and for the Thanksgiving part.

So we headed out of Oakland and up to Sacramento on Thanksgiving. In orde for us to feel right back at home in the Bay Area, we hit MASSIVE traffic up until we got to Dixon, turning a 1.5 hour ride into a 3 hour odyssey including gas, bathroom and snack stops. 

We got to Lisa and Clarks house an hour or so before dinner and all the hard work was done! We got to see their new kitchen and basically sit down to dinner without doing any work. Dinner was great, it was our whole family along with theirs as well as Auntie Sue and Grandma Mary. I tried to enlist all of Lisa's kids into helping me wash the dishes (I KNEW none of mine would help me), but got nowhere. Auntie Sue, Grandma and I did the dishes while everyone else hit the park for some after dinner football. 

After football and cleanup, it was over to Grandma Mary's house for Tanner's final birthday party. It was a surprise (we delayed our arrival by a few minutes). He was truly surprised, and not doing well with being the center of attention, was happiest when the party moved on to the gift opening. He got more great stuff from my side of the family, AND had more cake and candy. After part of a movie, the kids all collapsed. 

We spent some more cousin time today and set off for home about 2:00. It was great seeing everyone, but we are getting ready to be home. We made it to Reno and stayed in the Peppermill, where we both got to have a great workout in the huge gym and a good dinner with the kids. They are watching a movie as I type. I'm hoping to get another workout in tomorrow before we get on the road and then it's a long day's drive back home to Boise. 

Tanner and I have been gone for 8 days and he's really tired. A night in our own beds is being much looked forward to. Vacation is always great, but it's always awesome to be back home. 

San Francisco Tourists

I have been wanting to take the kids on a cable car for years now. I had built it up in my mind to be "The Ultimate San Francisco Experience". Out of this entire vacation I think the cable car thing was what I was looking forward to most.  Brian was pretty sure I would be disappointed. You know when you hear so much good press about a movie before you see it that when you actually see it the movie doesn't live up to your inflated expectations? That DIDN'T happen here. The cable car ride yesterday was AWESOME.

We met Kylie and Lisa in Union Square and bought our tickets. We got on the third car and all 7 of us stood up and held onto the outside of the car (even Faith!).  It was kind of hectic getting on, as we were the last 7 people. Brian had Tanner and Faith and I was with Jake, Lisa and Kylie. The conductor spaced us out so there was an adult next to each child so Brian and I were separated by 5 people and it is a really narrow space and you are supposed to stand looking forward. About halfway through the ride Lisa asked Brian where Tanner was and he told her I had him.... ummmmm NOPE. A moment of panic ensued (probably only a half second) until Brian realized Tanner was in fact on the car with us, just a person or two back from he and Faith.  Tanner wasn't scared though and we all had a blast. It was a beautiful day and the moment when the car rises on the hill and you see the Bay below was really cool. Just like in the Rice-a-Roni commercials.


We spent the next few hours at Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39. All of us loved watching the sea lions sumo wrestling in the sun and the kids, of course, loved shopping for their souveniers. Faith, no surprise here, picked out a stuffed kitten.  Tanner and Jake shopped at the sports store and picked out Warriors, Raiders, and Yankees gear.  We sat outside for lunch, walked to Ghiradelli Square, and finally took a cab ride back to Union Square where the kids and I watched the ice skaters while Brian did a little shopping. I had my turn to shop while Brian took the kids to the Disney Store and Adidas and Oakley. At about 6:00 we took 3 very tired kids back on BART to Oakland where they collapsed in front of the TV prior to falling quickly asleep.

City life is pretty fun.

Tanner Turns 8

The first of what will turn out to be several birthday parties was Tanner's "friend" party on November 16th. We took his three best buddies to Jump Time- an indoor trampoline place that has a dodge ball court, a basketball hoop, free jump area, and more. They bounced for two hours and then we headed to a local Italian restaurant for pizza, followed by frozen yogurt at U-Swirl (he didn't want a cake). Tanner claimed it was his best birthday ever. The boys all had fun. It was a long fiesta- the boys were dropped off at our house at 930AM and we brought them home around 2 that afternoon.

Next up was the "family birthday".  Since Tanner and Brian were leaving on his actual birthday we did the present opening on Wednesday evening. His favorite gift, by far, was the stuffed Bronco football thingy that Nana got for him. It is a zip up stuffed football that reveals the Bronco mascot if you unzip it. Whatever it is, it came along to CA with us and has been functioning as Tanner's pillow ever since. We got to sing Happy Birthday to him on Thursday morning before school, with a single candle in his birthday donut.

After he and Brian finished the Warriors portion of his 8th birthday (see next post) we spent a few days in Mountain View with Kim and Bill and Abby and Aidan. My dad came to visit for an afternoon and Kim and I tried our best to spoil him with good homemade food. Joe, Suzie, and Jasper came the next day and we all caught up on each others lives while the kids played outside and ran back and forth to the park.

