We’ve been living under a light blanket the past couple of days.

Just popping in to say happy weekend.  It’s been a relaxing one for us so far.  The weather is perfect fall, there are leaves to rake and jump into, and cute kids to soak up.

What are you up to?

Today I bring you some non-phone photos of our trip.  If you read my previous post you might remember that our plans got a bit rearranged.  Originally we were going to drive to Boise for Labor Day weekend, but the night before we were going to head out Hunter was up with a cough.  ALL NIGHT LONG.  Normally that wouldn’t have been a big deal, but just days before a friend called to let me know that her daughter had been diagnosed with whooping cough, so my kids had been exposed.  We decided that a trip to the doctor was in order, just in case, and then we decided to wait on test results before we left.  It gave us a wonderful long weekend where we had nothing that we had to do.  We bought a fire pit for the back yard, roasted marshmallows, camped out, played guitars and sang silly songs.  Sometimes things not going according to plan is exactly what is needed, and it was.

I decided that I would do the drive by myself the next week.  It was exhausting and empowering all at once.  We stopped in Utah to visit dear friends, then headed up to eastern Idaho to visit my brother and his family.  Can you believe these are the only photos I have of that part of the visit?

Those little cousins were so super cute– opposites in every way.  Savanna is bald– Eva has out of control fluff. Eva weighs 22 lbs. and Savanna is something like 15 lbs.  Savanna eats a ton of whatever you offer her– Eva just gave her food to Savanna.

While we were in eastern Idaho we also had a quick visit with my dear friends Jessica and Tracy.  I have no photographic evidence.  Our kids loved each other and played like they had just seen each other yesterday.  Poor Tracy laid on the couch with her hurt hip.  Jessica, in all her skinniness, ate roasted veggies from her garden and shared with me the finer points of Sparrow Girls.  One wonderful part of this trip is that I got to spend time with friends that I wish I could just pack up in my pocket and take with me everywhere I go.  Jessica and Tracy are two of those friends.  My friend Erin in Utah is another one.

On the way to Boise from Blackfoot we went to Craters of the Moon National Monument.  Every time we’ve done this drive I’ve wanted to go, but put it off for want of just getting there (either Boise or home).  This time I did it.  I took 6 kids to the crazy, other worldly landscape out in the middle of no where.  I, the lone adult, took 6 kids through lava caves.  It did take me 3 times as long to feed them lunch, clean up from lunch, get shoes on those 12 feet, and get on the trail than it would have had Barry been with me– but I did it!  It was worth the memories.

My parents came to visit and we packed as much into the short time they were here as we could.  Right after we picked them up from the airport we packed lunch and headed to Castlewood Canyon for a hike to the “rock forts” as my kids call them.

The next day our sweet Logan got baptized.  He planned the service himself, picked the songs, made phone calls to his Primary teacher and our Home Teacher for talks, asked his sister and piano teacher to give prayers.  Barry baptized him and he asked my dad to confirm him.  It was so sweet and beautiful and a wonderful reflection of Logan and who he is and who he loves at this time in his life.

I’m kicking myself that I didn’t get a picture and Logan and Papa together.

On the last day their flight didn’t leave until 9:00 pm, so we had some adventures that day too.  The weather was perfect for visits to Dinosaur Ridge and Red Rocks.

Our tour guide Dan-o-saurus took us back 150 million years to touch some stegosaurus bones.  You can then the bones from the rest of the rock because of their color, texture, and taste (so Jonah licked the rock).

Here are some dinosaur foot prints from underneath.

Logan is being stepped on by an apatosaurus.

Back in the 1930s when they were building Alameda Highway they uncovered this field of iguanadon foot prints.  The footprints are colored in with charcoal to make them more visible.  Pretty amazing, huh?

We made a quick stop at Red Rocks to see it, then wandered around Ikea for lunch on the way home.

We love you Granny and Papa!  It was so fun to have you here.  See you again soon!

While Barry’s mom was here we also spent a weekend up at the YMCA of the Rockies.   We stayed for 2 nights in one of the hotel-like lodges (sans air conditioning and TV or course), and ate all our meals in the camp cafeteria.  That’s a pretty easy get away– no food to plan or pack.  My very favorite thing there is the Craft and Design center.  Maybe when I’m old I’ll get to stay there all day a weave a basket or something.  We also drove around Rocky Mountain National Park.  It never gets old.

I love this picture or Eva and I with our squinty eyed smiles.

Do you hear the ECHO… echo… echo… echo?

There was mini golfing.

Soooo big!

Elk in the middle of it all.

Crafting.

From squatting

to standing!

Cafeteria food with a view.

At the playground.

Barry’s mom came and stayed from July 4th until the 30th and we packed a lot into that month.  One day she treated us to a ride on the Pikes Peak cog railroad.

I spent most of the trip snuggling one feverish little person or another so I handed the camera to Brenna (I think Barry took a photo or 2 too).  Hunter and Eva slept most of the train ride, partly because they didn’t feel well, but also because of the elevation, I think.

This place above is called Inspiration Point.

It was a fitting trip for that month of patriotism because it was up on top of that mountain that Katharine Lee Bates penned the lyrics to America the Beautiful.  On a clear day you can see 5 states– Kansas, Wyoming, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and of course Colorado.

Last weekend Barry and all 4 boys went on our annual church Father-Son campout, so Brenna, Eva and I were on our own.  It is so fun that there are 3 of us girls now!!!  We decided to head up to Berry Patch Farm one morning to pick strawberries.

We came home with a few strawberries, two heads of really pretty lettuce, and a new basket to carry around my current knitting project in.

We came home with a lot of photos on my phone too.  Brenna was the camera wielder, I was the baby wearer.

