.beatrice goes to Montana .09.22.16.

The next morning we went to Flathead lake, where we were originally were supposed to be camping the night before. The sun was shinning, but unfortunately the wind was blowing!  We cooked some delicious breakfast, and then strolled around Wayfarers State Park. We took loads of pictures and enjoyed the sunshine, oh and the wind.

When we finally got bored of walking around, we decided to go back up to whitefish mountain resort to go on the adventure park. I turned out of Wayfarers State Park and we drove along Flathead lake enjoying the beautiful views. About 15 minutes later I realized we were driving in the wrong direction!! We turned around and got to see the beautiful views all over again! My bad... 

The adventure park was loads of fun! I did every single course, including the kids ones. You gotta start somewhere right? 

K did the first few with me and then got distracted by another handsome mountain man. To be fair the man had on a bright orange toque, so he was pretty hard to miss. I went on a few more of the courses while K gabbed with her new man.

Finally I got her to come on the intermediate course when suddenly she became scared of heights. I'm gonna chalk that one up to a coincidence, considering the mountain man was watching from below.(just kidding, she was originally scared of heights)

After the horror of the intermediate course K and I did an easy one to increase her confidence in heights once more. Mission failed, we stood on the platform for the final zipline for about 15 minutes waiting for her fears to tame themselves. To be fair the cute mountain men below heckling her wasn't helping. 

 

There was only one course left, the black diamond. K was out, she didn't want to do the black diamond. I don't blame her really, it was extremely tough and painful to complete. K videoed me and laughed at my expense as I slowly made my way through the obstacles, each one harder then the last! 

One particular obstacle was especially difficult. It was a ladder, made out of logs with tiny spaces between them. Sort of like those chains of hotdogs you get at the local sobey's. About the only way I could figure out how to get down was to straddle the log and slowly slide down to the next opening between logs. It was EXTREMELY PAINFUL and I was probably doing it completely wrong, but I made it down and that's what matters!

The second last obstacle was by far the worst. You had to hold on to the rope for dear life and jump your feet over to the platform circle at the bottom of each rope. I was exhausted. I clung to the rope and jumped my feet over the best I could. What seemed like an hour later I finally made it to the end!

 The last obstacle was a "trust fall" similar to the one I went on in chase BC. With the two adventure park guides and K heckling me I opted to go for the actual trust fall instead of just stepping off the platform and gracefully drifting down to the ground. Instead I fell backwards and flopped around like a rag doll. Peer pressure, it's a real thing; don't give in!! 

We were off, on route to find the perfect mountain setting campground. We drove through Glacier National park until the sun set, we picked the first campground we saw and pulled in. 

It turned out to be a little diamond in the rough! Nice clean bathrooms, spaced out campsites and a fire pit. Finally I'd be able to make my campfire meals I'd planned!! 

K made some Mac and Cheese in the van while I messed around trying to get the fire started. I got slightly sidetracked by another campfire activity I had planned, glow stick bubbles. 

Once I realized the bubbles weren't going to work, I moved along to trying to get the campfire food ready!I wrapped the tinfoil around my creation and tossed them in the fire! Once again I was distracted by glowsticks. I cut them open and flung them around,this created a nice "starlight" glow around the campfire. By time K had finished cooking the Mac and Cheese I had used up most of the glowsticks and broke out the sparklers---or sprinklers as I kept calling them. (They sprinkle you with fire, DUH)

After I got our "Campfire Feast" loaded in the fire, we sat and enjoyed the roaring fire; eating our delicious M&C and admiring the stars in the sky (and the fake  glowstick stars on the ground, and all over me). I even started to serenade K with one of our old girls-camp songs "Like the stars" by Jenny Phillips. 

Once the campfire food had finally cooled off we were ready to feast on my "pinsperation dinner/dessert" I slowly unwrapped the pigs in a blanket and this is what I got.....

Thank goodness we had decided to have back-up food!!!

Turns out I suck at almost everything there is to do with campfires. I can barely get a good campfire started without going through mass amounts of matches and fire-starter. I suck at cooking campfire food, and my campfire activity of "glow in the dark bubbles" was also a huge disappointment! Better luck next time I suppose! 

.beatrice goes to Montana .09.20.16.

The bed above the captains chairs in Bea is slightly smaller then the one in Martha was. There's much less head space so if you wake up abruptly you will most likely smack your head off the roof!! Nonetheless it was comfy cozy. I had put a spare memory foam on the mattress and we had lots of blankets to nest in.

