Home Sweet Idaho

I was so relieved to land in Idaho on familiar ground with family and friends!!! We enjoyed our time traveling about, but as they say "There's No Place Like Home"! While in Texas I almost started having a panicked feeling because it seemed we were just too far from "home" or rather our families, we've always lived close to one side of our family or the other, so it was frustrating to know that we couldn't just "make it happen" meaning to go visit like we've always been able to do in the past if we were just missing our family. We spent two full weeks in Burley/Rupert and did a few fun things! One Saturday we spent adventuring with John's Dad and Step Mom, we went to the Shoshone fair, Carter had fun visiting the animals and sharing a root beer with her Papa!!!! Thank you for the fun we shared that day Papa Dave and Grandma Debbie!

While staying with John's Uncle Mike and Aunt Debbie (for the second week we were there), I decided to stop being a lazy mother and start working with Owen on eating from a spoon...this is one of his "firsts" I think the look suits him, and completes his "old man" look that he has about him...not quite Santa Clause...it's more of a Colonel Sanders....KFC anyone?
I have to give a BIG thank you to Mike and Debbie for letting us stay with them, and truly making us feel welcome and at home!

The first week we were in Idaho we stayed with John's cousins on the Hansen side. Duane and Cortney were so kind to share their home with us, and best of all their little Zach plays SOOO good with Carter!!! They had such fun running about, playing outside and they even earned a slumber party one night, they both thought it was pretty neat to sleep in the same room!

Carter and Zach...AKA Harry Potter!

We had some wonderful R&R at John's sisters house. Heidi and Brooks have always opened their home to us, and let us join the crowd and fun! It was such a joy to watch Carter with her cousins, I really enjoyed spending time with our niece Brynlie....I've had so much one on one time with her older sister's since they were toddlers, but Bryn got jipped because I was so tired from having my own kid + pregnancy+ life stress + everything else by the time she came along...She's such a funny girl, and i'm so happy that I was able to snuggle and play with her, it's sad to me that she won't have as many memories with her Aunt Joy as Riley and McKenzie will, especially now that we will be living 8 hrs away for quite a few years.

Brynlie and Owen having some one on one cousin time!

Carter had SO much fun playing at Aunt Heidi's house! Riley and McKenzie do such a good job of being big helpers for me, the love Carter and she loves them, they had fun jumping on the trampoline, playing legos, painting and watching movies together! Thanks Heidi for letting us de-stress and find normal again at your house!!!

All of the girl cousins on John's side of the family!

Our last stop before we moved on was in Twin Falls. The kids and I spent some time with John's Mom and Step Dad. It was SOOO nice to kick back and relax some more!!! Carter loves her Nana Pattie : they color together, bake together, watch movies together, sort beeds together, draw with chalk together and anything else that can be done "together" they do! Carter is very hesitant around men, even those she knows and sees often (with the exception of her father of course)! So she's a little slower in warming up to Mark, but it doesn't take too long...or too much bribing for her to come around! It was sooo NICE to feel like I could really just ignore my chidlren and the fact that I was a mom for about an hour while I took a nice long soaking bath...A HUGE shout out to Nana and Mark for taking such good care of us while we visited!!!