Updates!

Ok, I know all of you have been overwhelmed with curiosity as to why I haven't posted anything new on my blog for about a month. :)

So here are a handful of pictures - seriously, I have hundreds, so I just picked a few- to give an idea of what we've been up to.

To start with: One might think that since we have so much family here in Boise (on Mom's side), that it wouldn't be hard to get together on a regular basis for birthday's, holidays, or just because we'd like to. But the truth is, all of us have so many different things going on in our families, that we might as well live hours away for as much as we see each other. Sad, yes! So every year at the end of summer, we get everyone who can make it, and have a birthday party for pretty much everyone in the family. It's lots of fun, but should require cue cards when it comes time to sing "Happy Birthday". It usually goes something like,

 "Happy Birthday dear.....BobGrandmaDavidJasonKelaniEtauRonniMaliaHeidiJudyStanJonna......"

 I think you get the idea! :)

Anyway, this year in our own little family, we thought it would be fun to make a treasure hunt for the littler cousins, since it would be hard to buy presents for every single person having a birthday. So we made up some little rhyming clues that eventually led them to the coral, where (with some "volunteer" help from David) we'd buried a homemade treasure chest. It was so cool looking to see some of them out there pull this dusty, old thing out of the ground and carry it back to the party.

 But they all seemed pretty excited about it, and we spent the rest of the night laughing at all the parents who kept getting slightly more annoyed at the noise makers that were part of the treasure!

          Our next fun thing was heading off to Baker City, OR with IDI for the Highland Games! The whole family, including Grandma, went and we had sooooo much fun! If you've never been to Baker, it's definitely a trip worth making (especially to go to the Games). We got there Friday night and the weather had been a little cool, but not too bad. But Saturday was FREEZING!!! In fact, it was so cold, we even had a lady from Scotland make a comment that it was colder at the Games, than it is in Scotland, BRRR!

But despite the fact that it took about a week of Boise weather to thaw us out, we still had a blast. And with the rain, and foggy mountains, it all felt pretty authentic. We danced on and off all day, and during our breaks we had time to check out the fun merchandise stands.

Here's a picture of David looking pretty dapper in one of the hats he tried on.

And like I said, I have so many pictures, it's hard not to put a ton more up here, but I'll try to restrain! :)

The following weekend we headed the other direction to Sun Valley. Malia got to ride in the parade for "Wagon Days" with the Eh Capa bareback riders. The weather was completely opposite from Baker, and some of us came home sunburned. In fact, take a look at the headband Malia's wearing....now imagine what her forehead looked like after being in the sun all day, then taking the headband off! It was a sweet "tan" line! :D The riders did really good, and it was fun to hang out in Sun Valley.

                       In case you can't tell, Malia's the one on the left. It's so hard to tell them apart in those wigs! :)                              

 

 Grandma and Mom getting a little more sun while we waited for Malia to finish up on the parade.

               A few more things we've had going on the last few weeks are things like:

• 
  
  IDI distance Feis (competition)
• 
  
  IDI perf. at the Boise Farmer's Market

                                                                                                 

• 
  
   IDI perf. at the Women's Show at the Center on the Grove

• 
  
  Clogging perf. at the Women's Show

 That stage is so slippery in clogging shoes! But we managed to make it without any major problems. I mean, who doesn't love a good "near-death" experience when your shoes start to slip out from under you once in a while? :)

 Good times!

• 
  
   The Women's Fitness Walk

We've done the walk pretty faithfully for the last 10-12 years (give or take). It's always a good time, which might be in part because of the endless amounts of free chocolate milk we consume during all the events in conjunction with it. We wore our blue and orange to support the Broncos, who played ( and won, I might add) later that day.

So, if you've actually read this saga all the way to the end, and you're not bored to tears, you now have an idea of what we've been doing.

We're just really lucky to have so many opportunities to do so much with our great family, and so many friends!