August 2016

Darn blogger's reverse chronological order of photo uploading. Why haven't they fixed this inconvenience yet?

In August we headed to Idaho for Greg and Marissa's reception, with some extra fun stops.

We left on a Tuesday after work and stayed at the Robison's for a couple days which was fun! Often, it's just a quick night-over to/from Idaho so it was awesome to have a full day to play. Thanks, Robisons!

As we drove further East I decided to take the scenic route, which I've only ever done once and it was before Brennan was born. I was pretty excited to explore Craters of the Moon with the kids. As we got closer the little light-bulb in my head went on though, and I realized that we wouldn't arrive during open hours. We missed it by about 20 minutes. Darn.

So we took a couple of pictures in the parking lot and the kids happily jumped back into the car for the relatively brief 1 1/2 hours left of the trip.

Had a great weekend in Idaho Falls. Got to finally meet Marissa in person (Yay! We love her!), played with cousins.. so great to see loved ones.

We then headed home Monday morning with only *some* incident. Hollyn came down with a stomach bug causing her to throw up in the car a few times (contained, thank heavens), and then many times at the Robison's house that evening. Kieran caught it too by that evening and he also had some unfortunate messes that evening. Poor kiddos.

The next morning they both slept the entire 3.5 hours to Portland which was a giant blessing because they really weren't well yet.

In Portland, we met Mom and Dad at Oaks park for some fun and time-killing. It was quite warm that day, and then after just 1 or 2 rides there was a sector-wide power outage causing all the rides inoperable. Eventually the parents and youngsters headed for home and the boys and I stuck it out, being able to ride a couple things after it got up and running again.  Thankfully, we got our bracelets stamped for a free return visit, we'll have to see if we can do that before too late!

From there, the boys and I made our way downtown to see Broadway's Tour of The Lion King. It was a great show! I'd bought the cheap "limited view" tickets which split us up with the boys in the front row of a wing, one seat in from the isle seat, and me behind them. (That neighboring isle seat would have been more expensive). When nobody else ended up sitting next to the boys at all, an Usher suggested they could scoot over and I could join them up front. That was fun. Like when the actors walked down the isles from the back and Asher could have reached his hand out to touch them. Or when, on stage, they winked at the boys in the front row. The show has beautiful costumes and choreography.

We arrived home around 1am, with the littles sleeping over at Grandma and Grandpa's. And I got up at 6:30 the next a.m. and went to work! Whew!

And now, the pictures in reverse order:

Sharing a bumper car with this crazy driver

The Target: Big Brother

The Griffins showed us this cool park/lot of their neighborhood. You can't tell the depth, but all four sides slope down at quite a steep angle to a low center. The kids played with the dog and enjoyed running down the slopes.

This one makes me laugh. How the heck did I capture Brennan in such an awkward half-moment?

This looks so much flatter than it actually is! It's actually perfect for sledding and water-slides. What a cool, simple space. No playground necessary.

Same night, all 3 kids in this room sleeping very strangley

Do you see what he did here, with the dice?

The "inseparables" Hollyn and Clara. Although she's 3, so technically Kieran's age, these girls were the best of buds. It was aDORable! Hollyn loved having a ready recipient of her bossyings and play ideas. ;-)

Asher made himself right at home with these ladies, first thing. He was immediately drawn right to the three white-haired ladies and requested this picture with them. I just held my breath that he wouldn't say anything too embarrassing. But he as in top form that evening, getting lots of comments from others about how funny he is.

Nothing like getting to hold the Bride's train

Enjoying some splash pad

As we drove the scenic Hwy 20 route in Idaho, Brennan named these "The Ghost Mountains" for their strangely white coloring. They show even better in the pictures than they did to our eyes in real life. They blended in with the sky so well, they really did look like ghosts.

Playground with the Robison cousins