Kentucky Derby/Cinco de Mayo/Gold Fork Hot Springs

Our friends in Cascade invited us to a Kentucky Derby/Cinco de Mayo party last Saturday.  The party was lots of fun (despite Juan and I being on our Whole30 and not able to eat most the food or have even one mint julep or margarita!).  After the horse race we drove up to Gold Fork hot springs which was also a lot of fun.
Claire in her Derby hat.

Bryce really wanted to play with the giant chess set at the hot springs.

The water felt great!

 On our way back out to the highway we saw about 9 elk in this meadow.

Birds of Prey

The kids were out of school for most of November due to their school's track break. One afternoon I took the kids out to the Peregine Fund's World Center for Birds of Prey.  We got to meet Gus the Peregrine Falcon and learn all about him while we were there.  What a cool bird!

That's the Ornate Hawk-Eagle behind Claire.

And the Bald Eagle behind Bryce.  There were also some birds we saw in the indoor cages.  The kids loved Wally the Eagle-Owl the most but we couldn't get a good picture in there.

End of Summer Pics

Friday September 9th we watched the Scentsy fireworks for the 3rd year in a row.

Sunday September 10th the neighbor girls took me out for brunch to celebrate my birthday.

Tuesday, September 12th I volunteered in Bryce's classroom.  He showed me how he can cross the monkey bars at recess.

Wednesday, September 13th we made our last visit to the pool for the 2017 season.

School & Summer

School may have started but summer's not over yet!
Some friends invited us to go boating with them on Lucky Peak.  Claire and Simone are finally in the same class this year!

Claire's self portrait/poem at Back-to-School Night.

Grammy came to visit us for a whole week!  The girls are spent one morning painting pottery.

Our neighbor Steve has been very sick (he needs a new liver) and was in the hospital for 36 days.  All the neighbor kids spent the morning before he got to finally come home making signs and paintings to welcome him back.  We hocked them all together to make a banner and hung it over their front door.

This kids had fun "resting" in the neighbors hammock.

We had to interrupt our neighborhood baseball game to check out the beautiful sunset on "Total Eclipse Eve" (aka Sunday night).  It doesn't look like much in this picture but it was really pretty!

Lucky Peak

We had a fun day playing at Lucky Peak!  That's Claire and Bryce and Cole and Charlie and maybe some other friends playing on the giant floaties.

Easter Adventure

Easter morning the kids hunted for eggs (we missed the neighborhood hunt because both kids had soccer games).  Luckily the Easter bunny stopped by house.

After having some pancakes and bacon and eggs we set off on a drive to Shoshone Falls on the Snake River.  We took the Thousand Springs scenic byway and made a couple stops along the way.

There were lots of people visiting the falls because there is so much more water than normal coming over them.  It took a while to get in the park but we finally made it and found a place to park.  The kids rolled down a big hill.

It was really pretty!  There is so much water!

Looking downstream.

 On the way home we stopped by Three Island Crossing State Park near Glenns Ferry (and did a little wine tasting at Crossings Winery).  Here's the high water on the Snake River there.

The kids on a replica of a ferry/barge from the Oregon Trail days.

Day 9 | Whale Watch Tour

Monday, March 20 - We had booked a whale watching trip the day before for first thing in the morning.  We got on our boat in Lahaina.  Unfortunately, we didn't find any whales who wanted to show off for us.  We did get a to see a few backs and tails and water spouts.  Claire and Bryce were the only kids on our tour and the guides let them help drive the boat and help put the microphone in the water so we could all hear the whale song.
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There's a whale out there.

Water spout!

Bryce wanted to sit in the back of the boat just like when we are at the lake.

We had to go look at the giant Banyan Tree after our tour.

 We had lunch at Leoda's.  So delicious!  Makes me want a slice of pie!

We spent the rest of the afternoon at the beach!