Hike to Table Rock

My friend Krista called last night and asked if Rachel and I wanted to go on a hike up to Table Rock.  Table Rock is the hill in Boise that has the white cross on it.  I've never been up there and wanted to go but knew there was no way I would be able to carry Rachel up there because of my rib and how bad it was still hurting from Scott's work retreat.  Krista said that her son LJ really wanted to do something with Rachel.  They have become pretty good buds.  Krista also offered that she and her husband would help me carry Rachel up the hill.  So we decided to go.

 The group heading to the trailhead from the parking lot.

 Walking the trail.  You can see that Matt is carrying Rachel.  She walked some of it but then started whining. She's not used to walking this much.  She ended up on the backs of Krista's, Matt, and Krista's neighbor who came with us.  I was so grateful for all of their help on getting her up the hill.  It definitely made me realize how out of shape I am.  It was also really really HOT!!!

We did make it to the top.  Rachel loved being on the rocks.

 

Cheesing for the camera.

 Happy to be at the top and able to walk around and not have to "hike"

 Rachel and LJ.  LJ is 2 weeks older than Rachel.  Yes Rachel is short for her age and LJ is tall for his age.

Rachel & LJ again.

 Another one.

 One side of Boise City.

 The other side of Boise City.  It was pretty hazy this day.

 Rock caves up top.  Playing on one of the rocks.

 Climbing in one of the caves.  Also you can see the cross that we hiked up to.

 Rachel climbed right up these rocks through this cave.  You can see the hole to her left.

Yep lots and lots of graffiti up there.  We had fun while we were up there.

Rachel walked almost the whole way back down.  As we got to the parking lot LJ went back and got Rachel and took her by the hand and they headed to the park to play.  It was so cute.  We ended up eating lunch at the park that was by the trail head.  Rachel and LJ played more than ate but the adults relaxed in the shade until it was time to go home. 

Playing in her Pool

So the community pool was closed today and so I decided to let Rachel go outside to her own pool that we had bought for her just for these occasions. 

 Standing in her pool.

Playing with the sprinkler off of the slide.  She doesn't really like it and won't go down the slide because she doesn't like getting water in her eyes.  So I turned it down so she could play with it but not get it in her eyes.

Hawks Baseball Game

So we were given free tickets to the Hawks baseball game.  They are a D league baseball team here in Boise.  Scott had to work but I thought it would be fun to take Rachel to the game.  I wasn't sure how she would do considering the game started at the time she usually goes to bed.  She of course didn't eat anything I had bought for her but I finally bribed her she could have a Popsicle if she would eat her hot dog and so she finally ate the hot dog.

 Proof we actually were there.  She hardly watched the game she decided it was more fun to play on the stairs than figure out what was going on.

 Playing on the stairs.  One of the vendors was dancing up and down the stairs and so she decided she should dance up and down the stairs.  I was worried she would trip on her feet and tumble down the stairs, so I told her she could only dance on the stair above and the stair below.

 Clapping when the clapping song came on.  She thought that was lots of fun.

So we made it to the 4th inning.  The Hawks were losing 4-7.   As you can see by this picture she was finished.  I should have had someone take it when we first got there and she was smiling.  It had been hot and we were sitting on the side of the stadium where the sun hit us the whole time so I understand why she was hot and tired.

Elmo Slippers

Rachel's favorite slippers are her Elmo slippers.  I had to take a picture of them because I really think she has used them well.

 Yes she has worn holes in the bottom of them with her big toes.  She switches which foot she wears them on and so that is why there are two holes on each one.

Here is the top of them.  Yep one of them is missing his eyes.

So funny that she keeps wearing them and of course its the wrong time of year so I can't get her a new pair.  Only a few more months and then we can get her a new pair.

Dancing in the Rain

We had our first rain shower tonight in a long time.  I don't know how long it's been since it last rained but it seems like forever.  So Scott told Rachel to go outside and play in it.  She didn't want to at first but then she finally went outside.  The pictures aren't the best but yes there is rain actually coming down.

 Dancing in the rain.

Close up.  You can see the rain a little bit better in this picture.

Scott's Work Retreat

So Scott had a work retreat up at Black Canyon Reservoir.  Love love love this new place we have learned of in Idaho.  Scott got off this morning and slept for about an hour and a half.  We ended up taking Rachel to Kammi's house since we were told that it wasn't for children.  I drove so that Scott could sleep.  Well he couldn't go back to sleep and so we ended up getting up to the park at 10:00.  We weren't exactly sure where we were supposed to go but finally found a fee paying area and Scott found his boss.  We were the 1st ones there and the water was glass so Kelly said if we wanted to waterski to go for it.  So I went for it.  I was able to get up each time but I couldn't get over the wake.  After 5 tries I gave up and watched some of Kelly's kids crash and burn.  We went back and there were a couple more people that showed up.  When they decided it was time to have their meeting I left and went out on the boat.  We ended up doing the tube.  It was awesome.  We had fun.  I ended up getting on the tube with the two other girls.  It was a four person tube and some how the girl on the other side of the tube fell off and our tube went airborne and I ended up crashing down into the girl in the middle.  It felt like my rib cage cracked.  It took about 5 minutes for the pain to subside.  After that we went back to the shore and ended up eating lunch.  There was some really good food.  I sat in my chair in pain thinking I really broke my rib.  I was having a hard time breathing.  After several days I was going to go to the Dr and have it x-rayed but Scott pretty much told me there isn't anything they can do for it.  So I just sucked it up and had to tell Rachel I couldn't lift her and she didn't like that.

