After six years of living in the great state of Idaho, my parents FINALLY made a trip up to Boise that lasted more than one day. My years of begging them to pay a visit finally paid off. . .well, that and the fact that I had a new house to accomadate them didn't hurt either :)
They got here early Wednesday evening. I was so happy to see my momma and pappy! I would have jumped on them as soon as they got out of the car, but I figured after a 10 hour drive (Nic and I can make it in 8 1/2-9 hours) they wouldn't have the strength to hold me. They came in and I gave them the ground tour. They really like our new home and the space that there is. I did up the guest bathroom for them (still no paint, but it looked really cute) and the guest bedroom. They were starving so I made-some yummy stir-fry.
Momma and Pappy also came bareing gifts: FRUIT!! Nic always teases me about fruit because I always tell him how much cheaper it is in Cali or fresher or whatever else. So, the fact that my parents brought some for me made we way happy! It was fun just sitting 'round the kitchen table chatting and joking. After Nic got home and had a bite to eat we went for an evening stroll to the club house to show my parents where our HOA fees go. As we were walking through the neighborhood they were really impressed with how family friendly the neighborhood was and the sizes of the home. I told them that they could sell their home in Cali and pay cash for a home up here. . .it looked like the were pondering the idea, so we will see what happens.
Thursday morning I made them breakfast and we just hung around town. Nic was insistent about taking them
Pita Pit and checked out the down town sites-which included the ever so wonderful
Boise Co-Op. I love the Co-Op but Nic and I hardly ever go. While we were there my mom reminded me how important it is to be healthier and how good this and that oil are for you. I like to think I'm a believer of natural healing, but my mom has truly surpassed me. After the Co-Op we headed out to Nic's parents house to do some swimming. The original plan was to head out there so I could do some browsing/shopping at
Graples Home Decor which is a store that is only open on Thursdays (when I'm working), but in the end I decided my parents wouldn't have very much fun with that so we headed to the pool. My parents loved being able to cool off in the pool. It's a funny thing about swimming, when you're younger it's all about jumping and diving and playing this or that game but as you get older it's about just relaxing and finding something to float on. So, I guess I should say that we did some floating and not a whole lot of swimming.
After cooling off in the pool we head back into town to get cleaned up and head over to
Cottonwood Grille for dinner. Nic and I had only been there once before, and it was soooo yummy! The trout I had (last time) literally melted off of my fork. It was so good. Nic and I decided should my parents ever decide to visit us, we would take them there. We sat out on the porch, next to the
green belt and enjoyed the nice summer breeze. Our waiter was a little slow for my taste (after 1 1/2 working in a resturant you really learn what makes a good server and what does not), but it gave us time to sit and enjoy each other's company. It was nice to just sit and chat with my parents and joke around with them. It makes me miss and appreciate them so much more. Distance does truly make the heart grow fonder. Knowing that the next day (4th of July) was going to be a super long day for us, we decided we should head home and get some rest. Well, we headed home but didn't get to bed until probably around 12 am! We go back to our house and just started talking again. For the first time, my parents learned about the struggle I had (in high school and in college) about my racial vs my cultural identity (which is a completely different post for another day); and I learned some secrets that my mom had been holding out on me about some of the struggles I had with girls in my ward growing up (yeah, my mom called parents!!!!). . . I joked with her that her calling has explains why one girl doesn't even talk to me anymore. Oh, high school memories. . .honestly, I would never go back to high school. Lesssons learned, time to move on.
Friday morning while mom slept in Nic, Dad and I headed over to our ward building for the ward 4th of July breakfast. It wasn't like the good ol' picinic and softball game that we have back in my ward but nonetheless it was still fun. It gave my dad a chance to meet some of the people in our ward. We only stayed for about an hour and then we came home to get lunch and snacks packed for our trip up to Cascade and McCall. My dad is a big fan of Nic's salsa so the brought all the necessary ingredients to make it. Ideally, we should have made it the night before so we would just have to pack everything and go but we were having so much fun talking that we didn't. So, an hour and half (or more) later we hit the road.
Prior to my parents coming up here, my mom had said that she wanted to go hiking (but nothing too strenuous) so I bought a book that provided a list of ALL the attractions in the state of Idaho. Mom choose a hike that was only a mile (round trip) and would lead us to some hot springs, the trail was Last Chance Hot Spring. The thing that was nice about the book as that it gave directions to the trail head (i.e. travel two miles past x and look for x). Well, after driving for a couple extra miles past where the trailhead was supposed to be, we saw a sign that pointed to Last Chance Hot Spring campsite and I told Nic to head that way so we could ask the camp host where we need to go. Well, two more miles down an unpaved road we made it to the camp-site. Nic told the camp host that we were looking for the trailhead but we were having a hard time finding it, he told Nic it was because it wasn't there. Nic of course asked him what happened and the host told him that the owner of the hot springs was getting sued for a lot of money so to spite everyone he took a stick of dynamite and blew up the trail! One he told my mom this brought some great laughs about crazy mountain men. My parents asked how he could possibly be sued for something regarding his land/hot springs and I told them it's fairly easy: Someone probably choose to come and enjoy the wonderful hot springs and in doing so either 1)tripped somewhere down the path or 2) burned themselves in the hot springs and wanted someone to blame. Grant it, when you go hiking you are voluntarily exposing yourself to the natural elements but people want someone to blame and feel they should be compensated for their foolishness/stupidity. Somehow they found an attorney willing to represent them and they discovered the owner of the land and there you go and thus a lawsuit was born (working in PI I have recieved such calls-I had one lady call that wanted to sue a pet store because her own cat attacked her-ridiculous!).
