teaching certification

Redfish Lake, Idaho

Well, hello again! We recently got back from our summer trip. The house is still a ~~mess~~ disaster with piles of laundry and camping stuff in my living room waiting to be cleaned. Sometimes I wish going on vacation wasn’t so much work! But it was a good time. Here are some highlights:

SHOSHONE FALLS

We’ve called southern Idaho home for about 15 years and have never been to visit this phenomenal natural wonder. It is near Twin Falls, Idaho, and is a natural falls on the Snake River. This is from Wikipedia : “Sometimes called the “Niagara of the West,” Shoshone Falls is 212 feet high—45 feet higher than Niagara Falls—and flows over a rim nearly 1,000 feet wide.” Pretty incredible! And very loud!

2. BOISE

Me and the kids getting cozy with Idaho.

So, all my photos turned out really blurry. I think because my lens had fingerprints or something. Most likely of a child-size nature. But you get the general (blurry) idea. We headed to our state’s capital for a few days, to cycle around their lovely Greenbelt and attend a family showing of Macbeth at the Idaho Shakespeare Festival. Bellie recently won a really snazzy new mountain bike from her school in a bike challenge – and was really excited to be able to test it out on our trip.

I loved Macbeth. I realized that I had never actually seen a Shakespeare play professionally performed before. (Even though I of course studied them in school and was able to see snippets performed at Shakespeare’s hometown of Stratford-Upon-Avon last summer!) I had prepped the kids before time that the play *might be a little scary* and the *witches were just ladies like Mommy all dressed up to look freaky*. We also got children’s editions of Macbeth from the library so they would be familiar with the story. Verdict: My kids were entertained and really enjoyed the play! My 3-year-old was telling people afterwards that the “witches were not scary, they were like crows” (there was some cool bird-like choreography going on with them) and kept repeating, “Macbeth! Macbeth!” ominously to her siblings. My boys loved the swordplay.

Bellie and me before the show. They let people purchase seats onstage just like in Shakespeare’s day.

View of the stage after the show. It was such a lovely evening!

3. THE BUTT TREE

My kids discovered this. I think this photo is pretty self-explanatory.

You, lucky reader, can find this tree yourself in Boise’s lovely Julia Davis park near the Rose Garden!!

4. IDAHO CITY

Idaho City is about an hour northeast of Boise. It is an old gold-rush town and still has lots of old buildings from the 1860s. I could have probably spent all day there, but the rest of my family is not as fascinated by history as I am so I just made them tour the old cemetery with me. The brochure said that only about 30 of the 200 identified graves from the early days contained people who died of natural causes.

We came across several 19th Century children’s graves, which prompted a great discussion with the kids about the benefits of childhood immunizations. (as in, “Aren’t you glad Mommy and Daddy tortured you by making you get your shots? These five siblings died when the diphtheria epidemic of 1888 swept through town. And now we have an inoculation for that so it won’t happen to you.”) A little morbid, I know…but the kids can do the math and they ask. Big eyes from the kids, but I think it brought home to them how lucky they are in this day and age with our medical advances.

5. STANLEY, REDFISH LAKE, and the SAWTOOTH MOUNTAINS

This area gets really busy in the summer, but when we went it was still “shoulder season”. The campground was pretty quiet, but still full. The water was c-c-c-c-cold. For reasons unknown to me, that didn’t deter the children from attempting to swim. Silly kids. Anyhow, it was gorgeous. We rode bikes, fished, hiked, and rode horses. At the end of the week I really needed a shower. And we had extremely tame little chipmunk friends who lived at our campsite (which we admired from a distance and kept our food away from because plague is going around in Idaho and is carried by those types of rodents!)

