Beach and Tropical Paradise . . . in IDAHO?

So you may not think of tropical paradise when you think of Boise ID, BUT it is!

The fountain in our lake, behind our apartment is gorgeous.

We got a tropical fruit basket at Dave's work party and made an amazing fruit salad after a lot of hard work learning how to cut a pineapple, coconut,papaya and mango.

Sandy point beach might be manmade, but we love it. Despite the cold water, my mom helped up to wade out to touch the water fountain. Beach volleyball with strangers was fun (mosly because we won).

Family Fun

My little sister Marcie came to visit me last week! We are 13 years apart, but I feel like she is one of my best friends. Here enthusiasm, love and excitement for life are contagious. She keeps our family young.

She was the little girl who would come running out the front door to give me hugs when I got home from high school. I remember one night of particular boy trauma in college, she just cuddled with me while I cried. When my mom called her to go to bed, she went upstairs and said she couldn't go to bed yet, because I was crying and she needed to be with me. This is one special sister and we had a blast together!

We started out with several bike trips up the river to parks, the zoo, the rose garden and the human rights memorial. The rose garden has a million varieties of roses. It is beautiful.We played alot of games, mostly Settler's online. We visited the zoo, swam and shopped a bit. We enjoyed running and taking naps!

Mostly, Marcie was the best little mommy to Jackson. I never had to buckle him it (what a nice break) and she sat in the back to entertain him. Thank you for helping me!

Then my parents and other little sister, Melinda, came up for the weekend. It was very 'interesting' to host 6 people AND a baby in a 1 bedroom apartment. We only had 6 cups, plates and bowls. The guests had to bring their own air mattresses, sheets, towels and even chairs! Here is my mom drinking out of tupperware. They were very good about being put out.

Hey look! Our new couch! We got it only minutes before my family left. We made sure to have NO furniture while they were here so that we could fit them all on the floor to sleep. :) Thanks Mel, for the great couch find!

Amongst many fun activities, we were able to go to the Boise temple as a family.

We also had a barbeque and swim party. Then we biked to all the Boise sites we could. We attended the Farmers Market (sort of-it wasn't opened yet). The Boise beach was awesome (post to come) and we even had time for another going out to eat, another hot tub run, going to church and seeing the "Nature Center" We packed alot in a short weekend, but thouroghly enjoyed being together and having fun. I think they mostly came to see Jackson :). Kind of makes you wanna come visit; right, Shel?

Tater Tuesdays

Lest you think my good intentions to make different potato dishes were only intentions . . .here is an update of how Tater Tuesday is going

Top left: Roasted red potatos (before they were roasted) SO good and SO easy we forgot to take another pic.

Bottom Right: Roasted Potato salad- Very yummy, we both loved the bacon in it.

Bottom left: Potato Pancakes- didn't taste bad, but I am not much of a pancake fan. I think I liked it better than fluffy cake-like pancakes. (the syrup made it delicious!)

Middle and Top right: Peruvian Stuffed Potatoes- different that what I invisioned when I set out to make it. You take mashed potatos, fill it will meat/egg concoction and then fry them. I liked them, but there wasn't enough flavor. I want to try again now that I know a little bit what is going on.

Bottom middle: Twice baked potatoes: Yes, I know this is a Harper favorite (ran out of time, money and ideas), but I did try a few new things. As always, we loved it.

You also get a glimpse at my scrapbooking adventures. I am still not very good, but I am trying to do a page a day. I usually get paper and layout and pictures on, but don't finish the journaling and the titles. Oh, well at least I am trying. Maybe someday I will make a book.

Strawberry picking

Besides the fact that I ruined our camera, strawberry picking was super fun. I met a girl who volunteered to be my friend on craigslist (Did you know you could do that?) She is super nice a mom of 2 boys and she is always doing something around Boise. Her husband happens to be doing an internship in Salt Lake and she is staying in Boise with the boys. Tonight I met her at a Christian concert outdoors. She is fun! I hope to be nice enough to volunteer to be someone's friend!

We started out looking at the pigs, cows, chickens and sheep. Jackson was fascinated. This pig licked his hand. . . oh no! Swine flu!

