Merry Christmas!

Photo Taken 11/30/11

A Two-month-old Bundle of Love

Here is a two-month-old Madde snuggled in her brand new homemade quilt from Grandma Wisconsin.

Piano Pride

After one month of piano lessons, Caleb got to perform in his first recital in the performing arts building on the BSU campus.  Ask him to play Water Lily by Phillip Keveren; he's got it memorized and if you're lucky, you'll get vocals too.

Not Quite the Polar Express

The N Scale Model Railroad Club opens its doors every Saturday in December to the gawking public.  We took our train lover who ran around in awe of the entire room filled with city-scapes, tunnels, tressles,    and trains.  As an added bonus, the kids got to meet Santa, who just happened to park his sleigh on the same floor.

Ice Fascination

We have a small water feature in our backyard. With the cold then mild then cold then mild winter we're having, it has provided a ton of ice interest.

Sheer Childhood Joy

Bottoms Up

Grandma Wisconsin giving Maddie her very first bottle.

Boo!

We borrowed the neighbors cat, Buffy (stage left), to complement our spooky annual Halloween decor.

Fall Fun

The house we rented last fall had a yard service.  We are MUCH happier this year :)

Sheer Childhood Joy

Special Delivery

Caleb gets more mail and email than me these days, and I'd say 90% of it is train related.  Grandpa and Grandma Canada have sent tons of train post cards, Grandpa and Grandma Wisconsin have sent articles of "Caleb's favorite train", pictures and flyers for model train conventions and both sets have sent brochures for scenic cross-country train rides.  Uncle Chad has recently thrown his gauntlet in the ring with the following video link to the COOLEST restaurant in Wisconsin, PC Junction in Door County, where your food is delivered by flat car.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyWxEH8Ze70

And this (see photo below) is what it inspired in my kitchen.  Please disregard the banana bread crumbs from our snack five minutes prior to train departure.

Thanks for joining the train craze Uncle Chad!  Caleb now thinks the PC Junction is REALLY COOL and wants to eat there ASAP.

Link to the PC Junction website
http://www.pcjunction-doorcounty.com/

The Spirit of Boise Balloon Classic

The Spirit of Boise Classic is a recently revived Boise tradition for hot air balloon enthusiasts to strut their stuff and for the general public to get up early or stay up late to ooohh and aaahh. Who could resist? http://www.spiritofboise.com/

We ventured out Friday night for the three demonstration inflations: One of 12 hand painted balloons in the world, the world's tallest balloon and the most famous, aka "Happiest Balloon on Earth".  

Seeing as delays made us up past bed time anyway... we just stayed up for the Nite Glow event, which was really striking and surprisingly entertaining. 

We never did make it to the early am launch of a balloon, but woke up about an hour after the launch and struck out for a Sunday morning drive just to see the balloons floating over the city.

In a weekend full of shopping and cleaning and organizing, this was a welcome diversion of good old fashioned family-friendly community-oriented fun.  Thank You Boise!

Garden Goods

Spicy tomato soup day is my absolute FAVORITE garden day of the season…mmm.

Tricycle Tour?

We have a new-to-us bicycle trailer for Caleb.  As you can tell from the expression on his face, HE LOVES IT!  He requested, in that oh-so-demanding way a four year old requests what he wants, a ride least four nights in a row and has recently switched to asking for a ride in the foothills behind the mountain bike.  OY!

Change of Perspective

Some days "we" cry because "we" fall in a puddle or get caught in the rain without proper rain gear.  Sometimes "we" can't bear to swim in the Boise River or run through the fountain pictured below because the water is just too darn cold...

Today after a good four hours in direct sun at 95 degrees and in the setting of a somewhat muggy evening, "we" didn't care what "we" were wearing, who saw us or how cold the water was, "we" just NEEDED to get wet.

Pedal Tractor Pull

This summer, Caleb discovered an old pedal tractor of Grandpa Wisconsin's hanging on the wall in his garage.  Caleb firmly, but politely, requested that the tractor be brought down and then proceeded to  spend hours riding first around in circles and then around the block showing off his fancy old red tractor to anyone who would pay attention.

Needless to say, the West Idaho State Fair advertisements included a free kids pedal tractor pull.  Caleb was sold.  It didn't matter that it was HOT out.  It didn't matter that he'd never done it before.  He was going to go to that fair and ride that tractor... and ride it he did!  In fact, he rode so well, the announcer thought he'd been practicing at home (wink wink, nudge nudge, thanks Grandpa WI).

The sled itself weighed 200 pounds.  Being the youngest of those able to ride (ages 4 - 12), no weight was added in the first round.  Caleb pulled a full pull (25 feet).  If you pull a full pull, you get to do it again, but with more weight.  Caleb got to pull in all three rounds ending on a 20 foot pull with an additional 100 pounds added to the sled.

Everyone got a brilliant green ribbon for the effort and my little boy showed his off with a brilliantly proud smile.

Fever Break

Caleb and I have been house-bound for the last two days due to a mild-grade fever. Mild-grade is in some ways the WORST kind of fever, because our dearest Caleb still wants to run and play with full energy but could infect all of his friends while he's at it. So we hibernate. Today, the fever broke and we took a stroll through Ann Morrison Park in search of a fallen stick worthy of transforming into a Nimbus 2000. As per usual, the Boyce favorites of the walk included trees and refreshingly cool water.

The Golden Exit

Traveling by car generally leaves the Boyce family a little disgusted with the dismal dinner choices. At this particular exit, we had the choice of a McDonalds (which was being promoted heavily by the 4yo in the back), a Pizza Hut and a Subway (already eaten at once that day). Low and behold this little gem caught our eyes...AND swayed the train loving 4yo away from the Golden Arches. Totally worth the stray from the norm, we were met with a history of the Sumpter Junction and a model train that navigated a paper mache world of tunnels and hills as well as the ceiling line of the ENTIRE restaurant. The food was fast and reasonably palatable, but the biggest bonus was the energy and excitement the train drummed up for Caleb as a diversion to the 8 hour road trip at hand. Three cheers for the road less traveled!

Golf Camp!

Caleb just finished a week of Golf Camp at Warm Springs Public Golf Course. The young golf geeks take a small group of 4 - 7 year olds and help them practice driving, putting and chipping over four days. Caleb's favorite part was undoubtedly the golf cart ride to an actual hole on the last day, and OF COURSE the daily dole-out of candy at the end of each 45 minute class...