It's official...

...we're moving to Portland, OR!

We're so excited to be closer to Dave and Karmin, and all the cool folks we've met at the LIFE is Good conferences. While we'll miss Jackson -- it has been just shy of 16 years!!! -- we're excited about the change.

Bret will be working for City of Portland (Bureau of Environmental Services) and flys out on August 20 to begin work the 22nd. He'll fly back to Jackson on the 29th to drive back out with the girls, cats dog and me (for some reason, I blanched at doing the drive solo...can't imagine why...).

We should arrive in Portland on the 31st of August and move into the house that has been owend for almost 20 years by the midwife who caught Vivian. I'll post photos once we finalize things with her. It's in a cool, older neighborhood about 2 miles from downtown/Bret's office, and within walking distance to several neat shops/parks/etc.

So...advance apologies if I'm slow to respond to an email...or if blog doesn't get updated much in the next few weeks...but we're weeding out stuff and packing...WAHOO!

Google Maps rules...

...but they don't travel with kids. Ten hours 16 minutes I was told to get from our hotel in Dillon, MT to our hotel in Mt. Vernon, WA. My plan was to drive to Spokane, WA (approx. 5 hours from Dillon), go to the children's museum or waterfront area (arrive around 1 pm) and spend 1.5 hours there, and then 5 more hours and arrive at said hotel.

Sabine and Vivian's plan was a little different. We made it almost 2 hours when they requested a stop...so we ended up at a rest stop where Bret took the girls "fishing" while I made sandwiches...(OK, so we didn't leave Dillon till 10:45 am...minus one really cool bedrail, which coincidentally used to belong to the friends who are house sitting in Jackson for us right now...they moved to CA last December...) but hey, I didn't have to carry it up to the hotel tonight! (My glass is half full...of G&T).

After that stop, we found several interesting things to look at during our drive, including the sprawling ranch type place that had MANY giant statues of various animals (giant bull, eagle with spread wings, etc. you get the idea, right?) and then...something else...Bret and I both saw it, so it must have happened. It was an alien spaceship statue with an alien exiting the ship. Really. OK then. Toto, we really aren't in Kansas anymore.

After that, at mile 242 (yes, we took notes...) we saw that we were leaving the "Apple Maggot Quarantine Area"...thank goodness all went well...

So, we made it to our destination...14 hours later...and oh so GRATEFUL for the time change...love gaining an hour...

Trust me on this...

Dillon, MT is a lovely two-stoplight town...but not where you want to go shopping for a swimsuit. (Guess what I forgot to pack for myself?)

Road trip

Ok...just asked Bret what the title for this post should be and we both simultaneously said..."Road Trip" so there it is...we're on our way to Cedar Beach Resort on Salt Spring Island, BC.

We left Jackson at 7:40 after attending book release party for good friend Shawn Klomparens most excellent novel Jessica Z (available here). Bret and I enjoyed the delicious food, chatting with friends, chasing children and talking in half-finished sentences. Not sure we remember how to finish a sentence, actually...now where was I...?

One big hit of the party was Vivian's new Dollar Store baby (almost as strange looking as her other baby...) in his shirt pocket (could that be considered attachment parenting?)...it is, of couse made in China, and flops over at the waist, so you can imagine how that looks...well...you'll have to imagine because the camera was buried in the car, under Bret's upright bass.

I know, not many people take their upright bass on vacation, but there we are. We do after all, have a mini van, so why not. BTW, said minivan (2000 Toyota Sienna) got 24 MPG on our way here...and the bass is only a small part of our cargo...

We're in Dillon, MT, heading to Mt. Vernon, WA tomorrow night...

Good road trip juju...findinging a playground in Roberts, Idaho. Sabine had been asking to get out of the car for a few miles, and we couldn't find a good spot...I was voting for the vacant weed-filled lot between the Mint Bar and the rail road tracks, but Bret kept on driving. We pulled over in a spot with grass and a fence, and then saw the old school playgroud with merry-go-round, steel 12" wide slide (not to be confused with those static-generating-shock-your-child-when-you-catch-them-plastic-things), and monkey bars with fireman poles 9' tall. Yes. Also lots of bushes for the female bathroom breaks...Very fun.