Family Retreat

Our little family needed a getaway. We have had to much of a roller coaster ride this summer and needed a break. There is no better place in our minds to get away to then the cabin. We packed up Friday night and headed out for a weekend of relaxation.

Blake surprised me for my birthday with a hammock. I have been wanting one ever since I saw our friends up camping with there's. Blake was jimmy-rigging something to get the hammock up in the tree and give it a try for the first time

Blake and Allie trying it out

Blake and Allie took off on a "KayKack" ride as Allie calls it, while I did this...

Lounged around in the hammock reading my book for a good hour

Later that afternoon we decided that we wanted to go pick huckleberries. We had read how good huckleberry picking was up near McCall, so a google search later, we were to our destination with endless bushes for us to pick. Allie started out in the back pack, but then quickly wanted in on the action

Daddy teaching Allie how to pick the berries

We enjoyed a few along the way and had a great time picking berries. We will definitely be back next year to pick till our bags are full. We had a great weekend and sufficient time to clear our minds and rejuvenate them for the days to come!

Chalk Paint

Allie is supposed to be doing low key activities over the next week, just to give her arm a rest with the cast off so we don't injure it again. I saw this on skip to my lou and thought it looked like a great activity for us to try out. It is called chalk paint and is so much fun! All you do is mix equal portions of water and corn starch (they recomend 2 T. of each) into muffin tins (we used our easter egg dying cups) and add food coloring.

Allie and Macy painting away

Max came out and entertained us by chasing butterflies in the yard

Macy's finished product- a house with a picture of her in the green

I had so much fun doing this with the girls. The colors are so vibrant, I just love the look of this when you are done. Here is Allie's house that she wanted me to draw after she saw Macy's. I told Allie that she had to help me, so I gave her the task of drawing the sun. I told her to just draw a circle above the house. I was pretty impressed when I saw her start drawing the lines for the sun as well. I asked her where she learned how to do that and she replied, " I just know mom." I guess she's soaking things up more than I know

Big Day

We had a busy day today. We started off the morning by meeting Papa and Grandma Deb at I.H.O.P for breakfast.

Sibling picture outside of I.H.O.P

Afterwords we headed over to Papa and Grandma's to visit. The kids enjoyed playing with our old school Fisher Price Toys. We headed out after lunch to sadly drop the Little's off at the airport and send them on their way back home. We will miss you guys!

We then headed off to visit Dr. Buzz to get Allie's cast off. This is the last photo you will see with Allie and her cast in place

Blake kept warning me that this would be very scary for Allie because the saw cutter is very loud and noisy and he thought Allie might think it was going to cut her. I started prepping Allie a few days in advance telling her what the machine was going to be like-per daddy's explanation. Well two long cuts up the cast and Allie got awarded the BEST cast removal for a 2 year old award. She just sat as seen above the whole time intrigued by this machine

A few minutes later, Allie without her cast. The first thing that Allie did was start itching the heck out of her arm. It started to bleed because the skin was so raw. She also had a pretty weak arm and kept telling me it hurt to move her arm. She kept it down by her side for a few days and slowly started to use it as days passed. We are very excited the cast is off and we can go swimming and take baths without a plastic bag over her arm.

Sandy Point

My sister and I filled their trip to Boise with memories from our childhood and experiences they have never before done in Idaho. We spent one of their final days going to Sandy Point Beach. I just love it there! It has been such a long time since I have been there. When we were kids we used to stop and get Albertson's fried chicken and spend our day up there. We also used to bring those black inner tubes with the hole in the middle. My dad would have us scrunch up in the middle and roll us down the hills. Well, we were minus the chicken and inner tube races, but we had a blast!

