Our Week in Idaho

We just got back from spending a week with my family in Idaho. Oh, how I love visits with my family! We had a pretty busy and fun week, lots of playing and canning and reading and talking and cooking and all sorts of fun stuff.

We headed up on Tuesday afternoon. We would have gone on Tuesday morning, but I had an ultrasound scheduled to check on my placenta position. Everything went well, the placenta moved up out of the way, and the baby looks very healthy and very cute. We got some pictures, which I'll post later after I scan them into the computer.

After a very long but uneventful drive, we arrived at Mom and Dad's house, where the kids settled right in, making themselves at home with the toys. I think one of their favorite things about Grandma and Grandpa's house, besides all the aunts and uncles to play with, is that there's more of everything! Thomas discovered the big box full of toy cars.


And Zaylee found the big box full of My Little Ponies.


They also had a great time throughout the week playing with K'Nex, Lincoln Logs, puzzles, blocks, and books.

Anyway, Wednesday was Zaylee's birthday. Jeff and I took the kids shopping for supplies to decorate the cake, then I went to town! Two layers of cake, a large amount of white and pink cream cheese frosting, lots of candies, and four ice cream cones later...



A princess castle cake! This really is my favorite style of cake to make - decorating with things like candies and cookies is easy and fun, and always turns out cute. Zaylee really liked it, and everyone had fun picking and choosing which piece they wanted based on the color of frosting and types of candies. Then came the fun part - opening presents! She got all sorts of fun stuff, from pretty princess dresses, to a princess coloring book and crayons, to princess bracelets (are we seeing a pattern here?). Jeff and I gave her a baking set - a mixing bowl, a set of spoons, a homemade apron, and several small baking mixes for things like cake, cornbread, and biscuits. Zaylee loves to help me when I cook, so we thought it would be fun for her to have her own special baking supplies. Maybe for Christmas we'll supplement it with some fun baking pans and colorful measuring cups and spoons or something.








A neat little tidbit about the apron - besides being so darn cute, there's only one strap for the back. It goes all the way around and velcros onto the other side, so she can put on her apron and do it up all by herself. I saw the idea online and thought it was just brilliant. Zaylee thinks it's pretty neat too. You can kind of see it in the pictures where she's holding up her princess dresses.

From Wednesday to Friday, Mom did a LOT of canning, aided by Janelle and I. We did pears, salsa, relish, and pickles. It was so fun and relaxing to be able to work side by side with my mom and sister, peeling and chopping and slicing and stuffing things into jars to be preserved. Janelle and I each took a turn accidentally peeling off part of our finger with the extra sharp vegetable peeler - ouch! But it was still a wonderful experience. What's especially wonderful is that we got to bring home some of the fruits of our labor, plus extra - pears and salsa and cherries and peaches, yummy!

On Saturday afternoon we went to Michelle's baby shower/luncheon. But before we got there, we of course had to have an adventure. We (Mom, Janelle, Marie, Rheanna, and I) were driving to Mountain Home in Mom's van when suddenly we heard a popping/bursting sound from the general direction of the motor. Then a continuous whirring sound and a strange smell. Mom pulled over and tried to pop the hood. Being five helpless women, we found it hilarious and a bit embarrassing that it took us about five minutes just to be able to open that silly hood! Anyway, after a bit of examining, we found this broken foam tube:


And this burst-looking thing.


Mom called Dad and explained as well as she could what had happened and what we had found. He deduced that it was something to do with the air conditioning, and figured that we should be okay to keep driving as long as we didn't run the a/c. Right about the time Mom was announcing that we would be okay, someone finally pulled up to see if we needed help. After reassuring him that the van was running fine and we would be able to drive okay, we went back on our way to the baby shower.

We had a really good time at the luncheon. Such delicious food! There was chicken salad on crescents, fruit salad, and a green salad with simple homemade vinaigrette. Then there was the adorable cake that Michelle made and decorated. Look at those cute little fondant buttons!


We had a good time visiting with Michelle and meeting the other ladies whose pregnancies were also being celebrated (it was a joint luncheon for three women). There were a couple fun games. We had to guess how many M&M's were in the baby bottle - I was only off by 16, but the lady who won was only off by 9, drats. Then there was the game where we guessed the total price of a group of baby items. Being the tightwad that I am, and constantly thinking that things should cost much less than they really do, my guess ended up being $10 under the actual price. And that's after I added a couple dollars to my guess to try to make up for my tightwad tendencies. I thought that was pretty funny. Marie ended up winning, at just a few dollars off. Lucky her, she won a huge Symphony bar, which she shared with us later in the van.

Sunday was nice and relaxing, we pretty much hung out all morning and then went to church at 1:00. Thomas actually fell asleep in my arms during Sacrament Meeting. He hasn't fallen asleep in my arms in such a long time! It felt so nice and cuddly. He woke up partly through Sunday School, so I took him in to nursery then. Mom is one of the nursery workers, so he settled in there just fine, despite having just woken up.

This morning we took off for home, with a considerably larger load in the van than when we left! Michelle's friend Amanda (bless her wonderfully generous heart!!!) gave us several bags of clothes for the baby and some for Zaylee, and a cute pink walker for the baby as well. We had garbage bags and grocery bags of clothes completely filling the back seat of the van. Plus, Michelle gave us a large box of cloth diapers and supplies. We are feeling very blessed and very well supplied for this baby!

The drive home was slightly less unevently than the drive up to Idaho. The kids were fine - they always travel extremely well and were pretty happy the whole time. But the weather was less than cooperative. The temperature was wonderful, nice and cool, but it was raining so hard during a great portion of our drive. It was coming down so heavy at times that it was hard to see the road. It would let up for a few minutes, then start pouring in sheets again, over and over! I was just glad that Jeff was driving, not me.

But anyway, we made it home safe and sound, and Jeff has even unpacked the suitcase already and put all the clothes and stuff away. He's so awesome! Now Jeff is reading to the kids and we are already feeling settled back in. We had a great visit, but it's good to be home.