Not ones for being defeated we went to the book again determined to go on a hike. We couldn't find one that was close to where we were so we turned around and headed to Brundage Mountain and decided to hike Goose Creek. It wasn't in our book but since it was already 4:30 we decided that we should probably get started on a hike. Goose Creek was was a 2 1/2 mile hike that on the return trip was all uphill! I was a little nervous because of my knee-it's never been the same since my surgery but I decided I could tough it out. I figured if my mom could do it, so could I. Though when I did express my concerns about the return trip she told me I should have worn my knee brace and I should also keep it around for things like this, but I really hate that thing. One it takes forever and a day to put it on (there are like eight straps that you need to make sure are secrue) and two it gives me bad tan lines-vain, I know!
The hike down to the falls was beautiful. I didn't enjoy being bitten my mosquitoes (even though I did spray myself) but it was so nice to be in nature and enjoy the wonderful God created elements. Once we got to the falls, we realized it was just the upper falls and that we still needed to hike 1/4 mile to the lower falls. Mom and I decided that we weren't going to be up for it so we decided to head back to the car while Dad and Nic continued on to check it out. It was so nice hiking back just my mom and I. It again gave us time to talk and share feelings about Nic and I's decision to start our family, the gospel and the spiritual strength of the men in our lives and to enjoy the wonderful beauties of this earth together. Nic and dad didn't catch up with us until we were probably 1/2 way back to the car. Once they caught up, Nic explained to us that it was a good thing we didn't go because it was a steep rocky path to get to the falls and there's no way that we have been able to do it. Nic showed me the pictures he took and I agreed that we would not have enjoyed that part of the hike. Dad told me that as he saw Nic get closer and closer to the falls he began thinking about what he would do should Nic have fallen into the falls, I told my dad "Camera first then Nic." We laughed but mom didn't appreciate the joke, nor our sense of humor.
We finished the trail and headed to Cascade. Since we were in McCall Nic suggested staying there for the fireworks (because he heard they were better) but I told him I didn't want to, plus it seemed pretty hard to find a place to sit so contined to Cascade. Lakeside was a little disappointing this year-there wasn't as many vendors and their wasn't any entertainment. Only a DJ that didn't start playing music until about an hour and half before the firework show started. We killed our time playing Uno. Mom had never played before so we decided to teach her how. We explained the rules to her and what each card meant, but she still accused us of cheating (the only one that ever cheats is Nicolas) even when she beat me at a game. All is well, it was fun but I don't think we will be playing Uno when we head down to Cali for Thanksgiving. After the awesome fireworks show we had to deal with the traffic getting out of the parkit was as messy this year, but it didn't take nearly as long as it has in the past and since we were going to be driving windy roads during the late evening, Mom stayed up to make sure Nic would be okay (I'm usually the one up making sure he's okay) which meant I got to sleep on the way home-YEAH!! When we got back (well after midnight-if not 1 am) I informed everyone that I was going to be sleeping in tomorrow and not to wake me up-no matter what AND that I was leaving my phone downstairs because I didn't want any phone calls waking me up. Mom informed me that instead of going panning for gold or gem digging (which I was determined to find a place for them to do that) that we could just stick around town on Saturday.
Saturday morning I was awoken by Nic coming in to the bedroom and asking if I was okay. I rolled over and looked at him (half-way asleep now) and said "Yes, I'm sleeping. What do you want?" (It should be noted that if I say I'm sleeping in and I don't want to be woken up I really do mean that).
"I forgot my keys to the house so I couldn't get back in. I was ringing and ringing the doorbell and no one answered. I tried calling your cellphone and the house phone and there was no answer. I thought something had happened to you."
"How did you get in then?"
"I called your mom on her cellphone and your dad came and opened up the door."
"Sorry, I didn't have my phone nor did I hear the doorbell." Then I rolled over and went back to sleep.
When breakfast was done mom told me that she heard the doorbell but she figured I wasn't answering it because I had said I didn't want to get woken up for anything; then the person starting rining and ringing the doorbell and she thought "Man, they must really want someone to answer the door." Next thing she knows Nic calls and she tells him that someone is ringing our doorbell "Yeah, it's me." Good times!
Saturday afternoon we went to the
Idaho Penitentiary. Mom heard it was like one the top 20 attractions in Idaho (or something like that) so they wanted to check it out. It's weird to think that this jail was used until the early 1970's it so run down. Dad thought it would be funny to get a couple of pictures of him behind bars and pretending to escape from jail. It was interesting to see the different wings of the penitentiary.
We went to the solidary confinement which they called Siberia and read the description of it. It was crazy. Prisioners would be in there for seven months to a year and they were not allowed to take showers and hardly saw the light of day. The only light they had was a small vent opening in the ceiling of their cell. The part that grossed me out was not being able to take showers. The day we were there it was in the low 90's with a breeze, but I was sweating a little bit. I couldn't imagine being stuck in the cell with no circulation; even worse I couldn't imagine the possible stench that would come from those six or eight cells with no air conditioning and your prisioners not having taken a shower for a coulpe of days-gross! Mom and dad enjoyed themselves, we were hoping to check out the
Idaho Botanical Gardens as well but by the time we got done at the penitentiary, they were already closed-darn! Looks like mom and dad are just going to have to come back for another visit :)
It was soooo incredibly nice having my parents here. I really hope they change their minds and decide to retire here; that way they'll be closer to grand-babies when they come!! I hope my parents make it a yearly thing to come up here to Idaho. Love you momma and pappy!!!!
