The Almost Hike

Jen didn't want me to have to spend my birthday evening alone (Matt is working today) so we decided to celebrate by going on a hike and having a picnic (this is after we already had a BBQ with friends to celebrate my birthday earlier this week!)  It was hot today and we thought it would be nicer to hike near Idaho City where there are some trees.  I used this as an excuse to take the day off work so we could head out earlier than 6.  We ended up leaving about 3:30 and drove for 2 1/2 hours up past Idaho City to hit a 6-mile-loop along the North Fork of the Boise River in the Boise National Forest.  The drive was absolutely gorgeous, and we were excited to see what the hiking book described as a mini grand canyon with clear pools of water and places with white sandy beaches.  Unfortunately, when we were just about 6 miles out from the trail head, we saw this:

What a bummer.  We had come all this way and wouldn't even be able to hike!  It didn't really surprise us though... gave us flashbacks to our hike to Loon Lake a few years ago when we backpacked in 6 miles just to be surrounded by a burned forest.  Hiking doesn't seem to like to go our way!  Anyway, we still took some "hike-like" pictures to give an idea of what the scenery along our hike would have looked like.

We stopped at a campsite along the river on the way back for our picnic.  Jen had brought an awesome dinner, complete with the "Special" plate.  We had turkey, bacon, avocado pitas with blueberries and the cutest homemade whoopie pies (with cake batter frosting!) for dessert.

To top off the evening, Jen gave me the most beautiful rag quilt.  She has one really similar that she made while she was undergoing chemo a little while back... I love her "cancer quilt" as we have come to call it, and want to use it every time we watch a movie at her house.

I am thankful for Jen and her friendship, and for helping me have a special birthday afternoon/evening!

Mighty Mia Maids

I have always said my favorite church calling is working with the Young Women of the ward.  I had some amazing experiences in the two other wards where I had the privilege to serve in Young Womens, and my current calling is no exception.  I am the 1st Counselor in the Young Womens presidency and serve over the Mia Maids (14-15 year old girls).  We have Sunday lessons and Wednesday evening activities.  There are really only three girls who are always there (so much smaller than the last Young Womens organization I served in!) but they are some pretty special girls.  Hayley, Zoe, and Sarah are always so happy and upbeat and get along really well.  I was just going through my camera today and realized I had some fun pictures of our activities that I should share.

We made these super cute paper bag Young Women camp journals.

We visited Brother Keleher in a care facility.  He passed away this last Wednesday... one week after our visit.

A combined Young Women activity - hiking Tablerock!

Mousetrap

The whole volunteer crew

I love, love the Shakespeare Festival.  I know I blog about this every year, but I just think the Idaho Shakespeare Festival venue is such a gem and and am happy to live in a place where I can attend such well-done performances.  This year, I organized a volunteer evening for Boise State's Professional Staff Association.  I handed out programs before the show and collected recycling at intermission and after the show.  The weather was perfect, the play (Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap) was entertaining, and the company was great... I was happy to volunteer side-by-side with not only my friends and co-workers, but also my amazing husband. I truly appreciate how Matt supports me in all of my different interests and activities.

Me and Jami

Happy Father's Day!

Father's Day was a little extra special for me this year... because I had one extra dad in my life to celebrate!  We packed the weekend with tons of fun activities to show "daddy" how much we love him.

We started off by heading up to Garden Valley.  After setting up camp, we headed to the range for some shooting.  Matt was super excited about his new steel targets.  I thought they were pretty cool too... you could always tell when you hit the target because of the "ping" off the steel!  It was fun to have Michelle, Joey, Andrea, Jen, and Brooke join us for the afternoon/evening.  As always, Matt is a great teacher.

We then headed back to camp and cooked dinner over the fire.

After dinner, we walked next door to watch Cinderella at the Starlight Mountain Theater (we camped right in the theater campsites).  Aunt Michelle took Kylee to meet Cinderella before the play.  Kylee was so excited to meet the "real" Cinderella!  I wondered how she would do watching the play, but she did great!  She seemed to really enjoy it, but was ready to leave at intermission.  It was nice that Matt and Joey had decided to skip the play and just sit around the campfire because I was able to walk Kylee back to camp, help get her tucked into her sleeping bag, and then walk back and enjoy the rest of the play with the girls.

After a decent night of camping sleep (Kylee did great!), we cooked breakfast, packed up camp, and headed home.  Here are daddy and daughter on Father's Day morning.  Kylee absolutely LOVED her first camping trip!  I am excited for more outdoor adventures in the future.

