Here are some more nuggets from our summer adventure to Idaho to see family.

I loaded and unloaded that Thule so many times and as you can see the kids were always very helpful. 😉

We happened to be in Boise for one of Hallie’s tennis tournaments one day when we realized that the regional soccer championships were taking place a couple miles down the road. This tournament has the best teams in every age category from every state competing to go to nationals. It was fun to watch soccer at that level of play.

My kids always look forward to going to my childhood friend’s house and picking her cherries. She has a lone cherry tree on her property and their family doesn’t like cherries so my kids are always happy to help strip her tree.

We hit up Lego day at the library. They dump buckets and buckets of Legos out on all the tables and kids build to whatever the theme is for the day. When we went it was farm day.

We went into the mountains one day for my uncle’s memorial service. After the service, the kids were able to play and explore and even hopped in the river which was the only refreshing moment of a very hot day.

My brother threw up a target challenge with the air soft gun and these 4 boys are the sharpest of the shooters.

We had so many park evenings. We played games. We played tennis. We enjoyed the golden hour.

I saw old friends and unfortunately this is the only one I snapped a picture with – she even joined me for one of Hallie’s tennis tournaments.

The kids played in the sprinklers and had water balloon wars with cousins.

The cousin time was the most valuable time.

We visited the local pool a couple times and the high dive was by far the favorite feature.

Night after night we enjoyed beautifully vibrant and then peacefully silent sunsets. I think Arizona has equally beautiful sunsets, I just never get to witness them with farmland, which really adds to the beauty.

We had ice cream outings with grandma or as Hallie calls her G-Ma.

And I say it every year, but it’s true – my parents are so great for letting us come stay with them so my kids can experience a sliver of what Idaho has to offer. I love coming home. I love the small town (visiting, not necessarily going back to live there!). I love spending time with family. I love that my kids are begging to go to the library and the public pool. I love that they have experiences that we just can’t provide in Arizona. In all reality, Idaho and Arizona are vastly different and yet I love both of them and see the good each area offers – which is why I love that we are able to make this happen each summer.