Fun trip! Segment #1

There are just way too many pictures to post the entire trip in one shot, so you'll just have to enjoy it as we did, a piece at a time. On our quest to see all of the 50 states, we took a trip over the kids "Fall Break" and captured a bit of the Northwest. We left here bright and early Wednesday morning and drove to Spokane, WA. Of course, we hit Idaho and Montana on the way. We had to get out and take a picture of Spencer in front of an exit sign that pointed towards Spencer, Idaho. Because really, how many kids have their names as actual cities? Like Melissa said, "Some kids have all the luck." How do you like my strategic photography? I tried to get the arrow to point right at him.

At a rest stop in Montana, we figured we should get a picture of the family actually in Montana. But then, we had a bit of a dilema. Steve wanted a picture of the family with all of the trees behind, but I didn't want the road in the picture, so I suggested just a shot with some foresty stuff behind us. So, in Steve's attempt to sway me as to the road not really being in the picture, he snapped this picture of me. I know, I look fantastic don't I? Did I mention we got up REALLY early?

But other than the fact that the kids don't look all that great in my shot, I think I was right about the background. Don't you? Okay, whatever, Steve was right...

While in Spokane, we hit the highlight of our trip. We stopped to see my Grandpa who is in an assisted living center there. I about lost it when I saw his room sign.

Michelle and I bought him that hat during my Freshman year at college when we were attending BYU. I'm glad to see that it's still in use.

These are some pictures that we took while on our visit with my Grandpa. You can kind of tell in the pictures that Melissa and I were a little emotional. And just maybe perhaps, my Dad might have been a little emotional because of it (he's behind the camera), but you didn't hear it from me...

Melissa has mentioned to me that she would like to go back some time and visit him, and I actually would like to too. Before we went, I kept hearing about how he's just not himself and what not, but it seemed like there were moments where he was completely himself. He still loves good pie for one, my Aunt had mentioned that he didn't eat a good dinner the last two nights before our visit, but then during our visit ( I went over that night with just my Dad), the nurse said that for dinner that night he had eaten two pieces of pie before dinner followed by dinner and some more pie and ice cream. Then the next morning when we took the kids over, there were quite a few moments of his old personality coming out. In fact when he walked, he couldn't take very big steps, but he certainly had a little "giddy-up" in his stride. And he was constantly on the go, wanting to change where we were sitting, and wanting to go with us "somewhere". Somewhat reminiscent of his spry years. He was always doing something.

When we got home, the first thing our kids wanted to do was make him some more signs for his birthday since the old ones were all falling off the wall. I should have gotten some pictures of those, but didn't think of it before we sent them off. It was a good start to our trip!