Miss Ainsley enjoying the sand and water

Allie had a great time playing in the sand and filling her cast full of it

You can't go to the beach and not bury anyone. I tried to convince them both to let me bury them more, but this all they wanted done

Papa, Ainsley, and Auntie Lara making their way to the fountain. Papa ended up going out solo on this trip. Later on the whole gang, including Allie in her inner tube, made it out to the fountain. Ainsley had a great time going under the fountain by herself

Allie spending some more time on the beach...we built sand castles and made a river in the sand that led out to the lake

Adam also had a great time back on the sand. He loved building his little village with roads, ponds, and castles

I literally turned my back when Lara made a bathroom run and all 3 kiddos were out in the water. I'm glad I turned around to find Allie with her cast held high in the air and everyone still afloat

Two cutie pies

Cousin Party! What a great few hours we enjoyed for only $4; you gotta love that price. We'll definitely be back soon

Taking the family down Cabarton

I was very excited to take my family rafting while they were here. The only rafting trip that we ever experienced as kids was the Boise River. Rafting the Payette River is a world of difference; it's way funner, warmer water, and more scenic. Blake and I have enjoyed getting into this sport and wanted everyone to experience how fun this type of rafting is. Grandma Deb was gracious enough to stay back with the children while we enjoyed the trip.

Lathering up for the sun

Our Captain giving everyone the "safety spiel" of rafting

I had never been down this stretch of the Payette before, but it's now my favorite. There was so much wildlife. We saw 3 deer, 2 bald eagles, and a nudest couple; I guess we can say they were wild life

Me and my hubby

There were sections of the river where you could just hop out, kick your feet up and float down the river while hitting some rapids. It was so much fun!!!

Flashback to Lego Land

My sister and I rounded up our Lego's from my mom's house from when we were a kid. Sunday evening we had a great time rebuilding the things we used to make as kids

My sister was hard at work when Max jumped on her back and decided to help

Grandma Deb played with the kids while Lara and I sifted through the Lego's

Papa Jim helped keep the kids out of our hair as well-I'm glad Papa was still smiles with all the kiddos on his back

One of the finished products-the hospital and ambulance

Yee-Haw

I must be part cow-girl because I just love anything country, especially rodeos. Since we had the Littles in town from Washington I thought it was fitting that we take them to a rodeo to give them a true Idaho experience. Also, since none of my siblings remember ever going to the rodeo, it was a first for everyone.

My cute cow-girl!!!

Two cute cow girls ready to say YEE-HAW

One of my favorite parts of the rodeo is Mutton Bustin. This Little League rodeo event is where the kids ride the sheep for as long as they can hang on. There were many youngsters that held on across the arena until there sheep crashed into the herd

Adam's favorite event of the night was the horses riding in the dark. Supposedly, this group performed in the Olympics. The horses all got decked out in strands of lights and put on quite the performance in the dark

Rope those cattle boys

After the rodeo we packed up and headed over to try out 5 Guys Burgers and Fries before heading down to the Twilight Criterium; which is a bike race that runs through downtown Boise

We found some silly monkeys at the restaurant

and then one more silly gangster monkey

Here is the gang ready for the bike race to begin

We survived the 105 degree heat this night. We found a nice shady spot on one of the corners turns, so when the bikers would come around we got a nice breeze; this was approximately every minute and a half.

The kids had a great time cheering on the bikers with all of their noise makers. It was Kristin Armstrong's last ride in the Boise Criterium so the entire time the kids were cheering "Go Kristin!" I hope she enjoyed her little fans who pushed her to victory once again.

Discovery Center

Allie is getting older which means the Discovery Center is becoming more fun for us. It has been quite awhile since we last went to the Discovery Center and it was such a fun trip. We started out the morning by going to their Young Discover's Class. These classes are so much fun for the kids to attend. They always have such fun activities and science projects for the kids. I think I love it so much because it reminds me of the fun science projects I used to do at home with my dad when I was little.

The kids were entertained with throwing the animals onto the spinning wheel

The kids enjoying touching the cloud

One of the favorites from the day. The kids were fighting to get up on the stool to make the big bubbles and blow them

The store is always so much fun. The kids get to pack their carts full of food and pretend to be mommy's checking out at the grocery store

One of the new exhibits was the Vet. Hospital. With a new kitty in our house and aspirations to be a Dr., Allie was just thrilled to be able to pretend she was the kitty Dr. She just loved this exhibit and wanted to go back the rest of the time there

The famous Discover Center chair. Allie taking a ride up and enjoying it

Adam and Owen were entertained with this exhibit. They loved making the block roll into the basket. One of them would be at the top and the other would fetch the block from the basket and run it back to the top

We'll definitely be back soon