Road Trip

There is a place at the very bottom end of Melba, ID called Celebration Point. It is Idaho's first archaeological park. We have been down to this place twice, without the camera. When we were trying to decide where our adventure was this time we decided to hit Swan Falls. Ryan and I had found a road on a map that connected Swan Falls to Celebration point. Both parks are on the Snake river. Swan Falls is South of Kuna and Celebration Point is South of Melba and probably about 10 miles apart along the river.

So we headed to Swan Falls and Celebration Park.

Above is Swan Falls. Turns out that it is a power plant dam thingie for energy. It was a really beautiful area!
Coming down the hill and into the canyon you get a better look at the plant. There are parks along the river where people bring their boats out and there are a lot of places for camping.
We were out of the car a total of maybe 2 minutes. That is how long it takes to realize that the bugs will eat you if you don't get back into the car--FAST!
Just like Celebration point there is volcanic rock everywhere. A good view of the Snake river

1 of our 2 minutes out of the car

After driving along the road we found that would lead to Celebration point we hit a closed road and couldn't make it all the way. I still don't have pictures for you of that place. Its not really special or anything but there is a cool bridge there and if you look really hard on the volcanic rock you can find hieroglyphs. Pretty cool.Still nice to get out and be with the family!

Sarah's Birthday

Sarah was camping for her birthday so we didn't really get a chance to celebrate with her. But, Dan and Sarah did come over one evening after work for homemade pizza--so we snuck in a cake too. We just wanted to make sure she knew how much we loved her!

The boys were so excited for Dan and Sarah that Paxton even got dressed up. He did his hair himself.

Then they drew pictures to give to Sarah.

Shelb's couldn't draw so she just smiled.

Then we got baking our homemade pizza's.I can't stand olives but Ryan and the boys LOVE THEM
First time we did this. I have never been able to find a good crust recipe that I like but this one was amazing!

When Dan and Sarah got there we chowed. They are such great company that you really don't have to do anything to have a good time!

We made Sarah a Star cake because she loves stars. Dan even had one named after her-how romantic is that?!

A thumbs up speaks louder than a facial expression...just so you know! He was having a blast.Sarah taught Gauge how to do a thumbs up instead of a thumbs down.
Thanks for hanging out guys!Happy birthday Sarah!

We did it!

Don't judge me.

This is something that I have gone back and forth about for some time. I remember talking to Sarah before Shelby was here about getting Shelb's ears pierced and it was so exciting. But when it came right down to it, I got scared.

I asked everyone I knew. "Is there any reason why parent's make their children wait?" I had to wait until I was 14. When I did get them done it was against my dad's will. My mom took me. Some girls I knew couldn't get them until they moved out...Some, like my sister in law Beth-just got them done (Congratulations girl!)

Alas, no one could give me a good answer and I have begun to believe that the best time to do it is when she is little so that number 1-she can't mess with them and 2-she will forget about them which helps with the pain factor.

SO-bright and early- Sarah and I took off to get these cute ears pierced.

She was already tired, which was great. The thing that freaked me out was that there was a 2-3 year old girl who went right before Shelby. She screamed, cried, cried more and her ears even turned red. Everyone kept telling her how pretty they were and that didn't help a bit. I looked at Sarah...I could have bolted out of there. I was scared! Why do people do these things? To be more beautiful? Is this Vain of me?

Then it was our turn.
Sarah helped us pick out earrings. Then we placed the holes...and because Mommy is picky we placed them again...

Then they shot her...twiceand she cried. She was already tired.

Then she was done. She laid her head on my shoulders, Sarah took care of the bill, a present she will always have from her aunt Sarah-

and that was it. She hasn't cried, touched them or thought about them since.

Ryan couldn't wait to see her. He was so proud!!

That was it. Her ears are pierced and they are so dang cute!

Thanks Sarah!! We love them!

COPS

I got to have my own little version of Cops the other night. It was pretty much awesome!

My trainer at work had the day off so they decided it was time for me to have a ride along. I got to choose whether I wanted to go with County Deputies or the Caldwell Police. I chose police because, well-I love police work. That is what I have known for years at my last job. You wouldn't think so, but there is a big difference between City police and County deputies. In fact I have noticed several differences just in the personnel.

