In June of last year we got some news that one of our family members had a major health issue and within days we had decided to move back to our home town to be with them and the rest of our families. **Back story: Waldo and I grew up in the same town, had a few friends in common, went to the same high school for a year, but never met until I moved to Montana. This common home town made for a pretty easy decision to move back since most of our family still lives there.
During the year that we lived in Central California we lived with Waldo’s parents. At first we moved in with them because we only had enough money to move, and needed to save up for a place of our own, we figured we’d be with them for just a few months. After a month or two of living with them, we all realized that we liked living together and so Waldo and I decided to stay longer and work on paying off our debt and saving to buy a house. In March of this year Waldo’s brother and his family moved to Idaho. My In-Law’s visited and decided that they loved the area and decided to move there. Waldo and I were tired of living in our hometown so we decided to tag along. Boise isn’t Montana, but it’s halfway there and so we figured it would be a good stepping stone.
It wasn’t a easy decision for me to make. Lily was finally friends with my niece Olivia and she was starting to form a relationship with my parents, grandparents and sister. This is totally what I wanted for her when we moved there. However we looked up the air quality and crime rates for Madera (the hometown) and Kuna (the Idaho town) and it was staggering. The air quality could range from 1 to 10, with 10 being the cleanest air possible. It would be like breathing brand new air straight from the air factory. Anyway Kuna was like a 7.5, I was so happy. For fun we looked up Whitefish and Kalispell (our towns in Montana) and they were a 6.5 and 7 so I was like holy crap this Idaho town has cllllllllleeeeean air. I nearly fell off my chair when I looked up the Madera air quality, it was a 1.2, I mean that is like breathing tar. I knew the air was crap there, but this amazed me. The crime rate in Idaho compared to California was off the chart too, but the air quality was enough for me to go along with the move.
At the beginning of July a woman put a offer on my In-law’s house and the ball got rolling. We had our u-hauls packed up and left California at the end of the month. It was a whirl wind and I am so glad it’s over. During the packing and moving weeks I hardly took any pictures. It was bizarre. I just had too much other stuff on my mind.
This was at a reststop on the way to Idaho
It really worked out in our favor that Lily still sits backwards in her carseat. She sat next to the door of the u-haul, and I was between her and Waldo. I was able to easily talk to her and give her things to do. If she was front facing it would have been much more difficult.
Right before we left I ran to Walmart and grabbed a few things for Lily that I wouldn’t give to her until we were on the road. She really liked the little magnetic drawing pad and paper, stickers and crayons, but she went gaga for the little potato heads. She played for hours with the potato people, which really surprised me because she won’t mix up the pieces. she knows just what faces go with what hats and boots and there’s no changing it.
When we got to Idaho we stayed the first few days with Waldo’s brother and his family. They have a lovely, large home, but after a few days we decide to find a extended stay hotel until my In-law’s found a house to buy. We found a pretty nice hotel that was more like condos, we lived there for about a week and a half. Then we moved back into Waldo’s brother’s house for a couple of days before we moved into the new house. All in all we moved 4 times in 3 weeks. I am in no hurry to move anytime soon.
I was a little worried about how Lily would do with the move and I have to say that I’m so happy with her flexibility. She asked a few times to go back home (meaning the house in California) and we explained again and again that we had moved and really tried to stress that the only thing that mattered was that we were all together. Wherever the three of us are is home and that made sense to her so she was very happy.
We’ve been in Idaho for 5 weeks now and we really like it. We are finally at a point where we only have to use our phone’s navigation to find where we want to go every once in a while. *For reals how did people deal with new city navigation before smart phones and nav software? It was the best. We are figuring out where to shop, I’m addicted to food co-ops now (a post about this is coming soon) and we have been to the zoo twice. I miss my family like crazy, but this adventure for my little family is amazing.
