Greta and I had a field trip with her preschool group in Green Bluff. We had a little tour and tractor ride and got to pick pumpkins. It was a lot of fun and really cute. This is the second time we've been out to an apple orchard and for some reason it's visiting the apple orchards that makes my heart sick for California. This was something we did every fall with friends. We would always visit Gizdich and pick a ton of apples! While I love Spokane, sometimes it's still really hard. All of the friends I went to Gizdich with were friends! I haven't really gotten to know any of the other families at preschool so they all feel like strangers. Spokane already feels like home, I just wish all my besties would move here too!

Other than the heart sick feeling, we enjoyed the field trip. Green Bluff is so beautiful and it's so close to home. We came home with a box filled with squash, apple butter and a gallon of fresh apple cider. And of course these cute pictures of my Greta girl.

My parents and my sister Alanna came to visit us this past weekend. I feel a lot of gratification having so many visitors. It's like all the years of driving or flying to Canada are paying off. I love hosting family! We feel very fortunate to have had so many dear ones visit us. And there's a few more visits on the calendar!

My parents came to help us with our yard and I mean help with an S.O.S. The yard hasn't been properly cared for for quite some time. There's a ton of large rock in Spokane - a lot of the houses' foundations are built from local rock, like our house. Our house is also literally built upon a rock. About a third of our basement is raw, uneven rock and this rock extends to the side of our house. My parents decided to start by cleaning off that rock. We didn't realize what we were getting into. A couple of feet of packed dirt was on top of that rock. It was dirty, dusty work to get all of it moved off the rock. Now we have a massive pile of dirt in our yard... We were all pretty tired by the end of that adventure and there's still lots left to do.

We made some time for some fun and we walked around some of Manito Park. Gosh, I love where we live.

We promise that we don't work all of our guests this hard! ;)

Holly is participating in Cross Country at school and she had her first "meet" this week. It was the most adorable thing I've ever seen! Oh my goodness! A whole mess of cute kids in their school jerseys just so excited to be there. Holly was all smiles. At the end of it all I asked her what she liked best and her answer was all of it. She said there wasn't anything she didn't like. Win! Holly got to ride a school bus from her school to the park where they raced. That was her first time on a bus and it was a thrill! It's the little things when you're 6 years old. Holly did a great job. We loved cheering her and the other kids on. She totally had a runner's high afterwards. She has one more meet before the season is over and we're all looking forward to it. Long live childhood!

This is why we moved to Spokane. Or one big reason out of the dozen. A long weekend in Yahk. A short drive to spend quality time with my family. Holly and Greta loved it. And I loooooved not feeling stressed about fitting in as much bonding time as possible. It's so nice to be able to feel a little more mellow about family time! That's a major win in my books.

We met my sister's baby, Theia, the girls played with all the pets, Holly and Greta had morning cuddles with their grandparents, wheelbarrow rides from Gramps, story telling, playing with fire, we spent time with my Aunt and Uncle, Uncle Peter gave Holly and mani/pedi, we played games, etc... It was like it wasn't even cold and rainy!

It was a weekend I needed to affirm that we did the right thing. Because let's face it, moving is no joke!

I dropped this little goof ball off at preschool this morning. Just praying that this goes better than swim lessons and ballet and almost everything else I've dropped her off at without her sister. I caught a nasty cold virus so for now I'm resting, but I have a big list of things to do around these house! I'm not going to have any trouble filling up my 5 hours a week that I spend kidless. Honestly, when I typed that it sounds like such a ridiculously small amount of time. Better make the most of it!

Pictures of Greta. Seriously this kid is such a joker!