Spring Break 2012

 For Spring Break this year the boys & I went with Jeff since he has been working in Eastern Idaho about twice a month. He will usually leave on a Tuesday morning & come home Thursday night, staying either in Twin Falls or Idaho Falls.

Since he'd already gone to Idaho Falls that month we got a hotel in Burley & he worked there while the boys swam & played with cousins. We got there on Tuesday & that night Jolynne brought her kids over to the hotel to swim & Addison stayed the night with us at the hotel. The next day the kids played while Jeff finished working, then we dropped them off at Tyler & Jolynne's so we could go to the Twin Falls temple. We hadn't been together since before we moved to Orofino a year ago. It's so strange that it's been a year since we spent part of Spring Break in Orofino checking out the town to see if we would accept a job offer there. 

We got back to Burley that evening around 8:30 & I think it was 1 o'clock in the morning by the time we left Tyler & Jolynne's house. We stayed & played cards with them & also Brad & Cassey had stopped by. Our plan had been to stay until at least Friday, but the boys & I all had colds by Thursday & we weren't feeling so great. That didn't stop them from wanting to swim so Jeff finished up a few things while they played in the pool. 

We decided to head home that evening after having dinner at Kelly's house & as we were checking out of the hotel Jolynne called to see if the boys would want a tractor ride since Tyler was out working.

The boys loved riding in the big green tractor & have been talking about it for more than a week.

 Owen had fallen asleep on the way to the field, so he stayed in the car & slept & drooled...

We had a great time & it was nice to get away for a few days. Ethan really didn't want to go back to school but summer is only about 7 weeks away so he is toughing it out. They are keeping busy with football & have about 4 more games...not that I'm counting or anything.

Another Month, Another Post

 

 Another month went by and I obviously slacked in the blogging department. I did, however find some more pictures from Thanksgiving, including the one above of Ethan & Grammie making pies. 

Pudge received a dog house from my aunt, who's dog recently passed away. Their dog was HUGE, so Pudge had a palace. 

Kamden thinks it is so big, that Pudge has room for visitors.

This is where we found Kamden on Thanksgiving.

Thankfully we were able to coax him inside with the promise of a Thanksgiving feast.

 This is where we found my brother, Jeff, after the Thanksgiving feast...

 There were also lots of football games to watch, which we enjoyed being able to have family over again to watch with us, now that we no longer live on a mountain...

The boys thought they would show their team spirit by wearing Uncle Brian's sweatshirt...

We decided to spend Christmas break traveling around Eastern Idaho since Jeff had to work in Twin Falls the week before and Idaho Falls the week after. The morning that we were leaving, we had the boys come upstairs for their Christmas present...

Things I love about this picture:

1) Ethan has his shoes on

2) Kamden is in his undies 

3) Kamden's expression

4)Owen looks like he could fall asleep any moment, but he still made the effort to scratch his belly 

 

Grammie & Grandpa Van Leuven also brought Christmas early since we were leaving & also because they were heading to Iowa to spend the holidays with my older brother.

The boys loved their gifts, & you can tell by their expressions. 

I especially loved watching Owen's face as he tried to tear the wrapping paper off his gifts, usually only getting a tiny piece of paper each time. 

 

 Tuesday was Ethan's last day before the break, so we picked him up a bit early since he & Kamden both had dentist appointments. Jeff had left that morning for Twin Falls so after the dentist, the boys & I hit the road & met him there. 

We stayed at a hotel Tuesday-Thursday & the boys did so much swimming that their skin was dried out & itchy from the pool chemicals.  

 On Thursday we went to Declo & watched the last BSU game of the season. Other things we did while there:

Owen loved playing the Fish Game 

& getting bundled up to play outside...

 We even spotted some deer, although there weren't nearly as many as in Orofino...

We drove around & looked at Christmas lights, spent time with family (which is why there are no pictures of Ethan...he was busy playing with Addie), & went to dinner with friends.

Thankfully Jeff did not wear this on our night out: 

His dad's shirt from his mission in the Philippines.

On Christmas Eve we went to Jeff's Grandma's house. Every year she has a party & we have never been, the last time Jeff was there was right after his mission.

After dinner the kids dressed up while we listened to the reading of the nativity story from the Bible. Then we sang Christmas songs before Santa stopped by with a gift for everyone...but we all had to sit on his lap before we got our present... 

Owen was not thrilled about it at all...

Then there was a talent show & we eventually were able to tear the boys away from their new-found friends, who are actually Jeff's cousins. But they couldn't quite grasp the concept since they were close to Ethan & Kamden's age.

I had to wake the boys up on Christmas morning so that there was enough time to open gifts before going to church at 9:30.

Jeff & I were on the Naughty List this year.

On Monday we celebrated Ethan's 7th birthday a day early, with the first store-bought cake in our family. Last year I hauled his Star Wars cake to Declo & there was no way I was doing that again. He wanted a Transformer cake & this is what he got.

He went to the store with me & picked it out himself, then he stuck his Transformers on it & it was done! 

Tuesday morning Jeff left early for Idaho Falls & we met him there for lunch. Since it was Ethan's birthday it was his choice & of course we ended up at McDonalds. 

