The Fair

This past Saturday Bryan and I went with our friends Lee and Suzanne to the fair here in Boise. Someone asked us the previous week if we were going and we hadn't even heard about it. I didn't go to fairs very often as a kid so I kind of assumed we wouldn't but, to my surprise, Bryan really wanted to. He said it was a tradition in his family to go to the fair each year so we went. It sounds like a nice tradition to have. I really shouldn't have been surprised because a fair, rather than a carnival that just passes from town to town, is really a community oriented event. Bryan loves to feel like part of a community and give back to it, if he can. I was excited to ride a ferris wheel with him for the first time but he was more excited about seeing the animals and looking at all that was contributed from people in our community.

Here are a few pictures I snapped, mostly of animals.

I took these two for our niece Ava, who very much loves lambies and has already decided to be one for Halloween!

These ducks were simply massive!

Bryan got to brush this cow. I pet a calf who licked my arm! It was kind of sweet, actually.

What a tender little horse moment.

Piglets!

From the top of the ferris wheel! I didn't think it was scary and didn't realize how many people do think so. It has been so smoky here in Boise for the past little bit. We desperately need some rain and have been having some fires.

Of course you have to eat funnel cake when you go to a fair!

Then we caught a twenty minute illusionist show before heading home. He was actually pretty good!

I'm glad we went-- I'm sure it will become a yearly tradition for our family!

Camping

My parents didn't take us four girls camping very much when I was growing up. We went maybe twice, but I can really only remember one time distinctly. I did go to girl's camp for a week each summer from ages twelve to seventeen but, call me crazy, I really like air conditioning, showers, electricity, soft sheets and not getting eaten by bugs. I'm what you might call 'indoorsy'. Regardless of all this, I was pretty excited when Bryan mentioned to me that he wanted to go camping. It would be our first camping trip together!

We decided to do a short one night camp trip this past weekend and spent the week excitedly preparing. Bryan researched tons and tons of campgrounds to fit our needs. We went out nearly every night getting things we would need and making lists. The plan was to pick Bryan up early from work on Friday and go to the DMV (we needed to get Idaho licenses) and then pack everything up and drive to a campground near Lake Cascade. Then, we'd set up our tent and Bryan would build a fire using his awesome boy scout skills and we would roast hotdogs over the fire for dinner and then have smores and hot chocolate. Then, we were going to relax and just hang out until around midnight, where we would find somewhere nice and open to watch the Perseid meteor shower. Then we'd go to bed and when we woke up the next morning we were going to fry some bacon and eggs before breaking down camp and heading back to Boise. That's how it was supposed to happen.

Let me tell you what really went down. Everything at the DMV went fine and we came home, packed up and started out. To get to Lake Cascade we needed to go down highway 55. We'd been going on this road for a little while when we saw a sign saying the road was closed in 25 miles. We weren't ready to turn around yet and the drive was really beautiful. I thought that surely there would be a way around it and as long as we had our GPS it could easily find us an alternate route if it came to it. The closer we got the more information we received. It turned out that the highway was closed due to a fire-- we started getting a little more nervous but hoped the signs were old. We followed a camper driving that way hoping they would be able to get through. Well, we reached the road block and there was no way around. It had been an electrical fire and the man there said the best alternate route would add three hours to our trip!

We decided to turn around and I tried to find a new campsite on my phone even though the internet kept going out due to our more rural location. The other parks we'd been looking at were a couple of hours southwest of Boise whereas we'd already gone an hour northeast. We were also worried that, since it was getting later, availability would be a problem. We had thought most camping was first come first serve but now plan to make reservations in the future. I didn't want to give up and go home because of all the planning and preparation that we'd put into this. Finally, I found a campsite in Caldwell that still had some tent sites available and it was only about 25 miles from Boise so we decided to go there.

When we arrived we realized this wasn't really a great campground. It was right next to the highway so we heard cars passing the whole time we were there. It wasn't really in a forest either and there were a ton of RVs and we realized that a lot of the people actually just lived there. There wasn't really a forest around and not really any privacy between campsites. We'd been planning on making a fire but the person at the desk told us they were wary of fires right now and encouraged us to use the charcoal grill. So, with all these disappointments we settled down anyway and set up camp.

We had to go into "town" and buy charcoal. Because we'd had a plan for it with the fire but not the grill, we had to scrap the plan about the hot chocolate, bacon and eggs. We'd brought a skillet and small pot and Bryan was going to making a little stove of sorts but we realized that the grill wouldn't supply sufficient heat to these things. So, we just decided to go home earlier in the morning and make those things there.

Here we are, camping. Note all the RVs in the background and, if you can tell, limited privacy.

We played some card games on Bryan's Thai rice mat.

We had to reteach ourselves how to play golf.

We had meant to try and leave our phones alone for the most part but gave in just a little.

