Part 1: Road Trip 2012 ~ Caldwell, ID

After we left Aaron's Mom and Dad's house we drove through the night and arrived in Caldwell, Idaho the next morning at about 8. After some breakfast at IHOP we headed to our friends' house. Tired as Aaron and I were, we started having fun instantly! I was glad in the end that we'd decided to drive at night because the kids slept and were happy by the time we arrived, and we had the whole day to hang out.  That afternoon we went to a local school to get the kids some free lunch while Aaron drove up to Fruitland to visit some ex-coworkers from his old plant.


We spent several days in town and did LOTS of fun stuff!  The day after we arrived we had a potluck in another park with a bunch of friends from our old ward.  My fantastic friend Lisa put together the whole thing and it was such fun!



Here's Lisa's youngest- sweet Sophie.



Such a fun treat to see a couple of my friends' new babies, too!



Finnley picked right back up with his favorite friend, Naomi.  He ran around and she kept a close eye on him for me the whole time.  Isn't she a doll?!



One of my kids' requests for our visit was to go to Bounce! with our friends one day.  It was a pretty hot day so I was sure the place would be packed with people trying to find some fun out of the sun, but for the entire two hours we were there we had the whole place to ourselves.  It was terrific!












Finnley found this helmet on one of the game "arenas" and wore it the. whole. time.







Going down the slide in weird poses was the cool thing to do!











The kids had a lot of fun playing on the Danes' new trampoline (when we could get them to go outside).








Hakan nabbed my camera and had a fun little photo shoot with his buddies.  I got my camera back with a few smudges on the lens and about 85 more pictures on it.  These dudes crack me up.


LOVE this group shot!


Hakan & Gizmo


James


Jacob





Lisa and I were thankful (and more than a little surprised) that Finnley and Brianna decided to be buddies instead of mortal enemies like last time we visited a year ago.  It was so cute to walk in and see them laughing over picture books or playing "Mommy and Daddy" together.


We must have temporarily lost our senses one night because we decided to take all of our kids to dinner at Denny's.  Honestly, it wasn't that bad- once I took Finnley out and threatened his life for acting like a fool.


Right before we left we had to get pictures of the kids together.


The goofy shot is always my favorite.  :)


And here's a little off-kilter shot of me and my bestie, Lisa.  I sure miss that girl.


I felt so lucky that we got to spend some time back in Idaho and see friends that we've missed since we moved away.  Lisa and I talk on the phone regularly but it's not the same as being able to hang out and talk and just spend time together.  I also love how much our kids love playing together and how well they get along (generally).  ;) 

Lisa and Jake took such great care of us while we were there. They even built another BEDROOM upstairs so we could have a space of our own during our visit! Okay, so the bedroom is really for Sophie, but they did spend Jake's spring break from school building it and getting it ready in time for our visit. How awesome is THAT?! Yes, we have awesome friends.

Can't wait for them to comee see us in Michigan!