Trip to Idaho

A few months ago I had the grand idea to make a trip up to Idaho. The purpose of this visit was really twofold. The first was to visit my grandparents whom I haven't seen in a while. The second was to visit the cousins. I managed to convince my two sisters that it would be fun to go up as a group. It didn't really take too much convincing.

We left late one very rainy Thursday night. I hadn't traveled on a road trip with my youngest sister recently so was surprised at some of the bad habits that she has developed. Her camera instantly came out and her two older siblings were submitted to several minutes of picture taking.   I guess it's the reporter in her that demands that one must document everything one does. I will admit though; that I was somewhat startled to learn that this extended to taking pictures of me washing the car windows at a gas station.

Since I have to be at work fairly in the morning my body has adjusted to waking up early. One of the unfortunate side effects of this adaption is that even on the days that I'm able to sleep in...I can't make it past 0830.  My two partners on this trip have a much later personal clock.  So I decided that instead of waiting around and twiddling my thumbs I would have a try at riding my new bike. The new road bike that I had rather impulsively bought the day before. Since it was recently purchased I hadn't installed the bike computer yet. I managed to get the wires in the right spot and was attempting to put the battery into the computer. I managed to lose the battery in the grass. While I was searching in the tall grass (Note to self; dealing with small batteries is not the best thing to do in grass) Grandma, Grandpa, and one of the Elder's who lived nearby came out to see what I was doing then proceeded to help. This would have been the perfect time for one of sisters documentary pictures. 4 people on their knees searching for a tiny battery in the grass. Finally, my grandfather being the innovated man he is went and got a bar magnet. Within a couple seconds he found my battery. I installed in and went on my way to discover the dangers and thrills of a road bike.

By the time I returned, alive fortunately, my sisters had arisen from their repose. I managed to convince the two sisters and my grandmother to participate in a card game. Of course I also convinced them to play my favorite card game Canasta.  It's a part of my insidious goal to convert people to the game, mainly so I have some competition when I play. Really miss the games I had with my friend a few years ago. One of these days I'll convert someone to it. I think that the four of has a decent amount of fun though. Me and grandma whooped on the two sisters.

The evening was spent hobnobbing with the cousins. The original plan was to have a dinner at my Aunt's house and to have all of the cousins come over. As is usual with many of my plans; things started falling apart. The Aunt got sick and didn't want to pass it on so the meal was moved to a cousins house.  Two of the cousins were out of town and the wife pled prior commitments.  It ended up being 2 cousins only. Despite my initial misgivings about this it actually turned out to be a pretty nice visit. The meal was a bit random however. I'm not sure how taco salad and bbq hot dogs really relate. We had a good visist. It was shocking to see how big all of their kids had gotten. The kids I remembered as being 2-3 year olds were now going on missions and graduating from high school. I'm getting old. :( 

Up next on the docket was a visit on the following day with my brothers family. My brother has a real job at his ward so he spent a fair amount of time in the morning doing church work. (One convenient side effect of never being at your actual ward is that you never get these inconvenient callings.) We took advantage of the time and played soccer. I rejoice that my brother has actually allowed my nephew to play a real game. After several seasons of baseball I was starting to get worried.  I taught my newphew some dribbling moves. Some of them he caught onto pretty quickly, such as dribbling between the defender's legs, others he didn't quite understand (The stepover).  During one of his efforts to take the ball away from me I popped the ball into the air and then headed it over him. His immediate yell of, "WHAT DID  YOU DO??!!!!" brought my brother out of the house wondering what was going on. I was amused by both my nephew's and my brother's reactions. I haven't asked my brother but I've been curious if the nephew used any of what I taught him in his next soccer game. When my nephew was taking a rare break Debbie decided to give a try at making it past me. I schooled her.

Once my brother was able to  finish his church work we were finally able to get on with the real plans of the day. A bike ride! My brother had noticed that I had a bike and had arranged to get two bikes for my two sisters. We went to a nearby river walk and had a nice little bike ride.  My sisters, me, and my nephew on our own bikes. My brother on a bike pulling a trailer with my niece.  We thought the it would be best for my nephew to lead: I think my brother regretted that decision. We set a decent pace of around 10 miles per hour for the duration of the ride. The trail was absolutely gorgeous. It meandered through forests, baseball diamonds, and along both a river and several lakes.  Next time we're up there I think I'll actually try to bike the whole trail of around 17 miles just to see it all.  We were only able to do a some of the trail that day. It's been a long time since I've been on a social bike ride and it was fun.

That was the end of the planned events. The only occurrence of note that took place the rest of the trip is that I played Mario cart on the Wii with my niece and nephews.  The oldest absolutely destroyed me. I think there was one game in which he actually lapped me. It's always a pleasure to be soundly beaten by a 7 year old. My niece I beat; but she really didn't care. All she cared about was that she got to play the pink character.  My youngest nephew; I think all he cared about was being able to hold the wheel up.