Boise Zoo and Rose Garden

Thursday(June 30), it turned out to be a beautiful day, so we headed to the zoo. Aaron wanted to get the kids out of the house with the new baby home and all, and Marti and I also wanted to go to the zoo, so we all went together. Aaron was our guide, and we made it through the whole zoo in just over an hour. It worked out well since I didn't realize it closed at 5:00, and it was around 3:45 when we got there. It is a pretty small zoo, and I have to say that I wasn't very impressed. A lot of the animals didn't seem very well cared for. I saw several that looked deformed in one way or another.  Regardless though, it was a good time and nice to be out walking around and especially with family and friends.  It is very shaded, so it felt good.

Alex with Ashlyn and Jaydon

Ally was sweet to Jarem.  He loves to be babied.

Jarem on top of the giraffe slide

At the bottom

Servals

The giraffes looked very healthy.  This was the baby.

Goofy picture of Alex getting his arm bit off and everyone doing something different.

Tessa had to try getting her head in the tiger's mouth.

The Rose Garden is right next to the zoo, so after going to the zoo, we had to visit the Rose Garden.  It was a smaller rose garden, but very nice.  I love seeing the varieties of roses and making note of the names for my own yard.  The kids mostly enjoyed it too.  I expected a lot more complaining, but there wasn't much.  They all found roses they liked.  My brother in law, Aaron, is colorblind, so he enjoyed the red ones (which he can see) and the fragrant ones the most.

Betty Boop (I used to have this one in my yard in Wa) The color is not good on this though, it was too bright.

About Face: another of my favorite roses

Sharifa Asma: this one looked almost like a peony, but was SO sweet smelling.  Aaron was all about the fragrance.

Rainbow Sorbet: another award winner

Strike it Rich: I love this one as well

I left my camera in the car and ended up using my phone for all these pictures.  That was disappointing.

Hotel Stay and Luke's Birthday

We stayed a total of 5 nights in the hotel with the Fourtners (and the Forbes too the first two nights).  The Fourtners room and our room were close together, so that was very convenient.  We had a good time with all of our friends catching up, eating out, and going places as well as just hanging out at the hotel.  The kids played with their friends, Marti (and Pamela the first 2 days) and I talked and talked and got all caught up, the kids swam in the pool, and everyone enjoyed the free breakfasts.  The kids had to have a Disney channel movie night every night that we were there as well as hot cocoa from the lobby, and we all got to bed very late most nights.  We also squeezed in time to spend with Candace and Aaron usually once a day.

Luke had his 4th birthday while we were there, and it was fun to celebrate with him.  He is very into Harry Potter, so the cupcakes with the crests of the different houses were perfect for him.  He insisted on having Gryffindor! :)  That boy knows a lot about Harry Potter.

Baby Avery

Tuesday morning(June 28th), my sister Candace went in to be induced.  I called my mom around 10 or 11 to see how she was doing and she said things were going kind of slow.  While we were on the phone, there was a call on the other phone saying she had the baby!  Eric was flying out around 2pm, so we hurried over to the hospital to congratulate them and see the baby before he left.  We were there within an hour after she was born.  She is a beautiful baby with lots of black hair and my sister Candace looked amazing too.  It's hard to believe this is #5 for her.  If anyone can handle 5, she can.  She is very patient and they are a good family.

The next evening my mom invited us to dinner at Candace's.  (My parents were staying with Candace and Aaron to help with things after the baby).  She also wondered if I could come to Hayley's young women activity for mothers and daughters.  The girls were excited to get a chance to hold the new baby.  I was too, of course! :)

Braids and Friends

Before the Forbes headed out Tuesday morning, we got to have a little more time together.  The 3 girls got together and braided each other's hair different ways. Then they took pictures.  In the pictures below, I show the braid first and the girl belonging to the braid second.  I've got to give Jesikah credit.  She took some really great pictures of Savannah and Ally.  I am impressed with the way she got the natural light in the pictures.

