Phil is doing an away rural family medicine rotation in Whiteriver for 6 weeks. The school was able to find our family accommodations in Pinetop so that we could come along and not be stuck at home without him for so long (thank heaven!). It has been an interesting trip thus far. We live in a beautiful 3 bedroom 2 bath cabin with a gorgeous kitchen (including a dishwasher!) and nice living room. The weather has been wonderful as well...even including the snowy first weekend we were here. As much as I hate being cold it was fun to have snow because I knew it was going to melt and warm up a few days later. The weather has been around 65-75 on average (besides that one weekend)...awesome!
The biggest downside is that Phil has to drive to Whiteriver every day which means for this one car family, that I don't have a car. If we could walk places like we can at home (park, library, store, etc) it would be great but we don't live near any of those things (near as in walking distance...or at least how far I'd like to walk. The closest store is ~7 miles round trip. There is a dollar store about 3 miles round trip so if I really needed something that they carried I could get it). I actually did a week's worth of meal planning last week to make sure I had everything so I wouldn't need to go to the store (I was very proud). The biggest issue is keeping busy with creative things to do. We are limited with the toys we brought with us plus the few books we brought along (I thought I'd be able to use the library here...I ended up not being able to get a library card...big bummer. Thank goodness I brought the few kid books I did! We read them many times a day!). I was hoping to do some hiking possibly but once again, not finding any close trails. Any woods to do exploring seem to have fences surrounding them or have do not trespass signs. We are really doing fine but sometimes I just get a little bored, the kids may not but I do. I would love to do different things with them. Any bright ideas? I'm open for any suggestions.With all that said, I am so glad I get to be with Phil for these 6 weeks and not stuck at home by myself! That would be awful!.
And some pictures to document the adventure:
James enjoying the snow...didn't last long though since he didn't have gloves. We aren't so equipped for such weather! Maren didn't like it much either.
James playing with his beloved trains.
Maren's new trick...getting on top of the table. If you're wondering, I'm not very excited about it.
