My Idaho vacation

I was given the awesome opportunity to head up to Idaho for 10 days to visit family. The original plan was for Derk to stay with the kids while I went, but we ended up changing it so I'd take Cambria with me. We all drove over to St. George to meet up with Derk's mom for a few days, and then Bri and I flew from Vegas to Idaho.

Speaking of Vegas, that airport is GINORMOUS! It literally took us 1.5 hours to get from the van to our gate, and we had to ride a tram to get to our gate! It was in a completely separate building! So there's me, 4 bags, a car seat, and a 3 year old, trying to navigate through this honking airport. That was fun, let me tell you. We arrived there 2 hours before our flight time and ended up getting to the gate a mere 15 minutes before boarding began. Bri was amazing, though, and stayed by me the entire time. The hard part was juggling all those silly bags! I was determined to only do carry-ons to avoid paying the $35 per pag per way fee. Next time, I'm either not bringing a 3 year old with me, or I'm packing extremely light.

Oh, and a few words to airport security peeps. #1 - If you want things done a certain way, try posting a note somewhere so passengers like me, who don't fly often, know what to do and can avoid getting chewed out! Apparently I was supposed to remove my laptop from the bag and run it through security on its own. But that wasn't posted anywhere, so how was I supposed to know? Then the security jerks gave me a supremely hard time and acted like it was the biggest inconvenience in the world to walk the 10 feet to run my laptop through the machine again. And #2 - Try being gentle to little children instead of growling at them. That way, they won't be deathly afraid of walking through the metal detector towards you without their mother. Kthanks.

Anyway. Our days were jam-packed full of fun! We did so many fun things -- LOTS of playing with cousins, family dinners, shopping, going to parks, going to the Kroc center, hitting some favorite restaurants, going out for ice cream, etc. I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves! :) I didn't want to fuss with taking my nice camera through the airport, so some of these aren't the best quality. Oh, and you can click on the pictures to make them larger!

Here's Cambria at the airport and then on-board the plane, excited to be on our way to Idaho. Unfortunately the novelty of being on an airplane wore off very quickly. ;-) Luckily I was able to make her take a nap, and she slept the second half of the flight.

We loved hanging out with my sister Katie and her daughter Jonni! We did a lot of shopping, played at their house, watched Jonni's dance class, went to the park, and just had a fabulous time together. These girlies are only 2 months apart and are double the fun...but also double the trouble!! They gave us quite a run for our money at the Valley Mall one day, and we ended up paying for them to stay an hour at that in-mall daycare place so we could have some peace and quiet. They had a blast, and we regained our sanity! ;-)

My mom took Jonathan, Cambria and I to the Kroc Center to play at the water park, and we had such a fun time! It was there that I decided Bri's 2 year long fear of the water was going to end, and I forced her to get in. She LOVED it and had the BEST time!

We had several yummy meals at my mom's house throughout the time we were visiting! She made a tostada dinner one night with James, Abigail, Logan and Noah, Jonathan and Hanna (Jonathan's girlfriend, but she's considered another sister in my mind!), Caleb, my Aunt Catherine, and Cambria and I. Then we went for an eggs Benedict brunch another day with just my mom, Aunt Catherine, Cambria and myself. We got to eat outside, and it was so, so yummy! And then there was a huge spaghetti dinner the night before we flew home with James, Abigail, Logan and Noah, Jonathan and Hanna, Caleb, and then my brother Nathan and his girlfriend Jessica.

After the spaghetti dinner while Bri took a nap, I played a belly-busting game of Apples to Apples with Abby, Jonathan, Caleb, and Hanna. We all had way too much fun playing that game. I'll never forget the laughs we shared! Such fun. "My bedroom" will always crack me up from now on! ;-)

There were 2 absolutely gorgeous days during our stay where it was around 80 degrees. One of the days, we (my mom, siblings, nephews, Bri and I) decided to go to a park in Post Falls to play and see the geese. It was such a beautiful day, and it was a great time to enjoy being outside and being together.

Speaking of the weather, pretty much the moment I got off the plane, I had some major allergies going on. The "funny" part is that I've NEVER had allergies before in my entire life, so I don't know what was up with the allergens! Also, I completely forgot how fickle the temperatures are. We had 70's one day, pouring rain and 50's for a few days, it would jump up to 80 for a few days, then back down to the low 60's or high 50's. About 2 days after the above park pictures, Cambria and I had our lunch in front of Derk's parent's fire place and didn't leave that spot almost all day. It was 49 degrees that day!! In JUNE! I mean, I still detest living in the desert, but at least I know what the weather is going to be every single day!

While we were there, we were able to celebrate my nephew Logan's 4th birthday! On his actual birthday, we all went out for ice cream. Logan and Cambria were SO cute. My sister's husband James had them laughing hysterically!

We stayed at Derk's parent's house, and the first morning we were there, Bri ran into the kitchen to see what kind of cereal to eat for breakfast. She saw Lucky Charms in the cupboard and was ridiculously excited. And these pictures are to show why we don't buy Lucky Charms (or its equivalent) at our house! ;-) (just in case you can't tell, she's picking out and eating only the marshmallows...)

Here are a few more cute pictures of these cute kiddos -- Noah, Jonni, and Cambria.

During one of our shopping trips, we went to Kohl's. Cambria announced she had to go potty, so off we went. We went into the family bathroom, and she was fascinated by the fact that there were 2 potties -- one for Mommies and one for kids! She loved it so much that she wanted me to take her picture by the little potty. :-)

One morning I was getting ready to take my shower, and Bri said she didn't want to shower with me and wanted to play with Mike (Jessica's fiancee) instead. Mike said that was a great idea, so I went back down and got ready for the day. When I came back up, I found them playing happily and having a fabulous time! Cambria sure loves her (future) Uncle Mike!

We were so busy that Cambria was constantly left completely exhausted by the end of the day!

I had the BEST time and loved every moment of being with you all! As much as I miss everyone, it's also wonderful to be home, though. Hopefully it won't be too long before we can see each other again! Thanks for all the laughs and all the fun times. And thank you to my 2 moms for making it possible for us to fly up for a visit. I'll never forget this trip!!