The Road to Canada

The first weekend of August we went to Canada for my cousin's wedding. Hunter's first international trip! It was quite the adventure.

We left Thursday morning around 10 am after getting everything ready and having breakfast. Normally from Idaho Falls it takes about 10ish hours to drive to Calgary. Totally doable.

Not this time.

We were on the road for about 3 hours, about 20 miles south of Butte, when we the Escape started making some not-so-good sounds. We kept listening, trying to figure out what it was, all the while I was praying in my heart for Heavenly Father to just let us know if we needed to pull over or if we would be okay to keep going until we got to Butte. The oil light came on, so we immediately pulled over. (Prayers are answered.) TJ looked at the oil and it looked fine, there were a few splatters, but nothing really of concern. So we called my uncle Jeff who is a mechanic. He listened to the noise for just a second over the phone and said we were stuck, shouldn't run it anymore, and we needed to call someone. The noise we were hearing had gotten to be a pretty deep clunking noise. Every single person that listened to the vehicle, or that we told what the noise sounded like, said "that's not good" or something similar. Awesome. Thanks for the confidence boost!

Luckily we have AAA, so we called them and they said they'd have someone out to tow us in to Butte in about an hour. Blessings truly come in times of trial. Blessing #1 - Hunter was an angel the whole time. He didn't get fussy or whiney or anything. He was just happy as can be. Blessing #2 - TJ and I were just able to laugh at the situation. We weren't frustrated or upset, we just laughed. Blessing #3 - we were very prepared with snacks etc. Blessing #4 - AAA!! We'll get to more blessings in this story...

About an hour later the AAA guy came and towed us in to Butte. Hunter's first time riding in a tow truck!

The tow truck dropped us and the Escape off at an auto shop and the mechanic guy listened to it for a second and asked, "Where you guys goin?" We replied, "Calgary." He said, "Not in this car!"

Our engine was blown. We needed a new engine. He told us that, without tearing the engine apart, it sounded like a rod had let go in the engine. He said it'd probably be between $3000 - $5000, and he probably couldn't get to it for 3 or 4 weeks, plus it takes a while to replace an engine once he did get around to it. 

So we were stuck. In Butte, Montana. What do we do now?!

We spent quite a bit of time on the phone with our insurance trying to figure out what they could cover etc. and then even more time trying to go over all our options (which were many.)

Sitting in our broken car. Hunter thought it was really fun to sit in the cup holders.

Hunter started getting antsy so I took him over to Staples to run around and tear everything off their shelves. I could totally work at Staples as a shelf stocker. I'm pretty good at it now. 

After a while we went back to the auto shop and hung out there for a while exploring our options. We eventually decided that we would just rent a Uhaul and trailer and tow our car back to Idaho Falls, jump in the truck and head up to Canada.

Blessing #5 - there was a HUGE storm that rolled through Butte while we were in the auto shop. If we weren't surrounded by mountains I would have been convinced it was a hurricane. I'm really grateful we were in a shop at that time, not on the side of the road. And Hunter had a great time playing with all the fun things in the auto shop :) I was pretty exhausted from chasing him around etc.

Blessing #6 - Random guy at the auto shop who gave TJ a ride to the Uhaul place. I honestly don't even know why the guy was there, but he was super nice and offered to drive TJ up the road a few miles to get the Uhaul.

Blessing #7 - we got the ONLY Uhaul and the ONLY trailer. Granted, it was the biggest Uhaul you can get, and we literally could have fit the Escape in the back of it, but hey, we'll take it!

After TJ got the Uhaul back to the auto shop he got the Escape all secured and we were on our way. Since we'd been in Butte for 4 HOURS we decided we'd stop and get something to eat, then we hit the road. We made some great memories rocking out to the radio in the Uhaul.

 Hunter was again an angel and slept for about half the way home to Idaho Falls.

We got to Idaho Falls at 10 pm, switched all of our stuff from the Escape over to the truck, crammed all 3 of us in the front seat and took off on the road again! Round 2!

Blessing #8 - we had another mode of transportation. Yes, I sat in the middle "seat" of the truck that was barely big enough for my hips to squeeze onto and only half a seat-back for the entire way to and from Canada, but I'm super grateful we had another way to get there. And really, we made some great memories :)

We made it to Butte about 1:00 am and got a hotel for the night.

The next day we drove the rest of the way up to Canada. We finally made it!

So our adventure looked something like this:

We went from this

To this

To this

To this!

I am so glad we made it up to Calgary. We had an awesome time up there. More blog posts on our trip soon!

Family Photos

Just after Hunter's birthday we went and took some family pictures. It was a bit of an adventure trying to find good lighting as well as keep Hunter entertained, but we got some good shots!

We also got some funny and awkward shots...haha. A bug flew into my eye right as the picture was being taken.

 I think this looks so funny. So rigid and awkward.

I'm glad we were able to get some good photos, too ;)

We took quite a few breaks to let Hunter play :)

We also took some 'one year old' photos of him. I think these 2 are my favorites :)

I love documenting our family. It's so fun to look back at pictures and see how much we've changed/haven't changed. So go take some family pictures! ;)

12 months

In celebration of Hunter turning 13 months today (yay!) I'm finally posting the 12 month post. Haha!

All about Hunter at 12 months old:

He is the silliest boy

He thinks he's really funny

He has the greatest smile

He is so happy

He hardly ever cries. If he's fussy or crying, there's usually something wrong

He LOVES to eat

He shrieks and squeals when he gets excited

He gets really excited when Dad comes home from work

He nods in agreement with most things and has the funniest little bobble head movements

He has lots of auburn hair - we get comments on it all the time

He is walking!! A few days before he turned one he decided he could walk a few steps from TJ over to me. Within a couple days he could walk across the room no problem.

Alright, enough talk, here are some pictures!

He entertains me all day long with the faces he makes

 He is getting better and better at making bigger and bigger messes :) in less time.

 I am pretty cool to hang out with during the day, 

 but Dad is the real fun one! There's just something about dads. They are way more fun than moms sometimes. This particular activity was launching an elephant toy off the inflated bag by Hunter kicking it as hard as he could (with some help from TJ).

 Ripping up magazines

Flying

Dog wrestling over a dog

Going for rides in his "car" aka diaper box. Clearly this is a favorite around here.

 This was on Father's day. These two really are the best of buds.

Hunter loves other kids. There is a little playground right outside our place and whenever he sees other kids out there he shrieks and squeals with excitement! He loves to look out the window :)

 He is still a great sleeper (minus teething. Oh how I loathe teething.)

 Playing with empty cartons/boxes is a great activity

 He thinks it's really funny to put something in his mouth and crawl around, kind of like a dog.

 Have I mentioned this kid LOVES to eat?! He does. A lot. And it's wonderful. He even licked the spatula from the lasagna we had.

This was another night when we made some chicken salads. Notice Hunter's plate. He didn't eat all of it, but he ate at least a good 3/4 of it.

One day I gave Hunter a cheese stick to play with while I was making lunch. When I opened the fridge to get something else, Hunter beelined it to the fridge, opened the drawer, and to his delight found ANOTHER cheese stick.

 Sometimes you just need ALL your stuffed animals crammed in your car with you.

Other times it's more fun to be the driver :)

 He figured out how to stack blocks and build towers by himself! He was so excited about it.

 Goggle girl is so cool, Hunter had to try out the look ;)

 One night TJ went out on a jog and took Hunter with him. He was zonked out when the got home :) so sweet!

Sweet bedhead.

 The cutest curls!!

 When it's 95 degrees and you don't have a/c, the best seat in the house is in front of the fan on the cool tile floor wearing nothing but a diaper.

Bless the day our a/c unit came!!! Hunter thought the packaging was super fun.

 Showing off his skills - walking with a box on his head!

Happiness :)

This was truly the fastest year ever! We are so grateful to have Hunter in our family.