Our Last Days of Endless Summer

 The days are short for us in Corpus Christi, and with them, the almost endless season of summer. In South Texas, the hot summer lasts from June to October, and then mild summer sticks around the rest of the year. It snowed here once, but that was an extremely rare occurrence. A week from today we'll be driving north for another cross-country move. The word we're hearing is it's already spitting snow in parts of Montana, so winter is coming quickly for us. While we're still here, we figured we'd better take advantage of the heat. Nolan wanted to go to Seaworld for his birthday, we went with friends to the dirt track one more time, and of course we headed out to Port Aransas to catch the waves...

Texas has been good and we'll miss the beach, but I have a feeling it won't be our last ocean day!

An Eight Year Old

It's always hard to believe when kids reach the next age and you always think, "How did that happen?" But it does and it has. Nolan turned 8 years old this month. He's in Second grade, growing like crazy, harassing his brothers, still his mother's baby, not the best dinner eater, always hilarious, always up for about anything, and generally the best behaved of the three. He enjoys a good bowl of mac & cheese, an endless round of Minecraft, riding his scooter around the block with the dogs, and otherwise just being a carefree kid. We can't imagine life without him! Here he is, in all his glory!

He may be just a little crazy, but we're crazy about him!

An Unexpected Vacation

Things change quickly sometimes when you least expect it. After more than seven years in Texas, an opportunity came up at work that's going to send us back north, and back to where we started. It wasn't something we were actively looking for, even if it often came up in the back of our minds. Several years ago we put in for a transfer back to Montana and it ultimately didn't work out. Management here wasn't in favor of it and budget restraints kept any transfers from happening for a couple of years, so we moved on and figured we'd be in Texas for the long haul. But there's something that's said about best laid plans. Montana came looking for us and made an offer we didn't refuse. While there's the difficulties of leaving behind friends and the "known" of Portland, there's the benefit of family and familiarity on the other end. The offer came almost exactly 14 years after we left... and that feels like a lifetime, a lot of which was detailed on this blog and written from many different rooms across multiple states. I'll forever be thankful for the journeys we've been able to take, the experiences we've been able to have, and the people who've been there for us in every place we've stopped along the way. We may be going back home, but we're still going on to the next adventure! Anyway, to get ready for the upcoming move, we took a trip to Missoula for a week to get an idea of where we were going to live. Here are some of the highlights... 

It's fun flying during a pandemic...

Grandpa Bill lost his shoe in the creek which led to Aunt Kelly getting attacked by murder hornets...

They all had a blast hiking to the M in the cold rain... if you can't tell.

Spent some time riding and running around the Miller Farm!

If nothing else, there will be an abundance of cousins to spend time with when we get back to Montana!

New School Year, New World

The boys started back to "school" in late August in this new world of the pandemic we're living in. Continuing on from the spring, they're still doing online or "distance learning" school from home. It's fairly low-key, but not without its challenges. Paul can mostly do everything on his own, Adam doesn't normally have a lot of work, and Nolan seems to be the busiest. Either way, they've adjusted well and are doing great, despite the strange circumstances. It's definitely been a year of togetherness... as the five of us have been here together, day in and day out for about six months now. Honestly, it's been easier than expected and will probably be something we're thankful for when we look back on this crazy year!

Gotta start the day off right with a berry smoothie!

Loving every minute of it!

Even started doing some driver's ed from home! Why not??

And of course... recess?