Home Sweet Home

I went home to Boise for a short little vacation and just got back tonight. It was a much-needed respite! I don't think my mom and I slowed down until I left this morning. She obliged me to visit some of my old haunts!

Thursday:
Drove to Warren, Idaho where my old cabin is - and did so in awe at all the burned forest that was all along the dirt road leading to Warren. There was a massive forest fire 2 years ago. I was so sad to see just how much was burned.
Walked around and scouted out the changes in the ghost town.
Hiked to Bemis Rock - okay mom hiked the base, I hiked to the top.
Stopped in McCall on the way back to Boise for a delectable and much CRAVED trout dinner.

Friday:
Went on a nice long road bike ride in anticipation of all the greasy food I'd be eating that evening at the fair! Thankfully, there were no dogs to chase me this time! (All you Boiseans - riding straight out Cloverdale Road is a fabulous ride!)
Lunched with a good high school friend and her darling little 3-year old son - who is a total flirt! :)
Rode fair rides, gawked at the 213 lbs pumpkin and other fun prize-winning fair crafts, photos, flower arrangements and quilts.
Cooed at the darling sheep, goats... and the HUGE cows and horses.
Ate my body weight in grease:
Half a Corn Dog
Black Cherry Shaved Ice
One slice of Hawaiian Pizza
One Ice Cream Potato
Half of a Scone
Endured 100+ degree temperatures while at the fair!
Watched a kid on the swings ride puke and spray the crowd below (I was on a swing at the time and safely out of the spray zone)

Saturday:
Went for another road bike ride to work off the food I ate at the fair the night before
Watched my nephew - who is a sophomore on the varsity soccer team for his high school - play his first big soccer game for this coming season
Took a 2-hour nap
Made an appearance at my friend's wedding reception
Watched the James Bond Goldfinger with my sister and her family

Sunday:
Church! Of course. :)
40-minute nap
Go with my sister and her family to listen to my nephew's patriarchal blessing
Get home taught with my sister and her family
Family BBQ!!! Of huge t-bone steaks, baked potatoes, corn on the cob, green salad, mushrooms, and cake afterward.

Monday:
Breakfast with Robyn! and my mom.
Then I hit the road to come back to Utah.

It was a lot in just a few days, but it was wonderful. Wonderful to be with family, to be home (for the first time since Christmas), and to just get out of dodge!

Rednecks & the Demolition Derby

I went to my first ever demolition derby today. It was wild! It was so fun to watch all the cars run into each other and see how long they can keep moving... even with smoke coming from their engines, flat tires, tires that have fallen off, tires that are skeewampus on the hub.... and a host of other maladies! I was so obsessed with the purple car in the photos below.

I also enjoyed my own personal redneck: Dave Dean the farmer-dude. :)

Meteor Shower Gazing

Well, it was my 3rd Annual Meteor Shower Gazing and Dutch Ovening event! I always invite too many friends to feed from my dutch oven and I always miss the peak of the meteor shower by 24 hours! Oh well. We still saw quite a few good meteors.... and we also had a pretty awesome dry lightning storm to go along with the meteor shower.

The fresh peach cobbler was the hit of the night.... the caramel cake ... not so much. This time we brought along some bocci ball! That was a hit. And so was the ..... STEAM ROLLING!!!! I loooove steam rolling everyone. It was so fun. I was taught the finer tricks of steam rolling that night. So look out from now on! :)

Equation for Losing What You Didn't Want in the First Place

Keeping track of calories on livestrong.com's Daily Plate
+
Rockin' awesome spin class at the gym
+
One realistic expectation of losing weight
=
17 lbs shed since February