Taking on Idaho in a Day

We decided to knock Idaho off our "to-do list" during this trip and because we were in Northern Montana visiting GNP the day before we wanted to stay near Coeur d'Alene. We started the morning with a mine tour... Considering nobody in our family has mining experience outside of Snow White's seven little buddies singing, "Heigh Ho" it was bound to be educational or insightful.

*Note: It was slightly disappointing when Athena missed the Snow White reference, yet at the same time I was relieved.

The tour company we used was the Sierra Silver Mine in Wallace, Idaho and Lenny, AKA the "Smurf" was our guide. He was funny and brought the tour to life. He had a lot of personality for someone so small, hence why he was nicknamed the Smurf. The tour touches on every aspect that went into mining from the air channels, mine shafts, equipment used, miner safety and more. It covered things which seemed obvious and many "Oh, so that's how it works." I would highly recommend The Sierra Silver Mine. The office staff was equally helpful at answering questions.

Our guide, Lenny. He may be heading back into the mines to work again.

I would be lying if I said I did not want to hijack a mine cart and sing, "Heigh ho," it is however, slightly less tempting than driving on a runaway truck ramp in the mountains.

Lex has had the same life motto going on three years, "Not impressed."

No car seats...

 

We arrived back safely, spinal cords intact, thanks to a great driver and few cars in sight.

As we were leaving Wallace, we needed to grab lunch... The idea was to head towards Old Mission State Park and pick up lunch along the way. There was nothing that was not fast food so we decided to head towards Coeur d'Alene and explore the town. We had lunch at the Dockside, I highly recommend for the views alone. The food was decent for a hotel restaurant.

A fun view from our table:) We took a walk around the boardwalk following lunch.

Athena has always had a strong interest in historical sites so I was a bit surprised when the Cataldo Mission was of no interest to her.

Except sarcasm and goofy smiles.

Our family did enjoy walking the grounds and viewing the graves. However, I would not recommend Old Mission State Park to friends passing through unless they have a strong interest in religious history... which we do not.

That said, it was a fun day in the area. I am interested in finding a coal mining tour to explore the differences and similarities in mining styles and we would love to visit Boise in the nearish future.

Idaho, The End

Glacier National Park

We spent the day at Glacier National Park learning about Glaciers, erosion and  wildlife in the park. Glacier is a great park for kidlet hiking. It is estimated by 2030 there will be no glaciers left in GNP. Global warming... Climate change, either way. It's a reminder that we don't always have an endless amount of time to explore with our kids. 

*He should have tossed her in;)*

Tire 'em out

Happy Birthday to me... We celebrated my last year in the 20's by heading to a soccer game and Montana. Go Rapids?!?!?! Surprisingly, it was fun. I guess I could call myself a Rapids fan now:) Husband- pleased.

LA Galaxy won 4-3

Soccer is more exciting than pictures:)

Downsizing

We are in the process of downsizing substantially at the moment. I know people talk about how nice it is to downsize and get rid of everything but it is a challenge.

What do we keep that is sentimental? I've decided to keep the girls coming home outfits from the hospital, one other dress and their "crib" blankets. I will keep Athena's otty, and one of Lex's stuffies.

What do we need? For some reason the notion of getting rid of all of this stuff is difficult when we are physically in a house. I feel like we have more "needs" in the house when in reality, we probably would not need them on an RV.

Should I keep the clothes Lex has not grown into yet? The girls are four years apart... Keeping clothes for four years does not seem that efficient and to be honest, I have not looked through all of the clothes we have in tubs in a year. I'm sure many outfits no longer fit and were passed by.

Do we sell or donate? I know there are a myriad of community garage sale pages on facebook and other places on the interweb but I wonder if the time is worth more than the money? I'm a huge believer in saving money... I'm also a huge believer in maintaining a balance in my life. If I'm selling various things I need to create the time to meet somewhere or be at our house while people want to meet. Part of the reason we are downsizing is because we are rarely home!

To be honest, this process sucks. I'm not a fan of it but I dislike having so much "stuff."

I watch episodes of "Hoarding: Buried Alive" for motivation.

*****To be clear, our house is not dirty or cluttered but it is a good motivational booster. :)

Now if only we can implement a program to keep things from coming into our house... Hmmmm....

