Crock Pot Meals, Rubik's Cube, and Horseback Riding!

Last Friday was the 2nd Grandma Camp day - the day the kids learned how to use a crock pot! I dropped Nico off at 8AM and he came home at 5:30 PM with a crock pot full of pot roast, potatoes and carrots. It was magnificent! And Nico made it. Nico was also required to clean the crock pot afterward, which he did diligently.

We had to rate it on a scale from 1-5. Nico gave it a 4. I would give it a 4.5. It was really good.

Saturday morning, after making pancakes, I packed up the car and drove to the downtown market to do some henna for the morning. Around 1 PM Guy and Nico hopped on their bikes and took the greenbelt all the way downtown to come see me right as I was closing up around 1:30. I gave Nico a henna tattoo and then we packed up my stuff and they helped me get it up the escalator before they headed home. 

Saturday night it was my turn to choose the movie while we ate pizza, we rented How to Train Your Dragon 3 from Red Box. Good movie!

Sunday was Father's Day. We celebrated by taking naps in the afternoon :) Sunday evening Nico became very interested in figuring out how to solve his Rubik's cube, so he got out a pad of paper and watched a YouTube video on how to do it. He took notes.

On Monday we were taking care of Avery and Ivy while Allicia and Evelyn were out of town. We took them to their VBS that morning and then Nico and I ran over to Urban Air (trampoline park) to use up one of his free passes. Nico solved the Rubik's cube while in the car that morning! 

We picked up the kids from VBS and came home for lunch. Allicia and Evelyn arrived home soon after.

Avery and Nico sat on our couch and talked about Pokemon for a while. 

Tuesday was another Grandma Camp, for this one they got to ride horses! They went to a farm where they showed all the kids how to approach a horse and pet a horse and ride a horse. Each one had their own handler, so while they sat on the horse, the handler held the reigns and they went for a trail ride.

Tuesday has typically been mine and Guy's date day. While Nico was in school, we would meet for an hour in the afternoon at a coffee shop. So this Tuesday we were able to resume that, and we decided to hit up a new restaurant (to us) in downtown Boise called Lemon Tree. They are a specialty sandwich shop, an they offer gluten free bread.

Guy got the Massaman Curry Bohn Mi, I got the Turkey Boursin. We both got a side of tomato soup. The tomato soup was perfect and the sandwich was even better. I have a new favorite local place to get gluten free lunch! We decided we should take Nico there sometime. They had outdoor seating and upstairs seating, we chose a spot inside on the main floor near the front window.

After lunch we walked around downtown. Guy got a coffee from a local shop we'd never been in before. He said the latte was really good.

And for a treat for me we went to The Chocolat Bar and got a truffle. We also went into a specialty gift store. From the outside we saw that they had a Tardis inside (from the show Dr Who), so we decided to venture inside.

They had photo ops for other shows too, including Star Trek. We also saw Archie McPhee's rubber chickens for sale! On the upstairs level I found a fun painting of the movie The Princess Bride. That movie was the movie Guy and I watched RIGHT before he asked me to be his girlfriend. So I bought it with some birthday money. 

It was the best afternoon ever.

After horseback riding, Nico and the crew went to the mall and ate lunch with my Aunt Liz, who is in town this week.

In the afternoon they once again went to the Pokemon League at the library, bringing Evelyn with them, and then they hit Pizza Pie Cafe for dinner.

Nico is graduating from Level 3 swimming lessons. After his last week of Level 3 next week, we are going to skip the rest of the summer and start up with swimming lessons Level 4 after he goes back to school. We plan to get a pass to the pool this summer and since he knows how to mostly swim now he is wanting to swim all the time.

Grandma Camp today was another crock pot meal!! Nico brought home a steaming hot crock pot full of chicken stew. Nico rated it a 5, Guy rated it a 2 (Chicken soup is not his thing, but he said it was a good chicken soup on the chicken soup scale), I would rate it a 4! 

After dinner we all headed to the church for band practice. I am playing piano this Sunday in the band so I was there to practice with them. It went late and we got home with enough time for Nico to clean his crock pot before he fell into bed. Zzzzz. He fell asleep fast. 

See you next week!

Reunion, Bowling, and Camping in the Backyard!

Last Friday was my 20 year High School reunion. I took Nico over to Papa and Grandma's house so he could stay the night, and Guy and I headed over to the reunion. It was great to see a few close High School buddies.