Savannah

Ally

Jesikah





The 3 friends in the middle of braiding

Tessa with her friends Taylor and Trevor playing Boggle

And me with my two awesome friends, Marti and Pamela

This was a picture of most of the kids.  I think we are missing Luke and Alex.

We really appreciate our wonderful friends making the long trip from Washington to Boise just to see us.  It was a sacrifice, and we appreciate it SO much.  It was so great to see them.

Roaring Spring Water Park

Sunday night, we met some of our good friends from Washington at the same hotel where we were staying.  Then, we spent the day with them on Monday at Roaring Springs Water Park in Boise.  Pamela brought her 3 kids and Marti brought her 4 kids.  With the 6 of us, we had exactly enough people to get the 15+ group discount.  Anytime you go somewhere with Pamela, you can always count on getting the best deal.  That is one of the things I love about her.  Anyway, it was SO great to see my good friends, Pamela and Marti.  And the kids also got to see some of their good friends from Washington.
It was a beautiful day for the water park.  Hot enough to want to get wet, but not like Tennessee miserable hot.  The air in Idaho felt so good.  I love how it cools off at night too.  I miss the West.

I only got a few pictures of the water park since I didn't want to carry my camera around.  Alex hung with Tessa, Trevor, Taylor, and Maddie while Jesikah, Ally, and Savannah stuck together (for the most part).  Eric spent a lot time with Jarem, but near the end of the day, Alex took Jarem and Eric and I got to go together on some slides.  There was a lot there.

We had a great day together.

Family Reunion Day 3

On the third day, some hiked, some went on the waverunners, and some did both.  I did both and so did Tessa and Alex.  Jarem, Jesikah, and Eric just did the waverunners.  The hike was very easy and low key.  We had some little kids and babies along, so we had to keep it slow and short.  It was a pretty area. 

Joel and Cindy walking together while Alex pushed the stroller.

At one point during the hike, we could see down into Cascade Lake and saw our two waverunners out in the water.

Around the same time, we also saw this bald eagle flying above us.  I zoomed in so you could see it better.

Aaron with the Hayley and Jesikah on the waverunner

Aaron with the girls and Eric with Tessa getting ready to go out.  Eric LOVED the waverunners and is convinced he wants to get some once his student loans are paid off.  Don't get your hopes up though, that will most likely be a long while. :)

Eric and Tessa heading out

Both these pictures (above and below) are Eric with Tessa and Jarem.  This was the time that they went out, went over a wake of the other waverunner, leaned the wrong way, and all had to jump off to keep the waverunner from overturning.  Tessa and Jarem were wet and cold when they got back in and weren't sure they wanted to go out again after that.  It was a good time for all who went out though.  I even drove the waverunner for awhile with Eric riding on the back.

Alex and his buddy, Ashlyn

After playing in the sun all day, we headed back to the cabins, had dinner, cleaned up, and went to an outdoor theatre to watch the play, "Wizard of Oz".  The play was excellent.  Something funny though...that same night, the new multi-level marketing company called Havvn had reserved most of the theatre for a recruiting meeting.  We got in on the tailend of it while we waited for the show to start and also during intermission.  It was funny to hear their sales pitch on this new anti-aging skin care product line.  So, if you want to get in on the ground level of this new MLM, check it out. (joking, don't do it)!

The next morning (Saturday) we had breakfast, cleaned the cabins, and headed out.  Everyone went back home except for us and Mom and Dad who went back to Candace and Aaron's.

It was a fun few days and one of my favorite parts was playing games with Candace and Aaron after all the kids were in bed.  Candace packed a lot of fun into a few days.  It was fun to have all my family together again except Melanie who was on bedrest with twin girls.

We spent Saturday night and Sunday at Candace and Aaron's also going to church with them.  Then Sunday evening, we headed over to the hotel in Boise, where we would stay the next 5 nights.  Candace was set to be induced on Tuesday and Mom and Dad were there to help.  We decided it would be too much pressure to have 6 extra people in the house, so we got a hotel room to ease the burden on them.