Idaho family vacation

A reminder that my editor is still not available to help me with the grammatical disaster that I am about to unleash on all of you. You have been warned.

The last week of July we went to Idaho for a Wiens family gathering. Kyle's parents, aunt, uncle, sister, brother-in-law, nephews (3), niece-in-law and two of their kids would all be descending on the cabin near Donnelly, ID. We decided it would be great for Logan to be up there with the other boys. Not sure that it went exactly as I thought it would, but I'll get to that later.

This was Logan's second vacation via airplanes. He was much more excited this time though, as he was only 9 months old for our trip to Hawaii.

Here we are on the shuttle from the parking lot to the airport.

Let me tell you that it is a pain in the rear to put a carseat in an airplane seat using those buckles. We chose to sit in the rear of the planes so that each time I would have ample time to get everything hooked up and unhooked.

Logan did seem to enjoy his new tray and games that I made for the trip. In fact, often we would have to point out what was happening outside his window.

He went through his whole sticker stash, in what felt like 5 minutes.

He was interested in the tongs for a short while.

The magna doodle became a favorite toy and he still loves it.

Velcro sticks were not a huge hit on this trip.

The play dough mats are still something he enjoys getting out.

The trip itself was a little stressful. Kyle was getting phone calls from Los Alamos Labs about a job offer throughout the day. Seemed like each phone call had bad timing. Needless to say we didn't need job negotiating stress to start our vacation. Nor did I want to think about Los Alamos, since I was hoping to stay in Albuquerque. After all I have family, friends, sewing groups, volleyball teams, not to mention lots of stores at my fingertips. However, in the end we decided to go with the job. It offers Kyle a great career opportunity and Logan great schools. The salary doesn't hurt either. I am glad that my family and friends who are in Albuquerque will only be a short drive away. I am also very lucky to have friends who still live in Los Alamos. It will certainly be a big adventure for us, but now back to our Idaho adventure.

When we landed in Boise we went out to dinner at Red Robin. The food seemed fine, but it wasn't. Kyle ended up with food poisoning and it pretty much had him bed ridden for that first night and the next day. We did manage to have a few good moments when we arrived at the cabin before Kyle had to retire. To start with, Grandma Betty gave Logan a wagon! Let's just say that Logan loves it.

We are super thankful that Aunt Phyllis and Uncle Ed allowed Kyle, Logan and I to stay at their house. They have spent something like the last 7 years renovating it, and it is near completion. The house is fabulous! They have really outdone themselves. Not only was it a beautiful place to stay, but it was wonderful to have a separate, quiet space where Kyle could recover and Logan could nap or go to bed early when needed.

The next day, while Kyle slept, the rest of the gang went Huckleberry picking. Huckleberries are tiny little berries that look like very small blueberries.  Once you find an area with those berry bushes, it becomes a family secret. After all they go for something like $50 a pound. Lucky for the family, this year was a bumper crop. They were everywhere! So we spent a lot of time picking berries. Of course, I spent more time taking photos and looking after two little boys who wanted to run and play.

Big Logan and Little Logan (our Logan) enjoying some stick time.

After returning from berry picking, mysteriously most of the family disappeared. I was left with Reece and Little Logan. Once again our bag of travel games came in handy.

I also whipped out one of my planned crafts. I had many planned for the week. In fact, a good portion of the items in my suitcase were craft related. This first craft was to make "stained glass" window clings.

That evening Kyle made it out for a little lake time. I was so glad to see him up and about.

While many of my photos show a super happy Logan, he was really far from happy much of the trip. For some reason he didn't want to do things with Reece and Big Logan. He would often point and grunt at them in a mean way. It was super upsetting for me. When Kyle recovered I was really happy that he seemed better, and I was really happy for the break. I can only take so much grunting before I grunt myself.

The day ended beautifully though. Logan had solo time with Dad and me. No more grunting, just some fun water time.

Since I took a ton of pictures I'll stop here for now. Hopefully I can post the rest of the trip before we move next week. After all, blogging is significantly more fun than cleaning.