Idaho at Last

All year I have been working toward the reward of spending a good, solid chunk of time in Idaho. For the past four years my trips have been short and crazy-full of work, but this year I needed to just be in Idaho--to, like my boss said, wake up with a cold nose in the morning in the middle of August.  I get a real thrill at driving home from Shaanti's in the evening with the windows down and the old Country Gold Saturday Night radio program playing.

Idaho was just what I needed after the past year.  I worked for a week and then played for a week.  We did stuff like this:

* Went to the Idaho Shakespeare Festival with picnics in hand to see Taming of the Shrew.

* Casey and Kim came down for a short but great visit, and the three of us went to see HP7 again--so good the second time (but so sad that I didn't take any pictures, arg!).

* Had a Sisters' Night Out, complete with dinner, shopping without strollers, and shaved ice.  Classic.

* Read almost all of the Anne of Green Gables books on my iPad.  Pretty fantastic.

* Played with little boys.  A lot.

I think this is my favorite picture from the whole trip.

Somehow I can't get rid of Cole's evil eyes...

 

* Ran a ridiculous 10K Dirty Dash through mud puddles, over hay bales, and, most excruciatingly, up a ski hill.  It was one of those things I'm glad we did, and I was not glad to be doing.

The fear before the race.

The filth after the race.

* Went to dinner with my dad, which was so fun.

* Ate ice cream.  And lots of other food.

Mason, wearing his classic blue ice cream.

Last minute ice cream date with Uncle Jason.

It was SUCH a good trip.  I had been feeling so burned out and exhausted that I didn't think I could ever get back to "zero," but I came home and felt like my soul was very refreshed.  It was such a blessing to be able to spend so much time with my family--especially when they traveled down to see me or spent nearly every evening with me.  Such a happy trip.