Around 10:30 I was really tired and starting to get a headache so I decided to shut my eyes just for a little bit. We didn't end up going out to watch the meteor shower. There were people outside randomly fishing in the dark so I felt awkward just going out there. We opened a "window" on our tent and looked out that way. I think I might have seen a shooting star earlier in the evening and Bryan says he thinks he saw one too.

We got up, packed up, headed home and ate delicious eggs and bacon. We decided that, even though it wasn't the greatest place and that the trip wasn't all we'd wanted it to be, it was at least practice. Next time we'll know better and plan better and, hopefully, it will go a lot smoother.

And now, in case you didn't click the link above, I've provided this hilarious clip for your viewing pleasure:

So Long, Farewell

This weekend our friends David, Weston and Alicia came up to Boise for a visit. David and Weston are moving in a week across the country so its unlikely that we'll see them even as often as we could with us in Idaho and them in Utah. We had a fun time going to the Farmer's Market, eating a lot of food, adoring Callie and playing one million games. It was sad to see them go. Hopefully Alicia can visit some, at least. Here are a few pictures I took from their time here.

I am covetous of that shirt. Here is the aforementioned Callie adoring.

Playing "Say Anything" and "Loaded Questions". The boys also played a lot of video games and Alica and I played Skip Bo. For those who have played, are the very low numbered cards blue or purple? This was a very big debate.

David didn't want me to take a picture of him.

For some reason David's abs became a recurring theme in our jokes over the weekend so of course we had to take a picture (clothed).

It was really hard not to spend 100% of the time adoring Callie.

I just wanted to document the video game playing. Poor boys-- they grew up together playing video games and this probably the last time for a long while that they'll all be together doing it. Of course, I'm the one being sentimental here. The boys are probably like, "Uh... yeah. Okay." Oh, boys.

I made this delicious cake. Seriously, this is some of the most moist chocolate cake I have ever made or had.

Anyway, goodbye friends! We will miss you a lot!

Lastly:

This is probably the best thing I've ever found between the couch cushions.

Our Recently Adorable Life

This post is mostly about cute things. What can I say? A lot of cute things have been happening to us lately. For one, we got Callie about a month and a half ago. She is a joy to have around. I realize the next two pictures are almost identical but I couldn't help myself.

Believe me, I have taken oh so many pictures of this sweet girl. I'd say 90% of the pictures on my phone are of her. Woops. Am I turning into someone who talks about her cat all the time?

She is pretty much a hoot, too. She does the silliest things. She is easily transfixed by lights on the ceiling or floor. She used to arch her back and prance around like that whenever she saw her reflection. She tries to be very sneaky. This is just one video I happened to get of her being her silly self.

I also have started trying to get into crafting. I decided to make one of my nephews a baby blanket. It mostly turned out great.

Except for the edging... That's going to take some practice to get down.

 

I also stabbed (not pricked, stabbed) myself in the hand with a quilting needle while putting these ribbons in. Don't worry, I didn't get tetanus but Bryan was worried.

Here is baby Jack (my sister Natalie's new baby) modeling the mustache pacifier I made for him. Unfortunately, baby Jack lives across the country from me and I've yet to meet this sweet little thing. That pacifier seriously didn't seem this big when I saw it. He is just a tiny little guy.

Last week, Shelley had her baby as well so we drove down to Utah this past weekend to meet baby Ethan.

He was a very sweet thing as well. We got the opportunity to see him and hold him several times while we were there.

There is nothing like holding a sleeping newborn. So precious and innocent.

It was a nice weekend but, sadly, we had to leave on Sunday. Check out this gas station we stopped at near Twin Falls on the way back. There was basically no one there. I felt like it was a scene out of a movie or something.

We are just awaiting one more adorable little addition to our family! She should be arriving no later than Wednesday!

Our Home

The time has finally come! I'm not sure if anyone was actually waiting on the edge of their seats for me to post this but I can tell you it's been on my mind for a while. I waited until we had furniture and then until our new duvet arrived and then the house was a mess from some crafting projects I'd done (I think I mentioned we had three pregnant ladies in our family-- one out of three has had her baby! I was busy sewing away for them.) I put off cleaning my house for too long. I don't so much love the cleaning part but I really love that accomplished feeling at the end when I look around and see what I've done. Plus, I really just feel happier in a clean environment. Anyway, let the tour begin!

Here is our house (we're renting right now, we aren't in the process of owning it). This doesn't look like your average townhouse but that's what it is. We have about four of these complexes where we live and there are four homes in each one, kind of like a square cut into quarters rather than side by side.

You can see it a little in the picture above but here is our patio, situated to the left our house.

