Boise

My best friend, Karli, moved to Boise a few months ago and we have been missing them. We had an opportunity to drive Karli's grandma's car up there and then fly home - sweet. I obviously had to take Megan with me - and Brock was missing his best pal, Payton - and I was unsure about flying by myself with three kids (this was also my first time flying with kids) - so sadly I left Noah with Jason, friends, and family for 5 days. I will talk about that sadness later, but first....
the trip.

We had so much fun. It was actually a way relaxing vacation, the first one I have had in a while. Karli was the best hostest. In our room she had a little gift basket for us with towels, toiletries, diapers, wipes, baby food, scrapbook supplies, magazines, coloring books, etc. She cooked for us at every meal and, as always, had a ton of fun activities planned. It was nice because Brock and Payton are at the age where they just go off and play with little or no supervision required.

The weather was pretty nice so they got to play some soccer outside.

Boise has a lot of squirrels running around - so they built a squirrel house for them - including a trail of peanuts for them to find their way.

They kept watch for quite a while to see if they would get any house guests - sadly - we never saw any use the house - they just ran along the fence behind the house.

We went to a bounce house. Always guaranteed a good time there.

He is actually sliding really fast in this picture - funny how it turned into a perfect pose.

They did a lot of wrestling. Brock and Payton love to tackle and wrestle each other. When I told Brock we were going to see Payton - the first thing he said was, "I am going to tackle him" - and tackle him he did. They ran around the house wrestling for about the first hour we were there.

Megan and Lydia. Lydia is actually one - but her and Megan will be in the same grade - funny how that works.

Then we took a plane home. So fun! The kids were awesome! Everyone a the airport was really helpful and nice. It was just a short 50 minute flight and Brock was in little boy heaven. He talks about the plane everyday now - and asks constantly to go on a plane again.

The flight was pretty empty (that helped), so Megan got to sit in her own chair for a while - which was great because she is in that phase where she does not like being held.

Sadly no pictures of me and Karli or of Brooklyn (I guess this trip is a great example of how easily middle children can be left out - sad). We had the best time - and hope to be able to make it up there a couple times a year - once we get a new car that is.

Leaving Noah was sad. I cried. But is was necessary, I really could not have done it (or afforded it) with the three of them - nor did I want to try - and Boise would not have been as much fun as it was. But I will definitely bring him next time. He was a good boy while I was gone - and tolerated being passed from house to house and person to person well. The first day we were gone he asked for me, Brock, and Megan about every 10 minutes or so. But after the first day and a half he would just ask for me. I was nervous about coming home - some kids are mad at their parents when they come home - but Noah was happy to see me and just kept smiling and saying , "mom".

Noah is very sad he didn't get to go on a plane, and Brock sure does rub it in by telling him 5 or 6 times a day that we went on vacation with out him and flew on a plane. Brock is not trying to be mean, he says things like, "I flew in a plane with mom, you didn't come Noah, but you can come next time, do you want to come with us next time?" -then I have two little boys whining about how they want to fly in a plane... right now!

Thanks Bells for the awesome trip.