We've Arrived in Montana

Well, we made it safe & sound in Kalispell, Montana. We packed up our house in Santa Fe & loaded everything onto an ABF semi-truck on Aug 13. On Aug 16 we flew to the east coast for our annual vacation on Cape Cod to visit Ian's mom. We had a great time playing at the many beaches there. One of our favorite beaches is on Pleasant Bay, which we call Shayna's beach where the kids can try to catch little minnows & see horseshoe crabs. Another beach is called Skakit Beach where you can walk out almost a mile when the tide is out, and then there is Nauset Beach on the Atlantic Ocean. This beach is fun, but cold & sometimes dangerous as the waves tend to knock down little kids & tumble them around, but Sammy loved it! This is also where we go for our annual treat of fried onion rings. Ian & Sammy went to Sundae School for ice cream. We then drove up to Washington, New Hampshire for a family reunion where Ian met some of his 2nd cousins that he had not seen in 20 years or so. Many of them have children, so our girls have some wonderful 3rd cousins. Samantha had a blast playing with Alexis & Jennifer, younger cousins; and did not want to leave them, but we hope to make it to next year's reunion where the girls can all play together again. Ian left the reunion early to fly back to NM to get his car & drive like crazy to Montana. He started his new job on Aug 26. After the reunion, the girls & I drove to Wells, Maine to visit a friend of mine with two kids. Her son is only 4 days older than Samantha. Then we flew home on Aug 26, packed up our car to overflowing, with boxes in the roof bag, in the back, in the front seat and even at the girls feet. We left Tuesday, Aug 26 from Santa Fe & arrived in Kalispell on Friday, Aug 29. We stopped in Fort Collins, CO to have lunch with Ian's sister, Geri. We stopped in Wheatland, WY to say hi to my step-mom, Ann (my dad was not there for this stop) and we stayed overnight with my great aunt & uncle in Missoula, MT (Dick & Pauline). My other great aunt & uncle, Linda & Harley were visiting in Missoula at the time, as well as my great uncle Sonny.
My mom arrived in Kalispell on Friday as well just a couple of hours after we arrived. She is here to see us & to help. We plan to look at house rentals on Tuesday after Sammy is in school. By the way, that is her 1st day of school here and her 7th birthday.
We attended a recommended church, Fresh Life, which is pastored by Levi Lusko. His dad is the pastor at Calvary ABQ and Levi knows most of the pastoral staff from our church in Santa Fe, Calvary Santa Fe. There are many ABQ transplants at this church here in Kalispell, so we should feel right at home.
Today we took a drive up to Columbia Falls, just 12 miles away, to visit with another of my great aunt & uncles, Carl & Caroline. It's wonderful to have family so close. Their daughter, Linda, my 1st cousin, once removed is close to my age and comes to visit often, so I'll get to see her more often. Her kids are close to Sammy's age, so it will be fun to meet them soon. After visiting in Columbia Falls today, we drove up to Big Mountain aka Whitefish Mountain in Whitefish. One lift was running taking people to the summit in either a ski lift chair or gondola. We chose the gondola as we were not dressed warmly for the chair. The views from the summit were pretty amazing and it looks like a great resort for snowboarding and it'll only be about a 20-30 min drive away.
Our cell #'s changed as our t-mobile phones didn't have coverage here, so for now Ian's cell # is 406-885-0962 and Robyn's is 406-885-0963. Ian will be getting a new cell phone from work so his # will change and Robyn will inherit the 0962 #. Our address for now is PO Box 7984, Kalispell, MT 59904.