Then came the tragic tractor ride out to the strawberry fields . . . (pictures are courtesy of my internet friend)

Jackson went crazy eating strawberries, dropping them in the mud, picking them up (with the mud) and basically making a mess. I put him in a backpack and he would pull my hair everytime he wanted another strawberry. My hair was disgusting!

And the spoil was great! I made jam for the first time ever. We have enough to last the whole year!

Obligitory ZOO post

I think every mother-blogger has to have a post about taking their child to the zoo. I must be an outstanding mother . . . because I have taken Jackson TWICE to the zoo! I know zoo pictures and posts aren't that exciting (Especially with a 1 year old only!) so I won't be offended if you click "Mark as Read" to get on with your life. Here is a compilation of the Hogle Zoo and Zoo Boise. Jackson really didn't show much emotion either happy or unhappy. Uncharacteristically he was very solemn.

He did really get into the drums and the playground. Especially the woodchips.

I'll be honest. He hated the carosel. It is sad when we try to do things JUST to make our kids happy, and they end up hating it- and I got sick on it. I just don't want him to miss out on any fun that he could have.

Zoo Boise was much smaller than hogle zoo. but I liked that there were so many animal playground equipment and statues. I think Jackson enjoyed it more because there were things he could do

Climbing up to this slide you see the monkeys and then slide down.
There were all sorts of displays where the kids got to be part of the animal. Very fun!Jackson loved this minature tiger. He would walk around it, bounce up and down and laugh and then climb on it and just enjoy himself. I might just pay to go back to the zoo purely to let him love this tiger again. The tigers were definitely my favorite part.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! From your little sister Marcie

On Jamie's 28th birthday, I was lucky to be there to celebrate her special day. Jamie and Dave finally got a BED!!!!! They have slept for weeks on their air mattress and were very excited to have a bed.
This was Jamie's breakfast (sausage gravy and bisquits) that Dave made for her. (It's one of her favorites!)


Dave then took Jamie out to the edge of the river for lunch and we all had a picnic with chicken sandwiches, oreos and lime chips. Dave wanted to try and recreate the dinner they had when he proposed. He's very thoughtful.
o
You can't see it in this picture, but it is SNOWING on JUNE 24th! The cottonwood trees shed all of the cotton all day. We went swimming AND sa
Jamie got PRESENTS!!! They are mostly from Dave of course, but I tried to contribute.
Green shirt, white shoes, a purse, a bag and a book. You might be wondering what the board is. . . it is a make-shift "desk" to be used on the camp chair. Very thoughtful Dave!The night ended with Dave taking Jamie to dinner while I babysat for them!

p.s. does ANYONE know WHY it underlines and turns some text blue and how to get it to stop?

The really important things . . . my boys!

I took this picture because the first time I went to the library, I got lost in all the one way streets. I was sitting at a stop light knowing I was close, but not finding it. I said a little prayer, looked up, and there was this 'sign'.

We've gone to baby reading time 3x. Jackson doesn't get it, but he loves pet the animal time!

We did FHE at the Boise Depot. We got a great view of the city and learned the history. History is much better coming from a guide rather than just reading it!

The Idaho museum was a great rainy day activity for us to learn more about the state we live in.

A born cowboy!






























I'll be honest, Dave and I have played at least 10 games of ticket to ride. The Switzerland version is awesome for 2 players. We are both competetive enough that if we lose, we beg for another game.




BIG JUD's: We ordered the one pound hamburger meal. Lucky for our hearts we only ate half of it!For those who care and love Jackson like I do (i.e. To the grandmas:) Here is a picture of his one tooth in the middle, and you can barely see the other tooth and the space in the middle. (Not to mention his gorgeous eyes!)

I called him snaggle tooth for about a week. Tooth #3 (the middle one) is coming up strong so he is looking alot more 'normal' (if you can look normal with only 3 teeth)

GOOD NEWS: I got my new trailer today (unfortunately they weren't having a 2-for-1 deal :( )

We like the color even better than the red one and notice . . . we are storing it inside YAY! more furniture! :) We're going on a bike trip tomorrow to lucky peak (hope it lives up to its name!)(unless it rains . . .again!)

I think that Jackson is pretty amazing. I am not sure if other kids can do this, but he can get to standing up without using his hands. All day long he gets up, takes a few steps and falls down. He is determined and excited to be walking.