**Side Note** After two weeks I actually ended up at the Chiropractor and told him I thought I had a broken rib and he looked at it and said I several ribs out of place.  He adjusted me and a day later I felt like a new woman.  Went through all that pain for nothing.  If I had gone to see him the day it happened I would have felt better.

Fireworks Day #2

Since the Meridian Fireworks ended up being so late we didn't get all of our fireworks finished.  So we ended up going out and finishing them.  Rachel was bored unless she got to do her own fireworks.  She had no interest in the fountains we were lighting off.  Here is the last of the fireworks though that we lite off.  Yes we even had a cop stop by but he was fine with us finishing up our fireworks as long as our neighbors didn't complain.

 See how tiny the fountains were.  

 Rachel's sparkler.  She learned on this day not to put it up above her head because one of the sparks got her.

The last of Rachel's Sparkler and our last fountain.  I couldn't get the camera to focus quick enough to actually get to see this fountain was our best fountain.

Last Day of Swim Class

Well the 2nd week of class Scott was able to come watch Rachel and so I didn't take any pictures.  I don't know what I was thinking.  Rachel progressed so well.  She loves to put her head under the water and was even swimming with only a finger holding her up under the water.  As soon as the teachers come and get her she puts her face right into the water for them.  If they weren't every day for two weeks I would put her in lessons longer.  She totally loves them and I love them because they wear her out and she's pretty mellow for the rest of the day.  ;-)

 She loved this step and I don't know how I missed taking a picture of her putting her whole face and body under the water but I did.  Just imagine her putting her face and body under right there and then coming back up.

 Doing her kicking.

 Look at that face down in the water.

More face in the water.  We will have to keep working on getting her to put all three things together this summer of feet kicking, arms moving and putting her face in the water.  Should be fun for us to try and keep this going so she remembers it.

Fireworks

This is a video of Rachel while we did crackling balls.  She was so funny.  Enjoy.

4th of July

This was the 1st 4th of July that Scott actually had the day off and didn't work at least part of it.  It was so nice to be able to have him around.  We ended up going downtown to the parade.  It was so nice to be able to have Scott on one side of Rachel and me on the other.  We actually found a little bit of shade and had shade through the whole parade.

 Playing Angry Birds with Dad while we wait for the parade to start.

Rachel sitting on the walk waiting for the parade to start.

 Mom & Rachel

 Dad & Rachel

She had so much fun talking to everyone around us.  She is always making friends with all the adults and kids wherever we go.  The adults next to us whenever they got some candy they would give it to her.  She made a haul of candy.  After the parade we went to Chili's for lunch.  It was so yummy.  We then hung out at home because it was so hot.  We did some fireworks at home before we headed over to Meridian for their firework show.

Throwing pop-its.

We bought some of the really long sparklers and she had fun with them.

Watching the fountains going off.  Our package we bought was crappy.  The fountains totally sucked because they hardly had any noise to them at all.  Needless to say we will never go back to John's Discount Fireworks.  We had bought a livingsocial coupon and didn't notice it was only good for seven days so by the time we got back from camping it had expired.  They were only willing to give us the price of what we paid not the promotional price.   I was so mad about it.  So when the package we bought had crappy fireworks in it I was even more mad.
We headed over to the Meridian School District building to watch the Meridian fireworks that they shoot off from the Meridian Speedway.  The fireworks were supposed to start at 10:15.  Well they ended up not starting until 10:40. 

So it was pretty boring but Rachel and Scott did pop-its out on the sidewalk for awhile.  Rachel then found some friends to play with.

 They played with the leaves on the tree and then we saw Rachel doing this..........

Yep we have a tree hugger.   Ha ha ha
The fireworks were good until the water on this section of grass came on.  Everyone went running.  The most frustrating was if they had started the fireworks show on time none of us would have gotten wet.  Rachel was so tired by the time we got home around 11:30 we all just went straight to bed.

June Accomplishments of Rachel

1.  She learned about Jonah and the whale and was so interested in the fact that a whale eat Jonah.
2.  Has potty trained during the day.  Sidenote: on this one though it only lasted a week.  We are back to her not pottying like she's supposed to and has had to go back to diapers on several occasions.
3.  She likes to sit outside on the picnic table and eat lunch.
4.  Likes to go skinny dipping. :-)
5.  Is a little fish in the water.  Loved swimming lessons once she left the goggles on and found out she could see under that water.
6.  Favorite movies to watch now David & Goliath and the Parables of Jesus(she calls this one the man that fell down).
7.  Likes to play her computer game and is getting good at moving back and forth between the games by herself.
8.  Loves playing in the dirt while camping.
9.  Loves to go on 4 wheeler rides even though she falls asleep.
 

Grimes Creek Day 4

We decided that today would be our last day camping.  We were out of water and I didn't want to have to try to hurry and get back to Rachel's swim class on Monday.  So we actually just kept everything really low key.  We did take another 4 wheeler ride just to see where everyone was camping out that we saw coming up on Friday. 

 Here is the proof that she would fall asleep every time we got on the 4 wheeler.  She is so funny.

I'm amazed how kids can sleep anywhere and in any position.  So crazy.

We got back and Scott and I worked on getting our camper set to head out and Rachel ended up playing on the hill by the camper.  She loved playing in the dirt.

 She would got up to this spot on the hill and play in the holes.  I was so glad there was no animal that came out of that hole to get her.

This was how dirty she was before I took her to the creek.  We didn't want her in her car seat looking like that.  One dirty dirty little girl.

 And what do you do on the car ride home after you have played really hard all day long?  Yep you fall asleep.  She slept almost the whole way home.  Needless to say getting her to bed was hard.