The sun streaming through the windows slowly woke us up, I'd opened the blinds overnight because I was too warm in my nest. The air was crisp and a slight fog covered the ground, K and I put on our matching new plaid jackets and set out to roam the campsite. As we strolled along a cute little chihuahua came running up to me, she was slightly bigger then Tia but had the same coloring; her name was Arizona. Her owners stopped to chat with us, I told them about my two girls and we swapped stories about our chihuahua's. They were surprised that Arizona had so quickly warmed up to me, apparently she's usually quite timid! I explained that she probably just smelled the girls on my clothes, but truthfully I am a closet dog whisperer. After chatting for a while about the gorgeous campground and nearby hikes, the couple offered for me and K to borrow their kayaks to explore around the lake!! How extremely kind and generous of them, we graciously accepted their offer.

The lake was a gorgeous turquoise color, the sun was shinning and the only sound was the distance hum of fishing boats out for the morning catch. It was beautiful. We stayed out paddling for almost 2 hours before coming back to visit with our friendly camping neighbors. After an hour of listening to stories about their travels across the states we bid our new friends adieu.


It's so wonderful meeting new people and hearing about their travels. One of my favorite parts of camping is you are surrounded by a lot of like minded, very friendly people who love to sit and visit for a while; one of my favorite pastimes.


Next we headed into Eureka to get some much needed brunch! My friend from work had also recommended a "mom and pop shop" in town that had great breakfast, Cafe Jax !

We got milkshakes with our breakfast, because when you're on vacation; calories don't count!! Cafe jax was filled with history from the small town of Eureka. The walls were covered in signatures and old photographs, it was truly a classic American diner! K and I basked in the small town atmosphere and decided to explore around the town a little more instead of going on a hike like we planned.

We walked up and down main street stopping in every store and admiring the "false front" historic buildings. We loved that all the stores were in these old-fashioned buildings, it gave the small town such character. Antiqued false front buildings, adorable decor shops, the beautiful colors of fall and the crisp mountain air mixed with warm glowing sunshine, I was truly in my happy place. 

 

After hours of strolling around Eureka we decided to head into Kalispell to do some more window shopping. We were pleasantly surprised to find another "Historic" Main Street! Again we strolled up and down the street, stopping in every store and gushing over the treasures each one held. The shops were so diverse; decor, knitting, thrift stores, western wear, antique's and even a Christmas decor shop. At the end of the main street there was even a gorgeous church, the St. Mathews Catholic Parish.

After a few stops at some American stores like Target, TJ Maxx, and the classic Walmart, we headed to our campsite in Columbia Falls. While K was catching up on keeping our parents informed about our daily adventures, I took advantage of some free time to change out the stereo in Bea. K, sneaky as always, took this video of me while I maneuvered the cords around the dash.

Unfortunately the stereo I had was too big for the dash, so I put the old one back in and cleaned up my mess while K made supper. We had delicious home (or Van) made mac and cheese.

It was getting chilly outside so we relaxed on the van, reading and catching up on social media before drifting off to sleep.

.beatrice goes to Montana .09.19.16.

K and I had planned to go on a road trip down to Montana in Martha. I had kept it a secret from K that I had bought Bea and sold Martha, so when I picked her up I had her younger sister take a reaction video of K seeing the new van! 

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After running a few last minute errands around town we were on our way to Montana!! Our first trip to the states without our parents, we had truly reached adulthood! The 4 hour road trip down to Montana was filled with lively conversations. Mostly my new favorite past time of asking/answering lots of deep, personal, and hopefully soul searching-ly motivating questions! We talked about our goals and things that we aspire to be some day. We talked about how grateful we are to be single and independent. Sometimes it is a little lonely, but it is also incredibly empowering to be completely happy on your own. We also discussed the things we'd like to learn to do! K wants to learn new knitting patterns and to learn how to make new things, like mittens and slippers for her best friend! I'd like to learn to make beautiful patchwork quilts, and also to play the ukulele which has been comfortably living in my closet! 

I love going on road trips late at night with friends! There's no social distractions so you get to spend multiple hours with your friends just talking! Something that our busy lives can sometimes take away from us. I love the opportunity to just sit down and visit, taking the time to learn more about your friends through asking questions which lead to deeper conversations. 

Finally at 2 am we crossed the border!! The border patrolman was very direct and cold, my mom had warned me about this behavior so I was prepared. I answered all of their questions plainly and didn't try to make small talk. After shinning a flashlight around in the back of the van the gentlemen handed me our passports and said "that's all". We did it!! We officially made it across a border and we're off on our new adventure!! 

