Silverwood Trip 2021

 Well, our trip to Northern Idaho and Silverwood theme park was a few weeks ago now so we'll see how much I can remember! We started our trip off by driving up to Lewiston super early on Wednesday the 9th. I think we left around 6:30am because everyone (except me) wanted to wake up early so we could get there sooner and have more time at my brother's house. We arrived in town about lunch time. First we stopped by the office so Curtis could drop off a work computer and we said hello to Stillman. Then we went to the McDonald's drive thru and took our food to a park. Afterwards we went to the house where Michelle and the kids were waiting. After unpacking and relaxing for awhile some of us decided to go play some frisbee disc golf at the same park where we ate. It was a lot of fun and I played the best game of my life, ending with a score of -2! I have to admit I enjoy playing disc golf a lot more than real golf. It's easier for me.

After golf we headed to the store to pick up some groceries for making dinner which was tacos. Tamara and Chris's family were there when we got back to the house. That evening most the adults watched the original Pete's Dragon, which Curtis had never seen before. However, he slept through half the movie so we'll have to watch it again. The kids played video games downstairs and then later took turns sitting in the hot tub. I was planning on doing the hot tub but got too tired from waking up so early. The oldest kids slept outside in Stillman's RV while we slept on Alex's bed. The girls squeezed in on Bridger and Keaton's bunk bed. Wish we could have spent more time there but the next day was our traveling day up North. Stillman and Tamara's families left later than we did because they had to get their RV's ready, etc. And we were splitting up where we were going to stay anyway. Our family originally was going to stay with them but we decided we didn't want to camp while trying to go to Silverwood. We booked a hotel in Spokane Valley but the weekend before we got a call from my dad saying that we could stay with them at their time share condo in Coeur d Alene since Scott's family had a change of plans and weren't going on the trip anymore. 

Since we already made plans to see our Aunt Vicki (Curtis's mom's sister) in Spokane we drove their first to have lunch with her and her new husband. Her first husband and his first wife and both passed away in recent years. They weren't planning to get remarried but things don't always turn out the way you plan. We thought we were going to go out to eat with them but it turned out that they cooked us some lasagna, garlic bread and cookies. It was better than doing a restaurant because it gave us more time to visit. We were there for about 2 1/2 hours. 

We met Dad and Laverne at the condo and got settled in while the men went to the store to get some food. Some of us played Uno while waiting. We cooked Chinese food at the condo that evening. 

After our late dinner I went to the pool with the 4 younger kids. That pool was too cold for me at only 75 degrees! I managed to get in up to my neck but only stayed in about a minute before I was done. The kids lasted longer. It surprised me that Alice stayed in longer too. If only they would have had a hot tub!

The next morning was Silverwood day 1! The nice thing about them not opening until 11am is that we got to sleep in. Thank goodness! But it took us about an hour to drive there from the condo so we had to leave around 10am. We got a picture together at the front and then Nikki and Garrett took off to do their own thing together. We took the girls on the tilt a whirl ride and then most of us met back at the train to do the train ride. I love the train ride because it's so scenic and it last for almost 30 min. They had a show while on the train but they had to change it because of covid so not quite as good as before but we still enjoyed it. It went from having a train robbery to looking for sasquatch (Big Foot). Curtis and I spent most of the day doing rides with our girls. We were content with letting the big kids run around and do what they wanted. All of us met up for a pizza lunch at the magic show. The show was very entertaining! As luck would have it, by the time the park was closing it was raining. Feeling de ja vu here because that's what happened the last time we came to Silverwood about 8 years ago or so. I think we all went straight to bed when we got back to the condo. We were exhausted!

Silverwood day 2 started at the same time but today they were open later. I got wet on some rides the first day after the girls begged me to take them on the bumper boats and the log ride. 68 degree weather and cloudy is not my idea of getting wet weather. I was cold! So I decided I the only wet ride I was willing to do today was the log ride. They have another ride that you get soaked on. I opted out of course and watched. Dad and Laverne took some time taking our girls around on rides today so that Curtis and I could ride bigger rides with the older kids. Some rides would cause headaches and some rides our stomachs got a little queezy on but we survived. Everyone once again got together for an all you can eat BBQ lunch in Silverwood. At one point we lost Charlotte but thankfully found her sitting at a different picnic area. She didn't even realize she was lost. She just sat down and started eating her food. Stillman and Tamara's families still wanted to do Boulder Beach, which is the swimming park at Silverwood. Our family decided it was too cold. Although later Jack wished he had brought his swim suit so he could go with Jayden. We even tried finding him a swim suit and flip flops at the Boulder Beach shop but they didn't have a suit his size. I really didn't want to buy him another suit anyway because I already bought him a new one this spring. We had lots of fun riding rides, stopping for ice cream, and souvenir shopping. 

