Whitefish, MT (Day 2)

Tuesday, September 17

It’s funny how we’ve found a routine … even while traveling on the road.

Andi and I typically wake up before the kids, but the day officially starts when Aden gets up around 7:00am. (Tory would sleep until 9:00am if we let her.) One of us starts a cartoon for Aden on the T.V. in the back of the RV and he lays in bed watching that while Andi or I transforms Aden’s bed back into a table.

Then, it’s breakfast time. By now, we’ve made enough noise that Tory wakes up and climbs down her ladder from above the cab. The kids have oatmeal or frozen waffles if I’m cooking breakfast, or a heartier eggs, sausage and hash browns if Andi is at the stove.

Sometimes, I exercise outside our RV while the kids are having breakfast and some days I don’t. It’s been raining a lot since we arrived in Montana, so that often deters me. Also, my back is still giving me a lot of trouble.

After breakfast, I get the kids dressed / teeth brushed and then it’s time for school. Tory is great at working independently on the iPad for part of her lessons while I work with Aden on letters & numbers, reading and writing. Aden is also making a weather graph and we’ve been talking a lot about “yesterday,” “today,” and “tomorrow” — specifically in regard to our travels (where we’ve been, where we are, and where we’re going next).

After I finish teaching Aden, he runs outside to help Andi with whatever RV project he’s working on while I finish school with Tory. Tory started writing letters about our travels to my cousin Jen’s 2nd grade class in Nebraska which has been a fun & easy way to get Tory to journal. We’re also learning cursive writing (Tory says that’s her favorite subject) and we’re taking an online Spanish class together.

The instructional part of our school day is usually wrapped up by 10:00am, and then the four of us set off to adventure in whatever town we’re in that day.

This morning in Whitefish, Montana our day was no different. We finished school around 10:00am, and then hopped on our electric bikes and rode to The Wave Fitness Center about a mile away from our campground. Andi bought a day pass and offered to take the kids swimming at The Wave while I got a massage. After 10 days, my back was still bothering me, so I hoped a massage would help.

It was a chilly, rainy morning in Whitefish, so I biked downtown to the massage studio as quickly as I could. The therapist at Bare Your Soul Massage did a great job and my back felt a lot better after my session. Meanwhile, Andi sent a text to meet him and the kids at Loulu’s Cafe for lunch. It sounded like they had a fun time swimming at the fitness center that morning.

Loulu’s was a fantastic breakfast / lunch spot. It was busy! We arrived just in time to grab a table before the big lunch rush. Andi heard from someone he met at the fitness center that Loulu’s chicken tenders were to die for, so that’s what he and the kids ordered. I had a veggie omelet.

The crunchy buttermilk chicken tenders were delicious! I may have stolen a bite or two of Tory’s for sampling purposes. The restaurant is also famous for their homemade pies, so the four of us split a piece of apple pie a la mode for dessert.

After lunch, Andi biked back to the RV Park by himself because he had some work calls that afternoon. I put both kids on my electric bike and we rode to Stumptown Arts Studio in downtown Whitefish to paint pottery. Both Tory and Aden love arts & crafts and we haven’t had much of an opportunity to do any on this trip, so they were both thrilled when they got to pick out a piece of pottery to paint on their own.

We spent two hours at the arts studio painting pottery. Music was playing in the background as Tory, Aden, and I painted and talked. It was a perfect place to spend the afternoon. It ended up being a pricy activity though! The studio wasn’t firing pottery until later that week (after we planned to leave town), so I had to pay extra to have our pieces shipped back to Wisconsin. Oh well, the kids really enjoyed this activity.

I did my research and found a cool activity at the Whitefish library called R.E.A.D which gave kids the chance to read to a trained therapy dog, and I thought that would be something Tory and Aden would like to do. They love going to the library and reading to a dog while they were there would be icing on the cake! I didn't realize until we arrived though, that the R.E.A.D program was a private reading session with a dog and I was suppose to make an appointment. Fortunately, there wasn’t anyone signed up for the 3:30pm time-slot so we were able to read to a dog named Ande.

Tory selected a 62-page (!!) Dr. Suess book to read to Ande The Dog. She did a fantastic job reading to him, and Ande was very attentive listening to her story (as he is trained to do). Tory is not a big dog lover, so this activity was perfect because the dog was very calm and allowed her to practice reading without any nervousness.

Since Aden can’t read yet, he and I tag-teamed reading a Fly Guy book to Ande. Then the kids got to take their picture with the dog and each take home a special Ande The Dog bookmark.

We spent another 30 minutes at the library reading independently in the children’s area after our session with Ande was over. It’s a struggle to get Tory to sit down and read by herself, so when she asks to sit down with a book I’m all for stopping everything and allowing her to do so!

While we were at the library, Andi sent a text to say he was buying groceries. Turns out, he bought too much and had a hard time fitting it all on the bike to return to the RV. I offered to meet him there to help him carry the groceries home, but he said he’d figure it out. We planned to meet back at The Wave fitness center at 5:30pm.

At The Wave, I dropped Tory and Aden off in the Kids Club and then met Andi for a restorative yoga class. My back continued to hurt despite the massage I had earlier in the day, so I hoped some peaceful stretching would help loosen everything back up again. The yoga class was exactly what both Andi and I needed after a stressful work day (for him) and a pain-filled day (for me).

Our time at The Wave was good for everyone. Tory and Aden said they had a great time at the Kids Club. There were lots of crafts for Tory to do there, and they had Aden’s ultimate toy crush — a Paw Patrol look-out tower. He was in heaven.

After The Wave, Andi and I loaded the kids on our bikes and road back to downtown Whitefish for the Farmer’s Market. You can tell a lot about a town by visiting their farmer’s market and Whitefish’s did not disappoint. Music. Food trucks. Tons of fresh meat and produce. We were in heaven!

We decided to have dinner at the farmer’s market because we were all starving and it just seemed easier than biking back to the RV to cook something. Aden and Tory each had a piece of pizza and a Nutella crepe. Andi had Pad Thai, and I had a pineapple pulled pork bowl. It was all delicious. We also bough baby carrots, salad greens, pepperoni sausage sticks and temporary tattoos, just for fun.

After the market closed at 7:00pm, we biked back to the RV. Tory was really coughing, so I gave her some cold medicine and read her a story. Aden was asleep before the lights turned out.

After the kids were asleep, Andi and I watched our favorite Keep Your Daydream show on YouTube before calling it a night ourselves. Tomorrow, we were excited to move on to a new location in Montana.