Father's Day Weekend in Idaho

For the fourth time in 19 years, all of us siblings (there are 5 of us!) were together, with our parents, in Idaho.  We gathered for Father's Day to honor our Dad.  Here are some shots of the time we spent there:

John reenacting a scene from E.T.?  Or just being patient while Luci piles up every stuffed animal at Nana and Papa's house?

Papa getting some help from Luci and Laura, as they refill the squirrel feeder.  The temperature was chilly that day, only up to 60* at the time they were in the backyard.

Luci.

What Bryan and JT did most of the time.

Papa wearing his "Billy Ray Bob" hat, which was a stylish gift from his Alabama grandchildren.

Nana.  She looks great after a tough year.

Dad's medals from his time in the U.S. Air Force.  Really impressive!

Katie, Laura, Aunt Janet (hiding), JT and Luci at Vacation Bible School.  Mom and Dad's church rent space on Sunday so there is not a building to go to for VBS.  It was held in a park!  Next to the old Penitentiary!  The ladies put together a great picnic lunch of ham sandwich, chips, apples, natural fruit leather, cookies and bottled water.  We were only able to go on Monday.  It was a gorgeous day--and kind of cool.  Luci ended up wearing someone's hoodie sweatshirt. 

J.T.

The view from my seat.  We were right up in the foothills of the Boise Mountains.  There are houses mini-mansions on the top of the hill.  They have one of the best views in town.  Luci's class, preschool through K, were under that blue canopy.  The junior high and high schoolers are off to the left, out-of-scene.

Grades 1-6 at VBS

The adult class

The view I grew up with (5th grade, and junior high and high school, anyways).

On the way home--Devil's Slide in Utah.

Another really beautiful scene in Utah.  The amount of green was somewhat unusual.  I certainly remember brown hills and mountains while growing up.  So glad they've had lot of moisture this year.  Yes, that is snow!

And the view when I got home.  John made a Harding Swing for me for my birthday!  He made the stand for it from these directions here and bought the swing from Lowe's (I don't mind that variation at all).  I love this swing!

Made It!

And Papa is happy! Last year, Luci would have nothing to do with Papa. She's making up for it on this visit. So far, in one afternoon, she's told jokes, been read to, and fed the squirrels with Papa.

Katie and JT playing checkers.

Luci with Laura and Katie,playing piano, making sure both girls are following her plans.
We almost didn't make it. We had to stop several times. Luci was sure she had to go potty NOW...in places far away from plumbing, so we pulled out the kiddy-port-a-potty. Neat invention, but it did not help Luci. She's an Army kid for three more weeks, until Daddy retires--so I'm calling her not going a Dereliction of Doo-dy.

Hilarious!

This caused Luci to cackle with glee! She saw this on the grill of a semi and hollered, "HERMIT!"

And we drove for 9 hours to find ourselves back home?? Somewhere on I-70...

It Must Be the Global Warming...

Boise gets earliest snow on record

This was a headline in my parents' newspaper on Saturday. Here's a picture from the paper, The Idaho Statesman. They got 1.7 inches of snow on Friday! No big deal to them, but that's enough to shut down schools and churches around here.

Must be something about Boise...on my niece's birthday in June of this year, they had the latest snowfall on record! Wow, I wish we could have some of that cool air. I really miss the cold weather.

Idaho's Discovery Museum

The kids and I made a trip to the Discovery Center of Idaho while we were in Boise. The cousins had a great time playing and learning (but don't let them know they actually were learning). This is our second-most favorite hands-on museum that we've been to (and we've been to quite a few). Luci tried the bed of nails. I didn't tell her what it was beforehand. She calls it "that bed that goes up and down." If she knew it were nails, I think she would have run from this exhibit!
A "traits" quiz...I am always trying to figure out anything from Luci's past. This is the page that came up after answering many questions about physical traits. Only 245 other people (out of 39,899 who have taken this quiz) had the same traits as Luci.
Cousins! Suzi, Luci, Laura
A wall of bubble. Bryan poked his hand through, and the reflection of his thumb surprised us in this resulting photo!

Idaho Highlights

Cousin Katie Luci and JT loved this piano! If there were a way to sneak it out of Nana and Papa's house and tie it onto the roof of the van (or drag it behind), I think JT and Luci would have figured out a way to bring it home.

Bryan used every spare minute to play his video games.
We had to get the oil changed before the trip home. JT thinks he looks cool in this car on the show floor at the dealership.
Luci at the car dealership. They had a pretty neat play area. Janet and I went out on Sunday afternoon, for some girl time. (Luci came along, too.) We went to Cheesecake Factory--it is gorgeous in there! Luci took some pics of Janet and me, but they all turned out blurry.

Tetherball was a big hit!
Guess who won this game?! Luci!
Helping Dad fill the squirrel feeder. Wait--I may have put this on the blog before. I can't believe Mom and Dad actually encourage the squirrels to come around! This still makes me laugh. At our old house, we couldn't get rid of the smart, hairy beasts. They even figured out a way to get into our attic and make nests. Yuck!
This is about as close as Luci would let Papa get. I'm sorry, Dad!

Learning to Toss a Frisbee

Luci has her own special way of tossing the frisbee. She even made it go the direction she originally was aiming. This was in Uncle Charlie's backyard.

The Two Vivians

Audrey Vivian with Luci Vivian

Doin' Stuff with Papa

JT talked about helping Papa with his grandfather clock even before we got to Idaho. For some reason, this is a really big deal to the kids. Maybe because they aren't allowed to touch it at any other time. Luci got in on the act, too.
Another fun job was loading the squirrel feeder. After our trials and tribulations with squirrels at our house in Alabama, I find it pretty funny that Mom and Dad encourage the little beasts. (The squirrels, I mean. They also keep feeding the grandchildren, and they keep showing up, too.)

Luci wanted to help but ran off before the job was finished. JT loved this chore, too.

Laura's Sweet 16 Birthday

Laura had her 16th birthday while we were in Idaho. She (well, really her parents!) had everyone over for a cookout. The weather was cold and windy and rainy--can you believe it even snowed a bit on her birthday?!-- so it turned into a cook-in! It was lots of fun, and the food was so good!

Laura had the kids decorate her cakes, and that was fun to watch. Except for Luci taking over one of the cakes, and she didn't want to share. Charlie taught my boys about Hertz Donuts (see the kids' blog for that one!). Thanks, Charlie. Humph.

Laura got some nice presents, including a Claddagh ring from her parents and a new car!! Okay, so it was a Hot Wheels car from Bryan.

Here are a couple of favorite pics from the special day.

Papa and Laura, the Birthday Girl

Papa and Cousin Tori

Aunt Janet (my sister) and Uncle Marty, parents of the birthday girl