 

Well, we rode lots of rides, ate lots of food, bought souvenirs, and had a blast! Sunday was the long drive home. We caravanned with mom and dad most of the way home. We were also able to listen to our ward's sacrament meeting because it was still being broadcast. Technology is great sometimes! We stopped at Subway on the way home to eat lunch. We stopped a couple more times for breaks before we made it home.

It was a great trip and wonderful way to start off our summer vacation!

Sports, Projects, Haircuts, Instruments...and More!

School has been out for almost two weeks now and we are enjoying being able to sleep in and not worry about homework anymore....mostly Nikki who struggled this past semester. But she made it through with passing grades so we're relieved.  There's so many things that have been going on the past couple weeks that I'm not sure where to start so I guess I'll just start with the most recent stuff and work my way back in this post.

Yesterday was the first day of t-ball and softball for Alice and Charlotte. I wasn't going to sign them up but Charlotte said she really wanted to play t-ball again this year. She hasn't played for two years. Her age group is actually when they start softball so that's what she's doing. And of course if Charlotte really wants to do it then so does Alice. At one point they had still needed a coach for Alice's team so I thought I might have to go ahead and volunteer this time but by the time I called it was already taken care of. Both girls got on the A's teams so they'll be wearing the same color of hats and shirts. Even though I didn't sign up to coach I did end up helping the coach last night at the practice since he asked for someone to assist. There's an assistant coach also but they were gone this week. Anyway, Alice did a good job hitting and running. Charlotte was standing by Alice helping her know what to do. Curtis says that Alice did good at running to the next base after someone hit the ball. Charlotte has a good throw and she was able to hit the ball also. She really enjoyed playing and can't wait for practice again tonight. Since I was helping with Alice's team I didn't get a picture of her yet but will next week.

I also recently found an old dresser for free on Facebook Marketplace. We had to put a new back panel on it since the original was warped like it had been wet or something.  The bottoms of the drawers were bent down a bit also so we replace them with stronger wood panels. After sanding, painting, sanding again and repainting 3 of the drawers we finally finished. We resanded and painted 3 drawers because I decided to buy new handles after painting the old handles didn't work out. There weren't any handles the same width apart as the old handles so we filled the old holes and made new ones.

Here's what the dresser looked like when we got it:

And here's what it looks like now:

They had the job of attaching the new handles.

We were going to alternate drawer colors but Charlotte wanted hers to be both purple and so Alice got both pink. They love it!

I should have taken a before picture but their closet looks so much better now that their clothes are inside a dresser instead of in a wire cubicle where you can see everything. The clothes kept getting pulled off and making a big mess. They also stacked lots of other things on the cubicles like papers and clothes they took off but didn't hang up. That green basket on the left used to hold Alice's socks and underwear. I have now made it a hat basket. We're going to use the wire cubicles to create a safe movable place for the rabbit to run around in the back yard.

Last week was the week for getting haircuts for the kids. I was going to take Garrett into Sportsclips to get his hair cut so we could change his look a little but I ended up doing it myself again because he wanted me to do it. We left it long on top and cut the sides short. I usually just used a #6 on top with the clippers and then went shorter from there, #4 and #2 and trying to blend it all. This time I didn't even touch the top. And I think I did a #3 & #2 on the sides. He likes how it turned out. We ended up doing the same for Jack but for some reason I didn't get a picture of him that day. I did however get a picture of him today with his new cut and new trumpet! He really wants to do trumpet in jazz band next year so his band teacher let him try one at the school and he thinks Jack will be really good at it. So we found a used Yamaha student trumpet on Facebook Marketplace for $300. It was a in great shape also so it was a great deal.  So far, he is doing well for learning on his own at home. His teacher did give him a book before school got out also. As for new instruments, we helped Garrett buy his own saxophone. He's saving his lawn mowing money to pay us back. He just really wanted to learn how to play one. I don't think he'll do it for school band. He's doing really well also for having learned on his own. Our house is filling up with instruments and music....and I love it!

