On the blog this week, I dedicated it to paying tribute to my Dad, scrapbooking our Celebration of Life for him, and recapping our family vacation to Idaho, per our kids’ request to have closure.
The introduction post of Paying Tribute to My Dad + our first day in Idaho, can be READ HERE.
For Day 2, you can READ HERE.
For Day 3, you can READ HERE.
We woke up on Day 4, the day after my dad’s Celebration of Life, and spent the morning with a leisurely breakfast at home, eating leftovers. It would be my friends’ and family’s last day in Coeur d’Alene, so they came over to hang for a bit until they headed out. I cannot say it enough times, I am so grateful for their comforting presence, love and support, and just being with us and talking and making me feel “normal” amidst a largely abnormal new reality without my dad on this earth.
Before Mima and P-pa departed, we took some family photos to commemorate our time together. Here’s us…
…trying to get it together 🤣…and then…
…there we go! Yay!
I love these two with my whole heart! As always, it’s so hard to say goodbye.
While we were on the west coast, one of Ryan’s aunts texted and said she’d be in the area visiting one of her daughters, so we made a plan to meet up with them on Sunday afternoon.
While we were there, the kids talked me (as well as Ryan’s aunt) into getting on a horse…
This is “Yeti” and he treated me kindly. My kids thought it was hysterical.
Ryan’s cousin and her husband live on this property and she trains wild mustangs! Basically, she’s the Horse Whisperer.
We ended our evening with a cookout and then Ryan took the kids to the railroad nearby to lay pennies on the track. It was so funny to watch them wait to see if a train would come on the specific track they laid their coins on. Every time we heard a train approaching, they’d hop in the car and drive off to go check. The boys successfully came back with two smashed coins. It reminded me of going to San Francisco and putting 51 cents into a machine and rolling out a penny embossed with a SF logo.
It was so fun to get this unexpected treat of seeing Ryan’s aunt and cousins!
Monday morning, Day 5, we woke up and decided to take a hike around Tubbs Hill to downtown and have breakfast.
We ate at Woops! and had our fill of pastries and coffee.
It was such a pretty little shop with big huge sliding windows…
…and an endless assortment of French macarons…
Eating breakfast out and walking around is my favorite thing to do on family vacations!
Before heading out, we of course had to bring home little treats to try for ourselves!
So cute and so fun!
On our walk back home, Naiya spotted a giant bunny sculpture with a saddle on it, and was adamant about getting on it and taking a picture because of an inside joke with one of her cousins. Josiah followed suit…
As soon as we arrived back at the house, we got our swimsuits on, packed up lunch and some snacks, and headed out the door to the lake. We rented a pontoon boat for the day and Ryan’s cousins joined us.
Lots of tubing…
…and rock jumping…
Our captain for the day…
Ryan is always a good sport as he is the sole boat driver. We did take lots of breaks to swim, rock jump, and Ryan even did his infamous back flip off of a rock. (Sigh).
Love this family time so much!!!
We returned our boat for the evening, said goodbye to cousins, showered and spent the rest of the evening playing a game of 3D Clue.
That’s a wrap for Day 4 and 5 in Idaho.
