Thanksgiving in Idaho!

Oh man.... I uploaded all of these pictures before I wrote out my blog, and when I was picking them, I chose them in chronological order but guess what? They uploaded randomly and all over the place. Since I still don’t have a computer and I’m on my phone, there is just no way to fix this. So I guess I’ll write about Thanksgiving but when you look through pictures you’ll just have to deal with them bouncing around. The Apple store is open by appointment only but I have ZERO time to get there before Christmas so the next few blogs will still be a mess. I’m just lucky I’m able to squeeze this blog in! Cause it’s a lot! Here we go!

We flew to Idaho this year for Thanksgiving!!!! I have not spent Thanksgiving with my parents and the Ball family since 2009! Can you believe it!?? It’s been way too long. And despite Covid, I wasn’t about to cancel that. I get so homesick at Thanksgiving for some reason (more than ANY Holiday) but this year I had zero Thanksgiving blues in years. It was awesome. So many people went to Nana Raine’s. We broke Covid rules and quite frankly I don’t care...  there were 47 people there and guess what? None of us got Covid. We all stayed healthy and even though I didn’t get to “socialize” with many people because there were so many of us, I hugged abut 30 people and they at least saw my kids- half of them have never seen Sully in real life. So it was so sweet being there. Not to mention, my mom, Tiff, Coley, Liv and I had a Girls Night Out on Black Friday. It’s been awhile since I had a girls night or day! I love shopping with my mom and sisters. It’s more fun than friends! We went and got authentic Mexican food and then hit up some stores! It was a perfect night 🥰

But before Thanksgiving- I did a big thing! I cut 10 inches off my hair. I feel like I look sooo different! And I also thought I’d regret it but I’m in LOVE! Big time. I love it so much that I’m gonna keep it short for awhile. It’s healthy and soooo easy to manage. Brushing it after a shower takes 3 minutes instead of 30 (I literally used to listen to audio books or podcasts after I washed my hair because brushing would take sooooo long. That’s why I only washed it/got it wet twice a week!) I always hated my short hair-cuts before, but I’m in love with this hair-cut. The girl who did it was simply amazing. I wish I could go back to her because I truly think part of why I love it so much is because of how she cut and highlighted it- some hair dressers really are very talented.

Anyway. While in Idaho we crossed a few “Christmas” things off our list! One night we drove out to Caldwell to look at their beautiful lights. They were amazing and the kids had so much fun! It was cool to see a different set of lights this year. We went with Tiff and her kids and Jack is just so good with Sully! Sully told me yesterday that Jack is his best friend. It was so cute! And Liv is my girls’ idol. They adore her! So even though there is a big age gap between the cousins, they all love each other ❤️ (And it was nice to have them around because for whatever reason, Piper and Sully fought HARD the ENTIRE week when they were alone. They were at each other’s throats every single day! It was so stressful and embarrassing😫)

Next, we had my sweet new brother-in-law, Jeremy, dress up like Santa for my kiddos. My dad has a Santa outfit but my kids would have recognized “Baba” so I asked Jeremy if he’d be willing to do it and he said yes! They’ve only met him twice (since Coley just got married in April) and with a wig, beard, and glasses on, he was unrecognizable to them. But he did a great Santa voice, and he said one fact about each one of them when they got up on his lap, and they thought that was amazing/magical that Santa knew them so well! For example he brought up how funny Sullivan is and how much he loves monster trucks. For Lucy he asked her how she likes cheer and said that it’s awesome that she’s a cheerleader. And with Piper he told her that he knew she also did cheer and that she was so good at it. He was great! The reason we asked him to do it is because I know that this year, wherever people go to see Santa there’s usually plexiglass between them, or the kids and Santa have to be in masks. I didn’t want Covid to make our Santa visit different this year. So much has already been taken from the kids in 2020 and I just wanted one thing to remain the same for them. I wanted to give them this magical night without any of the new Covid rules getting in the way. Plus, I truly think this is Lucy’s last year believing. Every thing will be different from here on out 😢. So for Jeremy to willingly come and make a “house call” for us, it meant everything to me!

I should back up and say that the night before he came, the kids wrote letters to Santa and we stuck it in the mailbox for them to mail to the North Pole. We played Christmas music and drank hot chocolate and wrote the Santa letters in Idaho so that they would make it to the North Pole quicker since Idaho is closer than Oklahoma is😉 Oh- and that morning we had a small dusting of snow! It was just enough for a tiny snowman and the kids were so happy!