He'll still play the flute in concert band and do trumpet for jazz band.

Garrett loves jazz music. That's one reason he wanted a saxophone.

As for the girls, I made a deal with my friend that I babysit to just trade labor basically for this month. Since I'm only babysitting her girls for half the month I told her that she wouldn't need to pay me anything since Garrett will have 4 piano lessons and if she would cut my girls' hair. Originally it was just going to be Alice and Charlotte but Nikki said she was ready for a cut also. So we did all 3 on the same day. I didn't get a picture of Nikki since hers wasn't a dramatic change.

Before

Before

Charlotte begged for short hair like Nikki. I wasn't willing to go that short so we compromised with this.

My pictures uploaded out of order so they will jump around. Charlotte actually had her hair done first then Alice.

Nice and short for summer with plenty of time to grow back by winter. She likes it but said she already wants it to grow back, ha ha.

And I went a little longer length for Alice. So cute!

Charlotte also got a visit from the Tooth Fairy twice in the last month. Her two front teeth! The 2nd one ended up falling down the bathroom sink in our kitchen because she kept going in there and wiggling it and trying to get it to come out. Well it did! The Tooth Fairy almost forgot to deliver on the 2nd tooth but thankfully got there around 6:30am. Charlotte even forgot about it until Curtis came home from work and asked if the Tooth Fairy had come. Whew! 

Toothless!

This was after the 1st front tooth came out.

This face was just too funny! You can tell her other tooth is loose also.

Last month for one of our activity day boys activities we decided to do an archery and planting night. I had my old friend that I grew up with come out and show the boys her hunting bow and teach them a little about it. I hadn't seen her in over 15 years! I was a little nervous to ask her at first because she left the church and drinks alcohol and stuff now so I wasn't sure she would even want to be near a church. But I'm so glad I did because she did came and it turned out great! Because we couldn't shoot real arrows in city limits I had brought the toy set that Charlotte got for her birthday for the boys to shoot. In fact, Charlotte and Alice had come with me that night anyway. The other part of the activity was planting seeds in cups. Charlotte planted a cantaloupe seed and Alice did carrots. They are both small sprouts now in our office window.

Seeing old friends can be great. So glad I got to see her!

Well, that's all I have time for today because we're getting ready for a trip up to northern Idaho to visit family and go to Silverwood theme park. It's going to be fun!

Mother's Day Weekend

Here we go again, getting behind by a month! Well, I at least wanted to make sure I blogged about Mother's Day weekend because it was a great one this year! The week before Mother's Day I had received a message from my mom in Utah. She said she was thinking of coming to visit Idaho and ride with Uncle Gilbert and Aunt Karen since they would be visiting their son (my cousin) Charlie's family in Meridian. She wanted to know if she could stay with us while here. Of course! Originally they were going to come the 1st weekend of May but after they heard about Tamara's son Corbin getting baptized on the 8th they decided to wait and come for that weekend, which was perfect because it was Mother's Day weekend also!  I decided to try coordinating some get togethers with the siblings that live here. My sisters and I decided that we would go to lunch with mom on Saturday after the baptism. I also wasn't sure whether to tell Phillip or not because I wasn't sure it would do any good. But that Monday night (the 3rd) I got the feeling that I should try. So I sent Phillip a text telling him the dates that mom would be here (Thurs night to Monday morning) and asked if he would be able to come over here to see her. To my surprise he said he probably could come out on Friday. And he did! 

So Thursday night after I attended a Relief Society activity Curtis and I drove out to Meridian to pick up my mom from Charlie's house. We visited a little while with Gilbert, Karen, Charlie and Chelsea before finally heading back home with mom. I think it was after 10pm by the time we left. The kids were all up when we got home and excited to see their grandma. We all stayed up later than we should and that made it hard to get kids up for school the next morning but that's okay because how often do we get visitors, especially grandma Marsha! 

The next morning after getting kids off to school we took it slow and I made up a shopping list for groceries. After getting a bite to eat for lunch we drove over to the library first to return a book inside because a couple days before I tried to return it in the outside return window (when they weren't open) and it would not take it! I tried like 20 times to send it through and it kept giving it back to me. So I had to take it inside this time. Since this was mom's first time seeing the new library we took a little tour and stopped to take a picture on the top floor by a painting. I'm not good with selfies so you really couldn't see the painting in that shot. 