Eva was really good and seemed perfectly content, even when I was squatting.  My legs sure got a workout–squat, pick, stand, step, repeat–with 22 lbs. on my back.  I had planned on getting there at 8:00, we got there at 10:00.  The berries were pretty picked over and it was hot, but just when we were ready to head back to the barn we tried one more spot and it was perfect– lots of big red berries just there for the picking.  If my legs hadn’t been shaking from our previous hour of super squatting we would have picked more.

We all thoroughly enjoyed the hens and roosters pecking around the picnic area.  There were a lot of roosters.  I think they outnumbered the hens 3 to 1.

Store bought strawberries just can’t compare those little organic, red through and through, nuggets of deliciousness.  We didn’t have enough for jam, which means that we’ll have to go back.  That’s okay.  We got to eat them all!

Sometimes I am paralyzed by the thought of doing something.  I fret about all the work it might take to get there or the mess it might make that I already don’t feel like cleaning up.  It’s funny how such thoughts are such an energy drain.  Granted, getting myself and six kids ready and out the door more often than not causes breaches in my patience.  A batch of new play dough or a sewing project with a child inevitably creates piles of clutter and a crumbly mess on the floor.

But doing is always worth it no matter how hard it is to overcome the inertia of not.

Doing, acting creates more energy than all the fretting sucks up.

Just one hour can hold a whole day’s worth of connection, beauty, fun, wonder, and creative rejuvenation.

It’s one of those lessons I have to learn over and over and over.

(photos by both Brenna and I)

When we were planning our trip we thought we’d try to go camping, but eastern Idaho weather is a bit tricky.  We decided we’d just play it by ear and see what we thought as the dates got closer.  Rain.  Wind.  COLD nights.  We decided that camping wouldn’t be very fun.  We wanted to see Yellowstone anyway, so we made it a day trip.  It was a lot of driving in one day, but I think the memories were worth it.

There were bison, bison, bison for my cute nephews to spy with their new binoculars.

Seriously, could little boys be any cuter (other than mine, of course)?

My favorite area was the Lower Geyser Basin area with the mud pots, colorful pools, and lots of little active geysers.

The only other time I’ve been to Yellowstone was on our first wedding anniversary.  We decided to ride the main loop on our bikes– which was about 100 miles– which didn’t really give us any time to actually see anything but the backs of RVs.  This time was good from the comfort of our van and since it was early in the season it wasn’t very crowded.

We made the obligatory stop to watch Old Faithful.  There was quite a crowd and I was prepared for it to be pretty anticlimactic, but it was actually really cool!

I can’t imagine what the Native Americans thought about this place– was it holy?  was it cursed?  That’s something we should research…

We drove all through the park and made our way toward Grand Teton National Park.

Look what we found once we got past Old Faithful:

About 5 feet of snow.  I’m glad we didn’t try to camp.

It was the perfect time of year for the drive though.  The Tetons were breathtaking.  Not a single picture we took can really do them justice.   It’s hard to get the metering right.  Just imagine the bluest sky you’ve ever seen and dark mountains highlighted with white snow.

We listened to Fablehaven by Brandon Mull (and we really love this series) for the drive from Colorado to Idaho and part of this Yellowstone trip and also to Igraine the Brave by Cornelia Funke.  Road trips are made so much better with good books to listen to.  Much better than movies, I think, because one story can take 10 hours, fill everyone’s imaginations for the long haul, and even make it so the kids don’t want to get out of the car just quite yet when we get where we’re going.

I’m an Idaho girl born and raised– but I didn’t grow up in potato growing Idaho.  In fact, I don’t think I really saw a potato field until I was a teenager.  I grew up in Boise, which is about as citified as Idaho can get.  (And really one of the coolest cities there is, in my humble opinion.  The Denver area, where we live now, is pretty cool, but way too big for me.  Boise is like a mini Denver.)

My brother, however, married a girl from the potato capital of the world and lives there now.  We decided to make this year’s Idaho trip to their neck of the woods.  No matter where you go, if you’re with family it’s the perfect place.  We had fun.

My brother and his family spent the winter making this little house, built in something like 1913, livable.  For $19,000 they got some good bones, but had to totally gut it.  The before pictures are pretty scary.  It amazes me how some people choose to live.  The plaster had completely fallen off the walls in some places so you could see right outside through the walls.  My brother and his wife didn’t realize that the black sink was really bright orange enamel until they did a little cleaning before the kitchen demolition.  My brother’s done an amazing job turning it into a lovely home for his family. They’ve just got to build a garage and put siding on and they can say it’s done.

My parents came out too and brought one of my little nieces.

The kids played outside every second they could.

We got there just in time to see a baby gecko hatch!

We went swimming at Lava Hot Springs,

played with Papa at the park,

and celebrated his birthday.

Did you know that there is an entire museum dedicated to the Idaho potato?

Well, now you do.  One thing I learned is that potatoes are native to South America.  They were brought to Europe by Spanish explorers, spread throughout Europe, and then were later brought to North America.  So even though Idaho is so uniquely suited to potato growing they’re not from there.  I never knew that.

More importantly, though, the museum houses the largest collection of potato mashers (neatly displayed thanks to some kid’s Eagle Scout project) and the world’s largest Pringle (technically a potato “crisp”).

There was also some prep for the front walk to be done, so all the boys pitched in to help.

Little kids sure love to do REAL work.

It kept them busy for a long time.

I sure love my family and it was so good to visit Tyler and Katie and their cute boys.  Cramming 7 extra people (or 10!) into a little house with one bathroom can be a little crazy– but it was good crazy.  And too short.

(We did venture farther than the Potato Museum– that’s where we saw the bison I posted the other day.  It will take a whole other post to show you that, so come back tomorrow.)