Now we are in Oakland, preparing for several days in SF.  We are spending 3 nights at Sheila and Wayne's condo and pretending we are "city folk" instead of the country bumpkins we seem to have turned into since leaving the Bay Area 8 years ago. Did you know that the population of the Bay Area is over 6 times greater than the population of the ENTIRE state of Idaho???  Coming back here is culture shock in a lot of ways. I like to refer to this trip as "Diversity Training 101". I have been reminded in the last 24 hours that my children are so, so white. There is zero diversity in Boise so this is like a crash course in "people come in all colors,  religions, sizes, and states of sanity".  Tomorrow we are taking BART to Union Square so we can take a cable car down to the Fisherman's Wharf area. Wednesday we plan to take the ferry over to SF and maybe go to the new Exploratorium.

Thanksgiving Day will find us driving to Sacramento and celebrating Turkey Day amongst all of Brian's family- Grandma Mary, Auntie Sue, Lisa, Clark, and their five kids. Our kids can't wait to see the cousins and are all dying to use their swimming pool (what a treat to get to swim in November!!).

Tanner's 8th Birthday Road Trip

Tanner and I took off on his birthday road trip halfway through the day on Thursday. He has been looking forward to this trip for the last couple of weeks. He was very insistent that I pick him up at 11:40 EXACTLY because that was right before he went to lunch. I recently looked up his birth time on his birth certificate for him because he wanted to wear his new stopwatch to school and announce to his class the MINUTE he turned 8. We joked that he would turn 8 at 11:32 and then he “was outta there” right after.

Anyway, I picked him up as directed. We got a quick lunch and hit the road for CA. We drove to Winnemucca, NV the first night and got a hotel room. He got his traditional birthday dinner with Dad (Roundtable this time, pepperoni and bacon deep dish). Followed by a box of candy and The Hobbit on HBO in the hotel room. I was freezing and windy in Winnemucca, so we got on the road pretty quickly the next day. The drive was easy the whole way, no weather to speak of.

We made our traditional pit stop at Scheels in Sparks, NV for lunch. We did a little shopping. Tanner got a new pair of shoes, I was able to contain myself which was pretty impressive in the presence of the largest collection of Under Armor gear in the Western Hemisphere. After lunch we finished up the drive to Grandma Mary’s in time for dinner. We went to Leatherby's where Tanner got a burger and I got an awesome crab sandwich. After dinner he wanted a banana split, which was the size of another meal. He order ½ chocolate and ½ vanilla and he and I didn’t finish it, but we did some serious damage.

We watched the first half of the Warriors game on TV  and then I put him to bed. He was exhausted. He slept from 8 to 7 the next morning. We got up and hung out with Grandma for a bit and then hit the road to Oakland. Uncle Eric hooked us up (as always) at the team hotel and practice facility. We are on the 20^th floor looking out on the Tribune building. We got to go down and tour the practice facility and got to shoot around on the practice floor. While we were there, Coach Jackson came in and introduced himself. He talked to Tanner about his basketball team and was just an awesome guy all the way around. Eric gave us the rest of the tour and then Tanner and I hit the town.

It has been a long time since I have been back in Oakland in a car and it was great to drive around and revisit all of my favorite hometown spots. Tanner said he wanted hotdogs for lunch, so I promised him the best hotdogs in the world. We went to lunch at Kaspers Dogs on MacArthur and Fruitvale. It hasn’t changed AT ALL since my grandpa used to take me there for lunch when I was Tanners age before we picked Grandma up from work. I got my childhood favorite; a cheese dog and a root beer. Tanner of course opted for ketchup only, but agreed that it was the best dog he’d ever had.

After lunch we drove around Oakland for awhile. Tanner was very concerned about all the graffiti. He kept saying, “Dad, I see vandalism!”. I explained that it was a kind of art, which he seemed to appreciate. He has been really in to drawing lately and so I think he looked at it through those eyes. We came back to the room and he spent some time at the window, drawing the Tribune building outside our hotel room window. We’re going to take BART to the Warriors game tonight.

We had a really good time at the game. The Warriors lost unfortunately, but Tanner had a really good time.  We stayed out WAY past bedtime and didn’t get back to the hotel until after 11:00. Uncle Eric hooked Tanner up with some great Warriors gear, including a basketball autographed by the entire team. Grandma Mary and Auntie Sue came to the game as well so we got to spend some time with them also. Tanner woke up this morning at 5:30 with an upset stomach (probably from the dinner of pizza crusts and ice cream). He proceeded to be able to go back to sleep, but I was up at that point. I got an early work out in, we had some breakfast at the hotel and met with Uncle Eric to say goodbye. We got a tour of the rest of the facility and Tanner got to say thank you to his Uncle for a great 8^th Birthday!

......and Basketball

Jake started his AAU season last weekend.....and it's going to be a long one. They had enough boys to form two Boise High AAU teams. Jake is on the White team with a couple of his buddies. This is real basketball, with High School rims and rules and a coach who played Women's BBall at Oregon State, so it's no more messing around. They spent the first few practices learning offense and defensive plays, positions etc. and then proceeded to get blown out in the first weekend of play, losing both games by at least 20 points. They were painful to watch. So coach stripped the offense and they have started all over. We'll see how successful that is. 

