Idaho Activities

Homework is done for the week so.......... I sit and look at the snow outside with the fireplace on, Riley (the cat) sleeping, Will cooking dinner and I with a glass of wine, fun pictures and my blog to update. Could it get any better??? I don't think so.

Sticking to our trip to Idaho I still have some fun pictures to post. What could we possibly do for a week in Lewiston Idaho? Lots! At the time I was training for the Honolulu Marathon which I will post pics for someday. I need to get caught up and most of my posts are definitely not in any date order. Anyway, we rode our bikes, I ran and I ran and I ran some more, we hiked, shopped and decorated for Halloween. It is just so nice to be really without reality for a week. Life really can be simple and at times it is quite tempting and makes you think hard about the craziness of the daily routine. Anyway, enjoy some pics from our other fun activities in Idaho:

On a hike to see the Columnar Basalt. Pretty impressive!

Yes it is a weed but I thought it was cool with the grass growing up through the middle.

Pumpkin carving. Pumpkins from Norm and Rosemary's Garden. They were perfect!!

Spoooooky! The park does a Haunted Hayride and the cemetery was one of the stops. We went in the daylight.
Yes we are wimps!!!!

Ladies project. It was cake pops for us. Fun and tasty but a bit frustrating. Mom is on her
way to being the cake pop master now. In future posts you will see what I am talking about.

Wouldn't be a camping trip without a little Geocaching. Please note the obvious round rock underneath
my right foot is what I am looking for. Mom had found it on a previous day so she thought it was
pretty funny that I kept stepping over it and here basically sitting on it. Nice hiding spot to the
people who own the cache!!!!

There is nice trail along the river and someone had hid many cache's with a story about Lewis and Clark so
mom and I went on a nice stroll and found many of them. Here Mom is logging our find. I am Keystone Campers WJCR and Mom is Ladybug 2010 in case you are Geocaching you can look and see if we have been there.





Last but not least we come to Idaho to look at the pretty fall colors. The leaf colors are amazing. They were a bit behind this year but we did catch some of them.

Here are some reds for you.

I hope you enjoyed our trip to Idaho as much as we did. Let's see what is next to come for my blog????? I might just skip to Hawaii but I do have Amber's Baby Shower and Thanksgiving and....... Such choices. Cheers and until next time.

JET

Gone Fishing

I hear some of you have stopped checking my blog because I haven't a updated it in a while. :) Don't give up on me I have just been swamped. I am now in Hawaii on vacation after finishing up two classes at WSU, training for and completing the Honolulu Marathon and being super busy with work so I sit with my feet up looking at the ocean and posting our fishing trip to Idaho back in October.

We go and visit Mom and Dad when they are over in Lewiston, Idaho in October. It is always very beautiful over there and we have such a fun time. I usually get out in the boat fishing once or twice with Dad and Norm. I like being in the boat and seeing the scenery but I find it hard to keep any fish we catch. I was pretty thankful that most of the fish we caught when I was in the boat were wild and they had to be released. Swim free little fishies or in some cases big fishies and then Dad and Norm were really bummed. Anyway, the following are some pics from the day out in the boat. I usually just take pictures and let the boys fish.

The boys always give Mom and I such a hard time for all of the items we have when working on craft projects yet look at all the stuff they need for fishing. All those colorful floaties don't look much different then my bead collection. Please also note the pink yarn in the top right corner of the tackle box.

We did have luck with a few fish the day I went out so have to show the pictures to go along with the fish stories.


Will's Uncle Ken caught his first fish of the day. Look at the smile!




Yeah Will!! Was this the one that got away?? Sorry sweetie had to do it.




They are fast and it is hard to get them in action so this is the best pic I got.



Yeah for me he was wild so we got to let him swim free!!!!

 After a hard morning of fishing and coffee break we must stop for lunch. The planning of the food is almost more important then the fishing but they never go hungry and everyone on the river is jealous for sure!! We had to share a few cookies with Ken and John.

After a long day fishing they get to show off their catch to the camp or maybe just Mom and Rosemary but we did have a few jealous fisherman who were not so lucky that day that came over to say they had to see what a fish actually looked like. It was pretty funny and Dad and Norm are awfully humble about their fishing skills. They have it dialed in to say the least.

I  had to use the stick because I can't stand to touch them. So slimy!!

Here we are packaging up the fish. They have quite the assembly line figured out. Very efficient.

It was fun to get out in the boat with Dad, Norm and Will. More blog posts to follow I promise with more adventures in Idaho. Cheers and until next time.

