To Idaho and Back

Just four days after returning from Washington, we packed our car again for a weekend trip to the Idaho Fall area for little Amelia's baby blessing. Davey was not happy to be back in his car seat, especially since our 3.5 hour drive turned into 6 hours due to weather and traffic, but we survived the travel and are glad we went. All the Howes, minus Amy and Emma, were able to come and it was so good to see everyone.

We spent Saturday at the ranch house in Swan Valley where they have the perfect sledding hill. It was well below freezing and even the effort of climbing the huge hill couldn't warm me up enough to stay out very long. It was very fun, although Sophie had a bad wipe out and might tell you otherwise. That evening we ate a delicious dinner at Big Judd's, played games, and watched the Seahawks beat the Lions to advance to the next round of the playoffs. Then Sunday came and we went to the blessing before heading back home.

Davey meeting Amelia. She is 8 months younger and will be his closest cousin in age. He was very interested in her binky, even though he has never taken one, and kept trying to steal it. 

Hiking up the hill - little Sophie is on the far right

Dave and Sophie getting ready for a run

I did not bring snow gear, but the ranch house had lots of 80s vintage stuff to borrow. You can't tell from the pic, but I found an awesome one piece to wear!

The three brothers getting ready for a ride

Sophie was WORN out. By the time dinner rolled around she could barely function. After eating a few bites, she asked if she could leave so she could go take a nap. Poor girl :(

The mostly happy Howe family - baby Amelia evened out the numbers so the grand kids are at 4 girls and 4 boys

A Weekend in Idaho

We drove up to Idaho for a quick trip last weekend. Dave's brother is a guest professor at BYU-Idaho right now, so his family is living near Rexburg, and Dave's mom flew in to surprise our nephew, Lincoln, for his birthday. We were glad we could join the fun!

We were supposed to head out right after I finished work on Thursday, but that morning I woke up to discover my phone had burned/melted while it was charging. Bad luck! On top of needing to get a new phone, I had also been running a fever for over a week and decided that maybe I should run to the Instacare just to make sure I wasn't bringing some disease to the rest of the family. After both situations were taken care of, we packed up the car and started out. Leaving late meant we had to do the entire drive in the dark, BUT the kids also slept the whole time - awesome!

Our first day there was rainy. We drove out to a ranch house owned by Cindy's family and enjoyed time playing games, eating yummy food, and chatting. The next day we drove to Rexburg to visit the BYU-I campus, where we walked through some gardens, had lunch and saw where Tim lectures for his art class. After our campus visit, we went back to the ranch house and were able to enjoy some cool outdoor activities, like a zip line and really huge slides, before heading home the next morning. Thanks for hosting us Tim & Cindy!

A quite moment brought to you by the iPad - technology can be a wonderful thing

Sophie picked out a Jumping Monkey game to give Lincoln for his birthday, and was very excited for him to open it so she could take a turn playing :)

It was colder than expected, so Davey wore a beanie we found in the car, Sophie took my hoodie to wear over her coat, I took Dave's hoodie to wear under my coat, and Dave's hairiness kept him warm

I always take a million pictures of the kids, but sometimes we remember to get in too!

There were a lot of cool art pieces, but these two were my favorite :)

The sun came out Saturday afternoon so we were able to enjoy some ranch house fun!

It's always fun to see grandma and cousins - I'm so glad we could make the trip!

A few videos from the trip