Travelers

I can't believe we are in Washington! This past week has been pretty crazy. We logged almost 3,000 miles in our cars and traveled through 9 different states- TX, AR, OK, KS, CO, WY, MT, ID, and WA. Some were pretty boring (KS) and some were breathtakingly beautiful (MT). We were able to see lots of friends and family on our trip, and are very thankful to everyone who put us up and let us stay with them! It's hard to believe that the 23rd was my last day at my job in Huntsville! My coworkers took me out to lunch at a local place called Farmhouse, which has amazing home cooked food. I thoroughly enjoyed my chicken friend steak with macaroni and cheese and fried okra, as well as their homemade melt-in-your-mouth roles. Delicious. As a going away gift, they got me 6 (!!!!) pounds of my absolute favorite things, Twizzlers, and a giant bag of chocolates, as well as a signed card by all my patients that just about made my heart melt. It's always hard saying goodbye, but I am glad for my time in Huntsville!

Lunch at Farmhouse

After work on Friday, I went back to our apartment to finish packing. My parents came to help me pack up the car and clean the apartment, and then I was up at em early the next morning to drive up to Northwest Arkansas through Little Rock. Braden had already left Texas to head up there on Thursday to spend some time with his college friends before a wedding on Saturday. It's a good thing that I had decided to route through Little Rock because Braden had forgot his dress pants. In Little Rock I was able to see Braden and some of his college friends and also go out to lunch with his sister, also named Melissa (confusing, I know!). After hanging out I headed up the rest of the way to Rogers, Arkansas to spend some time with my favorite former coworkers from when we lived there. I stayed with my friend Amanda and her husband Ross, and finally got to meet their sweet baby boy, Knox! On Sunday I was able to visit our old church FBC Rogers and see some of our old friends. After church, Amanda hosted a BBQ for all my former coworkers to come and hang out! We had fun eating, catching up, and of course shooting!

Macie on squirrel patrol. She was literally shaking like a life from excitement!

It wouldn't be a get together in Arkansas if there wasn't guns!

Arkansas

Me and baby Knox!

Amanda, me, Teena, and Bev

On Monday we drove to Wichita, KS. But before we left, we went down to Fayetteville where the university is and were able to find my name on senior walk at U of A! It was a big sense of accomplishment to finally see my name engraved on the sidewalk and I'm really glad that we made the time to see it.

On Monday afternoon after driving through some pretty bad rain, we made it safely to Wichita where my brother lives. It was great seeing their new house and of course our cute nephew. Can't wait for number 2 to arrive in August!
On Tuesday we drove from Wichita to Denver, CO, about 7 hours.  Most of the drive through Kansas and eastern Colorado was pretty boring until we got to the Denver area.

Kansas windmills

After checking into our awesome hotel and resting a little bit, we got to meet my AMAZING recruiter Amy for dinner! We have been working together for about a year and a half and this was the first time we had been able to meet in person. Thankfully, Amy and I get along even better in person, and it was like hanging out with an old friend. We had a great time! We went to the first restaurant in Denver, Buckhorn Exchange. It was super yummy and a really cool atmosphere! We tried fried rattlesnake (slimy, yet satisfying!) elk, and buffalo steaks.

Beautiful Rockies

On Thursday, I was able to go to my company, Advanced Medical's, office and meet the recruiters and other staff, as well as do a question and answer session. It was great getting to be apart of the company at the office and see how everything is done! After the Q&A session we had a free afternoon so we were able to get lunch at a great restaurant called Amato's which overlooks downtown Denver. They had really good food and good local brews! After lunch we headed down to Colorado Springs to visit my great aunt and uncle, as well as my mom's cousin. We had a great time catching up with them!

Lunch at Amato's overlooking downtown Denver!

Colorado sunset

We were having so much fun in Denver, we decided to stay an extra night! As we are packing up to go to our reserved hotel for the extra night, I am trying to call our hotel in WA to switch our check in day from Friday to Saturday. They basically told me I wasn't allowed to without losing my entire reservation or paying a higher price for the entire 3 months, even though I had been told when I booked the room I can switch the check in date until 6 pm on check in day. So at 11:30 am we hit the road to try to get as close to St Regis, MT, our next stop about 14 hours from Denver, as we could. It was a weird day for sure. Macie barfed all over my car which she's never done. Somewhere in Montana I get pulled over for following the car in front of me "too closely"- after I explained to the cop that it's my husband and we are traveling from Texas to Montana, he just gave me a warning. The funny thing was while I'm pulled over, I get a call from Braden asking where I was- he had no clue I had been pulled over! A few hours later we were getting pretty tired and decided to try to get a hotel in Butte, MT. The hotel clerk informed us that the hotel was full and so was every other room in town because it was the state track meet. So we had to drive another 2 hours to Missoula, only about 45 minutes from St Regis, and got there around 12:30 at night. The next morning we finished out the drive to St Regis where I was able to meet up with my best friend Sarah. Braden continued on to Washington and I stayed in St Regis for the night. It was fun getting to see where my best friend lives, and that night we stayed at her friends house and had dinner and game night. We played a fun game called Ticket to Ride and had so much fun!

Big Sky Country

Playing Ticket to Ride

Saturday I woke up bright and early and headed the rest of the way to Washington. The drive is beautiful and I really enjoyed it. 

Welcome to Washington

Columbia River Gorge- absolutely stunning!

Wild Horse Monument

After I arrived we started unpacking and trying to get stuff organized. Macie seems thoroughly relieved to be back "home" in a hotel and is very relaxed. We went out to dinner at Outback to celebrate our first night in Washington. Braden ended up biting into a big piece of plastic and we got our entire meal free! We are very excited to be in Washington and can't wait to get started exploring!

I start my new job tomorrow in Shelton, I am praying it will go smoothly! Here's to all our new adventures in Washington!