We love Boise!

I'm not sure if Boise, Idaho made the top 10 destination spots this past year (or ever, frankly) but we love our yearly visits there. And we love Boise! The weather is so amazing...I could go on and on about the cool mornings and evenings (as I sit here at 8am in Texas with 95 degrees outside already). But anyway, it is definitely the company that makes Boise such a fun time for all of us - grandma and grandpa, Mary and Masen, the cousins...fun stuff. So every year we're there we do the same, exact things. We occasionally throw in something new, like the baseball game this year, but usually it's the same, fun things. This year we starting with the annual trip to the Boise mall. For years my mom, sister, and I have gone shopping at the Boise mall. We usually do some birthday shopping (for the nearest birthday), lunch, and always a treat of some kind. Sadly, with the sheer number of kids we are now toting around, our trip to the mall this year included only one stop - the Build a Bear workshop! Oh well...the kids sure had fun!


We always take a trip to one of several Boise bowling alleys, and this year was no exception. This particular bowling alley had a rule, however, which really soured the experience for Spencer - no bumpers over age 8! So Spence had to bowl with the possibility of a dreaded gutter ball and he was not amused. This was Ruby's first time bowling, and she was quickly hooked. Look at how happy she is after she's rolled the ball down the lane!!

We eat more food than seems humanly possible during the couple of weeks we're up there, and most of it is at my mom's house while watching the kids swim. But we do usually go out for a big family dinner each year as well. This year we hit a real milestone...so many people that we actually reserved the back room at the restaurant! It was actually really nice! We were also celebrating my grandparents 60th anniversary for this dinner, and it was so great to have them up in Boise for this wonderful occassion.


We always hit one or two parks during the time we're there, and the kids always have a fun time tearing around that place and usually soaking themselves in the water portion of the park.


There is a little beach off the Boise river that is called Eagle Island State Park, and we always enjoy spending a day there. We do a little rafting, and a lot of sand castle making. Speaking of rafting, we love rafting down the Boise river. It is beautiful down there, and there are always good stories that come out of that excursion. We had to skip the river last summer, due to the newborns, but this year we dragged poor Ruby and Carson into a raft. The last time we rafted, two years ago, my camera was ruined by the water. But it was worth it! We got before and after pictures of my mom's raft flipping, before and after pictures of the fried chicken bucket we thought would be fun to take down with us (the disgusting chicken water in the after pictures proved that this was not a great idea), and all sorts of laughs. This year you'll have to take my word for it...it was fun as usual!


You gotta love the zoo! The day we went to the Boise zoo had a high of 78 degrees this year and so it couldn't have been nicer. The kids loved it, as usual.


All sorts of fun can be found at the Discovery Center! The highlight for the girls is, of course, the pretend grocery store. Oh, and the giant bubble maker!


As I mentioned earlier, we decided to take the kids to a Boise Hawks baseball game this year. It was so much fun! The stands were pretty bare on our side of the field (we couldn't figure out why the tickets were so cheap on our side...evidently it was because we were in full sun until the 7th inning!), but it really worked to our advantage. Our kids won every contest they offered! The "Pizza Scream" (loudest scream) went to Spencer. The "Kit Kat Dance" went to Spencer and Tyler for their amazing rendition of "Gimme a break...break me off a piece of that Kit Kat bar!" We also got the $1 cone for a certain player getting a base hit. It was some serious fun! Go Hawks! (And an explanation should be given for Tyler and the giant ziplock baggie. He got airsick on the flight to Boise and chucked. Not fun. Well, he was extremely paranoid the entire trip of another episode. So the night of the baseball game Tyler was complaining that his stomach hurt and so the only way we could convince him to come with us was if he could bring the baggie "just in case." I laughed the entire game looking at him with that baggie!)


I think that the kid's favorite place to go each summer is Boondocks. It is actually now called Wahooz, but we refuse to make the change. Boondocks is a big arcade/go-cart/bumper boats/indoor playground/laser tag place that the boys just go nuts over. Their favorite thing is the laser tag, and so I honestly hardly see them from the moment we walk in the door. We also spend a day each summer at Roaring Springs water park, although I only have one picture from Roaring Springs (a little gun shy with the camera at water activites now). The boys were old enough this year to go on every ride, and so again...I hardly even saw them! Thank goodness for Mary and Masen for letting them tag along!


And nothing beats baths with the cousins! Even if we did nothing while we were in Boise, we would still have fun, because family is awesome!!!