It has now been 6 months since I quit Facebook and 5 months since I quit Instagram. The duration of time seems so little when I write it down, yet it really feels as though a long time has passed.
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| Abigail drinking a glass of chocolate milk. |
In the middle of March, we had a very spontaneous visit from a friend in Washington. She was traveling through with her twelve children (no big deal) and they stopped to stay with us for a night. We had 18 kids in the house for about 24 hours, and it was so wonderful. It was good to see an old friend, to reconnect and catch up, even if it was brief.
Washington
I still don't know how she did it, but she convinced me to drive to Washington to visit her by myself with all of my kids!
The drive with the kids was smooth and easy. We arrived on Holy Thursday and stayed with her for almost a week, during Easter-time. My friend is such a lovely hostess that the whole trip was easy and enjoyable. I felt at ease and relaxed with 18 kids for 6 days during Easter! Can you even believe it? It was lively and refreshing; I have only happy memories.
It was so good to be at St. Joseph's again, just to sit in the pew and look around the church and see so many familiar faces that I have missed so much. We were at the church on Good Friday, Easter Vigil, Easter morning, and daily Mass on Monday. The boys met Fr. O'Brien and were able to serve Mass for him on Monday morning.
On Easter Sunday, we had brunch at my friend's parents' house after Mass.
Brunch was followed by an egg hunt on their pretty and spacious property.
One day in Washington, we went to the beach and explored the tide pools. I didn't fully realize how much I missed doing that until we were there chasing crabs and smelling the salty sea.
April Birthdays
When we arrived home to Idaho, we quickly had two birthdays to celebrate. Oliver turned 10 and Anja turned 12. We celebrated at home, just us -- you know, the 8 of us, and Nick. Wait, did I tell you about Nick? Nick moved in with us in December 2019 and lived with us for five months. We gave him our extra bedroom and it was really fantastic having him around the house. He's headed to Austria now to study at the International Theological Institute. I'm really excited for him, but we will miss his musical presence in our household.
Here's two sort of funny things about our April birthdays: 1. Oliver couldn't decide what kind of theme he wanted for his cake, so he chose a "blank" theme: a white cake with white frosting and white chocolate chips and white candles. 2. We were supposed to have friends over for dinner who are allergic to both gluten and dairy, so I made a gluten-free, dairy-free chocolate cake (including the frosting), and we were all kind of nervous to eat it but then it turned out that it was just about the BEST chocolate cake I've ever had?!??
That's why the cakes are so big. We were supposed to have a bunch of people over. And then at the last minute I decided to have nobody over.
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| Happy Birthday, Oliver! |
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| Happy Birthday, Anja! |
Northern Idaho
In May, we traveled to northern Idaho for Anja's confirmation. Anja spent a long time going through a very tough program at our little chapel. She studied hard and passed her exam. On May 15th, she was confirmed at Immaculate Conception Church in Post Falls, Idaho by Bishop Fellay.
Anja was sponsored by our friend, Janelle. Altogether, 88 people were confirmed over two days. The ceremony was nearly three hours long without a Mass.
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| Patrick blowing bubbles |
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| Isabelle and baby Faustina |
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| Steve and his three goddaughters. |
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| Twins eating the chocolate off the top of the donuts. |
Exploring Idaho
When we got home from this trip, I was still in the mood to travel. I decided to abruptly stop our homeschooling for the year and go explore!
Our first day trip was 144 miles southeast to Twin Falls. I took the kids to Mammoth Caves, Shoshone Falls, Perrine Bridge, and then ended the day with a round of mini-golf and pizza.
Idaho's Mammoth Cave is an unusual and eerie experience. Imagine, if you will, that you turn off the highway onto a dusty, bumpy dirt road, drawing ever closer to a strange cone-shaped thing a mile in the distance. Cows might meander across the dirt road, so drive slowly. As you pull up to this strange building, you will be greeted by a huge flock of peacocks. There are all kinds of random shacks, overgrown plants, and rusted antiques littered about the property, and peacocks are freely roaming EVERYWHERE. The place is strange and gives you a distinctive creepy kind of feeling. Where am I? Are my children safe? Inside the weird building you will pay admission, be handed an electric lantern, and then be shown out the back door. You will walk along a thin, curving, twisting dirt path (watch out for peacocks) and soon you will come to the mouth of a cave.
Upon entering the cave, you will immediately start down a steep downgrade, but it soon levels off. The first thing to strike your senses is the darkness. The second is the chill. The third is the silence. It's so dark, so still, so absolutely quiet, that it is startling. It's like when the power goes out and suddenly all the white noise of life ceases. In our case, we were also the only people visiting the cave at the time, so we were completely alone in pitch black chilly silence.
