Happy Easter!

Easter Egg Hunt

We went somewhere! We saw other people! Rob's friend from work invited us to her church's Easter Egg hunt. She lives out in the country and her church is a really cute little church among a bunch of farms. They had a little story of Easter pageant, bunny crafts, and a decorate-your-own-sugar cookie center. They gave Amy two cookies, so I ate one. It was awesome. And smeared with neon pink icing and rabbit shaped sprinkles.

Eggies!!

Then, they took all the kids outside for the egg hunt. Amy did NOT want to wait for all the other kids and may have cried a little, but once they said "go!" it was all better. She collected lots of "eggies" and ran around without help, unlike last year when she thought she had to hide every egg she found.

This goat's name was Pippa. She has a sister Kate.

 They had baby goats! Goats usually have twins, but sometimes when they have triplets, the mother goats won't feed the third baby and it has to be bottle fed. There were five of these triplets at the party and the kids got to play with them. They were less than a week old and very tolerant of being handled, kissed, put on the swingset, danced with, and otherwise loved.

Square candy here. Purple candy over there.

We took all the candy out of the eggs so the church can use them again next year. Amy loved this part.  She very methodically organized all her loot by shape and then by color. Oh jeez. A neurotic little candy-eater, huh? 

We had a nice time. Tiny protestant churches are so nice and so welcoming. Everybody talked to us and wanted to know how we were settling in. I wish it wasn't far away, I think we would probably go there more often. 

A Girl and Her Cat

Orbit is my buddy. My buddy. He sleeps on my head and likes it when I carry him around. I give him treats and he gives me headbutts. We've been best friends since he was a mangy little kitten. Nothing could interfere with our relationship.

 Nothing, that is, except a little girl who loves him so so very much. She tugs on his ears and hugs him until he squeaks. She pokes him in the face and pulls his tail while he eats, and yet, he adores her. He sleeps on her bed now. jerk. He follows her everywhere and hardly every scratches.

we don't always wear pants

Yesterday, Orbit was treated to a sidewalk chalk facial. He didn't seem to mind. In fact, he seemed a little proud of his new punk look. 

I'm glad they get along. I miss Orbit's constant love (sort of), but I'm so glad they have eachother. 

The river

We went down to the river after dinner tonight to play and throw rocks. We spent about an hour there, just getting dirty, splashing, trying to skip stones, and watching ducks fight the current. It was a fun end to a nice day. I brought my camera and I have lots of pictures of Rob and Amy on their bike and playing in the water that I will share in another post, but I'm putting these four pictures up to show 1. How absolutely beautiful Boise is (please move here) and 2. Why you should always always take pictures at sunset. Everything was so colorful and crisp! I didn't do a single thing to these pictures, this is really how pretty it was outside. I love it here and I can't wait until you come to visit.

Playing in the Toybox

Amy has been spending a lot of time in her toybox lately. It sits in her room right under the windows. I guess it's comfy and it has all her favorite stuff in it. 

Last night we put her to bed as usual, but then she started calling out around 11pm. Rob went in and found her in her toybox, half awake and totally confused. I guess she got out of bed after we left and then fell asleep playing in there. She was all disoriented and scared, poor thing. Her daddy tucked her back in and she went right back to sleep. 

Her ordeal didn't keep her out of the toybox all afternoon today.

Maters

Guess where it isn't already in the 90's? Guess where the soil is black and rich? Guess who lives in zone 6? There are plants in my yard that just grow there without anybody forcing them to do it. There's this stuff they call grass!!! I CAN HAVE PLANTS!!!

So I'm going to plant a garden.  A container garden. Our yard is pretty little. I don't have a whole plan just yet, but apparently that's ok. The guy at the feed store said our last frost day is May 10th. WHAT?! I laughed at him. In Tucson, May 10th is long since summer and could be 100 degrees.
So, it's too cold to plant outside yet, so I'm starting some TOMATOES!!!! inside.  I tried tomatoes in Tucson, but the vines just withered and burned despite watering 3x a day and sitting in partial shade. Here, I'm starting with just one packet of Brandywine tomatoes to see how they do. The package said they are delicious and I'm into delicious things.

I started with a tray with 3 seeds in each hole.

On the advice of my mentor, farmer May, I moved them on top of the fridge and they sprouted.

So I added lights.

mmmm. warm and cozy.

I was thinking of using this cool idea my friend Dan came up with. He lives here in Boise and has a great garden and even manages to grow food indoors in the winter. He used these subwatering planters in his living room this winter and grew kitchen herbs. He made them himself and has plans I can follow too. He's got a pretty green thumb, he has fruit trees INSIDE and they produce fruit. I'm thinking planters like these may even allow me to grow zucchini.

Dan's interior pot farm herb garden.

Vikings

Amy likes the movie How to Train Your Dragon very much. She considers herself a viking and talks about dragons pretty much all the time. We ordered her a viking helmet  and she LOVES it. She slept in it the first night.

Hey Amy, something came in the mail for you.

Holy shit. A helmet. Of my own. Does it fit me?

I am the most beautiful creature that has ever lived.

Dinner Time Dance Party

Boise Basque

Boise has a big-ish Basque population. I don't know anything at all about Basque people or why they are in Idaho (yet-I plan on learning lots). What we do know is that there is a Basque district downtown complete with a couple of restaurants. 

It was very cold and windy outside, making the inside of the cute little Bar Gernika that much more cozy and awesome. 

