Hull's Gulch

On Memorial Day we went on a hike with my parents, my sister Adri and her husband Will and little guy Charlie. It was up in the Boise foothills on a trail called the Hull's Gulch Interpretive Trail. (Emphasis added.) There was some discussion about why the word "interpretive" is added to names. But anyway...nice view.

Eli gearin' up to go. Thanks Sean and Kim for lending us your kid-pack. (My invented name for this carrier that Eli rode in luxuriously through the gulch.) Richard said it was really great.

My Mom and Dad, such good sports, brought along their dog Maggie.
Cameron took quite a few spills. He was quite proud of his wounds. Cameron and Charlie. It appears that "Baca" did not want to be in the picture.

A very tired Misha. There is some discussion these days about dogs on leashes in the foothills. From what I understand the law currently states that they do not need to be on leashes. So we let Misha and Maggie run free for most of the hike. Towards the end there were more people around so we leashed the girls.
A very tired Maggie. She doesn't look like she could run the whole way, but she was always leading the pack.

I didn't get a picture of the Daines family. My only regret. Thanks everyone for indulging me. What was supposed to be 3 miles turned into almost 5 miles due to poor map reading on my part. Sorry about that. It was fun to have your company.

What to call this...

I don't exactly remember why Eli doesn't have a shirt on. It's possible that it was Cameron's doing. He's a little scrawny but makes up for it a hundred times over with his big eyes and big smile.
I've always wanted to get boots for Cameron. I found these at a yard sale for $2. Great find. Anyway, Cameron loves them and the other day I found him in his pajamas with his "cow boots" on. It's a poor-quality picture, but you get the idea.

Matchy-matchy

May 2006 - Cameron

May 2008 - Eli
(He looks more bald but really his hair is just lighter. )

Oh that I were an... ambulance?

Today, and it's only 2:45pm, has been one of those days. I just need to share. It started with a visit to Barnes & Noble, usually a favorite of mine. I had low expectations of this visit though because I had the boys with me, but it was far worse than I had anticipated. Cameron did everything a 3-year does to humiliate his mother. Maybe some of you have had a child like this. He runs away from me so I have to run up and down aisles of books to chase him. I have two choices, run while pushing the stroller with Eli (extremely embarrassing) or leave the stroller behind. So then once I have caught Cameron I have to pick him up and retrieve the stroller, all the while he is screaming and crying and everyone is looking at me. I know the things I thought about mothers like me back before I had kids and I could feel the words shooting out of the stares..."She needs to discipline her children better" ... "What a naughty boy!" (Which was absolutely true. Very naughty.) "Take that child out of this store." I know that is probably what I should have done, haul the tantrum-throwing child back out to the car. But I don't live close to B&N and I really just wanted to get this shopping trip over with. The thought of coming back and trying again was a nightmare in and of itself. So I quickly found the books I wanted and left the store very very angry.

Well, don't drive angry. There is an intersection in Boise that is infamous in my family for car accidents. Five Mile and Fairview. And today, being the day that it was looking to be, was ripe for another crash. I wasn't paying attention, obviously, and I smashed into the van in front of me. I instantly burts into tears, of course. Who wouldn't? We pulled into a parking lot and surveyed the damage which seemed to be non-existant. The two women in the van were very kind. It was an older vehicle with it's own share of dings and dents and she was not concerned. I gave her my name and phone number for peace of mind and got back into my car.

At this point I just should have gone home. But I still had a couple places to go and I just wanted to get it over with. Cameron was a little better at the next two stops but only because I confined him to the cart. (No carts at B&N.) But on the way home from our last store Eli started screaming. He screamed the whole way home. This was where I wished I could be an ambulance. I wanted all the cars to get out of my way, (so I wouldn't hit anymore). I wanted to completely ignore all traffic laws and stoplights. I imagined just driving as fast as I could to get to my house as soon as I could so I could lock my children in their bedroom and let them sleep. Well, I made it home while still yielding to other vehicles and obeying traffic laws. Except for speeding. I figured "Oh heck. Why not get a ticket to top it all of?" No ticket thank goodness.

So here I sit in my quiet house with my sleeping children, who of course look like angels now. Thanks for reading.

I Love Kuna

There are a lot of things I love about Kuna, and most of them I will save for another post another day. But last Friday my visiting teacher told me about the Kuna High School Ag Expo. (That's Agriculture Expo for you city dwellers.) The FFA (Future Farmers of America, again for the city dwellers) sponsored this event for a week where they had farm animals, tractors, displays about crops, dairies, etc at the high school which is only 2 minutes 43 seconds from our house. It was so neat. The boys just loved it. Except Eli wasn't too fond of the large noisy animals.
They had baby chicks to hold and Cameron loved that. Eli liked it too after his initial confusion of the soft, chirpy thing Cameron was shoving in his face.
They handed out ice cream to the kids with a little "Ice cream comes from milk...milk comes from cows..." spiel. This was by far Eli's favorite part, I'm sure.
Cameron got to climb up into a big tractor. What a little boys dream! He got a little scared though. When I climbed up with him and put my hands on the steering wheel he said "Don't drive it Mom." I got a couple good laughs from the warning stickers on the combine. Who makes these up? What exactly are they trying to say?

Almost all of the animals had young offspring with them. This goat had two little...baby goats? What do you call a baby goat? Obviously I didn't learn that much. The goats were some of the noisy animals Eli wasn't too fond of.
My favorite! Ever since I saw the original Charlotte's Web when I was a kid I've loved little piggies. This mama pig was huge.
These are a couple calves. The brown one was only three days old. The girl let us in to pet them but Cameron told me he was scared of them. There were also horses, which Cameron loved and was not scared of petting, cows, chickens, rabbits, and sheep.
Nothing tops off a fun afternoon like saturated fats. We went to Artic Circle where Eli devoured french fries and Cameron had a "courtesy cone". (Another thing I love about Kuna, or I guess that would be something I love about Artic Circle.) As we ate our french fries and mini-corndogs an employee brought us wax-dipped, I mean chocolate or orange dipped ice cream cones. They are called "courtesy cones" because they are free. How nice.

Church Boys

Sometimes I see all the adorable little girls out there and think how much fun they are! But when I can put matching ties on my little guys for church my cup runneth over. (Silly thing to feel so much joy over?)

Getting personal

My older brother Bryan has left for Iraq. I have done my best to show compassion and understanding to those whose family members were serving in Iraq but now that it's my own brother I realize that I never really understood their sacrifice. He is an attorney in the Air Force and his tour will be only 6 months in the Green Zone. Nonetheless, after I got off the phone with him the other night I felt the burden of worry settle over me.
The only reason I feel okay about putting this on my usually light-hearted blog is because of the way he has accepted his responsibility and because of his attitude about patriotism and service. I love and admire him very much. I am sure all those who have been where I am, or where my sister-in-law is, know the anguish. But my heart is filled with gratitude for all the hundreds of thousands of men and women who are so selfless. I honor the heroes over seas and also the American heroes at home who make the best of life without their husband or wife.