Cub Scouts Camping, Train Ride, Sore Throat

The boys left for Baker City, Oregon last Friday afternoon for a Cub Scouts camping trip. It's a good thing they brought a huge comforter with them, because the nights were cold and Nico was having trouble. I'll let Guy blog for this part:

Left boise on time around 6pm. Led the pack early, but fell behind.  Near the turn off toward sumpter we were caught by a few other families and followed them to the Union Creek Campgrounds.  I helped Isabell put up her new tent, Nico then helped me put up our tent.  It was dark, and the ground was wet.  Got ready for bed, Nico was freezing, it was hard for him to focus.  I tried to zip our sleeping bags together, but I couldn’t figure it out and gave up.  It was good to have the comforter.

I awoke to a coyote alarm just before 6am (coyotes singing yelling etc)  Kids woke up and started playing tag. Nico stayed asleep in bed, when he woke up he wanted to leave immediately, (he was very cold) I told him we could leave after the train ride if he still wanted to. Before breakfast the kids went down to the lake, and Nico got a shoe stuck in mud.  We had to borrow a pair of shoes from Max, a kid a year younger than Nico, that we went camping with this summer (City of Rocks)

Breakfast was oatmeal.

Nico got his buddy (Max) and we all went on a nature walk to the lake, some avoiding mud.  We saw a frog, and an osprey carrying a fish. Later we saw an osprey hit the lake for some food.  Saw some rusty engines that had been in the lake at some point, but when the waters went down for the fall they were revealed.

Upon return, Nico and Max did dot to dots in the tent.  Lunch was walking tacos (taco stuff in a bag of chips).

We went to McEwan station, a small station where we got on our train to head into Sumpter.  The kids were given fake gold and fake money and necklaces.  There were some young girls on the train (not with the pack) who were telling stories of the dreaded rockodile which didn’t move during the day, but that would swim around at night and each children.  

The Rockodile

Also, that there were bandits in the area.  Our train was “attacked” by bandits, who forced the train to stop and they stole all the “money” from the children and took the “gold” from the head of the train.  We got into Sumpter station, where the kids were allowed to ride the bandit’s horses.

We then took a tour of the gold dredge, a giant boat / machine which was used to dredge huge amounts of soil for gold.  Nico and the kids also got to practice panning for gold. Nico found a few flakes, (we had to give them back).

We got back and the kids practiced their skits they made up for the campfire program that night (Saturday).  Dinner was chili, salad and rolls.  Nico was in several skits, including “night at the museum”, “Forest of Death” and another one he made himself involving preying mantises and leaves.

Another cold morning, Nico wanted to leave immediately. We stayed for breakfast and after a bit in front of the fire and sipping some hot chocolate he was ok waiting until all the other kids left.  Breakfast was eggs / sausage / and stuff potentially burritos.  Nico played around, I had done most of the packing up when he was relaxing at the fire.  Nico made some sandwiches for our trip home, then we left.  We stopped for a few snacks then drove straight home.

Ok it's me again (Joanna)! The first thing Nico wanted to do when he got home on Sunday was to open up his bath-bomb kit and start making bath bombs. He ordered this kit with his own money from a catalog we received in the mail. He also bought himself a dot-to-dot book.

He then dug into his Little Passports World Edition, where there was a 3D puzzle of Big Ben.

Monday afternoon I got a call from Nico's school and Nico was on the other end. He told me that he started getting a sore throat soon after getting to school that day, and then he got a stomach ache and a headache. The nurse told me he had been to her office 3 times that day and there was nothing else she could do for him. I picked him up and took him home. I loaded him up with all the good anti-virus things I have, and he happily ate nachos and watched his iPad and played on his Switch for the rest of the day. He had a low grade fever (100.1).

He stayed home on Tuesday. He spent all day on his iPad and Switch. Halfway through the day he said his sore throat was gone, and he no longer had a fever.

Wednesday was a full day for him. He goes to school early for Chess, and then after school he gets picked up for Youth Group. Papa picked him up. They went to Pizza Pie Cafe for dinner.

Guy and I usually make dinner for ourselves on Wednesday nights and then watch a show or two. This time we tried to get some unpacking done too, since that is an ever-present issue at the moment!

Thursday is a long day for Nico as well, he is at school early for his hall monitor shift, and at school late for Drama Club. Evelyn is in Drama Club with him this year. When he came home I asked him how the hall monitor thing went, and he said "Bad. Very very very bad." Then he smiled and said "just kidding!" Hah!

Here's a video of the Sumpter Train Ride!

