City of Rocks, G.G., Grandma Camp Overnight!

On Friday Nico and I finished packing and preparing everything for his and Guy's trip to City of Rocks. He diligently put all the camping silverware back in their sleeves after I washed them.

In the afternoon, Evelyn and Nico helped me bag up and label some ribbon on its way to Amazon.

Then they traded Pokemon cards.

Guy left work early and met us at Jonny and Alanna's house. I was still dog/house sitting there at the time. We finished packing up Guy's car for the trip.

They arrived late that night, set up camp, and went to sleep. Then Saturday they went for a long hike!

Nico spent most of his time with a boy named Max, he is one year younger than Nico in Cub Scouts. Guy said they were being silly together the whole time, but not crazy silly. They told riddles and made up puzzles and were being very punny the whole time they hiked. Sounds like a good friend!

Guy said to Nico, "Go climb up on that rock so we can scare Mommy!"

Relaxing in the "Clubhouse" they called it.

They went to the Hot Springs nearby on Saturday afternoon. I had packed trail mix with chocolate in it, which melted. Nico ate it anyway, of course!

The camp coordinators provided all the food except dinner on Friday. They knew Nico was gluten free and so they made him gluten free pancakes on Sunday morning!! On Saturday morning it was bacon and eggs and oatmeal with coconut milk and bananas. They had chicken, and other good foods too.

Sunday they packed up camp and came home. Here are their road trip snacks!

Sunday we made pizza over at Jonny and Alanna's house. I chose the movie - Meet the Robinsons. It is so good! It is one that Jonny & Alanna own. Afterward, Guy went home for the night and Nico stayed over at the house with me. He chose a few games for us to play.

I was not thrilled about Wet Head, but I had told Nico: "Pick out any game and I will play it!" You wear a helmet with a tiny bucket of water on your head, you spin a dial and pull out that many pins from the bucket. If it's the wrong one, you get wet!

I lost!

Allicia and I have been trying to hang out on Monday mornings. Evelyn and Nico did more Pokemon trading, and some legos.

Avery came running inside while we were talking and told us he had found a black widow spider outside our door. Allicia grabbed the Bug-A-Salt gun to kill it. We found one black widow and a super ton of egg sacs.

Monday afternoon Nico and I went to visit GG. We played Upwards (a Scrabble variation).

Monday night, Guy met Nico and I at the house for dinner. We played Cranium and then Guy headed back to the Clubhouse for the night and Nico stayed with me.

The next morning I took him bright and early for Grandma Camp! This week was the overnight Grandma Camp that lasted from Tuesday until Thursday. They stayed at a hotel and swam a whole ton in the pool.

They also went bowling.

And then today they went to Roaring Springs water park. Nico said his favorite part was the Avalanche ride. Grandma Salisbury rented a cabana, so they had a nice base camp.

Papa dropped Nico off to us tonight at church band practice after they were done at Roaring Springs. Thanks Pa!

And when we got home, Nico fell right to sleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. He was wiped!

Another week of summer is in the books!

Swimming, and Fireworks!

Short and sweet update today! Forgot to take many pictures, which means I may have forgotten some of the stuff we did :)

Last Friday was our first trip to the Natatorium this year. It was an overcast day in the 70s, but Nico didn't get too cold. We purchased a summer pass for both myself and Nico. We took Evelyn with us. This was my view. I could get used to this.

On Saturday, Jeff and Allicia and the kids left for a trip, they will come back this following weekend. That night we watched Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse while we ate pizza downstairs, Guy's choice. It is an animated film that won an Oscar for best animated film. It was very good. I say that about all the movies, eh?

Tuesday was a Grandma Camp. Tuesday night Nico had a Cub Scouts meeting, talking more about rocks. On Wednesday I took Nico to Roaring Springs, which is a water park with lots of slides and pools. He had received a free ticket to Roaring Springs from school for reading, and it expired the 4th. Instead of going on July 4th, though, we opted for July 3rd. A lot of other people had the same idea. There were many there that were using up their free pass from school reading that expired on the 4th. I just bought a "Spectator" pass, and I sat and read a book while Nico ran around having fun. He said he wanted to stay there all day, but after getting wet and experiencing the wind, he froze up after about an hour and asked to go home. He was very sad that it wasn't as fun as he was expecting. We bought some Dippin' Dots ice cream on the way out. That made it worth it!

We "flipped the suite" this week. Since Jeff & Allicia are out of town and they had a guest arriving today, they paid us to clean the suite for the guests. We all worked together over several days to get it done. It's quite a task!

This morning we all slept in! It was great. We finished up cleaning the suite and spent a lazy morning around the house. Nico has started playing Zelda and it's been fun to watch him downstairs. This afternoon Guy and Nico went to Grandma and Papa's house for a July 4th BBQ. I have been sick this week with a cold and was not feeling well enough to go, but they had FUN! Uncle David was there also with Rory and Bruce. Nico has a swimsuit that he keeps at their house, so he's aways prepared for water fights.

This evening we did fireworks! Guy picked some up on his way home from work yesterday. We are very close to the border of "no fireworks allowed" since we are so close to the foothills, but we are still allowed to do it! One street over and we wouldn't be able to.

That's it for this week!

Grandpa Russell, Library, Water Park

On Friday we welcomed Grandpa Russell into town! He came over in the afternoon and we all went over to Red Robin for dinner. Nico asked the server for soda water with coconut after Daddy asked for soda water with lime.

Then it was home to play The Game of Life. Nico is really into this game right now, we play it every day. Grandpa won!

On Saturday morning Grandpa brought Nico some coconut soda. I went to my post at the Saturday market to do some henna, and the boys had a fun morning hanging out and going places. They went to the Dollar Store so Nico could buy his marbles, and they also came downtown to go to the market and to see me. They also took a trip to the library before they dropped Grandpa off at the airport. It was a fun visit. We are all really looking forward to seeing the Grandparents Russell NEXT WEEK when we fly in to Seattle and stay with them for a few days! Next Thursday's update will happen from Arlington!

On Sunday Nico and I went over to the Grandparents Salisbury's house, Nico played Minecraft with Papa and I hung out with Grandma and my Aunt Ellen. 

On Saturday, a big moving truck went down the alley and severed our cable internet line. We were without internet until Monday night. So on Monday I loaded up my computer and we went to the library so I could get a bit of work done. We discovered his school friend Linus hanging out there with his sister, and they were on iPads playing Minecraft, and it turns out the library lends out iPads while you're there so you can play on them. We got one for Nico and he sat right next to Linus and all 3 of them played Minecraft. I sat next to Nico and got some work done. It was so cool we decided to come back on Wednesday. We were hoping to run into Linus again but they didn't make it to the library that day. But, his step-mom and I exchanged numbers and Linus and his sister will be going to Nico's birthday party! Mark your calendars! July 29th, Saturday, 1PM at Pojo's.

Playing Minecraft

On Tuesday we got to see GG in Nampa! Nico wanted to bring Life over to play with her, so we did that. GG won!! :)

This morning we went to the Roaring Springs water park and met some church friends there. Nico's friend Leona took him around to the smaller slides and rides and he had so much fun, and lasted about an hour. He was shivering so much. It started out around 70 degrees and windy, so I can understand that! I was cold at a few points and I didn't get in the water! He curled up under his blanket in the sun and warmed up, then we headed home. He took a shower, we ate lunch, then we went downtown to get a smoothie from Jamba Juice.

A few random pictures from this week

When was the last time Nico fell asleep in the car??

Park play date with Allicia and crew

 Silly picture time