Hello Cottonwood!

We finally arrived in Cottonwood in mid July.  Our stuff had been transported to our house there more than a month prior and it just sat in the garage, waiting for us.  We chose Cottonwood for several reasons: First, the job was very family friendly with still a good income to pay down our student loans with.  It was also a unique job in that it's a critical access hospital where Jaron will be able to use all of his skills - OB deliveries, colonoscopies, geriatrics, pediatrics, ER etc., but there are 7 practitioners here to share call days with.  Other jobs we interviewed at only had a couple or a few practitioners so call days were many and often, making family life a little harder.  We also felt like the Cottonwood area had many good people and would be a good place to raise our kids.

When we first got here, I was so struck by the natural beauty.  It's such a mix of landscapes, with the mountains right there yet Grangeville is on rolling prairie and Cottonwood is deep green hills.

These old wooden train bridges are just amazing!  I've never seen anything like them and there are a couple here in Cottonwood and several on the drive to Lewiston.

 One of the first things we did was hit the local swimming hole with the Rambos, the Secrests, and Kelli Bruner.

Kelli (her husband is Dr. Bruner), me, Haley (her and her husband are both physicians who work with Jaron), cute little Winnie, and Megan (the girl who knows EVERYBODY).

Gracen, Alli, and Winnie

 Alden, Briggs, and Ben getting ready to jump in.

The view from either side of the swimming hole wasn't too shabby!

We expected Jaron's licensures to take a few months so we had an interesting summer of being a family with nowhere we had to be!  Having down time together was great.

Jaron took the older kids on a couple of camping adventures.

 He also got to spend a week hiking in the middle of nowhere in the Idaho wilderness with his Dad and his brothers.