Big Sky Country

In the midst of packing, Matt and I drove to Columbia Falls, Montana, for a couple days of relaxation and friends before our move to Seattle. Once we turned our two-bedroom apartment into a studio, we were ready to explore Montana! 

Our first stop was visiting Joanna and Brian in Whitefish at Two Bear Farms. Jojo and Brian showed us the organic farm they're working on and it looks awesome! Jojo was the one who got Matt and I interested in CSAs (community supported agriculture) but I'll get there later. If you want to learn more about organic farming you should check out her blog Suburbs to Soil. After dinner, Jojo took Matt and I to an amazing ice cream place in downtown Whitefish called Sweet Peaks. If you are ever in the area I highly recommend it! Over the course of 5 days I think we had ice cream there 3 times... :) 

Our next stop was Kalispell and Bigfork Montana to see my twin Becca! You can always tell you're best fiends with someone when you see each other twice a year and it seems like you were together yesterday. :) Becca took us on our first hike near Hungry Horse Dam. Unfortunately, the trail had not been used in a LONG time so we ended up bushwhacking most of it until we lost the trail completely. But we still had a great time exploring the outdoors and picking huckleberries!      

After some quality twin time, Matt and I did more hiking in Bigfork and in Glacier National Park. Montana is beautiful! The entire trip Matt kept telling me, "isn't this beautiful? Don't you want to live here? I think we should live here." 

At Glacier National Park we drove the Going to the Sun Road and did two hikes, Logan Pass and Avalanche Lake. We love Glacier - what a beautiful place to hike and admire God's creation. The weather was perfect for hiking and we enjoyed every second! 

At the beginning of Logan Pass

"We're hiking in the snow?!" 

Mountain goat families were everywhere - so cute!

Unfortunately, we had to stop at the overlook instead of hiking down to the lake due to bear danger. I was really hoping to see a wild grizzly bear... from a distance of course... but that didn't happen. Guess we'll have to go again! 

Avalanche Lake Hike 

It's a tree in a tree! Get it? :) 

The night before we left we squeezed in one last visit with Anthony, which was a great way to end the trip. :) We had a wonderful time exploring Montana's beauty and catching up with good friends. I'm by no means a rustic lady, but I think this trip may have put Montana on the possible list of places to live. 

Goodbye Moscow, Hello Seattle!

Oh Moscow. You've been home for a year and we've had a rough relationship. At first I tried to ignore you, but slowly you unveiled all the wonderful things the Palouse could offer. Now, I find myself sad to leave with a long list of things I wish we had done while living there. Oh well. However, Matt and I do have lots of fond memories of Moscow. It will always be a special place for us because in addition to the friends we made, in many ways, Moscow was home of "the first."

As in, the first...apartment we lived in as a married couple... real job I had post-graduation...place I learned how to drive in the snow (and actually enjoyed the snow!)...year of medical school for Matt...camping experience (read more here)...time we participated in a church plant...etc. 

Until we meet again, thanks for the great memories!

Now on to Seattle... hello Pacific northwest :)

The drive over from Moscow was painful. Brown fields were all you could see for miles (and hours of driving). But when we first caught site of Mt Rainier coming out of Ellensburg, it felt like home. It didn't take much time driving in Seattle to encounter the traffic, terrible drivers and remind myself that without Google maps I would be permanently lost.

Overall, Matt and I are very excited to be closer to my family and our friends from PLU! Not to mention how easy it is to recycle and compost here :) We are happy to be settling into our apartment and slowing exploring the Seattle area. It's nice to be back in the northwest.

1st camping trip!

In the midst of a packing frenzy, Matt and I decided to go for an overnight camping trip to get away from all the moving stress. We loaded the car, packed some food and off we went to Elk River, ID! As we've recently discovered, adventures are much more memorable when things don't go according to plan. For example, we misread the cost of the camping site and ended up having to drive back to town to get cash for the night. Of course, the uber small town closed early on Sundays so we scrambled to find a place that was open to get cash. But then we found out that the campground we were at was actually more of an RV camping park, so soft dirt for legitimate camping was non-existent. Thankfully, we brought sleeping pads so it wasn't too bad. We realized the next morning as we drove to hike around some waterfalls in Elk Creek Reservoir that the actual camping site we looked up was two minutes down the road. Whoops! 

Despite the set-backs and the unnecessary long-bumpy-dirt-forest-road we drove to the waterfall, the trip was a perfect break from packing. :) We even had the opportunity to use our awesome REI picnic backpack we received as a wedding gift to have a classy picnic dinner. Hopefully, we'll go camping again before Matt starts school. 

Silly pictures before bed

low falls

middle falls

high fall