First Trip Back to Idaho

We made our first trip back to Idaho last weekend and it was great. Our goal was to leave by 4pm on Thursday after the kids got home from school and Curtis got home from work but we got on the road around 4:45. Garrett started out driving but the wind was blowing hard and then it started to rain and he got nervous, (I got nervous too), and he pulled over so Curtis could take over and drive the rest of the way. I ended up sitting in the seat behind the driver and that was a bad idea because my stomach didn't like all of the winding roads. It was about 10pm when we pulled up to Grandma's house. The boys slept on the couches in the basement while the girls took the smaller guest bedroom next to the bigger room, which we used. I was really tired and wanted to go right to bed but Curtis wanted to visit with Grandma, so we stayed up until 11pm. 

Friday morning was Garrett's appointment. Before we went to the appointment we stopped by our old neighborhood to see our friends the Wallace's (Ashlie and Jim and their kids). The girls stayed to play with Sidney while I took Garrett to his orthodontist appointment and then to close his bank account. After we got back to pick up the girls, I asked if their daughter Lilly, who's the same age as Garrett, could come to Wahooz with us since none of Garrett's friends could come due to having school. Lilly is at a different school and didn't have school on Friday. She agreed to come and I'm glad she did. Before going to Wahooz though, we went back to Grandma's to cook up some mac and cheese for lunch and then headed over. Jack didn't want to come since none of his friends could come. We ended up being there about 5 hours.

Alice, Charlotte and Sidney

Charlotte wanted to hold their ferret before we left.

The ferret was cute but stinky! That's why I don't want any rodents as pets.

Having a ride on the Twister. Lilly opted out because she and Garrett already rode it once while the girls did something else and her stomach said once was enough. I'm right there with her. The girls loved it though! This is why I'm glad that Garrett and Lilly came because my stomach can't handle this either. I just watched the kids the whole time we were there.

Getting ready to do the ropes course.

Alice did the little tykes course that was down low. She said it was fun.

The other three did the big course.

There's Charlotte way at the top with the red shirt.

Lilly was on the green bar while Charlotte and Garrett waited. You can see Garrett waving to me.

I took a picture of the screen when they were on the Dark Ride. It's a 3D game that you have to shoot something while your seat vibrates and wind blows in your hair to make it seem like you're there. They did the werewolf one, even Alice. She said she wasn't scared.

They get points for shooting and at one point Garrett, Charlotte, and Lilly were in the top 5. It was constantly changing.

By the end Lilly tied for 1st (but they gave her 2nd) and Garrett got 5th. The other people were others we didn't know. There were 8 people total on the ride.

Picture of the screen of the girls doing the laser maze.

Bumper cars! This was the first time Alice was big enough to ride them.

Frog Hopper. The big kids were good sports and rode with the girls.

The two girls zonked out on the way home.

We took longer at Wahooz than we had planned and Jack was waiting for us to take him to his friend Xavier's house. Fortunately, I was able to call my dad and he gave Jack a ride for me. Curtis got a ride with Nathan to work in Meridian. He got dropped off at Wahooz after work to meet up with us. Then we hurried home to drop Lilly off and pick up some steak and salad to have over at Curtis's parent's house. We ate dinner with them that night and visited a bit. At one point I had to take the girls back to Grandma's to get Charlotte's ear medicine and the little pom pom she made for Grandma Butterfield. Alice wanted to stay at GG's instead of going back but I finally convinced her to come. Jack had invited Xavier and his other friend Chris to come to Grandma's and it worked out perfectly because he needed me to come get them and take them over to GG's, and I happened to be going there anyway. They played pool, Yahtzee and I'm sure some videogames.