I know Bryan would want me to show this picture of our garden. He's very proud of it. It's grown a lot since we started it. You can't see all of it but we planted the zucchini, green onions, green beans and lettuce from seed. Those are mostly flourishing. We bought Thai basil and Thai chili pepper starter plants at the farmer's market. The peppers are slowly growing but the basil flowered. On the bright side, the flowers are purple and I think they are kind of pretty! We also bought some thyme, cilantro and rosemary from a garden store. I think the cilantro is starting to die a little but the others are doing great. I have a little oregano that was handed out at church one Sunday and last but not least, a lady in the Relief Society gave me four tomato starters! They are growing like crazy but we haven't had any tomatoes yet. Oh yeah, we also tried some flowers from seed. They mostly didn't work except for a few sprouts.

I bought this wreath from Target (we live three minutes away from Target... this might not be safe for me). It seemed like a good summer/spring wreath and I really like it. I like wreaths with a holly a lot and, if I'd taken the picture a little closer you'd see that's what the white part is.

Callie decided she wanted to be present in this post, so here she is welcoming you to our home. She is a very personable cat. She really likes to be around us and will often come snuggle in our laps unbidden. She is usually at the door when we get home but doesn't really try to get outside. She's an indoor cat but we took her outside the other day so she could see what the world was like and she was surprisingly timid about it. Anyway, end tangent.

Here is our main room. We weren't sure if our TV would fit in that hole but it was the perfect size. I don't know what we'd have otherwise done.

Here is our desk area and hallway leading to the downstairs bathroom, storage closet and washer/dryer (as I typed that I realized I had some laundry to change. Oops! Can I just tell you how much I love having my own washer/dryer?!)

Anyway, here is said downstairs bathroom with all the bathroom stuff we initially got when we got married.  Minus the cat litter, which I'm glad we haven't been carrying around until now. I really need to get her a bigger litter box.

Hey look! We now own a couch! Actually, we own all our furniture minus the large appliances! Since we have moved here I put together a large bookshelf, decorative shelf (see to your left in the picture with our TV), computer desk, and two nightstands. Bryan put together the table and chairs from IKEA. The both of us put together our dresser. Whew! It was a lot of work but gone are the days where we used an inflatable couch and bed or lived in a pre-furnished apartment. We're like real adults or something. Scary!

The aforementioned table and chairs. I'm really glad we didn't get a larger one. This one has a leaf in it with a neat way of storing it. We can make it bigger when we move into a bigger space.

Fairly new appliances in the kitchen. The only one I hate is the dishwasher, which has two motors that are dying and a tiny little place for utensils. What were they thinking?

My mom and dad helped us move here to Boise so they got to see the home but not all put together. One thing my mom said was, "Oh, that raised bar is nice. It'll hide all the dishes that need to be done from people who come over." Haha! Sometimes its true though. I can't be a perfect homemaker 100% of the time, I guess. I mostly try to keep it looking like this since for the sake of my sanity.

Mostly I took this picture to tell you I'm going upstairs now and so you can see the picture I've hung, though now that I see it... I don't think it can really be seen. It's one of our engagement pictures with a Family Proclamation over it on velum. Mom made it for us (and all my sisters) for Christmas.

Here is our guest/storage room. My parents didn't love the thought of sleeping on an air mattress when they came to visit so the bought this bed for a really good deal from a local retailer. It's pretty nice to have a legitimate guest bedroom. We've actually already had a lot of visitors so we've made good use of it. Lucky for us we already had all the bedding too... I'll get to that more in a couple of pictures. Anyway, this is also the kind of the room we put things in to keep them out of the way, like our vacuum. Oh! We even bought our own vacuum and it's pretty great! I haven't had a vacuum with such great suction since I lived at home. It's glorious.

I know its pretty silly but I was pretty excited to get stuff for another bathroom! I really liked this shower curtain and hand towel that matches the pattern. We went with a sea-green type of blue and grey.

The hand towel, as mentioned. Bryan would probably say, "No one wants to see a picture of our toilet, let alone two of our toilets." Oh, well.

Ta da! Our bedroom. As I mentioned, we already had all the bedding for our queen sized guest bed because it was the bedding we had previously use. Bryan's mom gave us a king sized bed she had and we love it. We each have all the room we need. I love being able to sprawl out.

This was the last thing I was waiting for-- we had been using the bedding that was on the bed when we took it but I kind of wanted to personalize everything in our room. I love the contrast of the dark blue over white with grey as a neutral. Also, there is our dresser. We were strangely overjoyed to have nightstands and love pulling the chains on our individual lamps at night. Silly, I know, but simple pleasures!

Then, because I'm cool now and have a smart phone, I decided to do a little video tour. Sorry if you get nauseous from me moving around. I just thought it'd be cool to kind of move through it and see some things in more detail. I decided not to speak in it because I thought I'd sound awkward. Callie decided to make a couple of cute guest appearances. Enjoy!