After the library we headed to WinCo to do our shopping. Phillip ended up coming out here around 4:15pm. We visited for a minute and then got in his car to go to Subway and get some dinner to bring back to our house. I left the kids at home while we did that. The boys were going to a father son activity that night and eating dinner there so I just bought a sandwich for me and Nikki. We made the little girls a regular sandwich at home. 

We decided to eat outside and moved the table to some shade. It was still windy though so mom and I had trouble with getting hair in our mouth while eating. Oh well, all part of the experience! 😂 Curtis got home from work while we were eating and was able to visit also.

After eating dinner we went inside for Garrett to perform for Uncle Phillip. He had a concert coming up the next morning and needed to practice anyway.

I wanted to get a picture of the kids with their uncle before he left. Nikki was at work and Alice was running around somewhere.

About an hour after Phillip left I had invited Tamara to come over and hang out since the boys were busy. It turns out Chris was busy as well. So she brought over the 2nd Croods movie to watch. The boys came home from their activity during the movie so they joined in watching with us. We had popcorn and a package of licorice that mom brought with her for the kids.

After Tamara and I picked out popcorn bowls we realized we both matched our bowls so I had to get a picture!

Saturday morning Garrett had a concert in downtown Nampa for jazz band. The boys went to that while all the girls except Nikki went to my nephew Corbin's baptism. Nikki stayed home to do homework because she was behind. Melissa and Nathan decided last minute to try and make it to the baptism and got there just in time for the baptizing. It was great that they made it because the 3 of us sisters were there together with our mom. Grandma Vernie, Grandpa Tony and GG were all out of town and couldn't make it. 

After everything was done we got some pictures. Mom with her three girls.

Melissa, Tamara, Mom and I all went home to change our clothes after the baptism and then I drove and picked everyone up to go to lunch (just the 4 of us). Well, Melissa didn't change but the rest of us did. Our plans were originally to go to Chick-fil-A and eat at a park but we decided it was too chilly for that and wanted to eat indoors. They were currently drive thru only. So we tried Applebees. They said it was a 30 minute wait and we didn't want to wait that long because we were hungry so we drove to Zupas since it was close. I chose to get soup and sandwich that day. We didn't get a picture at the restaurant but when I drove Tamara home we all got out to get a picture in her front yard.

Curtis was busy cleaning the office when we got back but then we did some relaxing and both of us had lessons to prepare for our Sunday classes the next day. While I was prepping I got a call from my Aunt Cori asking if Sally's kids could come play. My kids were running around outside with the neighbor friends anyway so of course I said yes. They all had a great time playing together on the playhouse and also did some rock painting in front of the neighbors yard. Later that evening while the kids were playing video games or watching movies we decided to play Yahtzee with my mom since it's one of her favorite games. We played two rounds and it was fun!

Sunday morning was Mother's Day and Curtis got Garrett and Nikki out of bed earlier than they wanted to help make some eggs, bacon, and waffles for breakfast. I received some nice gifts from my kids.

Garrett had signed this card that went along with some cookies that they made at his youth activity. Apparently the leader doesn't measure anything and just started throwing things in. They weren't bad considering they weren't following a recipe.

Stuff from Charlotte.

I love the last line on this. Ha ha!

Nikki drew this for everyone to sign for me.

And I got some new flowers. I ended up putting this one in the front yard.

I ended up getting a big free pot already filled with dirt to put these in. I put it on the back patio because they need full sun. 

Anyway, we all went to church and Aunt Cori sat with us during Sacrament meeting again. This was the first time my mom had been to church since before the pandemic. I had to go teach in primary so I had mom go with Aunt Cori to Relief Society. 

Later that day around 4pm we had Tamara and Chris's family come over to eat dinner with us. Curtis cooked up some steak and Garrett cooked hotdogs and bratwursts on the BBQ grill for his first time. We also had salad, chips, and fruit. After chatting for awhile we played some Catch Phrase. We didn't do teams though. Sometimes it's more fun to just have everyone guessing and not worrying about teams and points. It was a good time!

Monday morning after getting the kids off to school again I took mom back over to Charlie's house for mom to head home with Gilbert and Karen. We were able to visit for bit first. I was so tired after getting home that I had to take a nap. It was a great weekend and I'm so glad my mom made the trip up to Idaho. It had been several years since she has been here. Because of her mental health it makes it difficult for her to leave even the house. So I'm excited that she did it! She overcame her fears and it was worth it for her also.