100,000

After Rexburg our goal was to stay the night in coeur d'alene. Around 9:00, we stopped for dinner in Missoula, and the girls were looking around saying  "there's a comfort inn! There's a best western! This place looks nice!" So Matt and I conferenced and decided we should stop, let the girls swim at night, and get an early start in the morning. I have looooved being flexible and easy going about where we stop and what we do.

That was the best hotel we stopped at too. The staff was super nice and kept the pool open till after 11 so we could swim (rockstar parents). We met a nice family in the pool that night, the kind of people you just know you'd be friends with. She was so excited about our trip and visiting Laura Ingalls Wilder's homes. 

Then the next morning at breakfast a nice couple told us how beautiful our girls were, and struck up a convo. After a few minutes they said "so are you Mormon?" They had just recently finished 4 years of serving as branch prescient at the MTC and had taught their missionaries that they would just recognize others with the spirit, and that they saw that in us. I am so grateful that after 6 days on the road, we still had enough of a spirit about our family that they could see that. He had 5 children, she had 4, and they were both widowed at a young age, so they had 9 children together. Such a sweet couple. Missoula was good to us. 

And then about 30 minutes after we left, this happened:

We went from 99,999 to 100,000. Our jolly green giant is 9 years old and has 100,000 miles. It's officially old!

100,000 in this rig!

We stopped in coeur d'alene and made sandwiches for lunch, then next stop: ellensburg!

These are Matt's old stomping grounds at good ol' Centeal Washington University. Top pic is the institute building, then a sign at the front of campus. Now they know what two colleges are about.

We also checked another item off of our road trip bucket list by taking a pic of a butterfly. Can't show you where she is, but she's in the pic.

We were almost to our first long stop, and though the trip had been fun, we were ready!

Around dinner time we rolled up to mike and cami's house. Everybody came over and we had pizza for dinner. Frankie was laughing about how joe and Matt look alike. I think the girls were confused the whole time about who was who, who was a brother, cousin, aunt, etc.

Uncle mike took everyone for a fun jeep ride. And it was freezing the whole time. The girls were like "is it summer here?" I guess I should have packed a little warmer for them. Oopsie.