Jakes coach is great. She was coached AAU for the last 8 seasons or so and has gone to the finals a couple of times in this age group, so we were looking forward to the season. As with all his coaches, she immediately fell in love with Jake and he played all but a couple of minutes of the games this last weekend. He did really well and she likes him as a player, shooter and ball handler. He was really disappointed how much they struggled, but I reminded him that this was just like his little league season last year. The team may not be very good, but it's a great year for him to get a lot of playing time and improve as a basketball player. Last practice, his coach had her Dad come in (a lifetime basketball coach) and guest coach. He was a VERY old school coach, sprints, fingertip pushups for not listening etc. I figured Jake would be all upset at being yelled at for an hour and a half, but to my surprise he dealt with it just fine and didn't even mention it afterwards (other than how sore his fingers were). He has never had an actual COACH-Coach like that, it's just always been some kids (most of the time his own) Dad doing it. But as he continues to play, he's going to have to get used to some stronger authority. It was good to see he could handle it. 

They play two games every Saturday at two middle schools over in Meridian. The schedule is just brutal. Most weekends we have an early game (8:30) and a late game (4:00 or so), which gives us just enough time to drive back and forth across the valley to get to Tanner's game (which is right down the hill) and back. 

Tanner's second grade team is pretty much the same team that I had last year and is more of less just the same group of kids I coach in baseball as well. There are a lot of natural athletes on that team and they're pretty easy to coach. Our first game was this last Saturday and due to some gym screwups we were only able to have one practice beforehand. No score is kept still in this league, but the dad's on the sidelines like to keep score and we beat the other Hidden Springs 2nd grade team 30-8. So it's going to be a pretty easy season I think. Tanner loves to play basketball and he and his buddies have a really good time. It was good to sprinkle that level of fun competitive basketball in-between Jake's two frustrating games. 

We all went out to dinner after Jake's late game and it was a lot of fun. It looks like that's going to be our schedule for the next couple of months or so. If you need us on a Saturday, just know that we're at some basketball gym somewhere in Idaho......

Halloween......

As the massive bin of Halloween candy is starting to dwindle down at an alarming rate, I thought it was time to write the Halloween post. Halloween was a lot of fun this year. It rained during the day which didn't forecast a fun night of trick or treating, but it held off the entire time we were out. In kind of a tone setter for the next couple of years, we just had the little kids for trick or treating. Jake went to a pizza party, trick or treat, sleep over with a bunch of his friends. We figured we would see them out trick or treating, but ended up missing them all together. He left after dinner and we didn't see him again until we picked him up the next morning with his pillowcase of candy. 

Marisa had planned dinner at the Merc for Tanner and his two best buddies and their families and we set off trick or treating from there, hitting our old section of the hood. It was nice to be able to walk behind and talk to the other parents as the kids sprinted from door to door. There was only one house that was scary enough to require parental accompaniment so mostly we just stood on the sidewalk and talked. One of the great things about Halloween in this neighborhood is that everyone is out with their kids. You run into groups of parents and kids that you know and hit that block together before you go your separate ways until you meet up with another group of parents. We have been here long enough that houses have Halloween reputations now. There is the Turners house where they give out cans of Shasta instead of candy (a must hit). The kids know the houses that give out full sized candy bars, the houses that have scary people answer the door. The grown ups know the houses that have fires going in the drive way and parents that are quick to share a glass of wine while your kids hit the next few places. 

The only downside was our house (in the midst of a construction zone), didn't get very many trick or treaters. So not only do we have a massive bin of the candy the kids brought home, we had to add in all the Halloween candy we didn't give away. We put the bin high up on a shelf (otherwise we have found that Tanner sneaks it - ALL THE TIME) and I swear my weightlifting workout extends to the number reps I get taking the candy bin down, rummaging thru it, and putting it back up on it's high shelf. At this rate it won't last much longer any way so it doesn't really matter. 

The kids had a great Halloween; Jake went as an NFL coach, Faith went as a fairy, and Tanner, with a last minute costume change, went as Harry Potter. Next year we might just have Faith and the houses around us will be built out, so next Halloween might be a whole different beast. But for this year, Halloween is over, just the candy remains (for now).

Late October but Pre-Halloween Post

Basketball started for both boys this month and they are both really enjoying it.  I ran my second obstacle race on Saturday with several friends (SO MUCH FUN!) and am already planning for my 2014 races- possibly a few out of state since Idaho doesn't have many yet.  Jake started coaching the girls 5th/6th grade bball team before school, helping Mr. Perotto (the PE teacher). Faith continues to fly through all of the "Fairy" books in the library. Thank goodness she can read them on her own because they are really not fun to read aloud and she reads between 3-4 each week.  Tanner was "Person of the Week" and got to share his slideshow (which he chose to set to "Don't Blink" by Kenny Chesney).  Jake won the Courage Award for 5th grade. He was nominated by his classmates for the bravery he shows by "not caring what other people think" and "standing up for other people". Brian continues to like working with the North Boise Little League and tolerates his job due to the work/life balance it allows him. My job is busier than normal, and will probably continue to be so as we add more clients exponentially. When I began, 5.5 years ago, we had about 70,000 students in the U.S. This year we just broke the 2 million mark. Crazy. It's fascinating working with a "start up" company and seeing it grow and grow and grow and knowing I have been a part of it from nearly the beginning.

