Fun with Goats

One of the families in our church recently had a goat that had triplets.  They'd talked about them so much in our home school casual co-op that we arranged to go and see them one afternoon.  They were just the cutest little kids.  You had to watch them pretty closely, though, because they loved to nibble on everything.  Lydia thought one of the little kids was sweetly snuggling in her neck, but in reality it was chewing the end of her braid!

Doesn't Chubby just have the prettiest blue eyes?

Little Bella is the runt and has to work hard to get one of mom's two teats from her two brothers.

Human Scavenger Hunt--Youth Group 2017

One Saturday in April the youth group leaders and several members of the congregation disguised themselves and walked around the Village in Meridian.  The youth group members were placed in groups and had to see how many they could find in about an hour.  Although I initially dreaded the entire outing (what will I wear, how will I change my hair, am I disguised enough, etc) I quickly found this to be one of my favorite activities of the year.  A $9.99 wig from Amazon, a quick trip to the thrift store, and some "pretend" shopping bags are able to transform you pretty well!  We ended our evening with frozen yogurt, although we all probably would have preferred hot chocolate since the evening was a little cool and rainy.

Spring Break Day Trip 2017

Russ took one day off during the week of the high school kids' spring break and we drove to Twin Falls to see the Shoshone Falls that everyone was raving about.  Due to all the snowfall this winter, the Falls are running at their highest capacity in over thirty years.  We were not disappointed...very, very wet, but not disappointed.  It was a very cool day, so getting drenched from the mist was not that comfortable.  We all dried quickly, though, and enjoyed the rest of our day's adventures.

After viewing the Falls we took the southern scenic route back to Boise.  On this route which follows the Snake River there are several fresh water springs that flow up and out of the cliffs along the river.  The five or six locations of 1000 Springs State Park are named appropriately.  We took in two of the locations: Ritter Island and Malad Gorge.

Ritter Island is so named because this land area is an island formed from the Snake River on one side and fresh water springs on the other.  In the early 1900s, Minnie Miller built her dairy farm on this very island.  It was well known for its prize Guernsey cows and state of the art (at that time) dairy barns.  Ms. Miller was very interested in how the nutrition of her cows affected their production so did lots of testing.   It was interesting to see pictures of the cows wading in the springs.  Not sure any permit would be given today to have any sort of dairy on this island!

The following little note made me laugh, especially the line, "there must be something to life outside the barn."

Not sure if you can read the plaque, but it says, "Idalia of Edgemoor, Born April 27, 1918; Died December 1, 1937.  Herd Mother."  The burial place of the initial prize Guernsy cow of Ms. Miller.

Having Russ and Seth in the above picture gives a little more of an idea of the size of the cliffs and waterfalls springing out of them.

Next we stopped at Malad Gorge which is actually right off I-84.  It is difficult to capture in a picture how deep the gorge really is as the Malad River winds about 150-175 feet below.

The first two pictures were taken from a bridge over the gorge/river.  The picture below is on the other side of the gorge looking back toward the bridge we just walked over.

GEMS Luau

Shortly before I left for Orlando and the Ligonier Conference I realized that GEMS had scheduled their mother/daughter night the week I would be gone.  After thinking about who she would like to replace me (an older mom in the church, a mom who doesn't have a daughter in GEMS, a grandma-like person in the church, etc), Lydia finally decided she wanted her sister.  Anna was happy to oblige.  I just asked them to take lots of pictures and to call and tell me all about the luau-themed night. 

They borrowed Nicolas' Hawaiian shirts for the night.  Why does he have so many?!?

Their table mates

The sisters rocked this little quiz about each other.   I think sisters may know more about each other than mothers and daughters.