Clubhouse Cleanup, Rock Party, GG

Last Friday evening we went back over to the Clubhouse to finish clean-up. Guy brought home Tin Roof Tacos for everyone and we ate in the main house. It was strange to be considered guests and not roommates! After dinner, the kiddos played while the rest of us finished cleaning up the Clubhouse.

While I was sweeping the outdoor front area, I came across another black widow spider. I called for Avery to get the Bug-a-Salt gun and Avery let Nico kill it.

On Saturday, Guy and Nico were planning to go shooting with the Cub Scouts in Nampa, but we didn't realize we had to sign up for it and when Guy contacted the coordinator Friday night, they told us there was no more room. Oh well! It probably ended up being a good thing. This is how it went Saturday morning when we decided to set up the bookshelf in the living room:

1. Let's set up the bookshelf today
2. We need to set up the couches where they're going first
3. Before that we need to unpack these boxes to get them out of the way
4. We should probably first fill out the move-in survey which we've been putting off, because look at these gouges on the floor (not from us)
5. While we do this let's make a list of all the things the handy-woman needs to fix when she comes back
6. Ok, great, the bookshelf is where we want it. Now we need the stud finder. Do you know where the stud finder is? 
7. I found it! It's out of batteries. Do we have any AAA batteries? No? I will go to the store (Guy)
8. While I'm at the store, do we need anything else? Yes: light bulbs, and drywall anchors.
9. The first store didn't have the right light bulbs, go to a 2nd store.
10. Now we need the drill to screw the bookshelf support into the wall.
11. I can't find our drill, I will go borrow Jeff's

He finished just in time for lunch. We had lunch, and then Guy took Nico to Urban Air. Guy had promised Nico a fun trip on Saturday to make up for not being able to go shooting.

When they came back, Guy mowed the front yard. Then, pizza time! We had our first pizza night at our new house, and we were able to bake all the pizzas at the same time. They were done in a flash. Nico chose to watch episodes of Captain Underpants for our movie night.

Sunday afternoon, Nico helped Guy pick up fallen sticks in the backyard before Guy mowed. There was a lot from the recent storm.

Later that afternoon, there was a Rock Party at the Idaho Museum of Mining and Geology next to the Old Penitentiary. It was a HOT day but I found a nice spot to sit in the shade while Nico went around to all the booths. We had just enough time to get a sticker from each of the 12 booths before the Rock Party was over. He was able to turn in his card with all the stickers on it in exchange for a stone. He chose a rose quartz.

Cracking open a geode.

We ran into Jeff and Allicia and kids while we were there. So funny to see them in the wild. Instead of saying "see you at home" when we left, we said "see you later".

Monday after school Nico and I went to visit GG. The traffic was bad so we ended up being about 20 minutes late. They were in their backyard playing Scrabble Upwords. We joined them on their back porch. Melody, Aunt Pat's daughter, stopped by while we were there. She refilled with water their fountain she mended last week, and then hung out to chat.

GG is giving us her old TV. Guy will stop by there some day soon to pick it up. It was a little too heavy for me to load up into the car while we were there Monday.

Wednesday, Nico's class had a bird field trip. I found this post on Facebook from the Intermountain Bird Observatory regarding Nico's class's visit:

Usually rain puts a damper on our banding research, but not today! We nearly cancelled our banding activities at our River Research Station with Adams Elementary this morning, but decided to give it a try during a break in showers. Soon after the 4th grade class arrived, we could tell they brought us good luck. We started catching a number of birds with just seven of our nets up and running.

Then, as storm clouds began to reappear and the class headed back to the bus, we really hit the motherload. Gretel and Joni ended up with 34 birds (nearly all of them Yellow-rumped Warblers) suddenly dropping into net 11 all at once! They hurriedly extracted the birds, we closed our nets early, and we finished banding the whole lot just as rain drops began to fall. 

We banded nearly 50 birds with nets open for just two hours! Not a bad day along the Boise River 😁

I asked Nico what the bags were, and he said those bags have BIRDS inside them. I was not expecting that. They open up each bag one at a time and put a "bracelet" (as Nico called it) on the bird and let it go.

Wednesday while Nico was at Youth Group, Guy and I headed over to the Clubhouse to pick up the last of our stuff. We still had our bikes and scooters over there, and a few other odds and ends. We hung out for a bit with everyone. The kids are having a blast using the Clubhouse to play in. Sock-skating, and throwing bouncy balls everywhere,  it's the perfect place for that. They are still mulling over ideas on what to do with the room.

