Atkin Sisters Weekend in Idaho

We were trying hard to fit in an Atkin girls weekend before Toni had her baby. We settled on Memorial Day weekend and I drove out to Jerome on my own. Unfortunately, Toni was just a little too close to delivering and her doctor didn't think she should head up so she had to miss. We sure missed her but it was still fun getting together with the rest of us. 

We did a little shopping, got lunch at Cafe Rio, and enjoyed the hot springs. Then we got dinner at Burnt Lemon Grill:

...and checked into our hotel to hang out for the night. Jaime brought mud masks with her and we had fun playing with those:

We definitely tired Shari out after our busy Saturday so she took it easy on Sunday after church and we just had some family time. Monday morning, we went on a hike with Emma in the morning down the canyon. It was beautiful!

Later that day, we all went to go see Cauldron Lin--some crazy rapids in the Snake River. It was incredible to see the power of those rapids.

I ended up sticking around in Idaho a little longer when I found out that Katie Hickman's father had passed away and his funeral in Caldwell was a couple of days out. So, I met up with Kari and Katie for lunch in Boise the day before. It was so fun to catch up with them and meet Ruby, Katie's adorable little girl. I snuck in some time at the Meridian temple after that and then met Kari again at her brother Danny's house. They were nice enough to let me sleep on their couch that night. Their kids are sure cute and are all about the same ages as ours.

Kari and Claire doing tricks:

The next day was the funeral. I was really glad that I was able to make it and support Katie that way. I sure loved Big Sid--he was a great guy. It was a beautiful service. I always loved hanging out at Katie's house because her family was so fun to be around. 

Kari, me, Katie and Pam:

After the funeral and luncheon, I left straight from there to drive to Truckee where I spent the night with my Mom and Dad before driving home the next morning. Joe was such a champ holding down the fort while I was gone and even bought me some flowers to come home to. He's the best.

Spring Activities

We had some fun activities going on for the kids in the Spring. Natalie worked hard to get ready for try-outs for her school's soccer team and she made the team! She had fun playing with her friend Izzy and some other friends from school. 

It has rekindled her love of soccer and she says she wants to keep playing. Her team started out losing a few games but ended the season on a streak and missed going to the playoffs by one win. 

Baseball season started up again with Eli playing another year of t-ball and Nate playing Minor B. 

Eli improved so much from last year! He knew what he was doing and always engaged in the games. It was fun to watch him get outs and good hits.

Nate had another great season and improved a lot, too, especially with his throwing, catching and fielding. His team struggled and didn't win a game for most of the season. They barely even scored. Nate got on base most of the time but his team struggled. It was pretty rough. But, they kept at it and by the end of the season they had improved a lot and even won a game! It was so exciting to watch.

Halfway through the season, they started kid-pitch and Nate ended up pitching quite a bit. He did really well and worked hard practicing at home to improve. He got a lot of outs and was a good asset to his team. 

With baseball season, comes being dragged to your siblings' games. Elizabeth climbed up this huge tree one night and got a lot of looks from people:

The youth in our ward had another spaghetti dinner/ward hidden talent show fundraiser. They had a dessert auction, too, and Natalie worked hard making this lemon-raspberry cake:

We challenged Natalie to share her talent of reciting the digits of pi and she did over 60! She also represented the youth in chubby bunny and won:

Nate rode his ripstik on stage with Max for his talent and did some cool tricks. I got challenged to do yoga with Ann so we did some poses.

(I took screen shots to get these)

I paid for Joe to do his lounge singer bit and he rocked it:

He found some clothes at Goodwill and a fake wig and patch of chest hair. It was awesome. I laughed so hard holding the camera. It was such a fun night!

One weekend, we decided to head down to Gizdich for some berry-picking. It was Joe's first time coming with us! We picked SO many more berries with him along helping. 

Then--the best part of Gizdich--we got to enjoy their delicious pie!

Dad got to go to Nate's Open House:

Nate loved celebrating Max's birthday at Rockin' Jump with Brendan:

A neighborhood game of cricket!

Mother's Day was wonderful. They spoiled me with breakfast in bed. 

Look at this feast!

Poached eggs, hashbrowns, bacon, and strawberries. Yum!

Eli even gave me this gift:

 A quick pic of him after sneaking into our bed one night:

They had a volunteer appreciation breakfast at the school and I loved the 2nd-grade kids' sweet notes about the art & music education I'd done in Nate's class (FAME).

I got to go with Natalie to activity days one night for a baking competition. It was a lot of fun! We even won the emoji cupcake competition with our nerd cupcake:

Our CA golden poppy cake:

Joe's cousin Miranda and her kids came to stay for a weekend on a tour down the coast and we had a lot of fun with them. Our kids get along really well so they had fun. We went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium one day. 

Cute otters:

We also got dinner at Bubba Gump's: