The Card Family Blog: What's been happening?

View of Gallatin Mountain Range from Bozeman

We have not posted much over the past 6 months, but there has been lots happening. As most of you know (probably everyone who reads this blog), Nate accepted a new position as the Patrol Captain in Bozeman, MT in early June. And so the whirlwind began . . . .

We were excited to move to such a beautiful place and to begin the next chapter for our family. We decided to build our new home in Bozeman. We started working with the builder right after the foundation was put in place, so we were able to make decision about colors, carpet, cabinets, upgrades, closets and more. The photos in this blog post show the progress of our home. We moved in a month ago which has been awesome, but I am jumping ahead.

Since we did not want to miss out on summer, we created an Oregon Bucklist and made plans to have lots of family fun before moving. We went took the boys to the zoo, camped on the Oregon Coast with friends, visited friends in eastern Oregon, went white water rafting, ate at our favorite restaurants, ran Hood to Coast, and enjoyed Hood River. And most importantly, we got to see lots of friends along the way!

Nate and the dogs (Aspen and Walnut) moved to Bozeman in early August and so the transition began for our family. The boys and I stayed in Hood River hoping that we could minimize the time our family stayed in a hotel. We started really preparing for the move after Nate left, but still got to see lots of friends and neighbors. We made sure to visit our favorite parks and trails before leaving. The boys and I moved to Montana in mid-September. As soon as we arrived, we turned around and travelled to the East Coast to share in weddings and baptisms with friends and family.

Once we arrived back in Bozeman, we started to explore our new town. We found great parks and activities for the boys. We spent 5 weeks in the Residence Inn, and we were fortunate to have lots of the staff help our family along the way. Although I am not sure that they miss having two toddler boys running around the hotel all the time. Overall, we have been enjoying Bozeman so far and can't wait to discover more as we get settled.

And through it all, the boys keep growing and changing. Everett turned one! Everett is officially walking full time and even says a few words, mostly "Ut Oh!" and "Dank ooo (Thank you)." Gavin understands so much these days - nothing gets past him. He is constantly amazing us with all he knows and sees. Gavin is loving the new neighborhood because there are three other little boys his age.

So, I am hoping to catch up with blogs posts from the beginning of this adventure and get current before the end of the new year (an early New Year's resolution of sorts). We will see how far I get, but one can dream. Right now, I am home unexpectedly with a sick kiddo and should be unpacking, but this seemed like a lot more fun.