Memorial Day in Salmon

This Memorial Day weekend, we finally got to see the 1000-flag display they set up in the city park every year. There were some posters up commemorating each branch of the armed forces, and I think it provided a good talking point with the kids. Owen even says he wants to be a soldier now. A nice visual reminder of the reason for the holiday, even in the yucky cold rain.

When the weather cleared on Saturday, we headed up north to Salmon, Idaho for a scenic getaway with some family friends. First lesson of rural Idaho: highways sometimes double as cow pasture...

Once we got close, we stopped at the Sacajawea Interpretive, Cultural, and Educational Center, since this was her hometown, to stretch our legs. Salmon is located in a very scenic valley surrounded by mountains on all sides.

There was a beautiful loop trail, which was perfect to run off some pent-up energy from the car trip. It was fairly flat, but went through fields, forest, and up to the riverbank for lots of variety in terrain.

Along with educational signs posted throughout the trail, they had several interactive things such as these huts and tipis.

And never underestimate the fun to be had from a branchy tree like this.

We checked into our house, unloaded, and explored the downtown area after that. The next day was our designated Goldbug Hot Springs hike, which was supposed to be about 2 miles up to some hot pools. 

What a gorgeous hike! The kids were all troopers, except Hadley requested to be carried about half the hike in, but we cut her some slack since she had just vomited less than 48 hours prior. (Thought it was food poisoning.)

Looking back at where we came from...

Then we made it! On either side of some raging waterfalls, were little natural pools. Some were quite hot; I could barely dip my feet in. But the kids seemed to love them and had a higher tolerance for the heat, which surprised me.

It was a little crowded for a while, but then most of the crowd headed back down and we got some time to ourselves before the afternoon shift showed up.

The boys enjoyed moving rocks around to try and divert the water flow.

It's really fun to share these memories with our friends! Sorry that Hadley's "food poisoning" was actually a virus that got Owen about 12 hours after these pictures, me on the way home the next day, and then trickled through their family. Memories are to be shared, not viruses! Ugh!

Monster Truck Fun Run

Tis the season for fun runs. This weekend was Owen's school's color run where they throw colored chalk at you while you run. Who decided this was fun? I don't know, but I guess kids love it. Here is before...

And after - this pic doesn't do justice to Owen's bright orange hair or Hadley's blue face spot. The inside of Owen's ear was blue for days. This is post-race lunch in the sun, since I didn't run with my camera. It was a beautiful day! Commence the yard work!

Later that evening was a family first: a monster truck show! Owen wanted to be able to see everything, so he picked the very back row. They were pretty good seats! Although right as the show started, the wind picked up and the temp dropped 20 degrees. I had to go get a blanket from the car at intermission because we were all freezing! 

Before we sat down, we checked out the monster trucks' pit party. We didn't wait in line for driver autographs, but it was interesting to see the things up close. Needless to say, the kids were pretty stoked about this! Especially a certain wheel connoisseur.

Once they got going, they were pretty loud! This truck broke a rear shock and strut tower (or something like that) right after this and was out for the rest of the night. That seemed to be a theme for the night, as we got down to only two monster trucks (out of 4) for the final freestyle competition and one of those died in the middle of his run.

But don't worry, we did have hearing protection for the kids!

Another fun spectacle was the extreme figure 8 racing, where these crummy cars push and crash each other around a figure 8 track. So many cars were smoking, sputtering, and losing pieces left and right! I can't say if it's normal to need that many vehicles pushed off of the track by a forklift and a skid steer, but it seemed a little backwoods Idaho... The mega-trucks (regular truck bodies with giant wheels) also faired about 50% failure rate. Tough sport!

Lastly, Owen had an early dismissal this week on a warm day, so we biked to the zoo from our house. I love that we can do this!

We had to see the lion cub that was just reunited with his mom!

And more babies. There were about 16 new ducklings in the pond.

And a strange new baby chicken! Actually, it's a rhea (like an ostrich), whose dad was a little too aggressive. So he's being raised by a chicken, kind of like the dog who raised the lion cub for a few months.

La semana de Mama

The week that encompasses both my birthday and Mother's Day is always a gauntlet for my husband, but he came through like a champ! One of my requests was not having to cook dinner that whole week, and we had enough celebratory dinners and social obligations that it really happened! It was wonderful. We also had pretty awesome weather for my birthday and a few other days in there. In fact, Hadley and I had a lovely post-birthday lunch stroll around the river walk, admiring the thundering falls and finding some more painted rocks. Between that, two meal dates with my love, a workout, and an Illusionists' show, it was a perfect birthday!

Then the weekend rolled around and the winds came to town. Hadley's school had a fun run scheduled for Saturday morning, despite it being 39 degrees, windy, and raining. Delightful! We did our mile and promptly headed home to warm up! (Halfway through Hadley, shivering and holding my hand, declared, "this is NOT a fun run!")

At least in the afternoon, the sun came out for our friends' BBQ. I love that our group has all of these kids that get along and are friends, too!

It was an extra special gathering because our Montana friends came into town!

The winds were still ridiculous though, and blankets were distributed around the fire pit as the temps went back into the low 40s as the sun set. Brrr!

My Mother's Day wish was for a family hike, so we headed out to our annual Cress Creek trek. The weather ended up being perfect for a hike! So thankful for that!

The kids love hopping around the creek to touch the "warm" water. It's spring fed and supposedly doesn't freeze all winter, which supplies the wild life with watercress to eat and water to drink. I always hope to see a moose at the creek, but haven't yet!

Owen was excited to find a bristly caterpillar on the bridge. (They just wrapped up their case studies on butterflies at school.)

This time we all summited beyond the main trail up a steep and rocky footpath to a large rock outcrop. Hadley needed a few breaks on the way up, but she did the whole thing herself! Best of all, she stopped complaining about her legs being tired after a snack at the top. She had a real sense of accomplishment and pride! Hopefully that bodes well for our summer hikes. 

It's hard to convey a mountain's steepness on camera, but you can see the 'real' trail down in the lower right corner.

And on our way out, look what we saw! A moose! I guess she preferred the shrubs across the river to the people-filled watercress near the trail.

We topped off La semana de Mama with a last dinner out and dessert. Perfect again!

Now back to reality. Yes, that's snow.