Roadschooling to worldschooling transition

I made it through trip number one this summer solo with the girls and we are getting ready to head out in late August for trip number two! This time with an additional three family members, the dad and the doggies but a lot less stuff. (Anyone interested in rabbit sitting?)

Our tentative itinerary is: 

Friday afternoon: Head up to Grand Tetons. 

Saturday: Explore GTNP and collect the Jr. Ranger badge (Athena's hobby.) Drive into Montana. 

Sunday: Relax:) 

Monday: Visit the Cataldo Mission House and a mine tour near Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. The girls will head back to Montana with their grandparents and Jay and I will continue on to Seattle. 

Tuesday/ Wednesday: Jay and I will be in Seattle, drive back to Montana. 

Thursday: Visit Glacier National Park. (Athena wanted me to mention a badge of some sort?)

Friday: Hike and relax. 

Saturday/ Sunday: Drive back to Colorado. 

While on our earlier trip we visited New Mexico, Montana and Wyoming we have not yet visited two educational spots to count each of the states. We hope to knock out Wyoming and Montana on this trip and hopefully NM in the fall. 

Jay and I decided to take a few days to ourselves and discuss the transition from roadschooling to worldschooling with the hopes of finding a transition that is suitable for the entire family unit. The two days will be spent discussing: Do we keep our house? Rent it out? Do we rent an apartment or move directly on to some sort of RV? Do we buy new or used? Do we consider a travel trailer which may be better for fitting our entire family in a larger SUV compared to truck with two dogs in tow? Do we keep the pets? (I'm sure this has to be a YES!) How will we balance cultural immersion vs. knocking off countries? There are many other logistics we need to consider.

We've spent months going back and forth on a plan of attack so to speak so we are hoping it is nearing the end and a final decision will be made by Labor Day weekend at the latest.

Wish us luck! 

Yellowstone: Part Two

Notes from Athena:

I did Young Scientist books at Yellowstone for big kids. I did Canyon Quest and Old Faithful and the Jr. Ranger program. I formed a hypothesis and had to prove it right or wrong. They asked if geysers are alive. I believe are. They are alive because they provide food for the microbes that live there kind of like plants provide food for animals. It is a different type of alive. Some people don't think they are alive but I do. Kayla does not think they are alive. She is wrong. I got two patches at Yellowstone. It is my favorite park. I want to go back again and again.



We came back to Yellowstone for a day and decided to head out. We camped the last night, I woke up needing to use the restroom and looked out the tent to find an inch of snow on the cars and no longer had to pee;) Funny how our brains and bladders work.

We cancelled our last two days of the trip and headed home early but only after the cowboy dinner and wagon ride.

It is against their philosophical beliefs to wear jackets on days it is snowing on and off? There may have been people rolling their eyes and making comments.

I formed a hypothesis: They move. More than you. More than me. When they move, they heat up and no longer feel cold.

The end. 

Athena took a picture of a bear:) She was pretty excited. 

You can not tell but the meltdown she had minutes prior to this was impressive! Toddler- Day 23... Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

The Cowboy cookout. Athena does not eat corn products or meat and Lex will not eat grains and may or may not have a potato allergy so they ate watermelon and steak... Interesting how their GI systems work. 

Lex was proud to sport her geyser badge:) 

Following the cowboy dinner we hit the road back to Colorado. I drove overnight and hit a road called Dead Indian Pass... It was challenging around 10 PM, foggy, and pouring, sleeting with little gas and no cell phone service if there was an emergency. I'm sure it is a gorgeous drive during the day but I think I will avoid it in the future. The name seemed fitting.

We made it home around 6AM the following morning!

Bonus State: Montana

We had a slight issue mid trip that caused us to divert the trip to Bozeman, Montana, while we were there we were able to explore the Museum of the Rockies at Montana State. It really turned out to be pretty "nifty." 

Between watching the museum team work on fossils the girls spent the time playing with the dinosaurs.

The museum lays the fossils out nicely allowing you to see what the muscles would look like on the bones. This may have traumatized toddler. ^Tearful toddlers.

Athena learning to use the loom at the working history farm next to the museum. Athena loves history so this was a bonus win for the day! 

Water wagons... Seriously, they existed? I want one.