Boise or Bust!

Well, here it is. My wonderful fun filled Boise experience. If you don't know how I made it to Boise, click here. To see Lindsay's version of the story, click here. This might be another super long detail filled story. If it is, sorry. Update: It is a super long and WAY too many details filled story. I did make a Top 5 List for Boise. I wrote down all of the fun/funny things I didn't want to forget. I don't know if I will share details on all 5, but here is the list whether you like it or not.

Boise Top 5
1. The note I wrote Tanner the night before I left.
2. Dalan and his squirt bottle.
3. Allie? Who is Allie?
4. The Dressing Room.
5. Making dumb faces with the face masks.

Cohlee and I flew out of St. George. We had a 3 hour layover in LA. I was nervous about flying and having that long of a layover with the little babers. She was SO GOOD! I am thinking it was all easy breezy due to the fact that I am used to having 4 crazy kids, so having only one, it was a cake walk. On both flights, we sat next to very nice people. I hate when you get stuck next to someone who is smelly or someone who has a little baby girl that won't stop grabbing the magazine you are trying to read ;) So we arrive to Boise and get our luggage. I had arranged to have a car service pick us up. I think it was called Lindsay's Limo/Black Tahoe Service or something like that. The driver had texted me and said that she would be waiting at a gas station down the road and to let her know when we landed so she could be waiting right outside the luggage claim door. I followed her instructions perfectly. Well, I am expecting to walk outside and have my ride there waiting for me. Nope! Can you believe I had to wait a whole 59 seconds! Then on top of that, the vehicle was black (which I had requested) but it had BLACK RIMS! I had never ridden in a car that had black rims before. We turned on the local Rap station, cranked up the volume, turned on the hydrolics and headed on our way.

Once we got to Lindsay's house, the craziness began. Like my kids, Dalan loves to play with a squirt bottle outside. I guess he had used up all of the water and needed a refill cuz the next thing I know, I look outside and see Dalans pants around his ankles and his squirt bottle is um...refilled. As you can see from the pictures, he was trying to get that lid screwed back on as quickly as he could so he could start "marking his territory".

I played with these two little rugrats a lot! It was so much fun. It was like I was their new toy named "Hey Tina".

Macie is the sweetest little girl. She is so mellow and content. When she did have her "Macie moments", all you had to do was say something to distract her like, "Macie, do you want a snack?", and she would stop and quietly nod her head and she was happy girl again. My kids have "moments" about 10 times a day. I think I saw Macie have one 2 times. She is an angel. Back in the day B.I. (before Idaho), when Macie was 2 months old, I started watching her a few days a week during the day while Lindsay worked. I am such a good friend, I know. So Macie and I are tight!

Dalan is like the Energizer Bunny! This kid never stops! Lindsay has hardwood floors. I got to wake up to the LOUD stomping "pitter patter" of Dalan's feet on the hardwood floors going back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth...you get the idea. Like Lindsay says, "He is just a go'er and a do'er and the wheels are always turning in his head." The first day I was there, the kids were eating their lunch on the bar. It was pretty high and I kept telling Dalan to sit down. Lindsay informs me then that he stands when he eats. Later that night when we were giving all three kids a bath, Dalan was standing up in the bath. After a few times of telling him to sit down I realized this kid LITERALLY never sits! Now I understand what Lindsay is saying. The great thing about Dalan is that considering how much energy he has, he is such a good boy! My kids are constantly yelling at each other (no offense to my kids, love you!) and throwing tantrums. Dalan isn't like that at all. He is just a busy boy. I hope for Lindsays sake, Dalan will start to watch cartoons soon. It will be life changing for her. Even when the TV is on in the car, Dalan is looking out the window. It was so fun to get to know this little guy and see him in action!

He keeps going, and going and going.....

So back to my fun filled Boise experience...Lindsay has a way fun group of friends. Her friend Shelley planned out all of these fun play dates throughout the summer. We are not talking about just meeting at the park and letting the kids play. These are major expeditions. Well, luckily I got to experience one of these outings. We went to the Nampa Fire Station. Shelley's brother is the Captain guy there. We got the total VIP treatment. They even loaded the kids up on the firetrucks and took them on a ride around the block. They also had a fireman pole. They asked if anyone wanted to slide down it. Normally, I would be way to embarrassed/cool to do it. Weird if you know me, I know. For some reason as I get older I am getting a little more reserved. Basically what I am saying is if I were in St. George, I wouldn't have done it. But I was in Boise and decided to get a little crazy. There was 2 other crazy girls that were going to try it out with me. By then, the rest of the group was downstairs waiting for us to slide down the pole. I got to be the lucky one to go first. I was nervous because I didn't know how fast I would slide down it. So this cute young firefighter is showing me different ways to hold onto the pole. Before I had a chance to stop myself, I say "Oh, I know my way around the pole." I thought I was being funny, but I wish I would have kept that thought in my head. I laughed, he laughed, the two other girls laughed, but I am sure they were all thinking to themselves, "Koo-Koo, Koo-Koo!" Ya, looking at the picture, I do kind of look crazy.

