Road Warriors

Greetings from the nicest QualityInn Suites on the planet! We are in Spokane Valley, Washing ton enjoying another beautiful, overcast day on the road. Yesterday we left home in Montana at 9:30 am and drove to Butte to do some insurance business (Rich had to photograph a beautiful new restaurant we have insured in downtown Butte). Since Laura and Darrin have to work all weekend, Matt drove Gabriel down to Butte from Helena to meet us. We all had lunch at the BK and let the kids play a little. We topped off our gas tank and kept on truckin' with nephew Gabriel (age 13) on board. We arrived in Spokane at 5rpm our time, 4pm local time.

We checked into our surprisingly luxurious hotel (with my $25 employee price) and took the kids swimming. We found a Taco Bell for dinner and talked to Cousin Dave Clark who is the mission president here. He is on assigment in the Spokane North Stake this weekend, but invited us to come stay over at the mission home next Saturday our way home. We weren't going to stop, but we'll change our plans to visit the Clarks!

So we just ate dinner ad snuggled up and watched Animal Planet all night (guess who was soooo excited about that?) and played computer games (we inherited this laptop last week a it's fun--although my typing is even worse on this keyboard). The kids fell asleep later than we thought they would, but our room was so comfy and nice! This morning we enjoyed a full fresh breakfast buffet with eggs, sausage, waffles, yogurt, etc. Now we are packing up to go to the temple and head over to Nana's house in Vancouver (350 miles from here).

The drive was so pretty! There are a zillion little mining towns tucked in crevaces next to the railroad and the highgway, all in dense fir forests with creeks running through them. This is a part of the country I have never visited and I really love it!

Here's a funny surprise: my kids are watching "Atlantis Squarepantis" right now and the King of Atlantis is voiced by none other than David Bowie--yes, Bowie--and it's CRACKING ME UP!

We're all done chugging our Airbourne, so it's time to load the car. Best wishes for a beautiful Sabbath...we'll post more from Vancouver!