Another day, we drove up to Idaho city so that the kids could play in the snow! It was so beautiful because we were on the river and half of the river was frozen- it was so pretty! Driving along the river with snow banked up on each side was picturesque. We brought an old sled and found a little hill so that everyone could sled down it a couple times- Sully only once because he face planted in some icy snow and left with ice welts all over his face 🙈. The girls made snow angels and we just had a blast being in REAL snow. Boise didn’t have any yet which is why we drove up to Idaho city but it was great because my kids don’t get to play in heavy snow down here and they’ve missed it. So have I, to be honest. Which is another reason why we chose to go to Idaho in the winter this year instead of the summer.

We did bowling one day and Sully surprisingly won! He beat all of the kids (besides KJ) AND he beat me! He was so funny because somehow, even though his ball went so slow down the alley, he was getting strikes and spares nonstop. It was hilarious!

For Sunday dinner we had Coley and Jeremy and their six kids come. I had never met Jeremy’s three boys and it was a treat! They are so sweet and really friendly and my kids love them! It’s so awesome that Sully finally has a boy cousin his exact age to play with! He didn’t have boy cousins his age on either side of the family until now so we’re pretty stoked about that. Also when everyone was there we made brick oven pizza. It was so delicious! I definitely want a brick oven at my house!

On our very last day we drove up to Eagle Island State Park and went snow tubing! It was amazing! We stayed for a couple of hours and probably went down the hill 100 times each! Sully was  in heaven and was even trying to do tricks while he went down the hill😅. The girls loved it every single time they went. We did some chains where we all held hands and went down together, we did some Superman‘s down the hill, we used fast tubes and slower tubes, we went down with kids on our laps and without, we laughed and screamed and squealed non-stop. The coolest part was that they have a moving sidewalk that takes you back up the hill after you’re done sledding so that you don’t have to hike the hill yourself. That’s how we were able to go so many times. We also went on a day when all the Idaho kids were back in school so there were zero lines for us. We definitely got our moneys worth!

Leaving was hard. We had eight days there and it flew by! We had so much fun being with family and living in our cozy little Winter bubble for a week. We all got a taste of snow and freezing cold temperatures plus we had good food and great company. It’s always sad to leave my family. The girls were sobbing when we left and basically inconsolable. It’s so hard to watch them cry. They miss their cousins like crazy! I wish we could afford to fly up multiple times a year!

(Side note … Shawn almost didn’t get on the flight though! My dad gave him some golf clubs and he was trying to check them onto the flight and they wouldn’t let him. It’s a long story but bottom line is he had to leave them behind to be able to make our flight- but security wouldn’t hold them fit him. They wouldn’t let him through security with them and they told him they wouldn’t hold them for his father-in-law to come and pick them up- they were being so rude. So they basically said he needed to just throw them away- just throw away awesome golf clubs!!!! He almost cried. Well, he leaned them up against the trashcan and then sprinted through the airport to get to our gate. The door had shut already and The woman at the gate would not let him on. I was texting him when he was telling me all this and I walked to a flight attendant and I just started crying because I was so stressed out. I had all three of the kids on the plane and he was right outside the gate and she wouldn’t let him on. I asked the flight attendant if there was anything she could do and she took pity on me and called the pilot of the plane and asked him if he could help us. So he called the gate agent and basically made her let Shawn on. The gate agent was so rude and it was really stressful- but in the end he got on just minutes before we took off. My mom then called the Boise airport and asked if they could locate the golf clubs for us and they said that no one had found them. So she asked if they could check some of the trash cans and I guess a janitor looked and found them and brought them to lost and found for my parents. So my dad drove back to the airport and grabbed them and safely mailed them to Shawn. It’s a very crazy story and it was so stressful at the time. But it was definitely a day of miracles!)

We are sad to leave our Idaho family behind, but at least we got to come home to Christmas! Piper’s birthday is in nine days and Christmas is in 16 days so we have a lot to look forward to. Although, it is 75 degrees right now so it doesn’t feel much like Christmas... but we will get our cold weather next week. We are currently doing Distance Learning throughout the month of December, and even though it’s basically killing me, I know I have Christmas at the end of this dark tunnel. I. Can. Do. It!