Stormy, and another trip to Montana

We love visiting Art and Christin in Montana.. so the last two years, after the rebellion has been dismantled, we drive north--with Grammie too!--for a few days' visit.  During the two years in between visits, we reminisce about the good time we had, and all the animals we met.  And the grown-ups talk about the great food we enjoyed together!

 

One of the first things we do (after big hugs for Art and Christin!) is to visit Stormy and feed him "sushi" (a Jaffa creation: two kinds of grass, wrapped together).  He is such a gentle, handsome boy!

 

Bybee Smith Rebellion

Every two years, 200 Bybee Smiths converge on a campsite outside of Lava to eat, drink (a lot!), and be merry together.  It's always a great time seeing people we love, meeting new family members and friends, and commenting on how big the kids have gotten since the last time we saw them.

We play games, let the kids play in the dirt...

...and we spend a lot of money and get great stuff (that you can't find anywhere else in the world) at the auction!

Breakfast and dinner are eaten together.. and cooked by the men (ummm.. perhaps prepped with the help of the women).  Loads and loads of good food!!

We just loved visiting with our people!

Roene and Shorty (talkin' mischief for sure!)

triple trouble!

Cille and me

And the finale, as always, is Uncle Bob's airplane jump on Sunday morning.  Everyone gets out of bed early to head to the field, to watch for the plane, to see him jump and swirl.. with fingers crossed in hopes that he lands on YOUR plate so that you win half of the pot!  This year it was $350!!

We didn't win, but we sure did have a lot of fun!!

detour

We got to Idaho a few days early as we had big plans to help set up for the Smith rebellion, but we weren't able to for two reasons: 1) Uncle Dude beat us to it, 2) Zeric landed himself in the Portneuf hospital having had a stroke. Very scary, but we were lucky that it is a brand new, fully equipped facility. Zeric got great care and went through about a trillion tests, and after three days, he was released with no more symptoms and instructions to take his baby aspirin every day.  We were very lucky!

In the meantime, the kids got one day hanging out with Aunt Mary, Uncle Stan and Grammie.. and one day watching TV from the hospital bed.

Lava pooooooool!!

Another huge attraction in Lava is the public pool.  It has amazing, huge, long, tall water slides and diving platforms.  Jaffa conquered the long slides; she was tall enough, but Eben wasn't yet :(  I thought for sure I would see her light little body flying off, but she made it down--a number of times!

 

cute girls in the pool

 

 Eben coached me down the fast and covered slides, and opted for the high dives. 

 

Eben headed for the high dive, with a thumbs up

 

cannonball!!!

 

There was also a play area for little kids, and a climbing wall that hangs over one of the pools.  

Eben and Copa under the water umbrella

 

 We had a great time at the pool--twice!!

 

 

 



 

 

Lava Hot Springs, ID

Driving from Salt Lake City, we had a good time finding the letters on the hills for each of the towns.. and we found one at Lava as well!

 

Lava Hot Springs is a tiny town, with lots to offer.  The hot springs are enough reason to make the journey, but there's also tubing on the creek, a library, and arcade, a grocery store with all necessary supplies, and a few eating places.  Show up around 11am, and the whole town smells like a french fry.  Eben experienced his first corndog in Lava, and really liked it!

Jaffa sampled the soft serve.

 

We spent lots of quarters at the arcade!

 

Watching the tubers going doing the creek.  Next time, that will be us!!

Summer in NYC

We travel for food.  And playgrounds.

 

Thanks to Poosh, we scored a reservation at Red Rooster.. it was an amazing meal!!

http://redroosterharlem.com/

We did have to drive to Harlem, but it only took about 40 minutes, and it was a really interesting tour-from-the-car experience.

Yes, do order the 'yes, chef' cocktail, it's sooo yum.  So is the Brownstoner.

As far as food goes, you can get Zach to do almost anything if you promise him greens (with the fried chicken appetizer).  I make better carrot ginger soup, but the cornbread is AMAZING.

Meatballs are awesome, so is the jerk chicken, and so was the salmon. 

I loved the blackened catfish.. but I was so full I couldn't finish it,

It was a wonderful lovely amazing night with great company and excellent food. 

Will be asking to do that again next year (did you hear that, Poosh?).

 

 

 

 

Once we got moving the next morning, we went into NYC again.. this time for a trip to Zabar's. 

Eben was excited about the swiss cheese, and wanted lots of it!

We went through the store and got a "picnic" .. which was (of course) way too much food,

but so so so good.  Cheeses and salads and bread and cornichons and smoked whitefish and lox and dolmas.  And three kinds of streudel!!

Once we made it through lunch.. we avoided the nap by running over to the playground and playing in the sand and the sprinkler (not together!).  We looooooved this playground!

look at me jump!

so handsome!

 

and beautiful!

And, not surprisingly, we got some swinging in!

hi dad!

 

 

Then, in true visiting-a-city fashion, we stopped for a pee and a drink.

Needed to capture this true moment of sharing :))

 

And, some eskimo kisses from Jonah!

 

What a great visit, even if too short!!

love love love

Jonah Bear!

We were sooo excited to see Jonah (and Aunt Pooshie and Uncle Zach!).  Jonah welcomed us with an introduction to 'red' his vacuum cleaner. It needed fixing... and--as we all know--those things are best done naked with a beater.

The kids had a great time playing together.. Jonah got a taste of what it might be like to have siblings, and Eben got to be the 'big cousin'.  Jaffa took care of everyone and periodically fought with Eben to remind him who the really big sibling was.

And they watched the movie 'Cars' no less than 4 times in 3 days.  We were really on vacation!!!

 

And, the cousin bath.  The bathroom was very wet after this one!