Hiking Crooked Creak

Blake made it home safely from his backpacking trip on Sunday afternoon and Monday evening we decided to use up his MRE meals from camping and have our own mini backpacking adventure with dad.  We headed up to Crooked Creek to hike, have dinner, fish, and have fun with dad.

After hiking in a few miles we found a spot to set up for dinner

Blake and Allie headed to the river to filter some water for our cooking

The hike was absolutely gorgeous.  We saw tons of wildflowers and loved being able to hike right along the river the whole time

Sophie was thrilled when she got to get out of the backpack and run around.  She quickly found herself a sand bar and enjoyed tossing sand everywhere.

Everyone was so excited to finally have daddy back home...Allie wanted to be right at Blake's side all evening

Me and my girls waiting for dinner to cook.  We finally got to have our MRE's and I was quite impressed at how delicious they were.  When I finally get to pulling my 72 hour kits together one of these days, we are stocking them with MRE's. 

Blake's attempt at getting a family photo

On the way out, Blake was frequently stopping to fish.  He ended up catching a fish for the girls to see, but that pushed us to hiking out when it got dark.  Dad was prepared and packed our headlamps which was kind of fun to hike out in the dark

On the way home Allie immediately passed out and Sophie was overly tired but wouldn't go to sleep.  She was laughing at everything.  She played this game where she would cover herself with her blanket and laugh hysterically at herself.  Blake and I were both busting up laughing the entire time she did it. I sure love my family and love the time we get to be together!!! 

Nothing But Fun!

Blake took off on a 55 mile back packing trip with a friend and left us to fend for ourselves for 5 days.  I had a whole list of projects I wanted to get done while he was gone and I was too exhausted to accomplish anything by the time the girls went to bed every night.  The whole time he was gone, we played and played.  A few of the fun things we got to do while dad was gone were...

Cherry Picking

We drove out to Tyler Orchards in Emmett with some friends and in no time had filled up buckets of cherries 

Lots of the trees had cherries right at Sophie's level; she was able to help us out

Sophie enjoyed grabbing handfuls at a time

We ended up with our 2 baskets which looks very deceiving.  It ended up weighing almost 16 lbs.  We came home and de-pit and frooze a few cookie sheets for smoothies, ate them till we were sick, and handed them out to anyone walking by our house.  We had a fun time and will return again next year for $1.05/lb cherries. 

Main Street Mile

Allie ready to run the 1/2 mile race that chases the ice-scream truck through the streets of downtown Boise

Our ward had a crew of kids that signed up to run the Main Street Mile.  Here are some of them before the race began

The kids all patiently waiting for their turn.  The event starts off by having the 60+ runners go first, followed by the Mascots of the city, and then the kids finally get to run

The icecream truck making it's way to the finish...that means the kids are quickly following close behind

Allie coming through the finish line....she was all smiles.  Way to go girl!!!

The kids all posing after the race on the medals podium

Allie wanted a turn by herself...she came in for her half mile seconds after 5 minutes.  So proud of you for doing awesome without dad to be your running coach by your side.  We sure did miss him though!

Shriner's Circus

The Shriner's circus came through town and Allie got a free ticket, so we decided to go. We left Sophie at home with a babysitter during her nap and the two of us met up with friends and went to enjoy the entertainment.  We got to start of the show by watching the lions do some tricks.  Allie was really impressed there were white tigers.

Some guy doing crazy stunts up in the air

The flame juggler

You can't hit up the circus and not get cotton candy, especially when your mom is pregnant and LOVES to eat cotton candy

Crazy people up on hoops and wrapped in ribbons flying around in the air

The circus elephants; probably my favorite part of the show

Lots of the kids loved the 4 motorcycle men inside of the cage.  I can't quite comprehend how they don't crash into each other when they are flying all around.  

We had such a great, busy time with dad gone and were so glad when we saw his incoming call on my phone; we knew he had survived!!!

Sun Valley-Day 3

On our final day in Sun Valley we headed out early to hike Baker Lake.  It was a great hike for the kids; 3 miles total in and out

Allie ready to go at the trailhead

We ran into some snow along the way, Allie always loves to find snow along the way

Crossing the river; we luckily had a little log help us cross over and dad was there to help us out

We made it up; dad and Sophie enjoying some snacks at the top

Hanging with mommy

Family shots on the way out

The hike was filled with grassy meadows and also thick forested areas; definitely a great family hike

Later on in the day we hit up the ice skating rink

Allie's roller bladding days are paying off on the ice rink

Sophie enjoyed getting pushed around in the stroller



Dad trying out some fancy moves on the rink

We had a great time in Sun Valley and can't wait till we get to get back and play there again

Sun Valley-Day 2

On Friday morning, the boys decided they wanted to fish a specific area of the river.  Someone had heard of a good fish hatchery around the same area the boys were going to, so we packed up and decided to make a morning out of it.  Blake and I first arrived and laughed because the fish hatchery appeared to be all dried out.  

Hayspur Fish Hatchery-Idaho's First Fish Hatchery

Well, we luckily found a worker and he made our day.  The old hatchery out in front was indeed dried out, but there was a new hatchery out in back.  We got the best hands on hatchery tour I've every had.  We started inside with the tiny little fish and first got to watch them get fed



Next we moved outside where the fish were a little bit bigger and were actually jumping out of the water when the food was thrown into the water; the kids loved that

The fish just got bigger as we continued the tour and what an awesome educational tour we had

There was a stocked pond next to the hatchery where they would release the big fish, so the dad's through in their lines so the kids could anticipate them catching a big one.  We only ended up with a few little guys, but the kids still had fun

What a bunch of SUCKERS!!!

After fishing, the woman and children headed back to town while the dads continued to fish.  We ended up riding to town on our bikes to our favorite little ice cream shop

Sophie enjoying her GINORMOUS cone that she shared with me; although at this point this kid just needs her own because she did not want to share

As we waited for dinner on the grill, these three kiddos patiently worked with me for over an hour as we tried and tried and finally succeeded at stacking every domino in a row so we could push one over and watch the "domino affect"

After dinner we headed out to get family pictures taken in our black shirts.  After the large group photo we attempted another cousin picture but apparently some of the kids were done

The "cooperative kids" wanted to try another photo after our failed attempt

That evening we headed out to the fields for the first annual Hansen Olympic Games.  We had balloon toss, gunny sack races and tug-of-war

Some of the grand kids ready to race each other down to the finish

Grandma Julia did a great job pulling together all the activities; we had a blast!