Idaho Part 2...

Idaho is made to play.

As we were driving into my hometown we crossed the river and immediately Steve says, "That's what we're doing tomorrow. We're floating the river." I haven't floated the river since Steve and I were dating many years ago. And yet he was convinced that was going to be our first family activity!

The universe was against us trying to find enough tubes that would hold air. It was an all afternoon fiasco. But we were persistent and we eventually made it out on the water.

The kids ended up floating most of the river outside of their tubes or on my dad's little boat. Bennett was crazy excited when we crossed under some train tracks at the exact moment that the train was going across. He yelled, "This is awesome!"


We spent many evenings at the park. Hunter could play on his scooter. The little boys played on the playground and Hallie was in heaven with her cousins.




I've never played frisbee golf - but after playing one evening (and realizing I have decent aim) I'd love to play more. There wasn't a course, instead we'd point out different trees as the next target and it was surprisingly fun for how long I've avoided it because it had the word "Golf" in the name.

My mom pulled out her father's old accordion and put on a show for Hallie. I grew up with a grandfather that would play the accordion in his living room and the girls would dance to his polkas. Seeing my mom play it brought back a lot of memories. I tried my hand at it (Hallie also took a turn) and it was surprisingly heavy. Heavy to hold - heavy to open and close. It's a beast and a little complicated. My grandfather was a pretty small man and I can't imagine his strength to play this thing for as long as he did.

We kept waiting for a really warm day to pull out the big slip-n-slide - but the days were relatively cool (we weren't complaining!) So we opted for water balloons instead of the slide. I gave a review last week of the two different kinds we tried out. Bottom line: kids love water balloons and can always burn through them faster than we can fill them!





It stays light really late in the summer which means we were able to put kids to bed and utilize the last bit of evening light for tennis and spikeball. We played spikeball just about every time we could scrounge up four players. In the backyard, at my brothers, at the park, after tennis. My brother's set is well loved at this point.


It seems my time is never long enough. I hate leaving. I hate saying goodbye to my parents. My kids hate saying goodbye to cousins. Next year is just too far away.

After Bennett said goodbye to his cousin he asked, "When are we going to see Landon again?" I told him we weren't seeing him again for a long time. "We said goodbye to him yesterday." Bennett was so distraught and with his hands pulling down the sides of his face moaned, "WHAT!?" I said, "You won't see him again until your five years old." That seemed to instantly brighten his mood and he exclaimed, "Ooohh, I'm so excited." He has no concept of time!

How I wish Arizona was closer to Idaho. We miss being there already.