The kids are taking turns sleeping in until 9. Yesterday it was Jake and today it was Tanner. It's been great because the mornings are peaceful and we get some one-on-one time with whoever is up earliest. Yesterday I played some Crazy 8s with Tanner and this morning Jake and I read for awhile and went in the hottub. The view outside the windows is beautiful and serene, plus the hottub is a pretty nice day to greet the day.
We rode our bikes downtown for breakfast once everyone was awake. We stumbled upon a place that happend to have a putting green (like mini golf) outside. While Brian and I had our respective morning drinks and waited for the food, the kids occupied themselves with golfing. We thought it was a genius of an idea and asked our waitress about it. She told us it is actually part of a larger town-wide drinking game involving several local bars and a putting green challenge involving beer or wine. So, entertaining the kids was not its intended purpose... but still... it made our breakfast experience even better- and it was already pretty good since we were able to ride our bikes there, sit outside, and enjoy their special Blue Corn Pancakes. Yum.
After breakfast we wandered around town a little more then headed home to pack up a picnic lunch for a noontime fishing trip to Penny Lake- a rainbow trout stocked pond about 4 miles outside of Ketchum. It was Faith's first time really fishing, but the boys were experts at casting this trip. The only person that caught anything was Brian- and it was too little to do anything with (not that we would have kept it and cooked it anyway!). I still don't get the allure of fishing, but I played the photographer for this portion of the trip and enjoyed being outdoors and watching the kids get all excited each time they got a nibble.
We went back to the house and enforced a mandatory one hour rest time (all 5 of us) prior to going back out in the hottub and then back into town to get me a latte and to visit the local independent bookstore. Great place! Had fun wandering around there for a while as it was raining outside. The pizza place we had eaten at the night before had given us free movie tickets to see Epic at the Sun Valley Opera House theater, so we headed back there and enjoyed Happy Hour before the 6PM movie started. Still raining... so it was good timing.
We finished off the day with a stop at LeRoy's ice cream- a non profit ice cream place in the middle of town that serves Toni's Ice Cream (a Sun Valley speciality). Both Brian and I are in the middle of good books, the kids have created a game called "Hide the Tape" (I'm not entirely sure of the rules, but it involves hiding a piece of duct tape somewhere outside and giving clues to the other two kids as to where it is) that keeps them happy and entertained for hours on end, and there's still some Circus Animal Cookie Ice Cream in the freezer. Life is Good.
So we are in Sun Valley for the beginning of the week. Just a little low key, stay in Idaho vacation. Marisa's boss was cool enough to let us use their families vacation rental in Sun Valley. Aside from driving through, we have never really spent any time here.
We got up on Saturday and kind of took it easy getting on the road. We mowed the lawns, cut Jake's hair, visited with friends, dropped the dog off at the kennel and lazily packed the car for the trip. We got on the road about one, with almost everything we own. We brought warm weather clothes, cold weather clothes, pool clothes, work out clothes, books, electronics, movies, board games, baseball gear, football gear, fishing gear and our bikes. It was a really easy trip up and we got here a little after three o'clock. We went out to a great Mexican place referred to us by our Chiropractor, whom we lovingly call "Hippie Jim".
The house is great, really close to town and fully set up. There is a hot tub, which we have already been in several times. We are within walking distance to the lodge and it's an easy bike ride into downtown. We took advantage of everything today it felt like.
The kids slept late, so no breakfast out. It was a lazy, mountain cool morning of reading, breakfast in, hot tubs, red bull (for me) and coffee for my better half. After we all got our gumption up, we got the bikes together and headed downtown for mid morning coffee (and yes for those who have followed our vacation exploits before - browsing thru various shops with coffee in hand). We rode down to the river and the ski area, which were both pretty deserted and then headed back home. This is our first trip with Tanner exclusively riding his own bike, and while we weren't really all that far away he was pretty tuckered by the time we got home.
We made "mandatory rest time" a thing again and Marisa got to read her magazines and relax while I went for a great run. There are a ton of bike paths here. I ran out to the Sawtooth National Forest then up some mountain bike tracks into the hills. I came back out onto the golf course and wound around a REALLY expensive neighborhood back down into the resort and home. It was overcast and the perfect temperature for a run. It ended up being my second favorite run ever (the 1st was in Kauai, coming down out of the mountains towards Anahola Bay where a whale was breaching in the distance -so cool). I came back from my run to find them in the hot tub again.
Once I cooled down, and they dried off, we were off to the ice skating rink at the lodge. Tanner was all fired up to try skating (why I have NO idea) and had mentioned it several times over the course of the first couple of days. It is a really nice outdoor rink and, like Squaw, is so stupidly expensive, I was a little concerned we were paying $80.00 for what would be 4 minutes of ice skating.....and for Faith it was. So got literally about 25 feet and was done. Luckily, they gave us a refund for her fees so she became official family photographer. I love to skate and have been doing it my whole life. Marisa likes it, but in the "elephants from Fantasia" sort of style. The boys really gave it a good go for quite a while...we got our moneys worth.
We came back home and got changed and walked, yep, walked to dinner. We ate at the pizza place in the lodge and had some really expensive pizza. Luckily, it was REALLY good. We ate out on the patio and had a couple of beers (thus the desire to walk) while the kids played around on the lodge grounds, looking at the ducks (they could have been COOKING the ducks for all we cared at that point) and just leaving us alone to enjoy a beautiful evening.