We started with beer. It was some sort of European beer that was totally delicious and came in half pints. Turns out that was plenty. It was very boozy beer. Especially for lunch.

Then we had croquettas. Wassa croquetta? They are these little fried yum yums. The menu says they are made of butter, onion, chicken, flour, and bread crumbs. They taste like they are made of butter, fried, butter, fried bread crumbs, and butter. Amy ate a whole order by herself and declared them "good for my body". She's wrong, but they were good.

We ordered two different sandwiches and split them. One was a pork sandwich with pimentos and some kind of sauce. The other was like a lamb philly cheese steak with a dipping sauce. It was all excellent. I look forward to trying the rest of the menu.

Hide and Seek

While we were at the park, Rob and I walked over to read a historic marker and Amy was running around after some geese. We looked at the sign for about 20 seconds. Tops. We checked on Amy and poof! She was gone. Not on the hill chasing geese, not running in the parking lot, not in the lake. We ran around totally panicked. I think we were ready to call the cops and jump in the water when we heard giggling. 

That little brat was hiding behind a tree. We found her and she yelled "LET'S play hide and seek AGAIN!!" So, in the span of less than a minute, we lost Amy Gail, experienced panic, found Amy, got ready to administer the longest time out of her life, and then couldn't stop laughing long enough to do it.

and then she tried to climb the tree.

Saturday Fun times

Operation: Explore Boise

Code Name: Outdoorsy

Combatants: Team Jones

Feedin' the geese. We found some doughnuts and english muffins on the ground. Geese like doughnuts. 

Yesterday we set out to explore our new home a little. We headed through downtown and through the Hyde Park neighborhood (which is super adorable) to the Boise River. The river is also close to our house, but we headed to a spot near Boise State. There was a park with tennis courts, playgrounds, and a lake next to the river and the Boise Greenbelt.

Sun flares are all trendy in your pictures and people fake them. These are real, and are caused by a super dirty UV filter in the sun.

We crossed a fallen log over part of the river to go play on the banks.

This part of the river has a couple of side streams that join the main river in a series of little rapids. Along the banks are lots of rounded rocks and you can tell there will be pretty plants in the spring.

Skipping stones and selecting superior sticks.

Sometimes people decide to get in the river in their socks and shoes. Those people get wet and cold. Observe shock on those people's faces. 

Baby Shell Game

She says "round and round and round they go. Keep your eye on the square." I don't know where this came from. It must be Dinosaur Train, but I don't remember them doing a lot of gambling.

I find it equally frustrating and valuable that she quotes Dinosaur Train all the time. On the one hand, I can't stand that her little imagination is wrapped up in a TV show. It makes me feel that letting her watch it (albeit only 22 minutes a day) is stifling her little brain and that without it she'd be making up some cute game of her own. One the other hand, I know that it's just emulation and that it is a normal part of language development. If she wasn't copying her little Mesozoic heroes, she'd be saying all of the non- toddler appropriate things I say all the time. I just hope she is able to play freely and doesn't feel bored if she isn't playing dinosaurs.
It is awfully funny to watch her recreate carnival games on the kitchen floor. I wondered what she needed all the bowls for.

Graupel?

First of all, I love it here in Boise. We haven't even explored all that much, but I really like it. One of the things I like is the weather. I worried a little that Idaho might be too cold, but it's pretty tame, really. We had a little snow, but it went away. We can drive up to the snow in 20 minutes if we want to play in it.

Unlike Tucson, the weather is actually variable here. What??? Like, sometimes it's cloudy?? Yes! And sometimes it does things I don't even have words for. 

run away! 

Today after lunch it got very windy and started to thunder. If this was June, I'd say it was a big rainstorm coming. It got dark very quickly. Amy and I went up to the balcony (!) to watch it, but it came up so quickly we had to come right back in.

It was pouring ice fast and sideways. It was a little like snow and a little like hail, very loud and just a little scary. Rob said the locals were calling it graupel. Whatever it is, it was fun to watch, from inside that is. 

Snowy

Our second day here started out clear, but it started to snow after breakfast. It doesn't really show in these pictures, but it snowed like it was pouring rain (but snow). Amy wasn't sure she wanted to go out and play in that stuff, but we got her suited up anyway and headed into the backyard to check it out.

We got a snow suit from Anna. What the heck is a snowsuit? When she gave it to us in Tucson, I was pretty sure it would never be cold enough to wear it. It's like puffy overalls with elastic feet and a puffy jacket. Turns out, it's the perfect thing to wear in wet snow. Duh. Amy skidded her little feet around in tracks and said she was skiing. Then we threw snowballs at the garage. 

The next day the snow was melted, so we took a walk. This is Quinn Lake. It's a lake, but it's only separated from the Boise river by a little berm. It was partially frozen and the icy part was covered with gulls, ducks, and geese. They made me cold to look at them. I have to bring a better lens to get pictures of them. New home, new birds! The ducks on the frozen lake reminded me of Laura Ingalls (what doesn't?) She told a joke about a lake that froze so quickly that the ducks were still in it and it froze around their feet. The ducks flew away bringing the lake with them.

This is a little bike bridge over the river. In the summer, Rob can ride his bike over this bridge to get downtown to work. Not a bad commute, huh? Amy and I are getting a baby bike seat this weekend so we can explore the Greenbelt too. 

The Drive

along the Arizona strip. 

almost in Utah

Utah

This is actually Idaho already, but it looks like New Mexico

Utah

Out of the car at the Idaho state line. Note the Cheetos. It was a long drive.

Home.