing for us to head into Spokane. We stayed with the Dentlers and were spoiled as usual. They are the perfect hosts and Preston loves hanging out with Owen. We also made sure to spend as much time as we could with the Benavidez family. Rowe is growing up so fast! He can climb anything...seriously anything and is still as cute as ever. Love getting the 3 boys together! Ranger Brown made an appearance as well. We made sure to get in a little biking, parks, shopping, 5 mile pizza parlor, Halloween & 2 yr old portraits (disaster!), poker, carne asada & more mojitos! Mandi even made a cake and we got to celebrate the birthdays again! Pres passed on the cake but still so much fun.

Having such a great time and seeing Pres enjoy the company as much as we did made it very hard to leave. We are back in Rapid and missing home. Thanks for the fun, hospitality & gifts Halsteds, Dentlers, Benavidezs and Brown...can't wait till the next trip.

Sean's Trading Card (coming soon : action figure )

Lil' Ducks Serenade