Idaho Trip - Day 8 & 9

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Stella was crying "I'm going to miss Idaho!" for quite some time the night before we left. She and Elliot gave the beautiful view of the Snake River one last look before we headed into town for the Fiddle Parade.

Here's my niece Ashley, the lone picalo player right in the front of the marching band.

Cordell is playing the trombone back there with the sunglasses on (he must take after his father).

The whole story will come when I actually finish writing my 1999 history, but the Fiddle Festival in Weiser, Idaho was the first time I ever brought Elliot home to meet my family. He LOVED everything about it! This was one of the reasons we chose this particular week to visit. He's so happy, especially because there was so much candy at this parade.

Every float, and I'm pretty sure it was EVERY float, had candy throwers. The kids had a giant grocery bag to fit all of their loot. Jayden spies another candy-thrower!

You can't have a Fiddle Festival Parade without a stage coach, some tractors, goats, . . .

. . . motoring Shriners . . .

. . . rodeo Princesses . . .

. . . and a little girl who loves it ALL!

That guitar player is Mark Geslison (he has made several acoustic church CD's). His daughter is on the second half of yesterday's fiddling video.

What we could have done without were these ladies. I'm not quite sure what their point was, but they have a show and if their singing on this float was any indication of their performance, steer clear my friends. Steer clear.

Jayden paused from gathering piles of candy momentarily to pose for my picture.

Wouldn't you hate it if that was your name?

Washington Adams County Substance Abuse Coalition (WACSAC). I'm not positive, but did they just build a floating crack house?

Stella was pretty happy about the load of candy she claimed! Good thing she never gets sick in the car.

We shed some tears as we said our goodbyes to the family, . . .

. . . and to Adele Tay, my first Cabbage Patch Kid. I learned how to french braid on that lovely mane of yarn . . .

. . . and to Laura, my first fake CPK. I've had Laura since 1st Grade (Stella's age). Jaimie Simpson had lots of real CPK's and knew mine was fake. She'd always walk by when I had Laura at school and tear off her shoes because she just had round feet instead of sewed on toes like the real CPK's. Jaimie and I weren't friends in 1st Grade.

I just became nostalgic while I was at home in Weiser. Usually I go through my mother's things and try to see what I can take to help her organize, but this time I just wandered and remembered. These toys have been incredibly well-played with.

I'm so, so grateful that Elliot, Stella and I were able to visit my parents (though somehow I just noticed I only got 2 pictures of my Mom) during this week. It was so relaxing and exactly what our family needed to calm down and see each other without the phone or meetings or work or pressing engagements. We cannot wait to come back. In fact, we'd like to visit in the Winter so we can remember why we don't live there already.

Sunday, June 27, 2010

We made it to Bill and Marci's in Kaysville, Utah just in time for dessert and bedtime. We tried to hurry to bed to get an early start back to Arizona.

We kept Stella occupied with mapping our progress through all of the states because this girl DOESN'T SLEEP! She didn't sleep at all on the way to Idaho and only slept for 45 minutes on our way out of Kaysville because it was so early in the morning. She was wide awake the rest of the 11 hours! I had to sit in the back with her and we played many, many games of Old Maid and Go Fish, colored lots of How To Train Your Dragon pages, ate lots of sugary treats (I was hoping for a sugar coma), and listened occasionally to the dumbest book on CD. Stella was so tired of it that she kept saying, "No more of that voice!" I can't even count it on my book list because I was in and out of consciousness during the whole thing.

I can't say we were happy to be home because it was so incredibly hot and we had 17 messages. But we were VERY happy to be out of the stinky car.

I love vacations. I love Weiser. I love my family. Yeey end.