But the biggest news from the last couple weeks is this:  We finished the first book of Harry Potter! Now, to some people this may not seem like such a big deal but Harry Potter holds a special place in Brian and I's hearts. The second book in the series came out a few months after we met and we read all 7 of them together and also saw each movie together. In fact, we saw the first movie with Sheila, Wayne, Sam and Shelby at the Vine Theater in Livermore when I was 7 months pregnant with Jake. We always imagined we'd get to share the HP series with our kids but Jake has had such a difficult time with scary books that we were beginning to think it would never happen. But lately he has conquered this fear and both Tanner and Faith seemed ready, so we have been able to expand our read-aloud
choices to include some of our favorites.  So, we began Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Is there ANYTHING better than a read aloud that ends each evening with all three of your children begging you to not stop reading?? They couldn't get enough of the story. And I loved every minute or sharing it with them.  We finished the book on Saturday afternoon and followed that up by watching the movie that night. They loved to see what each character in the story actually looked like, compared to the visions they had come up with in their minds. We ordered pizza and ate in front of the TV. I tried to find Bertie's Every Flavor Beans but was unsuccessful so had to settle on Reese's pumpkins instead. The kids all slept together in the bonus room that night so that any residual fear would be assuaged by the proximity of their siblings. I honestly was smiling ear to ear watching the movie and was more than a little happy when they all agreed the book was "way better" than the movie. Of course, we started the second book the  very next day and now all three kids are anxiously awaiting to see what happens to Doby the house elf.

I can't believe it is already the end of October and the end of the first quarter of school. Halloween is Thursday and before we know it Thanksgiving will be upon us, then Christmas, and then 2014. Better not blink.

Fall 2013 Update

I know, I know.... Fall only officially started about 20 days ago yet it feels like forever since I have posted. In a nutshell, everyone is doing really well. All the kids are settled into their new grade levels and did a great job balancing a hectic football schedule with their schoolwork. It's been really fun actually, even though I have to admit four nights a week of practice sounded almost unmanagable to me and I was worried that the kids would just be dead tired. But they all loved their teams so much that I never once heard a complaint and we got used to eating dinner by 5PM each night in order to get everyone to the right place by 545. Most evenings had Brian and I going to different fields, driving carpools for other neighborhood kids, and trading off coaching for Tanners team, Jake's team, and supporting Faith's cheerleading squad. The great thing was that everyone practiced at THE SAME TIME on the SAME DAYS. Heaven. Each evening ended with everyone meeting back home around 745, having a heavy snack, reading the first Harry Potter book aloud, and going to sleep. 

Besides football and the start of school, we have had some fun things going on in the neighborhood. In late September we had our last concert of the season on The Green. It was a combined concert and Food Truck Rally and although the weather gave us a run for our money (nearly blowing away our tent structure) the dark clouds did not dro any rain and there was, luckily, no thunder or lightening. We went with some friends of ours and their kids. The kids ran wild for almost 4 hours, checking in with us  periodically for warmth, pleas for more food, or  to show us their goodies (they were giving away light sticks to all the neighborhood kids). Brian and I tried food from the three different trucks, drank some really good red wine with our friends, and hung out chatting with lots of neighborhood people. It was a great end of the summer celebration. 

Last weekend was the second annual Scary Movie Night at the barn. They show three levels of scary movies:  a G movie, a PG movie, and a PG 13 for the teens. We opted for the middle option this year. The barn was decked out in decorations and had a huge bathtub full of candy and another huge tub full of soda. There was popcorn to eat and hay barrels to sit on. We brought our chairs and heavy blankets and enjoyed the show. Brian and Faith ended up walking home early as the movie turned out to be too scary for her, but they waited for us at home, watching The Bee Movie and making some memories of their own.  

My big event this fall was the Mayhem Mud Run. I signed up with a couple of friends and played hooky for the football games on Saturday. It was a 5K run with 15 obstacles. Now, I am not in GREAT shape.... but I consider myself in DECENT shape. However, this run (or, more specifically, the obstacles) KICKED MY BUTT. The first obstacle we came upon was two walls set up about 25 yards apart. The walls were about 8 feet tall with no footholds and no way to climb up them. My friends and I stood there staring at them wondering how in the heck we could get up there. A nice man came running up soon and sacrificed his back to get all three of us up far enough so we could grasp the top and pull ourselves over. It was hard! And then there was the next one to get over! There was a lot more walls to climb in varying heights, towers to get across (I had to conquer my fear of heights), really high monkey bars to cross, a section where we had to pick up a tire and run with it around a giant building, a water obstacle in which we had to run through ice cold water up to our waists, and more.  It was SO MUCH FUN but I did find myself wondering what the heck I had been thiking actually PAYING to do this to my body! I was very, very sore the next few days. 

The Optimist Football season officially ended today. Uniforms have been turned in and the end of the year parties have been thrown. Surprisingly I was a little sad to say goodbye to this part of the year. I watched all three kids grow up so much in their own ways during the last two months. All 3 showed such spirit and determination, perseverence and hard work. But, October should be a little less busy and we may be able to start eating dinner at a normal hour again!  

