HELLO I-da-do (Idaho)

Sunday, June 07, 2015

Deer Mountain with Jeralyn May 24-25, 2015

During our month of AWESOME weather, Quent took Jeralyn hiking up Deer Mountain for an overnight stay at the cabin. She was super excited since she LOVES camping (she didn't stop talking about it since our trial camping night).

So they packed up and headed up the mountain.

I believe this was taken at the beginning of the trail.

So proud of our girl who walked all the way up (and down the next day)!

Silly girl!

Stopping to take a break.

Water break.

Jeralyn is really into posing like a ballerina for the camera these days. So cute!

Walking in the snow.

They made it to the cabin after about 4 hours (Quent does the hike up in 1 hour). Quent made some dinner for the two of them.

They had the cabin to themselves.

Quent said that Jeralyn was not impressed with the pit toilet (nor is she in favor of the outhouses). There's a funny story.

(as told by Quent) As Jeralyn settled down in the cabin for the night, I told her that I was going to brush my teeth and go to the bathroom. What I left unsaid was that I was planning on being away from the cabin for a little while so she could fall asleep. Based on past camping experiences, I've observed that it takes her a very long time to fall asleep if I lay next to her. So I existed the cabin, brushed my teeth, and visited the outhouse before climbing some rock outcrops around the cabin. After about an hour I decided to come back and check on her. She was wide awake, and was playing with Shelly and her doll. Eventually she spotted me so I entered the cabin and she promptly asked, "Daddy, did you fall in the bathroom." After explain that no, I had avoided that misfortune. She then asked, "Did you go whoa, Whoa, WHOA! Which is her way of asking if I almost fell in!

There is a prelude to that story. When she visited the outhouse she looked down in the pit she thought it was really deep and was afraid that she might fall in... so much so that she had to visit the blueberry bushes instead. Her concern for my welfare was as memorable as it was sweet.

All packed up and ready to go down.

Can't quite see it in this single photo but she was jumping up and down, doing one of her ballet moves.

Crowberry flowers.

First overlook. As we hiked down from this point Jeralyn's legs started to tire and our pace of progress grew slower and slower. It took about as much time to go down as it did to go up. Nevertheless, pretty impressive for a three year old (or at least that what the folks on the trail seemed to think).

Camping @ Settlers Cove May 17-18, 2015

We drove way out the road (18 miles--I know, SO far. *sarcasm*) to a campground called Settlers Cove and spent one night as a trial run for an upcoming camping trip we are planning to do.

We had lunch and then hung out at the campsite for a little while. The kids did a "dry" run (haha) in the kayak.

Quent and Jeralyn went for a kayak tour around a little bit while Josh "napped". They saw some whales; I heard the whales (blowing), but I did not see them.

After kayaking, and after Josh was pushed around in the stroller in order to take a nap, we walked down to the beach where we enjoyed the water for about an hour or so. Quent put his wet suit on and snorkeled around for a bit. Jeralyn found some other kids to play with and they spent a lot of time searching for sea creatures like star fish.

What a beautiful ending to a beautiful day! We had the best camping spot. You can walk out a very short distance to a bench that overlooks the ocean.

We all slept pretty well. I had no idea what the kids would be like with sleep because of how much daylight we have these days (at this point it was probably 16+ hours of daylight). I don't think Jeralyn was feeling well, so she went right to sleep and it took Josh an hour to fall asleep. Not too bad though. And they woke up 30-40 minutes before I normally get them in the morning. So pretty good I should say!

Josh slept in his own little tent inside of the tent.

Snacking on Cheerios while Dad makes breakfast.

Yum!

After breakfast we went to check out the low tide. The kids love looking for treasures on the beach.

Josh eats a graham cracker while we pack up.

Jeralyn helping take the tent down.

Group photo!

Performance Day 5.9.15

Getting her make-up on.

After performance and her cheesy smile.

Jeralyn with Miss Amanda, her ballet teacher.

Jeralyn and Olivia (her inspiration).

Little beauty!

Little Ballerina 5.7.15

In January of this year, I signed up Jeralyn for a ballet class. She LOVED it! She was inspired by our neighbor, Olivia, who is also in ballet. The Spring Gala was on May 9th and the week before was pretty busy due to the dress rehearsals; Jeralyn did great with it all! For the last dress rehearsal, parents were allowed to come, watch, and take as many photos as they wanted--but no video due to copyright issues. So Quent came and took some photos.

Josh watched the first part of the dress rehearsal with us. He loved the music and he would bob his head and dance to the music. We did not bring him to the actual performance; he stayed home with a sitter.

Jeralyn's class were mermaids and the song was "Under the Sea" from The Little Mermaid. I have to say that their costumes were the most beautiful out of all the classes.

I watched 4-5 rehearsals and I think in only one of those the dancers (3-4 year olds) actually did what they were supposed to. Each time it was different, which was cute! Jeralyn was always trying to look for us in the audience.