Nico has signed up to be a hall monitor. He had training today. He has a specific day and time each week that he will monitor the halls (just a 20 minute blip), and he is very excited. He told me he signed up to be a hall monitor because he "doesn't like recess". ?? I asked him about it and he said he doesn't know why he doesn't like recess, he just likes to do school work or sit down and read at recess, calling himself an "indoor person".

I suspect he may have had a hard day at recess one day. I couldn't get any more out of him surreptitiously.

When I ask him what he did at recess on any particular day he always says "play four square".

Enjoy the video!

Moving Day!

Well this week is all about the big move! Most of this blog experience will be communicated through video, which you can watch at the end of the blog.

It was a bittersweet week with an awkward moment at the end of Saturday, moving day, when we were tired at our new house and I was looking forward to going home and going to bed. But, we were already home. It was a strange feeling to be home in our new house, but wanting to go back to familiar Clubhouse to snuggle in for the night. First night at a new place!

Saturday night we ordered pizza from Smokey Mountain Pizza and waited 2 hours for it to arrive before I called them and they said their printer never printed the order so they never received it. They said they could get it to us in 45 minutes but it was already 8PM so we cancelled the order and ate other things at home instead. To make up for it, we ordered pizza for lunch on Sunday after church.

We woke up this morning to a broken dishwasher (puddle-jumping with socks on in the middle of the night - eek!) and a broken water heater. The handy-woman stopped by today and fixed the water heater, and will be back on Saturday to fix the washer.

Now on to some pictures, then the video at the end!

Friday walking to our new house with Avery and Ivy in the afternoon to pick up our key. I told them how to recognize our house so they know how to get there in the future.

Playing Switch with Avery

Friday night after receiving our key, we went over to explore the house. Nico wanted to be in charge of pictures.

Bedtime snack, the last night in the Clubhouse

Moving day! Pile of boxes in the garage.

Emptying out the Clubhouse

Avery eating a tomato like an apple while watching the moving men load up the truck.

Movers done!

The first boxes in our new house

Discovering old treasures

 Drawer trash

This is how perfectly our corner table fits into the dining room.

After the moving men left, time to eat Jimmy Johns!

Evelyn came over to help Nico unpack. Not sure he would have been motivated otherwise. Still have a lot left to do, though!

Nico doing spelling homework at my desk.

Tuesday, Avery, Ivy, and myself met Guy at Boise Fry Company for lunch.

Nico at school helping to fill up their class' bird feeder. The Bird by Bird organization posted this picture on their Facebook page, that's where I got it.

From the school Facebook page, pictures of Nico and his classmates making dog biscuits. Nico ate dog biscuit dough that day, containing regular flour. Oops.

Now to the video!

Labor Day Picnic, and Packing!

We are 2 days away from moving!

This past week we've spent a lot of time packing. We've made quite a pile of boxes in the garage. Once we pack a box, we take it to the garage. Keeping it in the Clubhouse would be difficult.

Step by step we've also been cleaning the place up so that cleaning will not be as huge a deal later. On Saturday Guy and I cleaned the screen in the kitchen, which had never been cleaned. If you remember how grimy it was before, then this picture will shock you:

It's like we have acquired another light in the kitchen. The sun streaming through is amazing. Guy says he doesn't know why we didn't do that before.

It has been fun to think about all the things we'll have control over after we move - even the things like yard work, Guy is very excited that we will have roses in the front yard and mentioned he'd like to check out a book from the library about roses.

We also packed a lot Saturday morning, starting with the books. We told Nico to not pack the books he wanted to read. He chose to keep out 2 Dog Man books.

Saturday night it was my turn to choose the movie again, and I chose Dumbo. It was an OK movie.

Sunday after church there was a picnic at the Grandparents' Salisbury house in honor of Labor Day. Most of Nico's cousins were there. Here they all are playing Happy Salmon. The adults played this game later, too. It's fun!

The adults also played the game Pit, to win prizes.

Grandma started them all on a treasure hunt and they ran around finding clues. Each of the adults held one of the clues. For one of the clues, Nico had to read a story to everyone.

Prizes! Each kid got to choose a small bag, and then a large bag for their family.

Nico played Switch with Kai for a while.

It was a perfect afternoon! Thank you to Ma and Pa for having us over and providing the yummy food. Alanna also brought a lemon cake that looked delicious! I gave Guy a huge piece with ice cream on top and he enjoyed it.

Tuesday Nico went downstairs to play video games with the crew after school. Avery taught him how to play Bomber Man.

School picture day was Wednesday. And... nachos for breakfast?

 The constant state of the kitchen. Boxes!

I'm putting together a video of our moving, which I'll post next week. Plus video and pictures of our new house.