El Gallo Giro

Wednesday night the Colorguard got to help out at El Gallo Giro as a fundraiser. It was pretty cool of Enrique to allow them this opportunity. The girls were assigned different tasks, some were in the kitchen dishing up ice cream for the Deep Fried Ice Cream, one was a hostess (Tiffani didn't want that job because she didn't want to greet people & such. Turns out the "hostess" got to wipe down menus and wrap silverware in napkins!) and the needed a waitress. Tiffani picked this one because she thought she'd just be clearing tables and such, (because she was shadowing another waiter), but oh no... She was serving them chips and salsa, told to take something to table 9 and all that kind of stuff. The waiter she was shadowing & helping out was a fast mover, too! The one picture we sneakily got of her, they are both blurry in because they were moving so fast!

We didn't want to turn the flash on the camera in the restaurant & make it really obvious that we were trying to get a picture of her there! It was a busy night!

Too bad neither Les nor I are avocado/guacamole fans...

On Wed-Fri evenings you can order it and have it fresh made right at your table. And, wow! that kid was fast!

After we ate, Les & I decided to walk down to Indian Creek. It was a beautiful evening. And we discovered there were lots of benches to sit on - I don't know when those were put in, but it has been awhile since we walked down there. It was great to just sit there & enjoy the peacefulness and to let our dinner settle.

Tiffani at Yearbook Camp & the Shakespeare Festival

Last week Tiffani had her Yearbook Camp Workshop. They have a lot of fun at these. It was also a bit sad as it was the beginning of "lasts" for her. This was her final yearbook workshop... Quite exciting though as the first night there they were stuck in an elevator for almost an hour! Ack! Tiffani's a trooper though, and didn't seem to mind to much. As a matter of fact she almost fell asleep while waiting to be rescued. It was after 11pm after all.

Apparently the mud felt nice and cool. :)

But it served a purpose, too. One assignment was to take some "down shot" pictures.

 

Another was an "up shot" picture - hence the monkey in the tree.

One major downside to this last camp was Tiffani brought the camera from home to use, but no one had a card reader that fit the card in it, nor did they have a cable that would fit from the camera to any ones computer. So none of her pictures were used in any of their projects. :/

Saturday night Les and I volunteered through Micron at the Shakespeare Festival. It was an interesting night and kinda fun.

Our attire for the evening - khaki's and Micron shirts.

Actually, volunteers have several jobs, most of which consist of clean up & trash duty, but you get to watch the show for free. Upon arrival, volunteers wipe down the chairs and tables. Then we have a little meeting where volunteer coordinators tell us about the theater and the things we need to watch for and do. They first assign intermission jobs and end of show jobs. This is mostly trash & recycling pick up. Les volunteered to do the glass recycling, I ended up with after show trash from the cafe. Not a big deal - the cafe workers actually have it all ready to go in a huge wheelbarrow, another volunteer & I just had to take it back to the dumpsters after the show was done. Then came the assignments for before the show began and the coordinators play a game they like to call Volunteer Olympics. They call out a job and whoever raises their hands the quickest gets that job. OK... We ended up being Wagon Managers. If you've never been, or have been & didn't know, (lots of people wondered out loud as they walked by) the festival provides wagons for guests to use to pack all their stuff into the theater. You can bring your own picnic, blankets, chairs, etc. So Wagon Masters are there to follow you to the entrance and then bring the wagon back to the front for the next person to use. So we basically stood out front for 1 1/2 hours while guests arrived. Not many people used the wagons Saturday night, four of us out there was way to many!

Our job - Wagon Managers.

Now we've been to the Festival before and wondered what those people were doing on the wall, sitting there looking terribly bored and uninterested! (Les doesn't look bored or uninterested, does he?) Now we know why they were sitting there, but I, for one didn't want to sit around being bored for over an hour! So I stood (the wall was kind of hard to sit on anyway!) and would smile & tell people hi if they were looking our way. And answer the question "Why are there wagons here?", instead of just letting them keep wondering! And Les & I got to hang out together, too. So it was a great evening! And, hey, if you ever go to the Shakespeare Festival, bring your picnic supper & your blankets and make use of those wagons - that's what its there for!!

Aberdeen July 17/18

As I mentioned before I got home after 5 on Saturday. In that time we learned of Albert Horsch's death & upcoming funeral on Monday and decided to go to Aberdeen. The added bonus of heading to Aberdeen was being able to see Cindy and the kids. I'm not sure we would've made the trip otherwise, just because of our schedules, we headed back again Monday afternoon. Then it was onto dentist appts & Yearbook Workshop for Tiffani. Next week is babysitting... then we get a few days rest before back to school hits in August with 2 weeks of band camp and then registration and finally school itself! And our baby girl is a senior! ...back to where we were...

This was Tessa on the way to Aberdeen. She's burying her nose in the cool sheet that was being used to cover our bags/pillows/etc to prevent too much dog hair on them. By the time she'd wiggled around enough & found a comfortable, cool spot one of the pillows was unburied and covered with dog hair form Tessa lying on it.

The AF Reservoir is pretty full! Tiffani took this as we were driving by.

Caleb was sure intrigued with Uncle Les this trip.

Tiffani & Marcus

Tiffani, Marcus, Hannah, Caleb

Just love this picture - standing there so sweetly, Marcus with his arm around Hannah and Hannah hanging onto Caleb. :)

Not the best picture, but love the joy & happiness on their faces!

Caleb was even willing to let Les calm him down for bed.... although he's just pretending to sleep here.

