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...

Red Hot Peppers

Some moments are just weird enough that they absolutely have to be shared.  Something about vegetables en fuego is just, well, EXCITING!

Guilty Pleasures or Nerdy Endeavors?

I am officially THAT kind of mother, and let me tell you, it makes the accountant in me GIDDY!

PS. Please note that the English fanatic in me was wildly disappointed with the spelling error as I saw it uploading to the internet.  For those of you who share my disappointment, you'll be happy to know that it was immediately removed and rectified.

Surprise Visitor

The observant one in the family saw this roosting on our house.

Caleb: "Hey mom, you have to see this."

Me: "Sure honey, but I NEED to finish pulling these weeds."

Caleb: "But MOM, you really HAVE to see this."

Me: "I'll be there in just a minute"

Five minutes later

Me: "Oh, it's an owl. AWESOME!!!"

And there we sat for about a half hour just watching it: watching it watch us, watching it blink and watching it turn its head backwards. Given our current Harry Potter fascination, we've named him Hedwig. We've offered for him to stay at our house, right there on that perch, but every time we see him and ogle him for an evening his roost is empty for the next few nights.

Goose Chase ...

Caleb and I spent a good hour in the Idaho Historical Society Library and Archives looking for old pictures of our new 120 year old house.  We found some very nice photos of our neighbor's house, but failed to come up with one of our own. The librarians sent us over to Land Records in the ADA County Courthouse to research the entire line of previous owners.  Apparently around fifty years ago, some extremely detail-oriented person, bless their soul, indexed every newspaper house photo by the name of the builder and owner.  So with a list of owners, we might be able to find some photos.

  Thanks to a very knowledgable and patient clerk in Land Records, we walked away with 11 deeds of sale, listing something ridiculous like 25 different owners dated back to 1900,  just ten years shy of our mark. That's when we lost the trail and had to refer to the actual fiber and ink cataloguing system shown above.  Needless to say, it did not help, but they were most definitely some very charismatic registers.  As for the picture of our house, we've yet to return to the Historical Society with our list of owners, so stay tuned...

Floating the Boise River

 
Here are some shots of our first float down the Boise River.  It's just calm enough to ensure a three-year-old won't fall out and just exciting enough to keep said three-year-old entertained for two to three hours.