Idaho

We left for Idaho the day after Christmas. We had a late start due to roads closed in Wyoming. The kids did okay in the car until eight or nine hours into the eleven hour car ride. Haden kept telling us in a pitiful voice to help him get out of his carseat because he was stuck. We were all relieved to get to my mom's house. Regan loved playing with her aunts and cousins while Haden terrorized my mom's two house cats. Her cats must be dumb, because they rarely ran when they saw him coming! He caught them a lot, but luckily only wound up with two scratches on his cheek.

In Samaria, Grandpa took us to help him feed the cows. At first, Regan adamantly refused to go. I think that she was envisioning my mom hand feeding her two pygmy goats and had no desire to get that close to a cow! She finally gave in, but upon climbing into the farm truck, claimed that it was too dirty and needed to be cleaned. This is Regan not happy about such a dirty truck.

Haden loved riding around in the truck without his carseat, but loved driving the tractor with Clint even more. Regan kept telling Clint that he didn't know how to drive the tractor and he should go get Grandpa! I think Clint was offended!

Regan quickly lost interesest in riding in the tractor and climbed down to be with me. While Clint and his dad were spreading out straw for the baby calves, I gave Regan the job of pulling the bailing twine out of the straw. She wasn't exactly excited about it.The 4 wheeler and snowmobile pulled sled were also big attractions. Both kids loved going fast especially over the bumps! In Samaria, there is a penny candy store named the Blue Goose. (Clint & I actually had our wedding reception there years ago!) Clint's dad traditionally takes the kids to visit Clarence, the storekeeper , and assemble their bag of penny candy. This trip was the first time Haden understood that when he went to the Goose he got candy. There were several times that Haden would grab my hand, pull me to the door, saying, "Go, Goose!" over and over. The poor little boy didn't understand that it wasn't open 24 hours. The Goose was supposed to be closed New Year's Day, but Clarence had sympathy for Haden, and called to let us know he would be there for a few minutes if Haden wanted to come visit.

It was a fun trip, but we were all relieved to get home, this time ahead of the storm.