I offered to take them to a movie but all they wanted to do was get to the hotel & swim, so that's what we did until Jeff got done working. Thursday morning they swam again but I was able to get them out of the water for lunch & then we went to the movies. They were back in the pool that evening after dinner & on Thursday morning I packed up the car & we went home. Our plan had been to stay until Friday, but 9 days was all I could do of living out of a suitcase & being in a hotel with these 3 boys.

It was a fun & hectic break but by the time school started back up I was pretty close to being insane. I came to realize the truth behind the line of the song "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas"  when it says "and mom and dad can hardly wait for school to start again!"  

It's good to be home! 

Weekend Getaway

We decided last minute to take off for the weekend and head North to Couer d'Alene.

Though we did a lot of fun things, the boys would all agree that the best part was swimming at the hotel.

They are easy to please!

We left the hotel Saturday morning and went to Lake Couer d'Alene where we spotted a friendly moose who told us about a nearby trail...

Ethan & Kamden led the way, arguing taking turns being in the front.

Kamden did not want to take time to stop for pictures.

The Resort & Marina

Owen had a rough time riding on Daddy's shoulders most of the way.

He got bonked by several stray branches.

We stopped at one of the beaches where the boys explored for awhile.

The water was so clear, it was difficult to keep the boys out of it. It was a chilly morning & we didn't come prepared for a dip in the lake.

We watched the "geeses" fly by...

& of course ALL of the boys had to throw lots of rocks into the water. Especially Jeff, who threw the biggest rock.

After hiking back to the car we went to find a magnet for my collection, then we found the golf course with the famous floating green out in the lake. Jeff had a tee time for that afternoon and when we pulled up there were big white gates & a little man in a booth who let us in. I think Jeff thought he'd died & gone to Heaven, it was like we'd just driven through the pearly gates or something. He was speechless & the boys were devestated & heartbroken that they couldn't tag along. 

On the Floating Green

Now, I'm no golfer, but I'll admit it was a beautiful course.

Jeff had a great time & even had a caddy who wore a white jumpsuit & drove him around in a golf cart with really shiny hub caps.

He even got a pre-game massage out on the course, but not from his caddy.

I'm pretty sure Jeff was in Heaven.

While Jeff was golfing, the boys & I navigated our way through the city until we finally found a park. I'm not sure how long it took me to figure out where I was supposed to park our car so that we could get to the playground, but we did get to see a lot of beautiful houses near the lake.

It was a really great park with an awesome wooden playground where the boys had fun chasing each other around. While I was helping them do monkeybars, someone said my name & I turned to find a couple who had moved from Emmett to Couer d'Alene a few months earlier. Crazy! When we all lived in Emmett, we played softball a few times with them & they both graduated a year after I did, I even worked at his dad's insurance agency after high school. So it was really surprising to run into them there, but they told me all the fun things to do around town. Too bad the boys all had a meltdown & we just went to the hotel to rest before picking Jeff up.

Then we went to dinner & back to the hotel for more SWiMmiNg!

This morning we drove to Spokane, Washington and went to this really beautiful park that we'd seen pictures of. They have a lot of bridges that you can walk across & see the waterfalls. Only, there wasn't any water. It had all been diverted so they could work on something & all we could see was the dry riverbed, which was interesting but also a little disappointing.

But we still had a good time wandering through the park & it was a lovely little stroll for a Sunday morning.

This picture is for my dad, per Jeff's insistance that I take it for him. It is a Boy Scout monument. For those of you who don't know my dad, he loves scouting.

But I think we can all enjoy it.

And look! Those helpful Scouts pointed us in the right direction to finally see some waterfalls, although they were small & not like the pictures, we took what we could get.

The boys kept trying to climb up on the bridge railing to get a better look but they were making me nervous, so they each found a peep hole to look through. It worked out better for everyone involved. And you can even see some of the pretty fall colors that were starting to show up!

We had also seen in a brochure some information on a nearby Cat Zoo, so we decided to check it out on our way home.

We saw one white tiger:

At least 8 regular (Siberian?) tigers?

& these freaky monkeys you could sit on...

There were also several Mountain Lions...which Jeff so kindly pointed out that we could probably see in our very own backyard.

& for those 8 years & older, you can pay money to feed meat-on-a-stick to a tiger from behind a piece of plexi-glass.

You can't really see in the picture, but the guy is holding a sword-like stick which the zoo worker pokes the meat onto, then the guy pokes the stick through a hole in the plexi-glass & through the chain link fence. There is a flat circle on the end of the stick next to the guy's hand that is too big to fit through the hole, hopefully preventing the tiger from biting his arm off.

This big guy is Sampson.

He is now retired, but was once the MGM Lion & has been in several commercials.

I'm not sure, but I don't think he chose a very good retirement home. All of the animals had very small cages & the entire zoo consisted of two rows of chain link fence that wasn't even as long as the house we live in. But they said they receive no government funding, the only money they make is from people who walk through the gate or make donations. So I guess that makes me feel better about the $31.00 it cost us to get in.

Here are more of the tigers...

I kept waiting for this tiger to fall into the water, bu he stayed balanced on that ball pretty well.

There were also a bunch of bobcats that were all sleeping, a black panther, a leopard, and for some reason there was a black bear...I guess I should've studied zoology because I didn't know that bears were members of the cat family.

Then it was time to hit the road & head home.