W&L October 2021

It never gets old- checking in on Lilly at night. 

On a whim, we packed everyone in the car (including Baxter ) and went to look at Halloween decorations. There were some really good ones!

This time Wendy makes the cut in sleeping positions. This is how I found her in the morning when I went into her room to wake her up for school. She looked so peaceful I almost let her sleep in!

This time Baxter was taking a car ride so he could go stay with his girl friend while we went to Boise. He was super excited!

Us on the "Cheetah Bus" aka the bus that takes us from the parking lot at the airport to the airport terminal. 

Lilly and I sat together and we had fun coloring and playing games on her iPad. 

The mountains were shocking out the airplane window!

Wendy had fun too and watched Ghostbusters for the first time!

Checking in to our vacation houses are always fun for the girls. They checked out all the rooms before declaring this one as Wendy's. 

The next morning I went for a run and Wendy joined me near the end.  We couldn't get over the trees in Boise!

There was a pool table in our rental house so that help us passed the time during down time. Lilly loves down time and playing on her iPad. Wendy doesn't do downtime very well so we played a couple rounds of pool with her. 

PJ was able to rent a bike and go on a few bike rides while we were there. 

So us girls hit the mall! The girls favorite things at the mall? Riding the escalator. 

For dinner time, we all got dressed up to go out to fancy dinner- a vacation must!

While we lived in Boise, I didn't make it downtown very much. I was so impressed with the views of the foothills all over downtown! (and the trees)

Wendy especially loved playing with the leaves

The waitress was gracious and took a picture of us. The restaurant was a lot fancier than either PJ and I remembered. Needless to say our kids were the only ones there but they did great (and also got to play on our phones). 

Across from the restaurant there were these awesome Halloween blow-ups. The kiddos just had to get a picture!

The next day we hit the Table Rock trail. 

The morning started out super cold. 

But we quickly shed our layers and brought candy to keep the kids energy up so we could get to the top. 

At the top is this awesome cross which you can see from all over the city and the view of the city is spectacular!

Lilly was a litte frightened of how high up we were so I put her on my back and walked closer to the edge so she could see. 

Fun was had by all!

I snapped this picture because the day Lilly was born, Table Rock was on fire. While a lot of the shrubbery has grown back, they have these signs on the trail saying "Stay out of burned areas". I thought it was poetic to see that even though hard things happen, we are still able to grow from them. 

We stopped by Idaho Fry Company as [was] our hiking tradition!

We made sure to pass by the Meridian temple too. PJ and I tried to get a session but it was booked up. When we left, they were just breaking ground on it!

We also stopped by our old neighborhood playgrounds to let the girls play and to get some picture remakes of ones we took when they were babies. 

We ended out the night with going to the pumpkin patch!

Lilly still talks about this dragon. She loved it!

The girls also got to ride the ponies. It's about time they graduate to horses, I think!

This might have been Lilly's first pony ride! She giggled the whole time. 

We also got to feed the goats. 

Wendy was even brave enough to feed the Longhorn!

Sack rides down the big slide!

And the corn pit! They were so excited about this!

We also went on a hayride... that had no hay. 

There was a bubble station and the girls were able to make some huge bubbles!

And they loved the barrel ride. 

Pretty much ended the day on this jumping pillow!

Before we left, Lilly had a go on the spider web. 

Wendy went around this obstacle course. 

And the girls rode the zip line twice until we told them it was too cold and we had to go home. We were not prepared for the cold- even with coats!

We can't pass these kind of signs without taking pictures!

The next morning, PJ went out for a bike ride and we took it easy around the house. Wendy was pretty bored of her iPad but she did her best to take it easy. 

Then I took them to a park we used to go to a lot. 

The rental car agency gave us a car with a California license plate! Luckily we did not get honked at. 

Later that evening, we took the kids to a different park down town and found them building their own leaf pile to jump in. Who needs playground equipment when you have leaves!?

For the sunset, we drove up the mountain PJ rode his bike up. It was quite a climb and a great view!

Our last hike of the trip was one we went on a lot when we lived in Boise. Once again, the morning was cold but we warmed up after a bit. 

Redoing old pictures too!

After some lunch, we took the kiddos to the zoo. They were most excited about this giraffe slide!

Wendy became part of the exhibit. 

And we couldn't skip the carousel!

They found a nest to call home. 

We hatched a Lilly egg!

We had to wear masks inside and they make you go out the gift shop in order to leave. 

The nice thing about going to a place where you have lived before is we could find a babysitter pretty easily! So the girls got to play with a fun teen and PJ and I got to meet up with friends at the Boise State game. 

Sponsored by Idaho Potatoes, of course. 

It was a fun game! PJ was upset we lost but I had a good time gabbing with my friend. 

The next day we were up and out! Lilly had quite the set up on the plane. 

After a week back at school, cookie making, and Apple engineering, we were ready for a family night out so we went to see the Addams Family 2. 

PJ got a geode kit as a "boredom buster" so he and the girls had fun figuring out how to bust the rocks open!

We're still working on teaching Lilly to ride her bike. She's very close!

The girls' elementary school had a costume parade we were able to tune into via Zoom. It was so fun to wave to the girls as they walked by!

Wendy had a friend over one Saturday morning and Wendy started teaching her to play the piano! 

For Halloween Wendy picked our costumes because she really wanted to be Mal from Descendants. Lilly chose to be Audrey (because she wears pink) and I got to be Malificent (since she is Mal's mom). In these movies, we find out Hades is Mal's dad so PJ obliged to wearing blue hair all night. 

We stuck around the neighborhood and the kids loaded up on the candy!

We got to hang out with Wendy's friend too. 

Sorting Lilly's load!

Wendy wasted no time in trying to eat through hers!