Fun In Idaho

A guest post from the father dude.  When I get back to it I plan to find some pictures on his camera to add to the post!

Earlier this month, Bentley went to Idaho with me for the family reunion and celebration of my Grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary. We had quite the adventure during the week we were gone, and we had the chance to see quite a bit of Highway 95 along the way. To kick off our adventure, we flew down on a red-eye flight to Seattle, where we had the chance to go to the Alaska Airlines Boardroom with a pass from Grandpa Tim. Not only was the boardroom a great place to watch all the happenings of the tarmac for 4 hours while we waited for our flight, it also was the source of a pancake breakfast. Nothing like push-button simple pancakes at 6AM! Our flight to Lewiston was mostly uneventful, though we had a chance to check out the farms and harvest crews as we flew low from Pullman to Lewiston.

On our first day there, Wednesday, a bunch of my cousins and their families came down to Lewiston. It was great to see Chris, Sam, Kyle, Kim, Nicole, Carey, and Toddy. Bentley and Todd worked pretty hard for the afternoon on their golf and frisbee techniques, and managed to
get a bunch of us in to play along. Nicole and Kim made sure that Bentley was well fed (with brownies and mac&cheese) for his first night there.

Day 2, Bentley decided he wanted to go to the local park, so he talked Gram and I into walking down the street to the big playground with him. He was quite a climber and had fun with the other kids at the playground.

Day 3 was our big drive to Boise. Bentley had never done a long car trip before - I think the longest was maybe 100 miles in South Dakota, whereas this was about 300 miles. It was a beautiful day, and Gram and Grandpa shared stories about some of the places we were going past, from the train trestles to the old family farm in Grangeville. While B got to see lots of neat things on this drive, I think the two highlights may have been getting postcards of bears and potatoes. He did great - no one got puked on (though he wouldn't eat much the whole day), and my favorite quote was, "Ok daddy, I waited a LONG time and listened to all your stories. Now can I use the iPad?"

Days 4, 5, and 6 are a bit of a blur to me - and moreso probably to Bentley. For a boy with no nap, very little food, and a stubborn attitude about not wearing shorts even though it was 90 degrees, he did great! He helped with the setup and take-down for the party, had a lot of fun with more family who came for the party, and couldn't get enough badminton and croquet in with all the other kids who were there. We didn't get to bed before midnight most nights, and we were back up by 8 or 9AM. Uncle Mark and Lucretia took good care of us - even made sure that Bentley had a color book - and Jake the beagle did his best to substitute for Jake the brother. Unfortunately, Bentley doesn't like dogs.

The party on Saturday was excellent, thanks to all the effort put in by my cousins, aunts and uncles, and other family members. Beforehand, Bentley had a chance to go swimming with Uncle Tyler and Grandma Karen at the hotel pool, which he thought was pretty fun. Ihad a chance to visit with my cousins at the party and be the unofficial photographer. I missed the best action shots when the sprinklers went off while everyone was outside visiting, but I think I got the other important events. (No, Bentley did NOT enjoy getting soaked by the sprinklers).

Congratulations Grandpa and Grandma!

Steve, you're welcome to put in an arbor, lawn, and treehouse at my place if you're looking for something to do next summer! Tenille, along with some of the aunts and other cousins, put together a delicious Sunday brunch at her house. Bentley had a great time with her kids playing Wii, watching movies, and doing a whole lot of other stuff, since it had finally gotten too hot out to play. It was so much fun he didn't want me around. I heard "Go away dad" at least once an hour when I went to find him.

We finished off our Idaho visit with a trip to the Boise Zoo with Tenille, Geoff, and their kids. I wasn't aware that Bentley had such a fascination with the "creepy" things rather than what I consider the "cool" animals. He wanted to see snakes, bats, bugs, and reptiles. Apparently giraffes, lions, and monkeys just aren't as impressive. He liked them, but they really didn't capture his attention. We topped it off with a trip to Rocky's Cafe (I think), which was featured on Man vs Food. I had never heard of 2lb burgers before, but now I've seen one! It's huge!

My uncles took us to the airport later that evening, and we flew home after finding another large batch of postcards at the airport store. No major calamities on the way home, though I only had four hours between arriving home and taking off for Barrow to be at morning meetings. At least Bentley got to sleep in!

All in all, it was an excellent trip and we made a lot of happy memories with family in Idaho.