We had many false starts. We would walk a little ways but then the kids would panic and run out. Feeling reassured by the warm daylight, they would venture back in. Then they would scramble out again. Eventually, we managed to make it pretty far in -- but we never did make it all the way to the end. We felt too darned creeped out. The cave is huge and truly impressive, and mineral deposits on the wall give it a pretty appearance.
Currently, Mammoth Cave is the largest volcanic cave in the world that is open to the public. Their website explains: "Millions of years ago, a violent volcanic eruption rocked the land and rivers of molten lava flowed out of the depths of the earth, filling the valley with lava estimated to have been 600 feet deep. During this time, one of these rivers of lava got blocked off at its head while the molten lava flowed on, leaving behind a hollow tube, creating this rare and stunning cave. Later on, a section of the cave collapsed, leaving an opening to the outside."
In 1954, a young man named Richard Olsen stumbled across the entrance to the the cave by accident while hunting bobcats. He convinced his girlfriend to go in the cave with him. He was filled with excitement. She was so terrified she cried the whole time.
Taking advantage of Idaho laws at the time, Olsen raised mushrooms in the dark, damp conditions of the cave, effectively making it his property. Later, he built a small home next to the cave which he made out of wood scraps. That weird building still stands today: it's the museum and where we paid our entrance fee.
The museum, by the way, is overwhelmingly full of incredible and interesting artifacts from all over the world.
Giant cave. Peacocks everywhere. Amazing museum. What could be better?
After Mammoth Cave we shot directly over to Shoshone Falls, an extremely impressive waterfall on the Snake River that is taller than Niagara Falls.
My iPhone photos don't do it justice. Here's a great video on YouTube if you want to see the falls really flowing.
These falls have been a tourist attraction for a long time -- even travelers on the Oregon Trail often stopped to visit the falls, which required only a "slight detour" to the north.
Next, we drove a couple of miles up the road to the Perrine Bridge which spans the majestic Snake River Canyon. At one time it was the tallest bridge in the United States; now it is the 8th tallest. The bridge is 1,500 feet long and, fun fact, its a fantastic launching point for parachuting into the canyon! This is the only man-made structure in the United States where base jumping is allowed year-round without a permit (wooo freedom!!) We saw three base jumpers the day we were there, which was basically the highlight of Theo's life (for about 3 weeks, until he forgot all about it.)
Another fun fact: to the east of the bridge, along the south rim of the canyon, still visible is the dirt ramp used by Evel Knievel when he unsuccessfully attempted to jump the canyon on his steam-powered "skycycle."
Next, we did a fun round of Mini Golf and filled up on Gertie's pizza before driving the 144 miles back home. It was a fantastic day trip!
Bruneau Sand Dunes
Our next Idaho adventure was the Bruneau Sand Dunes, a 79 mile drive to the southeast. I want to make sure you understand how amazing and unique Idaho is -- not only do we have the deepest canyon (deeper than the Grand Canyon) and tallest waterfall in the U.S., we also have the tallest single-structured sand dune in North America! These two imposing dunes are striking, particularly because they dwarf most of the nearby land features.
These dunes are unique in the Western Hemisphere. The combination of 1) a source of sand; 2) a relatively constant wind activity; and 3) a natural trap, have caused sand to collect in this semicircular basin for over 20,000 years. Geologists believe the dunes seen today may have started with sands from the Bonneville Flood about 15,000 years ago. The prevailing winds blow from the southeast 28% of the time and from the northwest 32% of the time, keeping the dunes fairly stable, so unlike most dunes, these do not drift far.
They sure are fun to sled down!
...just not so fun to climb back up after every ride down.
We had a great day climbing the dunes and sliding down on sleds and sandboards. At night, there is an incredible view of the milky way. Idaho’s only public observatory is located right next to the dunes where visitors can use a telescope for stargazing.
Stack Rock
At the end of May, Elijah's friend Ephraim was celebrating his birthday with a hike: he wanted to hike to Stack Rock with his friends. So, three families drove up into the Boise National Forest and dropped seven boys off at the trail head (with my husband trailing behind them). The rest of us drove further up the mountain to Shafer Butte. The boys went on a 10 mile hike that took them 4 hours while the rest of us enjoyed the beautiful views atop the scenic Boise Ridge Mountains. At an elevation of 7,000 feet, we even found some snow to play in.
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| Stack Rack at the trail head. |
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| Stack Rock at the end of the trail. |
June
Garden
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| the tallest sunflower |
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| Milkweed blooms |
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| Milkweed seed pods |
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| Milkweed |
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| Milkweed Beetle |
Goodbye
It's safe to say that summer is in full swing here. The days are hot and long. The kids are outside as much as possible to play with neighborhood friends. We're swimming, riding bikes, eating ice cream, visiting the zoo. We're just soaking up these beautiful sunny days before we start school again in the autumn.
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