Hiking is better with your own foraged walking stick

Little Redfish Lake

Sawtooths through the trees

My older two are mountain-biking animals

My horse was a stinker and the kids were very concerned with their horses’ gastrointestinal behavior

We celebrated 14 years during our trip

6. SUN VALLEY/KETCHUM

Basically, by the time we got to Sun Valley we were ready to stay in a hotel. And I am pretty sure the highlight of the trip for the kids was watching tv and swimming at the hotel. (It is so extremely HARD to go without electronic devices for a week. I mean, we really tortured those children). We just relaxed and ate at some fun restaurants (KB’s – yummiest burritos ever!). I went to my favorite Sun Valley area bookstore, Iconoclast Books & Gifts and also visited the Gold Mine thrift shop in Ketchum (resort communities have the most luxurious thrift stores!! I scored big with the name brands!)

I was in the middle of reading The Paris Wife by Paula McLain and got really intrigued by Ernest Hemingway and wanted to do the whole Hemingway pilgrimage in Ketchum but ran out of time. Oh well, maybe next time.

The Paris Wife

7. This is not related to our travels, but I take my first Teaching Certification test on Friday!!! I am scared. But I feel prepared. So, we shall see. I will let you know how it goes! Send me good thoughts!

Hope everyone has a lovely Father’s Day tomorrow! Talk to you again soon!

Busy busy busy few weeks! April was a beast, with karate tournaments and ballet recitals and confirmation sponsor responsibilities and visitors and Bellie’s First Communion. Here are some details:

ONE.

My oldest turned 11. I can still remember when he was a tiny little bundle and I was a nervous, inexperienced new mom. How the times have changed! Junior has always challenged me to be on my toes, but I am constantly delighted by the deep conversations I can now have with him as he gets older, also his interest in cooking, science, and wicked mountain biking. Happy birthday, Junior!

TWO.

My mom came to visit. This is only her second time out to Idaho (we’ve lived here 15 years) but she enjoyed it. Highlights: my kids got lots of uninterrupted time with her, she and I watched “our show” Call the Midwife together, and my sister (also visiting) and I took my mom to the “sip and paint” place where we each completed an oil painting of the Eiffel Tower:

Drinking wine and painting is how great masters are made.

THREE.

My mom bought a house. Sorta near me.

This was part of the purpose of her trip. She decided several years back that she wanted to spend her retirement in the West. And since I live there, it only made sense she look for a property in Idaho. I did not expect she would find what she was looking for in the 5 days she was visiting here from the Midwest. But she did! There will be lots of changes to get used to with this move; some good (like my kids getting to know her better because she is closer), and some more challenging (changing from a more passive role in dealing with my mom to a more active/caregiver role), but we’ll figure it out I guess.

FOUR.

Bellie made her First Communion.

My mom and sister were there which was really special. I got tears in my eyes because my little girl seemed so grown-up when she went up for communion for the first time!

FIVE

I’m still plugging away at my teaching certification. The last few weeks’ craziness made it take a backseat for awhile, but this week (go me!) I have been getting back on track. I just completed reading the first unit and am doing review for my first exam which I plan to take in about a month. I am still enjoying everything and am really excited and positive about my decision to teach.

SIX.

Dandelion Wine.

We have a plethora of the lovely weeds in our yard (except for the ones my kids pick regularly to give me as tokens of their affection) and I remembered I had seen a recipe for dandelion wine in a book I have called Homesteading by Abigail Gehring. It’s fairly easy and uses a butt-ton of the little yellow weeds. The verdict? Super-sweet but good. It was sitting in a bowl in my bathtub for a week and by the time I bottled it, the wine was looking slightly like vomit, which was a little disconcerting. But after straining it it looked much more appetizing and it smelled delicious.

The beginning.

SEVEN.

Royal Wedding!!!!!

So I am unapologetic about my enthusiasm for European royalty. (I sense a blog post about this in the future…) I know, I know that social media is rife with complaints that there are so. many. other. things. to be thinking about now other than Meghan Markle becoming a princess. And yeah, in the large scheme of things this wedding doesn’t really matter. But hey, what’s wrong with having a little Cinderella fantasy play out with a pretty spectacle to have us forget, for a moment, all the woe in the world?

I’m excited to watch. Not only because it will be entertaining, but also because I am excited to see England again (albeit on the small screen instead of in person). I had a great time there last summer!