JET

Ski Utah

We just got back from our trip to Park City, Utah. We have been going for the last ten years or so and stay at a place called The Grand Summit at The Canyons. Will's Mom and Aunt's have a condo there which makes it quite convenient. We are a bit spoiled honestly.

The Grand Summit at the base of The Canyons Ski Resort

So what do we do for eight days??? We ski, play cards, drink beer, drink wine, eat great food, shop, go to the hot tub, ski some more, drink more wine, play more cards, go to the hot tub again, ski, shop.... You get the picture. This year Will and I got a few extra days by ourselves so we did somethings we had not done before. We have seen a lot since we have been many times but this year we went to a couple new ski resorts and we actually checked out the Olympic Ski Park which includes the ski jumps and bobsled track.

Just to confirm in case anyone is curious I am not a skier. I enjoy easy, easy runs and am in no hurry to get down them. I like looking at the scenery and at The Canyons the views are amazing as you will see in the following pictures. Will on the other hand gets his phone all hooked up with his GPS and trys to see how fast he can possibly get down the hill. He was fairly safe and sane this year and I am not sure he got above 40MPH but last year he was upwards of 65MPH. I just call this stupid honestly. Love you honey!! To Will's credit he does wait for me and well he waits some more and gets some pictures of me hanging on the hill debating if I am going to come down or not. His patience is amazing!

See me in pink? This hill is much steeper in person I promise!!

Who are the two dorks on the chairlift??

Isn't the view amazing? Just look beyond the orange coat. :)

Beer and skiing somehow go together. Here I am at lunch holding up the wall.
Ski boots are just not comfortable!

We went to Snow Basin for lunch this year which is about 45 minutes or so from the condo. The lodge there is quite impressive but the day we went it was raining so didn't get any good pictures. We did however also go and checkout Sundance which is about 45 minutes in the other direction of the condo. This is Robert Redford's ski resort and it was super cute. It has three lifts and the ski shop looks like an old barn. There is nothing flashy here but right up my ally I loved it. We decided we will have to go back skiing there or at least night skiing.

View along the drive to Sundance it was beautiful.

   



Main Lodge/Ski Shop

One day we made a trip to downtown Park City and did some Geocaching. Some of the caches were hard to find because of the snow but we managed to log a couple.

Downtown Park City

Yes it is a tree of shoes. One of our Geocaching stops.

Will found it! Good job!!

Writing our "Keystone Campers" on
the log in the capsule.

Our next adventure was to Olympic Park. They actually have Bobsled rides but Will wasn't interested. I thought for sure he would be in but not his thing I guess. There was also a ski museum there and we were both amazed at how far ski's and boots have come over the last 100 years or so. I can't believe what people threw themselves down a ski jump in. If I thought those athletes were crazy now they were crazier several years ago with the old school equipment. Yikes!!!

You can see the pool is frozen over where they do their practicing in the Summer.

What do you think? Should I try out to carry the torch?

Cards, cards and more cards. This time I taught everyone a new game I learned when I was in Arizona visiting Mom and Dad. It was called Screw your Neighbor or Up and Down the River or as my mom calls it Screw the Dealer. Will and I did play a lot of Cribbage too once Erika and Chris left.

He has a perma-smile because he wins all the time!!!!!



I probably was the blue pegs. Seriously I don't know why I play sometimes.
Will on the flipside thinks it is great because he wins and wins some more. :)



View from the condo. I told you we were spoiled.

Another fun and relaxing trip. We did a few snow dances and they finally paid off towards the end of the week and Will and I got 7 new inches of snow one night to ski in the next day. It was a lot of fun although I think sitting in the hot tub with the snow blowing sideways the night before was better than the skiing but that is just me. Thanks for reading my blog, cheers and until next time!
 

Life is rough but someone has to do it.
Left to Right: Chris, Erika, Me (Jen)

JET

Who Says Getting Older Is Boring?

This past week I flew down to see my parents in Arizona. Now that they are retired they are snowbirds and go to Yuma, Arizona for three months each year. After all the stories last year I had to go find out for myself what it was all about. Let's just say those retired people wore me out! They all know how to have a good time. I decided the best way to describe it was like going to a college town 50 years later. They are buzzing around all over the place and are busy from sun up to sun down. They are playing sports, going to do daily activities, lunches, dinners, happy hour, parties, the girls socialize the boys socialize it is quite cute. Hence the title of my post there is nothing boring about being retired. I have always been fearful of getting older but heck look at all the fun I get to look forward to.