After heading home, catching up on our sleep, taking showers/baths, and heading to church, we enjoyed the rest of the evening visiting both my family and Matt's family.  I love that we can live so close to our family so we can enjoy these special days together.  I also love my dad, and am so thankful for him.  He truly is the best and I appreciate his love and support.  And the fact that he likes to play Word Feud with me :-)

And I couldn't finish this post without including one last photo.  A special thanks to Jen who took some amazing pictures of Kylee as a Father's Day present for Matt.  This last picture was a pose Kylee decided to do all on her own.  I love that it perfectly captures her personality.  I love this little girl!

Ironman 70.3 Boise

For the last three years, I have volunteered with BYP at an aid station for the Ironman 70.3 Boise race.  I have enjoyed it every year, so this year I took on the role of team captain.  It definitely took more time than I expected, but it was totally worth it.  It wasn't hard, it just took a lot of coordination.  Here were a few things I did as part of this project:

• I solicited volunteers - I needed at least 40 to meet the minimum Ironman aid station requirements.  I had to organize the volunteers into three different shifts, get their shirt sizes, enter them into the Ironman database, send emails with pertinent information, etc.
• Along with my Work Team, I selected a charity to donate the aid station money to (for our volunteer efforts, the Ironman donates $1200 to a charity of our choice).  This year, we selected Let's Move Boise.  I then worked with the organization to obtain and submit appropriate tax paperwork to Ironman.
• Work on getting food donations for our volunteers.  This proved to be one of the hardest parts.  I first tried to figure out Walmart's donation policy/process, but had a hard time figuring out what I needed to do.  So I decided to move on - I sent a formal letter to Winco requesting a gift card to purchase food for our volunteers.  When I didn't hear back after 7 weeks, I contacted the corporate office twice, but never heard a word back.  Not even a "no".  I started to get a little panicky - so I contacted Rosauers (a new grocery store in town), submitted a formal letter, and was told I should hear back within about 7 days.  I didn't hear anything back.  I called to follow up and was promised a return phone call that day.  I didn't hear back.  Ugh, what a nightmare.  A special thanks to Erik Pray and Washington Trust Bank.  Erik (a former BYP member) had volunteered to bring down a BBQ and cook our food for us.  When he heard I had been unsuccessful in getting food donations, he used some community funds he had available through Washington Trust.  The BBQ was great... THANK YOU ERIK!!
• Music is always a nice addition to our aid station.  Not only does it pump up the athletes as they run by, but it helps make the time a little more exciting for the volunteers... I coordinated with Wild 101  (multiple emails/phone calls) to set up a PA system and play music for us.  It was great :-)
• I also attended a couple team captain meetings the two weeks prior to the event.

Race day ended up being crazy!  Matt and I went to pick up the big Budget truck with all our aid station supplies at 9:30 Saturday morning and dropped it off at our aid station.  We were set with volunteers from 1-9pm, with the first athlete expected to pass by our aid station at 2:48, so we went home, expecting to rest for a little bit before we had to go back down to set up.  Well, I got a call at about 11:15 that the bike race was cut short due to weather (from 56 miles down to 15!), and that I needed to get back to my aid station and set up asap, since they were now expecting the first athlete to pass my aid station around 12:45.  I started panicking because I didn't have any volunteers to even help get set up until 1:00... and I didn't have people's phone numbers!  I called the one person whose number I did have and emailed another, and I ended up getting three guys to come help Matt and I get set up early.  Of course it was freezing cold and raining, but everyone was awesome and we got set up quickly.  And then of course our first runner didn't pass by until about 1:40 :-)  But at least we were prepared for them.  I just felt bad for my late shift people who didn't really have much to do besides clean up since the race ended a couple hours earlier than I expected.  Oh well, I realized that some things were out of my control.  The weather did end up clearing up quite a bit, and it ended up being a decently nice afternoon.

I am especially thankful for Matt - he was such a trooper and helped me out the entire day.  

I continue to be amazed by the athleticism and the endurance of those who actually participate in the race.  I'm hoping that the Ironman comes back to Boise again next year since I'm looking forward to participating again.  I figure I've learned a lot this year, so next year should be smoother!

