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The Boise River was flowing fast, so we rented a boat and went down it. It was a lot of fun when it
wasn't terrifying because we got stuck on a rock. Naomi was our savior, told us all to move to the
back of the boat and then the front of the boat just floated away from the rock and we were on
our way again.
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We rented a cabin at Boiling Springs, which has a great hot spring. The cabin is super nice and comfortable,
and we had a great time. Unfortunately, all the forest fires made the air really smokey, so that was annoying,
but there's not much you can do about it except relax in the warm water.
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Naomi had the kids hold up a sign for the first day of their school since they were going to try out attending public school that week.
None of them lasted more than a few days though, and soon we were back to home-schooling.
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The Payette river was right next to the cabin, which is another reason why the cabin is so awesome, and the hot springs
trickle down to the river. Some enterprising person built a hot-tub area out of rocks, and you can adjust
how warm it is by damming or allowing river water into the pool.
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Or you can just do what Mia did, which is to bring a plastic bucket and fill it with hot water. The tube comes from
up above the cliff where the hot water bubbles out of the ground.
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It's actually pretty dangerous to get too close to where the water comes out, since it really is boiling hot.
They don't call it Boiling Springs for nothing. Here, Naomi is using a pan to bail mud out of the pool and make it deeper.
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Having the river by the cabin was so great. Even Buddy, our mini-Australian shepherd, was jumping in and having fun.
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Naomi was watching the kids play in the river. You can never be too careful when it comes to water.
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Back in Boise, Naomi took the kids to Quinn's Pond and rented a paddle board.
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Our neighborhood always does something nice for National Night Out. They rent a couple of bounce houses and hire a band
and do a pot-luck. The fire-fighters turned on their water spout for the kids and it was pretty cool. Desmond is in the
middle of the video doing cart-wheels.
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Every summer we do some model rocketry, and it's just so much fun. The kids always go running after the rocket to try and catch it.
And this summer I dialed down the rocket engine sizes so we wouldn't lose any more in the lake.
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We were lucky enough to be almost in the path of totality during the eclipse, so we drove an hour north and had
several minutes of a total eclipse to enjoy. It wasn't the life altering experience some people had, but it was
still incredible. I was against driving, telling Naomi that a 98% eclipse is good enough, but it turns out I was
wrong. Even at 98% the sun is still way too bright to feel the full impact of an eclipse, it's really 100% or nothing.
Good thing Naomi is smarter than me.
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Amelie got a ferret at the Boise Humane Society. She had been asking us for a long time to get one, and Naomi
finally gave in.
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Amelie was taking a health class at the College of Western Idaho (CWI), and one of the things she had to do
was walk/run on the treadmill every day. Might as well take the dogs for a walk while you're at it.
That's Teddy in front and Luna in back.
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Mia built this little town on the poster board and created a story about how a gummy worm was murdered by
another gummy worm, and the town detective is on his trail. It's pretty cute.
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Desmond at nine years old.
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Mia started a cat wall next to her bed, I have no idea why. It's getting bigger all the time, though.
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Miles is very into the pets. Here he is with Teddy, the toy poodle.
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Here Miles is sleeping next to Toby, a very furry cat. That cat sheds like crazy.
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Miles recently turned six years old. We rented the neighborhood club house to celebrate, and also went to a teppenyaki
place for lunch. We always enjoy that.
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We also took the kids to Wahooz for Miles birthday, and now he's old enough to ride the go-karts.
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Getting ready to spin around until you throw up.
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While I was in Irvine for work, Naomi ripped out all the carpeting in the living room. I have a picture of the back
of the carpet and it's just one dog pee after another, but I'll spare you the details. Unfortunately, that meant I
had a new project so I started laying down engineered hardwood. It took forever and eventually I hired a guy to
finish the last half since I was taking so long. He finished in one day!
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Might as well use the bare floor for a roller rink until it gets replaced.
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Naomi flew to Florida to visit Hippocrates Health Institute, which serves up a whole lot of sprouts to help
people improve their health. We're long-time raw-fooders and we used to be long-time Hippocrates fans, but
it turns out the people running the place are total bitches! Naomi had a terrible experience there, which
was so disappointing because when you watch their little introductory video, it's all about how great
Hippocrates is and not once do they mention that the people working there are assholes. Who knows, maybe they're
all pissed because they have to eat this stuff all day long.
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Desmond and Miles are taking fencing, they're under those masks somewhere. Personally, I never understood fencing,
it just seems so random to me, but their fencing instructor assures me there is a lot more to it than meets the eye.
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Desmond had his first fencing tournament recently and made it to the finals where the daughter of his fencing
instructor finally took him out. Not bad!
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We took the kids to the Idaho Western State Fair again this year, where they got to watch mini-dog races and
ride the mechanical bull.
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Amelie's got a cool new look. In the end, though, she passed the sunglasses up.
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There's this farm down the road from us called The Farmstead, that every year has a big Halloween setup with
corn mazes, a giant inflatable dragon you can walk through, and a haunted house. This is the entrance to the
corn maze, and we instantly got lost and ended up just walking between the corn stalks to find our way out.
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Climbing on the spider web is always fun.
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They have a zip line that four people at a time can go down.
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There's a really fun game that's like paint-ball but with soft foam rubber balls called Friendly Fire. The kids played it a few times.
I like how Amelie is about to get pummeled by her sister here.
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Desmond is on the prowl for his next victim.
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Halloween was awesome this year. Amelie went as a 50s girl because she really wanted to wear a poodle skirt. Desmond is wearing
this skin costume of Jeff the Killer that's just terrifying, but he got tons of compliments on it.
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Naomi did a great job on Mia's make-up.
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Watch out for the mummy! Although, it's not the same when the mummy is wrapped in colored streamers.
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Until next time, keep your hands off my candy!
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