Saturday morning, Guy picked Nico up from the Grandparents' house because I was participating in Allicia's sister's baby shower back at the house, in fact, I was doing henna there! It was a fun morning. I hadn't done henna in a very long while, but I practiced the week before and I think I remembered all the important stuff :)

I was able to hand out a few packages of henna powder to two different girls who were interested in trying henna. I have a bunch of the stuff in my freezer, you see! I certainly will not get around to using it all!

Anyway, Guy and Nico headed to Guy's work picnic. Nico made a friend and him and his friend fished in the lake and jumped in the bouncy house all morning. They returned around 2PM. Pizza that night, of course, and my turn to choose the movie, and animated movie called Mary and the Witch's Flower. Very cute. The last part of the movie the girl yells joyfully, "WE DON'T NEED MAGIC!" and I guess that was the moral of the story :)

Sunday after church we invited Avery over. He heard about last Thursday, about how Evelyn came over and got to watch shows with Nico. So we invited him over for an hour or so, and him and Nico watched videos of people playing video games. Mario, and Geometry Dash. It was a mutually beneficial arrangement!

Sunday evening we ate dinner outside. Then Guy and Nico hung out there for a little while reading Amphigory Also by Edward Gorey.

Monday after dinner we did a very special super secret craft. I'll tell you more about it next week! ;)

The next day, Guy texted me and said we needed to do family crafts more often. It really was a lot of fun. I agree.

Wednesday we were invited to go bowling with Allicia and kids, with Jeff's mom at the BSU SUB building. Since she is an employee there, we got to bowl free! This was the first time Nico ever bowled. He did really well.

That night, Nico and Evelyn camped out in the backyard inside a tent. Nico was up past 11pm! They spent the evening reading books and playing games in there. He kept running inside for more books. He let Evelyn read the first Captain Underpants book, which she finished, and Nico finished the rest of his Squish books.

That's about it for this week! Check out Nico's bowling moves in the video below!

Table Rock, Last Baseball Game, and Grandma Camp!

On Friday Guy and I went to Boise Fry Company for dinner on a DATE! Jeff and Allicia watched Nico for us. I got some sweet potato fries and some deep fried brussells sprouts. Yummy! Afterward we went to Fred Meyer to get a present for Rory's birthday. We picked out a pretty dress and a unicorn hat. She loves unicorns!

On Saturday we actually skipped making pancakes, and in fact, Nico ate no breakfast at all before we hiked Table Rock with friends early that morning. He was not hungry! He ate some sausage and cereal when we got home, though.

When we got up to the top of Table Rock we climbed down to some caves on the opposite side, the path takes you around the base of the rock and you climb back up right in front of the cross. It was really cool, except for the smell and all of the graffiti.

Climbing Up

Climbing down to the caves

After we got home and Nico ate breakfast, we went straight to his baseball game, his very last game! Papa and Grandma Salisbury brought Lexie, Rory, and Bruce with them to watch the game as well.

Waiting for his turn to bat.

On team picture day, the coach on the left was sick, so he wasn't in the official picture. Here is the unofficial picture of Nico's team! :)

After his game, we went to Jimmy John's and then Pa and Grandma took him with them! He stayed with them until Monday, when I went to pick him up.

Apparently while over at their house, they went up to the attic, then up to the highest point inside the house, then into the crawl space. Hah. What fun?

Waiting their turn to go up into the attic.

 The highest point in the house.

The lowest point in the house.

The middlest point in the house.

Nico is the one who has the ball.

Lexie asked me to bring henna over on Monday when I came for pizza and Rory's party. I obliged! I hadn't done henna in almost 6 months!

Saturday night, Guy and I made pizza on our own and watched Mortal Kombat. On Monday we watched the movie Hackers together. Guy wasn't feeling well Monday evening so I went on my own over to Grandparents' house for Rory's party and to pick up Nico.

Nico's last day of school is tomorrow! Today was Field Day. Nico had asked me almost a month ago to volunteer on Field Day. He was insistent and told me to call up the gym teacher to let her know I wanted to volunteer. That's serious business! I just waited until they asked for volunteers and I added my name to the bunch. So I was there at his school this morning.

Next week I'll be updating from Arlington!! It might be a day late. We are excited for our trip, we leave next Tuesday!!