Mortgage-Free

I moved into my house in March 2004.  I loved this house from the beginning.  The original plans were to be in this house for about 5-7 years, by which time we would need a bigger house to support a growing family.  Well, clearly life doesn't always go as planned.  When my plans took a detour in 2007, I made a goal to pay off the house.  I was originally hoping to have it paid off by the time I was 30, but decided to do a little remodeling and a little traveling, which delayed this goal a little... but not much!  I am just shy of my 32nd birthday.

And I am proud to say that today, after 8 years and 3 months of pouring money into my home, Matt and I did a wire transfer to completely pay off our mortgage.  

We are, for the time being, mortgage-free!  I have to admit, I'm feeling a little lot poor (my savings account is lower than it has been in 10 years), but I am darn proud of this accomplishment.  

In front of the home that we own 100%

I know I've probably blogged about all of these changes over the years, but let me take you on a little journey of the last 8 years of my humble abode.

I updated the floors

Took out the ugly linoleum

And took out all the carpet

And replaced with all new carpet and beautiful walnut hardwood floors.

Completely gutted and remodeled both bathrooms

Guest bathroom before

And after... new tile surround, floor, new vanity, mirror... everything!

Took down the nasty floral wallpaper border in the office and painted the walls a pretty green color

Can't forget the kitchen remodel, which included new granite countertops, an under-mount sink, new appliances, and new hardware on the cabinets.

Old kitchen... with the pergo flooring I updated shortly after moving in (pre-hardwood), laminate countertops, and old/mis-matched appliances

New and pretty :-)

And of course there was the replacing of all the doorknobs throughout the house, updating the landscaping, upgrading from a box florescent light to recessed lighting in the kitchen and upgrading several of my other light fixtures throughout the house, etc.

Yes, I love this house... but with a family of three, we could definitely use some more space.  So next on the list is to save up for a down payment on a new (larger) home.  I look forward to this next step and purchasing my first home with Matt, but I think I will always have a soft spot in my heart for this house and how I turned it from a blah, 1980's house to a comfy, updated home that really is just me.  I hope, when the time comes, that we will be able to find some renters that love this house as much as I do!

Best Hikes in Boise: Highland/Cobb Loop

Jen bought a book with some of the best hikes in and near Boise, and we have been anxious to start trying them all out.  We did our first hike on Saturday - the Highland/Cobb Loop.  It originates off of Warm Springs Rd. near Lucky Peak and is 5.7 miles with an elevation gain of close to 1500 feet.

Saturday morning was beautiful for hiking!  It got to be quite warm that day, but we went at 9:00 am, so it was still early enough, and occasionally the sun went behind the clouds and we got a slight breeze.  It really felt great to be out enjoying nature.  The only bummer part was Matt and I had to run the last mile or mile and a half so that we could pick up our Bountiful Basket.  Next time we'll plan a little better :-)

Biggest Loser: Final Week and Recap

Last week was the final week of our Biggest Loser competition.  Here was our final challenge:

Week 12 Challenge:

Pick three of the following to give up for the week - carbs, sugar, dairy, or caffeine (if you do this you earn 10 points).

AND

Log as many points as you can with exercise

1 mile walk/run = 1 point

1 mile on the elliptical with no arms = 1 point

2 miles on the elliptical with arms = 1 point

2000 meters on the row machine = 1 point

4 miles on the bike = 1 point

The team with the most points at the end of the week wins!

Of course when I see a challenge like this, the competitive nature in me comes out... I ended up logging 25 points of exercise from Monday through 7am on Friday morning, and of course I got my food points (I didn't give up dairy for the week)... bringing my total to 35 points!  My last big push came on Thursday when I went to the gym three times: from 6-7am, from 6-7pm, and from 8:30-9:30pm.  Phew!  Glad last week is over :-)

So, overall, I lost 4.9%.  Didn't reach my goal, but wasn't awful either.  I'm hoping that as I ramp up for this half marathon that I will be more motivated to be healthy!  Oh, and in case you're wondering, of course my team won overall.  We will be celebrating with a team dinner at Brandee's house next Monday!

Zoo Boise

I was excited for Memorial Day this year... not only because I didn't have to go into work, but because I got to spend the day with Kylee!  We decided to meet up with Beki and Bryce as well as Natalie and Olivia for a trip to the Boise Zoo.  It has been years since I've been to the zoo, so it was fun to see the new additions - like the giraffes and the lions!  We had a great time finding the animals in their exhibits, riding the merry-go-round, and playing on all the cool zoo toys.  Love my sweet little girl :-)