Little Boyce & Sailer Visit

A couple of weeks ago my brother's children were in town visiting some of their grandparents. Their grandma was nice enough to bring them down to Eagle Fire Station #1 so we could spend some time together and the kids could tour the station. Little Boyce had a great time with all of the equipment and learning about all of the vehicles. Sailer was more interested in playing with my wallet :) D, Little Boyce, & Sailer

Mike, Sailer, Little Boyce, & D (Sailer was making the greatest faces in all the photos)
Little Boyce checking out the old engine

Little Boyce trying on some gear

Sailer playing with the dummy. She named him Dumb Dumb

Boyce all set with his air pack

I was so grateful to get to spend some time with Boyce & Sailer. They had a wonderful time and I hope to see them again soon.

Sawtooth Music Festival

Ok, Ok, I am a super slacker when it comes to blogging lately. Things have been crazy and so posting to the blog hasn't been high on the priority list. So these photos are from the Sawtooth Music Festival in Stanley Idaho which occurred on July 25th. There were several bands that played throughout the day. My two favorite were The Portland Cello Project and Elephant Revival. The venue was AMAZING. You can't beat a view of the Sawtooths with great music.
See what I mean about the amazing venue.

Mike hanging out with Ian and Mark.

Some of the girls (Left-Right: Michelle, Amy, Susann, D, & Jen)

Ian jamming out to one of the bands.

Mike hanging out with Susann.

Hopefully I will be able to catch up with blogging soon. I have about three weekends worth of photos to post and write about.

Roseberry Music Festival

Every year the small town of Roseberry Idaho puts on a three day music festival, http://www.thesummermusicfestival.com/. We decided that since we had never had the opportunity to participate we should plan ahead this year. We bought our tickets and reserved our RV spot in June. We were so excited. We stayed in a great little RV park in Donnelly just about 2 miles from the concert venue. We were so spoiled to have full hook ups for our trailer. We had endless water and power (which powered our air conditioning). Friday night we enjoyed two bands. The first was composed of a fiddler and a guitar/mandolin player. Later they were joined by a folk band from Sweden. The music was mellow and exactly what we needed on a Friday evening.
This is one of the members of the band from Sweden. He had this crazy instrument. Being a band nerd, I couldn't believe I had never seen something like it before.
Saturday morning I joined Mark, Sarai, and their two dogs for a 5+mile walk. Cassius, Beck, Lucy, and Bailey had a great time running up and down the road and swimming in the nasty water on the side of the road. Later in the day we all piled into our cars to hit the beach for a while. Because Cassius couldn't behave around all of the other dogs we came back to camp for a couple of hours. I went on a nice run while he chilled in the air conditioned trailer. I returned to pick up Mike, Deb, & Chase and we rested for a bit and then prepped to get on our bikes and cruise to the music festival for some excellent music. The Shook Twins from Northern Idaho opened up the concert. They are AMAZING and I highly recommend checking them out on I-Tunes.
It was a perfect night for music, the weather was hot, the scenery amazing, and all in the company of friends.
After The Shook Twins it was time for dancing. JJ Grey & MoFro played and rockin' set. I hadn't danced that much in quite a while.

Sunday morning we took our time packing up camp and decided that since we didn't have to work on Monday that it would be fun to camp near Cascade for another night. We drove around Cascade Reservoir and found a great little spot that provided us with our own private beach. As soon as we parked the truck I took the dogs down to the water while Mike set up the trailer. Once Beck saw the Chuck-It she wasn't moving more than 5 feet from the water's edge.

I even walked back to the trailer to get more sunscreen and she wouldn't move.

She is a little obsessive wouldn't you say? At least I knew she wasn't going to take off after anything. Now Cassius is a different story. He got to stay close to me the entire time, those of you who know him, understand that he is a "special" or "gifted" little man. He was happy to have the water, since he can't take the heat for too long.

We spent the rest of Sunday soaking up the sun and playing in the water with the dogs.

Monday we packed up and stopped in Cascade at a great little restaurant (Mike and I ate there after the winter mountaineering outing where we first met). The day following our return the dogs were so wiped out they didn't move for hardly anything.

Big Brother's Gets Married

Okay, okay, I know it's been a long time since I have posted. I am playing a little game of catch up when it comes to the blog. Over the 4th of July weekend my Big Brother got married to a wonderful young lady. Cassius and I left Wednesday the 1st of July. We had an easy going drive all the way to Snoqualmie. Cassius adjusted well to my parents house and did exceptionally well staying within the boundaries of an unfenced yard. He didn't even bark or growl at the golfers and their carts when they stopped at the tee behind the house. Because the weather was so nice I was able to get a couple good runs in while I was there and of course they were/are never long enough to wear out Cassius so I decided to try something I had wanted to for a while. Anyone who knows me knows how much I respect Cesar Milan. I decided to give his treadmill technique a try and amazingly Cassius was not even close to being fazed.