We came back to the house and read for a bit, then went in the hot tub again. Tomorrow we're thinking fishing, maybe hiking, maybe swimming. We'll see. We're supposed to get some rain tomorrow so we'll see how it goes. We're having a great trip so far and are really enjoying ourselves.
So some backstory....
A few weeks ago, I was out back mowing the lawn and listening to my iPod, when "Big City Nights" by the Scorpions came on. I had a vivid memory of being....I don't know how old, and mowing the lawn while listening to that same exact song on my.....must've been walkman at the time (I just googled it, release date 1984....so yeah, walkman.). I then realized that I have been mowing the lawn and listening to that song for almost 30 YEARS!
That right there was almost enough to make me lay down on the lawn and cry. Then, when relating that story to Marisa later, Jake piped in (as he ALWAYS does), that he wanted to start mowing the lawn. I immediately told him he wasn't old enough, to which my better half asked how old I was when I started mowing the lawn....so there you go.
If anyone needs me I'll be on the front porch in the rocker with a glass of lemonade....
It's official. I now have a first grader, a second grader, and a fifth grader. And I'm old. Summer vacation has begun.
The year started to wind down 10 days ago when we had the year end carnival at school. It was lots of fun and the kids all hung out with their buddies all night while Brian and I volunteered at one of the stations and chatted with our friends. We barely saw Tanner all night. He walked around the carnival with his "gang of three" and clearly wanted to be entirely independent. Jake hung out at the karaoke booth (this year it was Train instead of Nickelback) and the dunk tank (where he dunked both his fourth grade teacher and his PE teacher). Faith and her friend spent most of the time eating lollipops and cotton candy. They all hung out at Nana's afterwards while Brian and I helped with clean up.
Our trip to CA for Kerri's memorial followed quickly after that. It probably deserves a post all its own but suffice it to say that it was emotionally draining- but luckily the kids got to spend lots of time with cousins and I got to spend lots of time with my sisters and that made it OK. The highlight of the trip, at least for me, was going back to our old house in Saratoga where I grew up. I absolutely LOVED seeing it again and reliving old memories. Jake especially enjoyed crawling under the staircase into the "secret room" and reading the stuff Kim and I had written all over the walls in there when we were 10. Another reminder of how fast time flies.
Today was Kindergarten graduation. My last and final Kindergarten graduation. Sigh. Faith was very excited for the event and had been practicing her songs for weeks. The boys were undecided on whether they would attend or not (it would mean missing out on some of their last day festivities in their own classrooms). In the end, Jake came to watch and take pics while Tanner opted to stay in his room to play games. It was a lot of fun and I only shed a few brief tears. After graduation Faith's best friend Abby came over to play and I headed over to Tanner's classroom to help with his pizza party. Now we have 5 extra kids over here playing for the afternoon. Gotta kick off summer vacation in style. Tonight we are headed to the Merc for dinner, drinks, and more playtime.
Summer vacation is always a mixed blessing. On one hand I love that there is no homework and less structure. On the other hand there is the delicate balancing act of working from home and having three kids around all day....every day. Not that there will be a ton of down time. The kids are going to Emerald's three days a week for 5 hours a day, Jake has basketball and baseball, and Tanner is playing Summer Ball, too. Brian is coaching their baseball team. Faith has gymnastics. I plan on lots of summer reading and shanging out in the yard with our new neighbors (Sheila and Wayne). We also have lots of trips planned (Sun Valley, Redfish Lake, The Lagoon in SLC, and Lake Tahoe) and random days on the boat. Still, I am counting the hours (or will it only be minutes?) until I hear, "I don't know what to do, Mom. I'm bored!".
It is hard to believe another year has sped by this quickly. Class assignments for next year will be posted next week and the kids all have hopes for their favorite teacher and getting in the class with their buddies. I'll keep my fingers crossed. The fact that we have made it this far with all of them loving school is such a blessing.
So, here's to a summer full of popcicles and cold beer, long days at the pool and long nights in the yard, books and movies and friends and shave ice and bike rides. And, here's to giving Brian and I the patience and ability to enjoy it even when we hear the likely refrain of, "I don't know what to do today...." for the hundredth time!
The kids are taking turns sleeping in until 9. Yesterday it was Jake and today it was Tanner. It's been great because the mornings are peaceful and we get some one-on-one time with whoever is up earliest. Yesterday I played some Crazy 8s with Tanner and this morning Jake and I read for awhile and went in the hottub. The view outside the windows is beautiful and serene, plus the hottub is a pretty nice day to greet the day. 
After breakfast we wandered around town a little more then headed home to pack up a picnic lunch for a noontime fishing trip to Penny Lake- a rainbow trout stocked pond about 4 miles outside of Ketchum. It was Faith's first time really fishing, but the boys were experts at casting this trip. The only person that caught anything was Brian- and it was too little to do anything with (not that we would have kept it and cooked it anyway!). I still don't get the allure of fishing, but I played the photographer for this portion of the trip and enjoyed being outdoors and watching the kids get all excited each time they got a nibble. 