Hannah got to have a sleepover with Tiffani and Simba.

Last year, Les helped Marcus & Hannah "walk" on the ceiling. Caleb was so cute when he walked into the kitchen and asked if Les would help him walk on the ceiling. Several times!!!

Love the panoramic setting on my little camera (& the fact that I actually got it to work).

7/18/11 - Still a lot of water flowing, but even the spray wasn't reaching up to the viewing deck to help cool us off in the heat. But the view itself was still spectacular. I actually really like it because you can see all the "little" waterfalls and layers instead of one giant waterfall. Especially on the right side of the picture. 

A. Avy took this picture the end of May this year when the water was really flowing!

So thankful for the chance to see the kids, even though it was so short.

Tamarack 2011

After missing last year, this year Julie and I headed to Tamarack again for a Girls L O N G weekend away. And we convinced Wanda to come with us. I'm pretty sure she's glad she did! :) Minus all her mosquito bites! We left home just after noon on Wednesday. It took awhile to get up there with the road construction delays along hwy 55, but we made it. We got our stuff unloaded and just relaxed Wednesday evening AND all day Thursday! :) We mostly read our books, Julie did a little knitting. I was really wanting to enjoy that gigantic hot tub outside our window, but by later in the evening when it would have been nice to go down it was thundering and pouring rain. Thursday morning Wanda & I took a walk on one of the many trails. It was very nice and relaxing to hear the birds and the babbling brooks and just enjoy the fresh air. 

The Lodge

Beautiful flower arrangements all around.

The hot tub from our deck.

Wednesday night when we got there, already a bit overcast.

Couple hours later you could see the storm moving in.

Not a blurry picture... It was raining that hard!!

Our living area. Wanda & Julie putting away our food we brought & I'm snapping pictures!

This was Friday after we got back from shopping. Wanda has a worse fear of heights then I do I think and it took us two days to finally get her to come enjoy the view (& get picture proof that she was out there for a few minutes). 

  

Wildflowers from our morning walk.

One of the little streams we crossed. 

Loved the moon rise. :)

Snow on the distant mountains still.

Friday we went shopping. We drove down to Cascade to the Flea Market and wondered around and then there was suppose to be one in Donnelly that we were going to hit on our way back to the condo. We never did see it and just kept on going to McCall. Not a big deal only 11 miles more... So we went to the yarn shop and quilt shop there and then we went to the Pancake House for lunch/dinner. And of course had to peruse the Christmas Store. It's been a long time since I've been there - it used to be a part of the restaurant, but that has all been remodeled and there is coffee shop in the front, the restaurant in the middle and the Christmas Store in the back. And it's huge! Of course my weakness in there is always snowmen! Somehow I walked out with 2 (ONLY 2!). Two years ago we went to a home decor store in McCall the had a Christmas Room and I bought 5 boxes and a bucket all with snowmen on it. :) Wanda & I ventured out on another path when we got back, but make a quick retreat back to the condo because the mosquitoes were SO bad. Thankfully I had none, unfortunately she was covered! :/

This adult sized teeter totter was at the flea market. Only $450! Julie thought we (Les & I) needed it in our backyard...

The entire front and side of The Pancake House has a covered porch and flowers line the entire length of it and the very full baskets hang at every corner. Absolutely gorgeous!

My newest snowmen :)

Saturday it was already time to come home... We could have stayed at the condo until 11, but I think we were packed up and out just after nine. We had a delicious breakfast to go to. Our first weekend away, we went to the Shore Lodge for breakfast in McCall as a recommendation from the gal in the yarn shop. It was so good then, that we knew we'd do the same thing the next time. So we did and we all enjoyed our breakfast and then went home via hwy 95 mostly to stop at the second hand stores/flea markets along the way but it was also a great way to avoid hwy 55! By the time I dropped the girls off and got home it was after 5. It was a wonderful weekend and we've already started plans for next summer. Not that it takes much planning - books, needles, yarn, food, shopping, breakfast at Shore Lodge on the way home.... The only difference is the Tea & Pastry Shop in Donnelly we've wanted to try - it was closed the first year and this year we stopped and it was SO very busy we've put that on our list for next time!

Sunday Evening Walk 7/10

Picture FULL post. (Do I know any other way!!)

Sunday evening we went for a walk along (and IN) in the Boise River near Eagle Road. It was a beautiful evening and we really enjoyed our walk.

The River is still high and moving pretty fast. Though these pictures don't really show that but that previous water line on the trees is really high!

As you can tell here, the water is still high enough to be covering the walkway under Eagle Road.

The east side of the bridge had a rocky beach (or maybe a Rock Beach!) that was very populated. Les and Tiffani waded out to it and then went into the River on the other side of it. That last picture is the area from the Eagle Road bridge - after everyone had cleared off.

The business park along side the River was very nicely landscaped and had some beautiful flowers.

And also some ponds with fountains in them. We walked as close as we could to one fountain & then Tiff climbed on the ledge to get a picture of it. Too many trees in the way, so we walked back and she got a distant shot of it through the branches.

Tiffani was nice enough to let me get a picture of her. Unfortunately it was blurry. :/

Thankfully Les had his camera ready, on the rapid fire setting, and he was able to get a better picture.

Since she was so nice to let me take her picture, I figured I could do the same. ;)

Since Simba loves the water so much, we thought next time we'd bring him along and let him wade under the bridge. Tessa can come too, but she'd probably fight it the whole way across and we'd all be soaked!