Football Ends

Grandma Mary and Auntie Sue just came out for a visit to watch the football games for a weekend. The way the schedule worked out this year, there was only one Saturday where the games ended up being spaced far enough apart that we could see all of both of them. Fortuitously, it was the weekend that Auntie Sue and Grandma were going to be here. Even better, it was a week that ended with two days off school due to teacher inservice, so the kids were home. 

They flew in on a Friday morning and the kids and I picked them up from the airport. It has gotten cold here lately, so I had encouraged them to pack warm clothes, it was in the mid 30's when we picked them up. Once we got back to the house and Jake gave Auntie Sue the tour (she hasn't been here since we moved) they started in on the card games. As usual they player a ton of Old Maid, Crazy 8's, Spoons...you name it they played it. 

Marisa was running in a race on Saturday morning (more in her post) so it was just me going to the football games with everyone. Jake/Faith were the first game, which was at 8:30 out in Emmett. Jake's coach likes the team there an hour before the game, which meant 7:30. Emmett is 45 minutes away, which meant we piled everyone in the car, in the dark and cold of a Saturday morning at 6:45. As it starts to turn towards winter, those last few football games are tough, especially the early ones as it's still cold and dark. Everyone was bundled up with sweatshirts under their jerseys, gloves, extra socks etc. Getting hit under those conditions isn't fun to begin with and the Emmett team is a bunch of hard hitting, BIG kids. It was a rough game. They had been coached to hit hard, in every situation, even away from the ball. They had crack back blocks built into their play. All legal stuff, borderline, but legal, but nothing we have coached our kids to do they weren't ready for it. We had kids getting hurt all game, including Jake two different times. We hung with them in the first half but ended up getting pretty soundly beaten in all senses of the word. 

Faith did really well in the cold. She got some hot chocolate with Grandma Mary and other than some cold toes, did really well. Grandma Mary and Auntie Sue really seemed to love watching her cheerlead. She is REALLY into it. She had showed them all of her cheers in advance at the house. She pays attention and her coach just loves her. Much to Marisa's chagrin, she will be continuing her cheerleading career with a group cheerleading class over the winter while her brothers are playing basketball. 

After the fiasco in Emmett was over, we drove back to town in time for Tanner's flag game. This year the flag teams are playing at the local junior high school and not the optimist park, so parking and moving around are much easier. Tanner's team is about even over the season and played a really good game on Saturday, beating a good opponent pretty soundly. Tanner had played center most of the season and totally loves it. I asked him once why he liked playing center so much, it's not the most glamorous position and he said that he likes not having to block anyone. In his league, this year, the center has to be uncovered by rule. I explained that going forward, it becomes the toughest position to block, which he didn't know. I showed him the nose tackles on some games andTV and that seemed to sober him up. I secretly think he like playing center because he gets to be the person who yells "HUDDLE" each time and the end of the play to call everyone back to the huddle. He does do a greta job snapping the ball and his coach has gone out of his way to thank him for playing center and telling him what an important position it is on the football team. I have asked Tanner if he thinks he'll keep playing football and he told me he'll play his second year of flag, but isn't sure that he wants to continue once he moves up to tackle. So we'll see what happens next year. 

So after our full day of football, we headed back home and met up with a tired and sore Mom for nap time prior to Scary Movie Night (more in Marisa's post). 

Labor Day Sprint Camping

About mid-August we decided that the Labor Day weekend camping trip we had planned to do with Lisa, John, and their girls in Washington was not a good idea. I had remembered that it was a 5 hour drive, but upon mapquesting it, realized it was almost 7 and a half hours of driving. We couldn't leave until after the kids finished school on Friday, meaning we'd have to spend the night somewhere along the way, meaning that we'd only actually be camping for two nights and less than 2 full days. As much as we hated to do it... we cancelled. The kids were bummed. We were bummed. 

So I got on the computer and found a place to camp 1.5 miles from our house. We booked it for Fri and Sat night and figured we'd have Sunday and Monday to recuperate. Well... Thursday came around and all the kids were EXHAUSTED from their first week of school and 1.5 hour football/cheerleading practice EVERY night that week. So, we downgraded our camping trip to one night. Saturday.  

The funny thing about camping, though, is that whether it is a 1 day trip or a 6 day trip the camping and prepping is about the same. Since we hadn't camped yet this year we had to go through all the gear and because we have a new mouse problem, that meant going through lots of mouse poop and dog food that various mice had dragged into various camping boxes hoping to make a home.  Oh, well. It had to be done.  

So, I grocery shopped Thursday, Brian packed up the car Friday night, and we hit the road on Saturday morning at 9AM.  We arrived at Warm Lake around 11AM and everyone helped set up the tent (AKA "The Taj Majal"), ate lunch, and played around the campsite. We headed to the lake for an hour or so and Jake and I hit the rope swing. Once we returned to camp we settled in with our books and a bottle of red wine while the kids played "Duck on a Rock". I joined them for a little Hide and Seek, then the five of us took an exploratory walk around the woods. It was very odd- the campground was on the edge of an old abandoned lodge that used to include individual cabins, a boat house, etc... It was very run down and had obviously been vacant for many years. It was kinda creepy and reminded me of the setting of Friday the 13th. Luckily it was light out or I would have been looking for Jason around every bend! 

