Idaho....OHHH!

I can't say enough about the beautiful state of Idaho.  Dave's Christmas present to the family was a ski trip to Sun Valley, Idaho for our Winter Break.  We flew out after school let out Friday afternoon and we were well on our way to having fun.  Of course, we didn't get in to Boise until midnight, but we were so excited, it didn't matter.

Weeks before our trip, I realized an old friend from 2nd grade, Todd Fears, (way back when...) lives in Eagle, Idaho.  I met up with him on Facebook (funny how that works) and we made plans to see each other while we were close.  Our first day in Idaho was wonderful because we spent the day with Todd Fears and his family.  They treated us to brunch at a really cool place in downtown Boise, The Grove, and we headed over to the barn to check out their horses.  Jennifer, Todd's wife, lead Olivia around on their horse, Yeller.  The other kids played and petted Lola.  A few hours into it, and it looked like our kids had been friends for years!  It was awesome to see how well they got along.

Dave, Jennifer P., Todd and Jennifer Fears

Olivia, Henry, Zach, Graham and Claire

Here is a little background on our friendship.  My memory does not serve me well, so Todd had to fill in some of the gaps.  I can't believe I forgot this, but we were King and Queen of our football homecoming in 1981. I believe we were boyfriend/girlfriend in 2nd grade, maybe beyond?  It was so nice for our families to actually meet.  We are all grown up now, but look how we changed.  Thanks for the photos, Todd!

Lola

Graham and Zach - looks like they are up to 'something'.

Everyone had to pet Yeller

Todd and Dave in serious barn discussions :-)

Jennifer leading Olivia

The kids got into the horses' juice carrots, so Zach rode to Sun Valley with an orange face!

Our condo in Sun Valley

The hot tub was small, but oh, so nice.  The kids enjoy more than we did.

Outside Smokey Mountain Pizza - they had Gluten Free pizza and pasta, so guess where we ate twice?!  Olivia just wanted to play in the snow every time she had the chance.

King of the snow hill!

In a downtown Sun Valley park.  It was a winter wonderland!

Watch out for moose!

We had snow come and go most days, but it was never that big of a deal.  I was amazed that the temperatures were between 4-26 degrees in Ketchum while we were there, but we were never really cold.  I guess all of our gear worked because it was actually fun to be outside.  We were walking downtown one day and Olivia was begging Dave to get her an icicle.  She was fascinated by them.  Dave was helping Olivia put her gloves back on....for at least 2 minutes.  Finally he said, "come on genius".  Zach pops out with "genius sometimes means stupid."  Dave and I couldn't control ourselves!  

Zach became sick with a really high fever on Sunday morning, so we took it easy and went on a search for Children's Tylenol at 6 am.  That's a hard order to fill in a small town.  We finally got Zach feeling a little better and went tubing.  Sun Valley has a great tubing area, so we hit it pretty hard.  

We rode the magic carpet back up the hill to sled again and again.  Yes, we had it easy. I love this place!

Fur trimmed and ready to go!!

Dave says 'give me a spin'.

Dollar Mountain Lodge

Olivia took a break from tubing and found trees and tons of snow to build a wolf cave.  Imagine that....we couldn't keep her out of the snow!

Zach and I found THE BEST hot chocolate EVER!!  Of course, the whipped cream didn't hurt.

Monday came around and we were ready for some snowmobiling. We headed to Smiley Creek Lodge about an hour north of Ketchum.  I think I had one of my best meals ever at the lodge - BBQ ribs, green chili grits, amazing broccoli (I could have eaten an entire plate of it) and homemade baked apples.  Yum, yum and all gluten free.  And no, Olivia is NOT driving the snowmobile, but she looks good on it, right?  Zach rode with me and surprisingly, he did not like going fast.  My speed racer?!  I think being sick didn't help matters, but I finally realized he was crying on the way home....I originally thought he was screaming with joy, but I really couldn't hear much of anything on that vehicle!  

We made it 25 miles to Redfish Lake in the Sawtooth Mountains.  I cannot begin to describe how majestic the ride in was to me.  We were in wide open plains, then through trees which opened to the mountains.  'Purple mountain majesties'...... We were truly in the back country.

So I slowed down on the way home to keep Zach happy and ended up losing Dave.  He returned to the lodge and I missed a turn and realized it.  We had a reverse on the snow mobile, but after many tries, it just wasn't going to work for me.  I waited for about 5 minutes for someone to return, but finally figured I needed to turn around.  I had a feeling I would get the snowmobile stuck in the snow drifts, but hey, I had to do something!  So....after crossing the road, looping around, I indeed got stuck in a snow drift!  No surprise on my end, but Zach was not too happy.  There were some people stuck on the hill and I knew we would have help arriving soon.  Dave actually sent someone from the lodge to look for us and this 6'5" guy came to our rescue.  He said that snowmobile was a little touchy on the reverse....yes, I figured that one out!  I actually asked the guy if Zach could ride back with him, knowing that Zach was done with me :-)  But, he chose his mommy over the 'tall guy'.  After warming up, we headed back to Ketchum with a little giggle that we got stuck.

Olivia inside the Roosevelt Saloon, petting a moose head.

All smiles after getting a new Lego and Playmobile at The Toy Store in town.

Olivia showing off her 'mood' necklace she got after snowmobiling.

We had a few 'white outs' during our trip.  

Hugging the bear in the snow.

The Sun Valley Lodge is a historic place with tons of old photographs along the halls of famous people who have visited.  We skated on the ice rink where Lucille Ball, The Kennedy's and many others have played. They had lights strung overhead and it was a beautiful setting.  Zach finally learned to ice skate and then we couldn't get him to stop! 

Down in the basement, the Lodge has an old-timey bowling alley.  Zach was more focused on the arcade games, but he made it through a game with Dave.  

Outside the Sun Valley Lodge with the Sun ice sculpture.  Behind this is a lake with duck and swans, very picturesque.

Finally, after days of Zach being sick and Dave running a high fever, we were ready to hit the slopes!  We enrolled the kids in ski school from 9:30-3:00 and Dave and I headed out.  The first two runs were great and easy.  This is at the top of run #3, not so easy for me.....

This is me standing on my own....you won't see photos of this for a long time.  I had a skiing accident on our first day out.  After a sled ride down the rest of the mountain, and a trip to the ER along with an MRI, I was declared unable to ski the rest of the season.  REALLY?!  Seeing that I can't walk, I dare say I can ski.  Dr. Kittleson thinks it is my ACL, so I'm waiting to see a doctor in Atlanta for confirmation.  I returned to the lodge after my ER visit to let Dave finish skiing and wait on the kids from ski school.  It turns out that Olivia and Zach LOVED skiing.  They even were able to ski down once with Dave!  Zach decided to go back the next day and started doing slaloms!  He was begging to go back a third day.  Watch out, he may be our ski bum.

This was my view for a day and a half while I had my leg elevated.  Nice fire....

I tried to get a photo of my 'favorite' mountain.  I didn't come out so great (the run to the far left), but I'll always have fond memories of how I 'almost' finished the mountain.  

Olivia spent her last day in the snow building snow forts.

This is me on the plane ride home from Boise to Phoenix to Atlanta.  At least I rode 1st Class and was able to stretch and elevate my leg.  Wheel chairs and carts helped us navigate the airports, but I was really ready to get home!

Crutches and a full leg brace make it difficult to be mobile in a house with stairs.  That's an ice pack on my knee.

I have an appointment on Monday with an orthopedic specialist and we'll see where we go from here.  All in all it was a wonderful trip in a beautiful state, but we came home with too many bumps, fevers and tears.  So, I'll leave it on a better note......

Bliss!