Mom and Dad had an itinerary all put together upon my arrival. First up was tennis on Thursday morning. Dad plays tennis four days a week with a group of people. They were all very sweet. Most are french-Canadians that live in the park they stay in and they are quite cute and funny!

Nice form Dad!

I think that one is out.

Next on the itinerary was to get some sun as apparently I had brought rain and cold weather with me and of the days I was going to be there Thursday was going to be the best day. People were not very happy with me. It even rained and it hadn't rained in over a month.

On Friday the itinerary said we were going to Algadones, Mexico. This was unlike any other trip I have made to Mexico. We drove to California which is only 30 minutes away from where mom an dad stay. We then parked the car and walked across with the hundreds of other people who were doing the same thing. This little boarder town is a major hot spot for dental work, optometrists, prescription drugs (although no prescription is needed), cheap haircuts and booze. On a daily basis this town is swarmed with retirees from surrounding areas coming to get their drugs but dirt cheap, haircuts for $3.00 and if you need a crown you would probably pay around $250.00. About every other shop you walk past is a dentist office, optometrist or a pharmacy. All of the retail has been pushed out onto the sidewalks. Instead of being asked to come look at jewelry, purses, etc. they are asking if you want your teeth cleaned, eyes checked, etc. We went for the experience and so I could see what Mom and Dad had been talking about and yes both Mom and Dad have had dental work done down there and their friends have been going to the same dentist down there for over 10 years. Guess it must be okay but I am still a bit skeptical.

Isn't he cute?? He was so happy to sell
Sheral the candy wrapper purses
for her granddaughters.

Here we are on the sidewalk shopping.
Cheaper than Walmart??



Look at the colors they are beautiful!

I'll take one of those please! :) She was so adorable sitting amongst the t-shirts.

As we were circling the block shopping we ran across a line which led to a shrimp and fish taco stand. Mom and Dad had heard about this so we decided to check it out. It was worth the wait in line for sure. I don't think they were better than  mine but authentic none the less and with a cold Corona they were even better.

On Saturday the rain came like they said it was going to so we went shopping. I had heard all about the isles and isles of trinkets, junk and finds at the Arizona Markets so we went to one that they call the Mervyns Market and another which is called the Arizona Market. If I thought Mexico was overwhelming these are probably worse. I don't have many pictures unfortunately but really you could get just about anything you can imagine and for cheap. 

This was just sandals. You could find watches, sunglasses, purses, beads, tools, clothes, art, etc. that was just like this.

 As the weather improved a little bit on Saturday afternoon we went to Downtown Yuma which was quite cute as well. On the way we went past the cemetery and it was beautiful so we stopped for pictures.

On Sunday we were on our way out to see Norm and Rosemary. They stay outside of Yuma bout 30 minutes in the desert. On the way to see them we drove through the Proving Grounds which is the Army Base in Yuma where they quality control all military equipment to "prove" it will hold up in real world use.

Literally the middle of nowhere!

We also ran across a cute little, I should say tiny, tiny church that was along the roadside. We stopped for more photo opportunities. It was built by a farmer for his wife.

Isn't it cute?

I was signing the guestbook.

Still making our way to see Norm and Rosemary we ran across the "Liberry" otherwise known as a Library/Bookmobile. It functions on the honor system and each year someone brings it out to the desert and just leaves it there during peak season.

Did you find a good book mom?

Pretty funny huh??

One more item on the itinerary before I can go home and that is going to Martha's Gardens which is a date farm. Mom wanted to go get a date shake. I decided after going that I am not a big date fan but mom liked it. The date palms were very pretty and it was a nice afternoon so it was a fun stop.

So after tennis, craft fairs, art shows, Mexico, shopping at the markets, happy hour, screw your neighbor (card game), pegs and jokers, visiting new friends, family, a couple hours of sunshine, shuffleboard, geocaching and last but not least trying to keep up with it all it was time to go home or was it? I had joked before I left about taking a bump if offered so I could extend my vacation not thinking it would really happen. Well, it didn't quite happen like that. Mom and Dad took me to the airport, I got on the plane, got to the runway, pilot started up the engine and backed it off tried it again and next thing I new we were headed back to the terminal. They had us get off the plane back through arrivals and to wait while they fixed the plane before going through security again. In the meantime my flight from Phoenix to Seattle was leaving in about 40 minutes and I was not going to make it. I called up Mom and Dad told them I was staying and they came back and got me so my vacation was extended a day and a half after all. Funny how things work out.

It was a fabulous trip and it was great to share in all of the experiences Mom and Dad are having. Never a dull moment and not much time to rest that is for sure! Thanks for a great time, cheers and until next time.

JET