We headed back to camp and grilled hotdogs and made giant s'mores for dessert.  The kids played more hide-and-seek and more "duck on a rock". At one point, after exploring in the woods, Jake and Faith ran up to me with a flat brown thing in their hands and said, "Mom, look how much this dried mud  clot looks like a smooshed frog".  Ummmmm... kids?? I hate to tell you this... but that IS a smooshed frog. That flat brown frog went flying and the kids ran to the nearby water pump to wash their hands. Too funny. 

The sky that night was so clear and so beautiful it made the two times I had to get up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night worthwhile. We actually all slept really well until 330AM when Tanner claimed he was freezing and came to sleep in between Brian and I. I woke up in the morning to a Brian shaped indent in the sleeping bag next to me and the smell of bacon cooking. He had gotten up early, gotten the fire started, and was already cooking bacon and boiling water for my coffee. Lovely!!  Jake continued to sleep, so cuddled up under his sleeping bag and blanket, I had to actually go over and touch him to be sure he was actually still in the tent. 

The kids played some more, we all enjoyed hot cocoa and bacon (oh yeah... and the traditional "camping donuts")  and helped us pack up. We left before lunch and headed home because Brian and I had plans with friends that night and a new babysitter was coming over.  

It was a fast and furious trip but I am so glad we did it. The kids all loved it and we were reminded how much we enjoy camping. We hadn't been in almost 2 years and the kids are getting older all the time. Boy it is a lot of effort, though. When we noticed how much faster our neighbor with the pop up tent and the other neighbor with the RV set up their site, we decided we may try an extended RV trip next summer  instead.  I'd like to head to the coast- maybe coastal WA or even San Juan Islands. Time to start planning!

First Grade, Second Grade, and Fifth Grade Begin

School started on Tuesday and once again all three kids were excited to get another year started. They all got the teacher they wanted, and they all have their best friend in their class. 

Back to School clothes shopping had been completed at Scheels and Gap earlier in the month. This year we gave each kid a $75.00 budget and they were free to use it how they wanted (as long as it was for clothing NOT guys!). It made this coupon-lugging, thrift shopping mother's heart proud to watch as the boys budgeted out how much was reasonable to spend on a pair of shorts and ask themselves if 24.99 for an Under Armor t-shirt was worth it or if they should get the more expensive shoes and the cheaper shirt. It was a lot of fun. Of course, both boys ended up with sport shorts, tshirts, and a new pair of tennis shoes. Faith ended up with two pairs of shoes, two shirts, a pair of shorts, and a belt (that was her favorite part- the belt!). 

There were no visible nerves from any of them this year, until we arrived at the playground and Faith got a little clingy. But she quickly found her best friend, Abby, and the nerves mostly were gone.  No tears! The bell rang and Mr. Forrey welcomed them all back to school and gave his yearly spiel about parents not walking into classrooms with kids. Then they said the Pledge of Allegiance and the Harbor Pledge and they were gone. Brian and I went to celebrate with breakfast at the Merc. 

We picked them up at 115 (short day) and took them to the Merc for the annual "tell us about your first day back" snack extravaganza. We all sat together at a big table and the kids took turns telling us stuff about their day.  Once again Brian and I marveled at how lucky we are on the school front: Great teachers, great principal, kids that like to learn and have good friends... the list goes on.  

The first week back to school also included 3 football/cheerleading practices from 600-730PM  so we had some tired kids on our hands.  But they are all absolutely loving their teams and look forward to practices each day. It's actually been pretty fun for us, too. Brian and I switch off going to Tanner's practice and Jake/Faith's practice. It's great having them all at the same time and all of the practice nearby. It allows us to have an early family dinner together (500 on the dot) and then head down the hill for the evening. 

Faith's cheerleading coach keeps telling me how great Faith is- what a great listener and  how fast she is at learning the cheers. I have never seen her this excited about anything. She loves it. She practices her cheers all the time, even in the shower. And as much as it pains me that it is cheerleading that has turned out to be her first "passion" it is amazing to see how in just a few weeks time she has become more confident, independent, and responsible.  

Tanner, too, has completely risen to the occasion. I was worried that the 3-4 practices a  week would be too much for him, but he is ready to go each evening and works hard the whole time he is there. He, too, is getting so independent. 

After almost deciding against football this year, Jake is having his best year yet. He is really enjoying his team and his coaches and I haven't heard a single, "I don't feel like going to practice" this year. Last Thursday at his practice the Capital High football team was there, too. At the end of practice the Capital head coach talked to our team and gave a very inspirational speech that included everything from  "doing your best" to putting school first to the importance of doing lots of things and not just focusing on football. He even included a bit on staying away from drugs and peer pressure. It was really great to hear and to see Jake listening so intently. 

