Another reason you should move to Boise and be my neighbor...

...this ranch is 2 1/2 minutes from my front door.

Won't you please, please won't you be, Please won't you be ... my neighbor?

Another wonderful thing about Boise ...

...is the trees. Do you know how Boise got it's name? Well, the story goes that some of the first explorers to this part of the Oregon trail were french and when they finally made it to the point overlooking the Valley (and the large river) they shouted "Les Bois, Les Bois" meaning "The trees, the trees". And I must tell you that I had a similar reaction the first time I saw downtown Boise. The trees are impressive-- thanks to the large river which came to be known as "La rivière boisée", "The wooded river". The name shrunk - as things will over time and now it is just Boise. But it gets even better than that. The people of Boise wanted to preserve the beautiful trees so they created several very large parks strung throughout downtown Boise like pearls on a river string. And the cherry on top is that each of these parks is named after a woman in the community (or in the case of Anne Frank memorial, an honorable woman in history). Thus we have Julia Davis Park:

Ann Morrison Park:

Kathryn Albertson Park:

Alta Harris park:

Anne Frank Memorial:

Anne Frank Memorial has these cool stone walls with quotes about peace and human rights carved into them. If you are ever visiting Anne Frank Memorial Park look next to the quote by Mahatma Ghandi for a lovely quote from Gordon B. Hinckley.

These are just a few of the beautiful Boise parks but they are my favorites.

By the way - I took absolutely none of these photos - rather, I spent 2 seconds looking them up on google images. BUT... if you will show me pictures of what fall looks like where you are, I will show you mine.

Don't you just love trees?

Remember the first ...

... morning in the fall that you turn on the heater?

And the house smells like it might burn down ... but it never does.

And you can sit on the heater with your blanket and keep your toes warm.

And it is Fall! Hooray!!

flag football

Our nice friends the Wissenbachs recorded this video of Josh scoring a couple touchdowns. I thought that my family in Utah would like to see it because I know that they would be here cheering at the games if they could. When the coach asked Josh how he could run so fast, he told him it was because he ate salmon. (We told him salmon was good for his heart and would help him run fast.) At the first game of the season all the kids wanted to know if Josh had had salmon for dinner. ;)

To watch the video, please click here.

So, so good

Oh, how I love these kids books.

Oh, how my kids love these kids books.

Josh requests one every night.

They are travel books for kids.

The book tells you all about the place and what you shouldn't miss when you visit.

One of our favorite facts about New York is that it has the world's biggest store (Macy's) and the smallest (hot dog stand).

I can highly recommend all of the above titles and all the rest are the one's that we are saving our pennies for.

They are so, so good! Happy reading!!

hello again

The first post after you have been away for a long time (like a whole summer) should be significant. Fortunately I have some very big news to share. At least it is a big deal around here. I would now like to unveil Ava Hosac's new haircut.

I know. I know. Try to contain yourself.

You didn't realize the news was going to be this big did you?

Here is a before pic - taken at Ava's 5th birthday party (which I did not blog about)

And here is an after pic -- taken after her haircut (which I did blog about)

Go figure!!

ihome remote

Today Sophie got a VERY late nap. Which means that she woke up VERY grumpy. The kind of 18 month old grumpy that takes at least an hour to get over. So I did the only thing that there was to do and hoisted her onto my hip for the long wait for her to snap out of it. We were about 15 minutes in (45 minutes of recovery time to go) when she grabbed the ihome remote control. (Sophie thinks that the ihome remote control is her cell phone.) She held it up to her ear and said in her very most pleasant voice "Hello! How are you?" I looked down at her. She was in full scowl mode. Unquestionably grumpy. And I thought hmmm... good. Apparantly Sophie has learned at 18 months what it takes many people 20 to 30 years to learn. And that is-- it doesn't matter how grumpy you feel or what kind of day you've had -- when you come in contact with someone else don't spread the misery, spread the pleasant. After all- they are having a day too, and who's to say that it isn't a harder one than yours. And if you cheer them up, you'll probably end up being cheered up yourself. I'm not advocating being fake. I'm just saying that if you have to choose between grumpy and pleasant ... Sophie and I think that pleasant is the way to go.