spring break road trip

home sweet home, but man we had a fantastic 9 day road trip through 4 states (yes you can be impressed that we did this with a 3 yo and 5yo). we got home last night (and dorothy was spot on...there is no place like home), but we are still smiling from the series of great visits we had with dear friends. so wanted to share a little of our trip with you.

stop number one- missoula, mt.

our friends aaron and caitlin with their little ones emma and wilson. aaron and i were in pa school together and both todd and caitlin had gotten environmental type graduate degrees. needless to say we hit it off. we had our first kids at the same time (riley and emma are a month apart) and then went on to have the second set (wilson is 9months older than lucy). caitlin left the office world when the babes arrived and started her own business making baby slings which i will shamelessly plug www.sproutpouch.com (hers are not the kind involved in the recent controversy). the kids had a blast playing together and the adults got to hang out. great visit, great friends.

stop number two- bozeman, mt

todd's life long friend julie and her boyfriend mike landed here recently and are caretaking a sweet pad (we had our own wing to stay in practically).

it was great to catch up with her and get to know mike. the kids had a great time exploring and julie even took them fishing in the pond in front of her house.

....and proved herself worthy of the rod she was tossing around by landing a little trout much to the kids delight.

we took a gamble and schlepped our skis but it paid off as we had a super ski day at bridger mountain just outside bozeman. lucy went up the lift for the first time and riley cruised the blues with confidence. beautiful sunny day.

lucy up on the lift with mom....

....then cruising down the slopes

and riley showing us all the way down...

stop number three- coeur d' alene, id

our friends erik and myrna with their kids kylie (19yo), makena (9yo) and keilani (4yo) are always fun to visit.

erik is a friend from our africa days (he was not in the peace corps, but was working as an attorney in south africa and let us crash at his pad in durban). he met myrna when he got home and the rest is history. the kids had a fantastic time. the big ones hung out, played soccer and catch (riley was smitten with makena and would follow her anywhere!) and the wee ones spent hours playing dress-up (super cute). the grown-ups got to hang out and chat.....which we so enjoy.

stop number four- othello, wa

we of course had to stop to say hi to our good friends the shelbys. grace, abby and jonathan were the hardest part of leaving othello. always good to see them. just a quick overnight, but worth the stop for the yummy grub grace makes and the hugs.

home stretch of the drive and all worn out....

so today it was back to work for me. back to school for riley. todd spent the day unpacking and putting order back into our home.

waahooo for road trip 2010!!!! happy spring breaks to you too.

almost spring

Spring hasn't exactly sprung, but it's definitely thinking about it. We are getting ready as well and most of our attention has turned to getting the garden prepared. We expanded the garden, doubled it really.

Below is the view from the upstairs window of our backyard. The two large garden plots in the back and over to the left is the chicken coop and yard. The middle of the yard has the remnants of a recent soccer match (Riley I'm sure won).

We found that we needed a fence since we like to have our chickens free-range and they like to bathe and scratch in the lettuce. So fence we made. Sunk the posts, put the fencing on, and Todd built these great gates recycling some old lathe from the walls of our house.

Then Todd recycled the old pump house from the irrigation system (the county redid the system last year and now we don't need the pump), and bought an old window at the rebuild-it center. Voila a cold frame. Ultimately we want to build a green house, but that is realistically a little ways off, so the cold frame will work well for now.

Most exciting was that we planted our seedlings. Lots of everything, (tomatoes, broccoli, greens, peas, beans), oohhh its really gonna be a spectacular garden this year. Lucy loves to water the little seedlings.

oh and look!! The garlic I planted in the fall is looking good so far!

The daffodils bloomed late last week. I didn't get a picture of them because Riley picked a bouquet of them for me. We had to have a little talk about which flowers mommy likes in her bouquets and which ones she likes to leave in the garden.

So next week we are off for spring break. Road trip!! We are visiting friends in Montana, Idaho and a quick stop in good old Othello, Washington! We had to find babysitters for our chickens and for our little seedlings! (so thankful for good friends)

Happy (almost) Spring to you!