Summer was a lot of fun this year- we took a bunch of small trips and one big trip to California. The kids had 15 hours/week at Miss Emerald's house (for which we are eternally grateful!) and we had tons of trips to the pool and BBQs outside, etc... But the fact remains that working from home full time with three kids home 25 out of the 40 working hours a week is HARD. Between the inherent multitasking that occurs to the "working mom guilt" that I suffer as I stick the kids in front of the TV for hours while I catch up on emails or only vaguely glance in the direction of the the Lego tower they spent 3 hours completing together.. it's a little stressful. However, this year was better than last year and the kids got along really well (until August and then they were simply DONE with each other and ready to be around other people!). 

So, we are into September and ready for Year 2 of a 3 year stint of having all three of the kids at the same place. We plan to enjoy every minute. 

Jamboree

So we came back from vacation and went right into Optimist Football. I got back on Thursday, the kids got back on Friday night and we had Jamboree at Bronco Stadium on Saturday morning. 

With all three kids playing, we were at the stadium ALL day long. Jake and Faith were there 1st thing in the morning. The tackle players all get weighed in, get their photos taken and then play a short game. Jake hadn't practiced enough to make the minimum play requirement in order to play, so he went to take photos, get weighed and cheer for his team. 

Faith hadn't been to a cheerleading practice yet and was a little overwhelmed by the whole experience. It is a college football stadium and from a kids perspective there are A LOT of people in the stands. She did very well listening to her coach and they did some simple cheers on the sidelines. As the smallest cheerleader she did get put in the front of the team photo doing the splits, so we can't wait to see how they turn out. Come to find out, a couple of weeks of practice in now that her coach says she is the best cheerleader on the team (and the youngest) she is a very good listener. Our daughter has aptitude as a cheerleader...this is just KILLING Marisa. 

Tanner's flag team got to play their game inside the Broncos practice facility. He hand't been to very many practices either, so he couldn't play a whole lot, but did get in for a few plays. I was surprised at his aggressiveness. He doesn't display a lot of outward emotion (unlike his brother) so I wasn't quite sure how he would respond when he started to get knocked around. To my surprise, he did just fine. He lined up across for the biggest kid on the other team who proceeded to knock him back about 10 yards. That happened a couple of times, then he figured out what was going on and started to fight back. He ended up holding his own and had a good time playing. 

We have gotten into a good rhythm as a family with football. With both Jake and Faith at the same practice schedule, we are back to splitting up. We are all able to eat together before we head out for the football fields. I am coaching Jake's team and helping with Tanner's team. I have been splitting the practices so far and we seem to be doing well with it all. Jake and Faith have their first travel game this weekend in McCall (which is a couple of hours away). We'll be heading up early on Saturday morning and will be there for most of the day. They play at the high school field so it should be a fun game. Marisa and Tanner will stay in Boise as he has a home game.  Football season is on!

Tahoe Donner

After celebrating birthdays and getting spoiled rotten in Folsom (Thanks, Mary and Auntie Sue!) we headed back up to Tahoe, this time staying at a house in Tahoe Donner that Kim and Bill had rented. In addition to Kim's family, Lisa and John flew their girls out for a "solo" trip so we had all of the cousins together for a few days. 

We spent all day Tuesday at our favorite beach, Sand Harbor. We packed a pound of raw bacon so the kids could go fish for crawdads. They were entertained for hours building their own make shift fishing poles and hunting the crawdads. They caught a few over the course of the day and had a blast. We also revisited our jumping rock- about 100 yards off the main beach is a cluster of rocks that people swim to and then jump off. Brian and I had jumped off of them a few years ago and this year the boys wanted to try it, too. Faith and Nana stayed on the beach while the rest of us paddled/swam out to the rocks to give it a try. Brian and I thought the boys would get out there and decide against jumping... but to our surprise they both climbed up the slippery slope and jumped into the clear water below. It was GREAT! After having a late lunch at the cafe at Sand Harbor, we let the kids play until almost 630 before we sadly packed our things and headed out in search of a pizza dinner. Found a place in Incline that was able to seat all 12 of us almost immediately and had a really good dinner out before heading back to the house and putting the kids to bed.

I met Shannon for coffee on Wednesday morning and had a leisurely time catching up (it had been two years since our last visit!)  then met up with the most of the crew and went shopping downtown. The kids still had their $25 from Papa from Christmas burning a hole in their pockets but no one found anything worthy of their money. In fact, Tanner decided to spend his on an hour horseback ride with Quincy, Jessa, Abby, and Aidan. I sent him off to meet his horse, then took Brian to Reno for his flight back to Boise.  Tanner had a great time riding a 37 year old horse named Skipper. I was so proud of him for making that choice, getting to experience something new, and being independent enough to do it on his own. That night we ended up meeting Shannon and her crew at Donner Beach for dinner and s'mores. It was a beautiful night and the kids all played some hybrid game of tag/football and swam off the floating dock for several hours as the adults enjoyed more time to reconnect. Again... a great night.