On Thursday I had to tackle Project Wedding Cake. After running a few errands to pick up miscellaneous cake pans and all of the ingredients I started the bake-a-thon. The cake consisted of two twelve inch rounds at the base that were coconut yellow cake, followed by two ten inch chocolate rounds, and then three eight inch coconut rounds at the top. The coconut rounds were filled with a pineapple sauce and the chocolate was filled with chocolate ganache. I didn't take photos of the cakes on the day that I baked them so here are a couple from the day of the wedding as I was assembling the cake.

Anna helped me with some of the decorating and I let her finish the cake off by using flowers from Boyce & Khristy's yard. I think she did a great job with the flowers.

I was excited that my wedding cake turned out to be an overall success story. I did learn a few things though. For one, cream cheese frosting is tasty, delicious, and foolproof to make, but it doesn't set well with the heat. If I could have had a dedicated refrigerator for the cake I would have. By the time we got around to serving the cake it was starting to look a little sad. But hopefully people had enjoyed enough wine that they didn't know the difference.
So I got off track for a minute there. Friday Cassius and I spent the day with my wonderful friend Linda and her family. Cassius had a blast running around her property and especially enjoyed the creek and vacant land at the back of Linda's acreage. He didn't really know what to do with the horses and once took off after Magoo. Thank Dog for e-collars because with a small little tap I had him running back to me. Linda, her husband Nelson, and I went out for Mexican Food and then Nelson gave me a tour of a city well that he had done a lot of work on. It was lovely to see them and as always our time together was way too short.

Saturday
Saturday my mom, Cassius, and I drove out to Boyce & Khristy's house to spend the morning with them. It was great to meet my new nephews and to see Boyce III & Sailor. We had a great time just hanging in the back yard and working around the house. After lunch mom and I traveled back home and spent most of the afternoon just hanging out. Saturday evening I went to the airport and picked up Anna. We enjoyed some fire works on our parent's patio and then decided it was time for some sleep.

Sunday was the big day. Anna and I got ready and stopped by our brother's house first to play with the kids and help prep the house. For lunch, Anna and I met up with her good friend Julie and her son Truman (who is about the cutest little boy you will ever meet). It was great to talk with Julie and just relax before the chaos of the day began. Our first task was to pick up Sailor and get her some new shoes to go with the dress we had already purchased for her. It was so much fun to go shopping with our niece. After shopping it was time to get to work. Once we arrived back at the house I started frosting the cake, layer by layer it came together. At three, it was time for pictures. I love this photo of the new family.
Boyce's two children are standing in front of him (Boyce III & Sailor) and Khristy's boys are standing with her (Noah, the youngest; Nathan, the middle; and Nicholas, the oldest). The wedding was a blast and I loved spending time with my niece and nephews.
Being with Boyce and Anna was great as well.
After a great BBQ dinner it was time to cut the cake.

The kids were like vultures as soon as the cake was cut they were in line telling me what flavor they wanted and how big of a slice. I don't stand in between anyone and their cake, so Anna and I got to work on distributing slices.

The chocolate layer fell apart a little bit, but again I don't think anyone really cared. Noah and Sailor were pretty happy with their cake.

It was a great day full of fun and food. At the end of the night Anna and I returned to help clean up and to hang out for a while. Here is a photo of Anna, me, and my new sister in law, Khristy.

The Maiden Voyage

A couple of weeks ago we took the trailer out for her maiden voyage, destination Herrick Reservoir. We were celebrating our friend Wayne's 40th birthday. Since Mike and I have weird schedules we were able to get out of town on Thursday morning to scope out and secure the perfect spot for the party. We totally scored an excellent spot with enough room for all the campers, the horse shoe tournament, and the disco party. Best of all the spot was right on the water with easy access for the dogs to swim and for anyone to fish. The reservoir was full of trout, so much that one of the members of our group quit counting after catching 25 trout. After setting up the trailer Mike and I took off for a mountain bike ride around the reservoir. The road was great for biking and the hills made for an interesting and challenging ride.

After our ride we spent some time hanging out near the water in the sun. Later in the afternoon Wayne and his brother in law showed up, followed by Susie and her sister with the kids. The fun started then and didn't stop the rest of the weekend. We filled our time with going for a run, playing endless rounds of tie ball and horse shoes, eating delicious food, and watching the kids play to their heart's content. Later in the evening Walker and his sister Olivia came over to check out our trailer. I love Olivia's kitten hat, she wore it most of the weekend.