A friend from work had told me about this great camping spot that was free and absolutely beautiful on lake Koocanusa. It was pitch black out when we arrived so we picked a spot close-ish to the water and climbed up into bed! Slowly falling asleep while chatting about how excited we were to be out on our own, seeing the world one road trip at a time. 

I couldn't wait to see what our campsite looked like during the day!

Beatrice

Introducing Beatrice or Bea for short! 

The day I picked up Bea was a very memorable day, for good and bad reasons. The morning started with a deep clean of Martha, I ripped out the terrible stick on carpet the previous owner had put on. Which left this wonderful stuck on mess!! Luckily I was able to scrape off the adhesive for the carpet with a small chunk of 2X4 wrapped in a cloth. The linoleum floor underneath was actually much nicer then the junky carpet which made sweeping/mopping much easier! Dad helped me tidy out all the junk we had accumulated after our trip to BC and I began to deep clean. 

4 hours later, she was done! Martha sparkled inside and out and was packed up and ready to go! I picked up M from school and we headed straight to get Bea

We had a fleet!! Since Martha was much tippier to drive, I let M drive Bea back to my house. It was pouring rain and rush hour, so I watched her closely in the rear view mirror. On the first right hand turn the exterior storage drawer slid open!! People were honking and waving their arms frantically to tell us that the drawer had slid open. We pulled over and pushed it back in, the keys to latch it in place were unfortunately buried somewhere in the van so we chose to carry on. 3 more stops on the side of the road to push the drawer back in and we were finally to the house!

We dropped off Bea and took off to run some errands and go to the movies! Since I was trying to sell Martha that weekend we didn't have any other vehicle to drive that weekend, just camper vans. Unfortunately WEM doesn't have "uncovered" parking close to the theater doors, so M and I parked about a thousand miles away and walked through the rain to get to movies. 

When we got home from the movies, something terrifying happened. We walked in the door and everything seemed normal, the dogs were overly excited to see us and we're jumping around. M and I began to get ready for bed when all of a sudden Mia started running upstairs and barking at me then running back down the stairs. Usually when she's excited that we're home she will run around like that so I didn't think anything of it, the only difference is she usually won't bark, and Tia is usually right along side her running back and forth. It took about 3 cycles of Mia barking at me for me to go downstairs to see what was going on! 

Tia was on the ground wheezing and wouldn't stand up. She was staying low to the ground and anytime you tried to get her to stand up she would panic and start screaming. I panicked. My precious angel was in pain and I didn't know what was wrong. I screamed up the stairs for M, I needed help I had no clue what to do!

While M consoled Tia I quickly googled any Vet clinic I could find. All of them were closed. Finally I found a 24 hour emergency vet hospital, I called them immediately and they told me to bring her in as soon as possible! M and I bolted out the door and got to the hospital as fast as we could. I was bawling my eyes out the whole time, I was so scared that I was going to lose my baby girl. 

A few weeks prior she'd had to see the vet to have her anal sac drained, it had become plugged and was backed up so much that it could have burst. The vet had told me that if that happened she could have required surgery. All these things were racing through my mind as I weaved through traffic, tears streaming down my face. M tried her best to console me but my mind was too scattered to hear her soothing words. We burst through the doors of the vet clinic and I tried to explain to the lady what was happening. I'm sure I was a complete blubbering mess and she couldn't understand what I was saying, but luckily they immediately took us to an exam room and a vet assistant came to check Tia. She said she would get the vet right away and that M and I could go wait in the waiting room. 

We made it, we got to the vet in time and now Tia was in the care of professionals. My pounding heart began to calm down and the tears slowly stopped. M passed out on the couch beside me while Mia was cuddled up on my lap ready to pounce and lick my face if I started crying again. The tears came in waves and every time Mia was right there wagging her little tail and attacking my face with kisses! She's a very caring dog and whenever she senses someone is upset she attacks them with as much love as she can give. I hugged her tight and prayed that Tia would be okay. 

3 hours later they finally called us in to see the vet. By the time he had got to see Tia she had calmed down and was no longer displaying the behavior I had called in about. He told me it was simply a meet panic attack. I was furious, for 3 hours they kept me waiting with no updates whatsoever. For 3 hours I sat on that couch panicking that my little girl was surely dying in the room across from me. The vet told me I should have brought her in sooner so they could have diagnosed what was happening yet she sat in the exam area with a vet tech for 3 hours before the vet bothered to come and diagnose what was wrong. I held my sweet angel tight and drove home, she didn't leave my side for the entire weekend.

What was a very happy day had quickly turned into a scary night where I thought I was about to lose a very important part of my life