House Hunting in Missoula (part 3)

So THIS weekend we went back up to Missoula to look for a house for (hopefully) the last time. And we think we found one. We also had a great time in Manhattan again on the way back. Jump to the bottom and scroll up to see what I mean...

I mean, who needs lipstick?

Oh yeah, baby. Slurp, slurp, slurp... :-)

Ice cream is no longer this simple "vanilla" or "chocolate" deal - no siree! Now it comes in all kinds of colors (like this neon orange) - which not only looks good on the stick; it looks good on the kids as well.

Did I mention we had ice cream?

So after all that good pizza (and a couple of good beers to wash it down), we kind of didn't feel like driving the rest of the way to Billings. So we stayed in Manhattan, went to church with my brother's family, and then after lunch we all went to Dairy Queen before we headed out. Here's Jake's entire family - Jake, Jen, Korban, Naomi, Hannah, and Samuel.

Naomi and her horsie swing. Pretty cool...

Yep, that's uncle Jake there on the right demonstrating the newly installed zip line. Hannah and Naomi both tried it out.

All the kids out back in the tree fort...

Once again, we stopped at my brother Jake's house - and hey! They invited us to stay for pizza! Here's two of my favorite little nieces, Hannah and Naomi again.

This one turned out well too - this is getting close to Deerlodge here.

Driving back on Saturday afternoon, we were stunned by the afternoon sun streaming through the clouds. Its always hard to get good shots from a driving car, but this one turned out pretty decent...

Another shot from the outside, southwest corner looking east towards the front.

So what exactly is the status on this house, some of you want to know? Well, we made an offer and should know for sure sometime on Monday or Tuesday, but from what we can tell it all looks very good. We're extremely excited about the whole thing because a) it's got more usable space for ministry than just about anything we've seen thus far, and b) it was significantly LESS expensive than the house we didn't end up getting. So maybe God knew what he was doing after all, yes? We think so... ;-)

One of the cool things about this house is that its 2800 sq ft - 1400 up, and 1400 down. The downstairs is still unfinished - this is going to make a mighty fine family room.

And another shot from the same side (I know, all these shots and the house is going to be full of bullet holes, right?)

Here's a shot of the kitchen.

And a shot of the living room (with our illustrious realtor, Mindy Palmer. Mindy is really, really good, by the way - and a little bit quirky, just like us! If you ever need to buy a house in Missoula, I'd highly recommend her)

This is looking at the southern exposure of the house... nice place for a vegetable garden, we think...

So HERE are some shots of the house we ended up putting an offer on (I know, this is probably EXTREMELY boring for many of you, but we've had lots of folks asking to see photos, so here they are, and if you don't like it, you can just go read some other blog or browse the archives or something).

So what about trip number 3? Well, on Saturday (Aug 12th) we started bright and early (after coffee and a bagel), meeting Mindy outside her real estate office. She showed up just in time to see Rebekeh and a local grizzly sizing one another up. Sheesh. Gotta keep your eyes on those Cryder kids, that's for sure...

House Hunting in Missoula (part 2)

Yep, we went house hunting in Missoula again - these are the shots from trip #2, taken two weeks ago. You might want to jump to the bottom and then scroll up...

How's this for a closing shot? (actually taken at sunset the day before, on our way UP to Missoula). Beautiful...

Naomi is duly impressed.

And now, Little Miss Mia goes for the gold in the hot dog eating contest.

Samuel says, "Whoa, Nellie! Did you see Mia slam that sippy cup back? Wow..."

Mia, throwing back a cold one.

And this here is little Samuel, going to town on his hotdog and chips

I mean, just look at those dark brown eyes!

Did I mention that Hannah is a little cutey?

Naomi scores a hotdog.

Hey Mia, what's that in the bowl? Ooooh! Flathead cherries! :-)

Hannah wanted to show me the pretty pink flower on the porch.

Now on our way home, we stopped at my brother Jake's house in Manhattan, only to find that my brother Nicholas and his family were passing through as well. Here are their daughters sitting on the front porch in the evening sun - Hannah, Mia, and Naomi. What a great photo...

And here's looking back down the highway to the west, once we had gotten past it...

Yep, those are flames!

Helicopter making a water drop...

Here you can get an idea of just how close it was to the freeway...

Now on the way BACK from this trip (Tuesday afternoon), what did we spot just outside of Drummond, but a great big forest fire, burning right alongside the road.

So two weeks ago we headed to Missoula to look at houses. This house, in particular. We left on a Monday night; by Tuesday morning it already had an offer on it. We had about an hour to decide if we wanted to try and submit a better one. It was a beautiful house, with lots of character and potential, but at the end of the day, it was really just too small for what we are looking for - something really conducive to parties and groups. So we passed...