The next afternoon more of our group began to filter into camp. As always there was the Red Rider session. This entails most of the guys, and some of the girls seeing who can destroy the most cans. It's pretty hysterical, only in Idaho.

Looks like they are having fun to me. This is a great shot because it shows how close our campsite was to the reservoir.

For the last couple of years Susie, Wayne's wife, has said that for his 40th birthday she wanted to have a "Come as your favorite Wayno" party. On Firday night we all got dressed up in our favorite Wayno. My favorite Wayno was from one Halloween where he dressed up as Paul Stanley from the band KISS. I had to put the make up on pretty fast, but I think it was close enough.
Mike dressed up as furry Wayno and attached fun fur to his shirt. I don't know what Wayno Todd (on my left) dressed up as, but it was still fun. Wayne had a mullet for a number of years, as did most people during the 80s. Jim and Jenni found a baby mullet wig for Ben. The wig looked so cute on him.

The next afternoon the weather was nice enough for the horse shoe tournament and Team Carney (Mark and Wayne) took the trophy. After dinner we celebrated more and opened this GIANT bottle of wine that Wayne and Susie received at their wedding.

There was also extreme scooter riding. The adults were riding the kids' scooters down the steep hill from our campsite down to the area near the water. Mike took a nice tumble.I don't think Kendall was too worried about him. After extreme scooter riding and dinner it was time for the disco. The Griswalds are known for our ability to have a disco party whenever and wherever, we can always find a way to get music and get everyone dancing. Thanks to Christian and Kendall we had a generator to power our music and lights. About half way into the disco someone grabbed the rope lights and we had a jump rope. The kids LOVED it and the photos came out pretty cool.The next morning we woke up to hosing rain. In between storms we packed up and made our way home. It was an incredible weekend. Thank you Susie for putting together such an awesome weekend, we had a great time!

Camping Upgrade

A couple of weeks ago during my yoga practice Mike walked in from the back yard and stood over me (I was in a back bend) and stated we had to drive to Portland, and quickly. Once I removed myself from the pose and inquired why, he said he had found "our trailer". We had been looking for a travel trailer ever since we purchased the truck this spring. We were really picky about what we wanted in a trailer. Our specifications were that the trailer had to be less than 18 feet, single axle, in good condition, and of course it had to be super sweet!

Mike was on the computer multiple times a day for weeks searching for something and after missing a couple of good deals in other cities we couldn't pass up the deal in Portland. Forty five minutes or less after Mike told me he had found our trailer we had the dogs loaded in the truck and we were off. The drive to Portland was great. The scenery was fabulous. We arrived in Portland around 6pm and purchased our new trailer. These pictures were taken once we got her home, but we are so excited and love her (she needs a name).This is a side view. Mike has since taken off the ratty looking stripes on the door. The exterior is in great shape. We scrubbed the entire outside and she sparkled. The awning needed a little soft scrub but other than that it was in perfect. I pulled out all of the cushions (which are in good shape) and scrubbed and vacuumed underneath. The interior was really clean and didn't need a lot of work. Mike has been fiddling with everything inside to make everything just right.

The front.....the front flap lifts up and there are two windows underneath. This little thing has windows galore which is nice for light and airflow. Mike built in a base for the battery cases that sits right behind the propane tank.

The back view. Mike is going to sandblast the front and back bumpers and spray paint them black. I plan on re-doing the spare tire cover with a cool design, maybe even work in some EL Wire.

Here's the kitchen. The stove and oven work perfectly. On her maiden voyage I had the opportunity to use the oven for the first time. Worked like a champ heating up some breakfast sandwiches. I look forward to baking something tasty in there soon.This is the dining area that folds down into a bed that could sleep one adult or two smaller people. There is a bunk above as well that can hold someone up to 150lbs. You can just see the mirror on the bathroom door in this photo.The itty bitty bathroom, but hey it's a bathroom with a shower. Beats getting up in the middle of the night to pee outside. This is just to the left of the bathroom. It shows the fridge and storage closet on the far left. There is an upper bunk that holds someone up to 150lbs and then our bed is underneath.

Here's Mike working on the heater. He has had so much fun working on the trailer, it's a little funny.

Here's a photo of us with the trailer on her maiden voyage to Herrick Reservoir. She was a champ and kept us warm and dry.

These photos were shot during a mountain bike ride one Saturday in the Boise Foothills. We had perfect weather and just as we were riding back to the car the rain started and really didn't stop for about a week.

This a fun shot of my nephews with my grandpa, their great grandpa. They are all so cute! Well, the summer has more fun to come so stay tuned for more adventures with The Holley Pack.