One of the nights, Lindsays husband Dave, was nice enough to come home from work early and watch the kids. I wanted to take Cohlee so we wouldn't have to stress about her. We went and ate at a place called Barbacoa's. It was good.

Then we decided to hit this little cafe called (Cafe le Paris) in downtown Boise that Lindsay has ranted and raved about since the moment she first discovered it. She has told me in complete detail about this Ooey, Goey, literally lick your plate clean chocolate molten cake dessert. I was excited. So we park the car in this parking garage across the street from the cafe. We throw Cohlee in the stroller and head towards this heavenly place....only to find that during the week they close at 3! I guess that on the weekends they close at 11 pm. I was bummed to say the least. Maybe next time.

So we decide to walk around downtown Boise. There are a lot of resturaunts and shops. We thought about trying one of the restaurants out for dessert, but we knew it would end up being a disappointment so we settled on Cold Stone Creamery. On our little walk around town, we decided to take a walk down this dark scary alley. I think I saw a sign on it saying something about it being called Graffiti Alley. I think they let graffiti artists have at it as long as there is nothing inappropriate. So we took some pictures. Gotta love self timer.

Here we are being all crazy going down a dark scary alley. A prego chick and a chick with a stroller.

Another thing that we did that was way fun was go shopping! Boise had an awesome mall! Lindsay got us a babysitter for all of the kids. Shelly met us for lunch at Cheesecake factory. We stuffed our faces and shopped! What more could a girl ask for? This is where the dressing room incident happened. Its a great story that I hope I remember for years to come.

On my last night there, we were getting everything ready for the long drive the next morning and just chilling. We were planning on hitting the road by 8:30 am. We decided to do face masks. How fun! We had fun making silly faces. I know it sounds so lame now, but it was fun. We had a contest who could do the funniest face. For some reason, Lindsay's face looked the same in all the pictures. She looks kind of mad. We laughed that night so hard. I am sure Dave was thinking we were a little koo-koo.

The next morning, we made it out the door by 9. I am thinking that we are doing great! Mrs. Planner girl Lindsay just can't believe we are 30 minutes behind schedule. That first half of the trip went by so fast. Lindsay is the best mom ever. She packs a "Mary Poppins Bag" for her long road trips. She buys fun little things for her kids and if they are really good in the car, every few hours she pulls out a surprise. The first half of the trip, Lindsay pulled out a cute little make up bag for Mace. She was so excited. Dalan got a little matchbox car. He wasn't so excited about it.

So we made it half way and stopped for lunch in Layton. My SIL Melissa lives close by so we planned on meeting her at Carls Jr. and letting the kids play. Much to Lindsay's delight, there was a Jimmy Johns right next to it! If you have ever moved away, you know how much you crave your favorite St. George restaurants. She wanted to make sure she hit Jimmy Johns, Cafe Rio, and Pasta Factory. Jimmy Johns, check. To be honest, I think she had all her restaurants checked off her list by dinner the next day. She doesn't mess around! So we are at Carls Jr., and Dalan has disappeared inside the play place. When he finally comes out, he had pretty toes. I guess Macie decided to give all the kids pedicures in the play place with her new make up bag.

We only peed on the side of the road one time. Macie said she had to pee so bad and couldn't wait the 7 miles we had until the next rest stop. So we pull over at a ranch exit onto the side of the road. Macie doesn't have Dalans "I can pee anywhere, anytime skills". So she had some major stage fright and couldn't do it. Dalan had to go so he had no problems. Of course Lindsay had to pee, so she showed Macie how it was done also. The next thing I know, I am mooning the mountains and peeing on the side of the road. I think we were there for a good 30 minutes before we gave up on Macie. So we get back into the car and once we are about to exit to the rest stop, Macie informs us that she no longer needs to pee. Sweet!

At one point of our long road trip, I pulled out my handy dandy notebook that had my top 5 list in it. I was reading down the list and #3 said Allie. I sat there for quite awhile in silence trying to figure out who the heck Allie was. Am I that forgetful? Finally I tell Lindsay I don't know what this means, who is Allie? After about 10 seconds of deep thought, Lindsay yells out Alley! Ha Ha! Maybe I should learn how to spell. Good times, Good times. I drove the last half of the way and it didn't go by as fast as the first half. 13.5 hours later we pulled into good ol' St. George.

It really was such a great time. Thanks Lindsay and Dave for letting me take over your house. Is it OK if I come for a visit and bring all of my kids when Lindsay has her baby? Thanks!