Our Trip to Kozmo World

Last year the BFF and I decided to meet in Las Vegas (if you missed those pics check out my blog post ) and while it was way fun, we missed getting together with the kids.  So, this year, Tessa and I traveled to Idaho.  Of course, the night before our trip when I realized that my license was expired I wasn't sure we would make our flight.  I could have used my passport but, oh yeah, that was expired too.  I now know that you can fly with an expired license as long as it has been less than one year since expiration and you have another form of picture ID.  But, you get a nice little lecture from your friendly TSA agent.  Side note, my license and passport have now both been renewed.  We made it safely to Idaho and our kids were so excited to see each other.  May our girls always be as sweet as they look in this picture.

While it snows ten months out of the year there, August is a beautiful month to visit Pocatello.  The desert heat feels wonderful and the skies are so blue.  One day we hiked an easy mountain trail with the kids.  The boys were excited to show Tessa their "tree houses" along the way and they had a great time floating sticks down the stream.  After the hike we took the kids for ice cream.  Lucky for us, the frozen yogurt place was having story time that afternoon.  So, we scored free treats for the kids plus someone to entertain them while we ate our ice cream in peace.

Another day we all went miniature golfing.  Tessa had never been before and Brad patiently helped her and the boys while Claire and I played with G1.  I would have more pictures of Tessa's first mini golf experience except I either got competitive or was talking.  Let's go with talking since I have to admit that G1 ended up beating both Claire and me.  

Another day we went to a waterpark.  Tessa is a great swimmer and the water was chilly so I did not plan on getting in.  Those plans went out the window when she followed G1 to the deep water where kids jumped from one floating lily pad to the next.  The lifeguard was a little stressed when Tessa lined up for her turn and I'm pretty sure she didn't believe me when I told her Tessa could swim.  With such a short summer, they probably don't see many just barely five year old swimmers out there.  Sigh, into the water I went.  And it was probably a good thing because, while Tessa can swim, she's wasn't strong enough to haul herself back up onto the floating pad when she fell off.  The girls loved it, G1 could make it all the way across the pool without falling off.  Tessa thought falling off was part of the fun so she did it repeatedly.  I personally enjoyed the time in the lazy river more since I could sun myself on a float while watching Tessa swim against the current.       

There has been a new addition to the Kozmo Klan since I last visited.  This is Bun-Bun, a rather large and very soft bunny.  Tessa was obsessed with petting, holding, touching and looking at him and once accidentaly toppled his crate.  I didn't know that bunnies are actually rather delicate creatures and so we had to make sure the kids didn't manhandle him too much.  I was sad that I missed the cow that G1 had been raising all summer.  She showed him at the fair before I came and he won Grand Champion.  Good job G1!  Speaking of animals, Tessa tried to adopt a new dog.  The kids were playing outside while Claire and I were chatting at the kitchen table.  In comes Tessa leading a huge dog that looks like a WOLF!  "Look Momma, I got a new puppy" she announces, smiling proudly.  Bear in mind that Claire has two dogs of her own that were right there in the kitchen with us.  Claire calmly says, "Maisy (the elderly beagle) is going to freak out" and I see Olivia (the energetic black lab) bristle the fur along her back.  "Oh Honey, that's great!  Let's take the new doggie back outside...NOW."  Yikes!!!  My baby is such an animal lover, and she may grow up to be a veterinarian, but I had no intention of keeping this new dog.       

In addition to the fun activities we had lots of time to talk.  A special thanks to Brad who basically parented all four kids the whole time so Claire and I could catch up.  It's really special to be able to talk to someone about everything, someone who just gets you and has known you and your family long enough that you don't have to explain the background before launching into a story.  I needed that, especially this time because, while I was out there, my dad was admitted to the hospital via the emergency room.  Long story short, the stomach bug he had that caused him to miss my birthday trip to Carowinds progressed into a terrible systemic infection which then sent him into sepsis and he started having multi-organ failure.  At one point we were all afraid he wouldn't make it through the week-end.  It was scary but I'm happy to report that he is now on the mend.

Neither Claire nor I took the usual amount of pictures and somehow we never took one of the two of us together.  Oh well, there's always next time.  Thanks for having us, as always it's great to visit you!