It was nice being able to sleep in on Saturday since we didn't really have any plans until the late afternoon. Grandma had bought eggs and bacon and so I helped her cook some up for breakfast, along with toast and hot drinks for those that wanted one. Because we ate so late and ate so much we didn't need to eat lunch. Dad and Laverne called and we set our dinner time to be at 4:00 at Grandma's. Curtis wasn't feeling very good on Saturday. He was dealing with a headache and then later he said it felt like needles in his eye. He thinks maybe it was allergies. I had read a book with Grandma for a little bit until Curtis fell asleep. Then I decided I better give the girls a bath and get it over with before going to Tamara's and then do a bit of shopping. Tamara wasn't home because she was at a work party but the girls stayed to play with their cousins while Garrett and I went shopping and I got to see their new shower before I left. It's really nice. We wanted to find a suit jacket that would fit Garrett better and fortunately we did at D.I. I also found another pair of church shoes for Charlotte that are sparkly gold. Then we stopped at WinCo for salad, French bread, and chimichangas. The salad and bread are for the dinner we were having but the chimichangas were our lunch for after church before hitting the road. Garrett really wanted me to take him to this game store so he could look at some Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) stuff. He did find a few things to buy before we rushed back to Grandma's where I dropped him and the food off and then over to pick up the girls from Tamara's. Tamara was still gone. I told Chris to let her know that we'll be playing games later, but she never showed up because I later found out that she was running errands until 8:30pm. I didn't get to see her this time but maybe next time.

I got back to Grandma's at exactly 4:00 and we started to prep a few things when Dad, Laverne and Joyce showed up to join us. Mom & Dad brought a casserole and brownies and Joyce brought rolls. Grandma already had ice cream to go with the brownies. It was a good dinner and dessert. Then we played a couple of rounds of Golf, which is a fun card game. Then later we switched to SkipBo so Jack would play with us. Garrett got dropped off to Trey's house to play D&D and Jack had invited his friend Rhett over but he got picked up at 7pm. Jack likes playing SkipBo, so that got him to play with us. We played until about 9:00 before Dad & Mom & Joyce left. I had the girls get on pajamas before going to pick up Garrett at 9:30 from his game night. We all got in bed around 10pm or so which was good because we went to our old ward for church the next morning (37th) because they start at 9am. Grandma's ward is at 1:30 and my in laws' ward is at 12:00. We wanted to be able to get on the road and make it home before dark so we needed an earlier time. Curtis still wasn't feeling good so he stayed home from church. 

Jack was the only one of the kids that wanted to stay for the 2nd hour of church so he could be with his friends longer, so I took the other kids home after Sacrament meeting. Jack was going to get a ride to Grandma's from his friend Rhett's parents. After getting back and changing our clothes I realized that my stylus pen from my phone was missing! Yikes! Alice had been using it to color on my phone during Sacrament meeting. It wasn't in my purse or the van. I ate some lunch quickly and drove back over to the church with the girls. We had to wait a few minutes for the other ward to finish their Sacrament meeting before we could go in and look at the bench where we were sitting. Sure enough, there it was on the ground by the bench. Thank goodness no one took it! 

After we all packed up, Jack realized he forgot his jacket at the church. This was getting a little old, ha ha. We had to drive back over to the church again to get it on our way out of town, which added about 20 minutes to our trip. I ended up driving most of the way home and tried so hard to make it all the way without stopping. It was me that finally needed a potty break when we only had about 40 minutes to go. We almost made it but it was good that we stopped because I was starting to get a headache. Curtis drove the rest of the way. In Nampa the weather was cold with snow flurries here and there. When we got home to Kennewick it was warm and sunny, nice spring weather. It was so nice that I wanted to go on a walk. Sometimes I could walk without a jacket but sometimes it cooled down enough to put it on. The girls and I started walking in our neighborhood and they both wanted to walk to their school, which is about 1.7 miles from our house, but we actually did it! It was fun and I can't believe they both made it, especially Alice who was pushing her bike all the way there. They even had energy to play at the playground a bit and then walk back home. They took turns riding the bike on the way home.

Charlotte was walking up those pipes and doing flips.

Alice was doing the monkey bars without help.

Charlotte was actually the one to complain about being tired toward the end of our walk but she said she felt better after we ate some soup for dinner when we got back. It was a fun walk and I'm glad we did it.