On Thursday we headed down to the public beach at Donner where Jake decided to use some of his money from Papa on a paddleboard rental. I think he is hooked! Faith and Tanner kept busy building sandcastles out of old pepsi and snow cone cups. That evening we headed back into Downtown Truckee for their Thursday night street fair. We shopped and ate and wandered around. It was really crowded and a little hectic keeping track of all the kids. Each one wanted something different to eat for dinner so I sent Jake off to the Taco stand with 5 dollars and strict directions on where to meet me. He came back about 20 minutes later , with a carne asada taco in hand, and handed me the money back. Turns out the owner of the stand was so impressed by his good manners that he gave him the taco for free. Combine that with the fact that he spent the rest of his money from Papa buying a gift for Emerald (our summer sitter) and making a donation to the Humane Society and it was definitely a Proud Mom Night.  

We packed up the car with plans to head our first thing Friday morning. We were on the road by 945 (not quite "first thing" but best laid plans...) and the kids played games on the iPad and iPhone for the 8 hour drive home while I listened to music. We made just one stop- in Winnemucca for lunch. The kids played in the McDonalds playland while I caught up on work calls.  They were really well behaved and easy travel companions until the last hour when we were all getting tired and cranky. We arrived back in Boise at 745 PM.

Friends, family, and new adventures. It was a great trip for everyone.

August Birthdays

After Squaw Valley, we headed down to Folsom to see my Mom's new home and celebrate her 70th birthday with her. With Marisa, my Mom, Auntie Sue, Aunt Lisa and Poppas birthdays in August, it's a busy month for celebrations. 

We stayed at my Mom's house with her and Auntie Sue, who was up for the weekend. After our annual first day of school clothes/shoes run to Scheels in Sparks, we got to Mom's pretty quickly after Squaw Valley, it was a nice easy drive. There were, of course, welcome gifts for the kids, salads, cookies, brownies, cheesecake, candy and spaghetti sauce. We had family tickets for the Train concert that night. Faith was a little under the weather so she stayed home with Grandma Mary and Auntie Sue while we took the boys out into the middle of nowhere to see their first concert. They were exhausted form the trip and the concert had two openers, so by the time Train came on, Tanner was trying to sleep on the blanket. They were interested for the first few songs but then were both done. It was a good concert, but we ended up leaving early and got back to Mom's about midnight.

We spent the next two days between Mom's house and Lisa and Clarks new place. They have great backyard with a pool that was full of children swimming, diving and shooting basketballs. All of their kids started school the next day, Cayden's first in High School, so it was kind of their last fling of the summer also. 

On Mom's birthday we had a great lunch and dinner, surrounded by more swimming (and some pre-season football). Eric and his girlfriend Cody made the trip up from the Bay Area to join us. Eric swam with the kids and everyone had a great time. We got a tour of Mom's mobile home park and neighborhood (which seems to be great), and spent the weekend catching up, eating and swimming. It was great to see everyone and just hang out a BBQ like we used to do and Grandma and Grandpa's house back in the day. 

We left Monday morning to head back up to Tahoe for another couple of days with Kim, Bill, Cori and the cousins before heading back to Boise. 

Happy 42nd Birthday to Me!

We drove to Tahoe for the first part of our last summer vacation on Thursday, August 8th. We stayed two nights in Squaw Valley before heading to Folsom to celebrate Grandma Mary's 70th birthday. Having visited SV lots of times in the past we had never actually stayed there, so I was excited to stay near the village and celebrate my birthday there.  The night we arrived we ate outside at the pizza place in the village and had a great dinner! We followed it up with an evening soak in the hot tub while the kids swam.

My birthday started with an early morning solo walk to Starbucks while the kids continued to sleep in our condo (apparently the drive the day before wore them out!). Even walking leisurely and hanging out in the village for awhile, I still returned to a condo that contained 3 sleeping children! It was lovely. Once everyone finally got up we headed out to breakfast to a place I read about on Yelp. It was a beautiful drive to Tahoe City and we had a delicious breakfast on the patio. Next we headed to Commons Beach and I rented a paddle board for an hour. Jake and Tanner had a go on it, but mostly I just paddled around and enjoyed the scenery and the peace and quiet on the lake. 

The kids were dying to play miniature golf at the outdoor course in SV so we headed back there for the afternoon. The kids played 18 holes while Brian and I shopped in the nearby stores. "OK, Guys... play holes 8 and 9 then sit on THAT bench right there and wait for us!".  It worked out great! We had told the kids before we arrived that they could do one activity each during our trip to Squaw so the boys picked the trampoline/jumpy thing. Faith decided she'd rather use her 12.00 to buy a new "guy" so after the 5 minutes of bouncing and backflips we headed to the toy store where she picked out a bunny puppet that was her favorite thing for about 5 minutes and then was discarded in the pile of blankets and pillow pets in our condo. 

After another pool visit we headed to River Ranch where we dined on hotdogs, nachos, and Rum Punch (OK... that was only me). We continued our drive through Tahoe City and ended up in Kings Beach where there was live music on the beach that evening. The kids played in the sand while Brian and I enjoyed the music and view. 

After typing all of that it seems like it must have been a really busy day... but it felt leisurely and relaxed! I seriously couldn't have had a better birthday. If the first day of this trip around the sun is any indication of things to come, then I certainly can't complain.