The dispatch I used to work for had all young hot females. The officers were also younger and more go-getters (city police). I felt like we worked as a team, we were on the inside finding the dirt on these guys and they were on the outside arresting them and doing all of the stuff I wouldn't want to do. The dispatch I work for now, much like their deputies are older, slower, have some attitude and really don't want to work much. Don't get me wrong, they are cool people!! But there is a big difference. So I was getting worried that I had seen the end of my exciting days.

That's when my ride along happened and it changed my whole perspective:

The picture above is just one of the calls we went on where they guy needed medics. This is me trying to get a picture of myself in action really fast so that no one would know what a nerd I was
At this call there was a 40 some old man who was jumped by 3 gang members. They beat him with brass knuckles for evicting their uncle.
The guy was in bad shape. They took him away on a stretcher

The officer I was with let me see all of the blood everywhere-very cool.
This is officer Riley. He took me for the night. We had such a blast! In the middle of the night we went code to just about everywhere (lights, speeding, no sirens because it was night)

Officer Riley has been in Caldwell his whole life so he knows just about everyone and knew exactly where to take me. He even took me to the cemetery which was pretty scary. We tried to see the midnight runner...a ghost that runs down the main path at midnight every night (but we missed him-we made it at 00:25)

We made funny noises on the PA system. I got teased because I wasn't paying attention and he helped push a car out of traffic. I thought he was just talking to the guy and when I noticed and began to help push the car, the work was about finished. I also didn't turn off the car when they were "sneaking" up on an incident...but I didn't hear him tell me to. All of the officers teased me about that for the rest of the night.

We went on tons of fights. We talked to kids, elderly people, checked on store clerks and basically talked to the town's people all day. It was a good time!

I had such a good time in fact that my next day at work I contemplated becoming a police officer for Caldwell PD...that faded pretty quickly though :)

It was good to hang out with the Police. In briefing all of the guys had protein shakes and were ready to chase people down the street which is quite different from the Deputies who come into dispatch with coffee in one hand and a donut in the other. Both are great people, but it was so fun being part of the Police department again for a day.

Emmett and Pearl

Since I have lived here I have heard the mention of a town called Emmett several times. I have seen road signs, streets named Emmett that lead to this town, adds on TV-you get the picture...I have no idea where this place is!!

So one day I decided to look up some pictures on Google from Emmett, ID. and I was blown away. Every picture was so beautiful. Since I had made this discovery at work, when I got home at 6am Sunday morning I announced to Ryan that we should go to Emmett. He looks at me like I am crazy and says "really?!" to which I respond, Ryan, it is so beautiful! The Sun is coming up, we have to go. So he says "aright, let's go"

and we did.

We drove North, past Star and the Thunderbird raceway which Ryan will be making sure we go back for. When we hit the area, this long road leads you into the valley so once you get to the valley you see everything!!

Emmett, ID.

I was in love! "Ryan!!" I said..."I could move here!" It has this really small town feeling but it is sooo clean and it really isn't too far from everything. Ryan says we will talk about.
So we drove around and got to know the place. I don't know how I learned to love the country so much but I am. I am absolutely in love with fields of gold, fields of corn, red barns, streams everywhere, horses everywhere-I love it! That is what this place was. It kind of reminded me of Cache Valley, UT. If you have been there-except not as cold.Downtown there was the train. Painted like you would see in a storybook, a water tower and a large park. We got out to have a picnic.

That's when we met these guys! Squirrel's seem pretty cool until you see them so close. These guys were domesticated! They were not afraid and really close up -not so cute. In fact they freaked me out a little. The boys loved it though and with Ryan's help they fed them a little bit.
This guy walked right up to me. He was HUGE! We didn't dare to sit down because they were trying to take our food.
This is what Gauge does. When he is outside he buries the superheroes, every time. Those are spider-man's feet. Shelby's first time in a swing!! We all played in the park for a little bit and noticed that right next to us some military people were setting up for a huge breakfast. Then one of the military guys came over and asked Ryan and the boys if they wanted to come "test out" the jump house they had just blown up.

Is it just me or is this jump house a little scary?

After breakfast we decided to head home. I was beginning to get tired. When we got to the top of the hill there was a little place to pull over and see the whole valley.

This spot was also a war memorial with names of people who have died.

There was also a little reading about a nearby Ghost Town called Pearl. It was supposed to be 9 miles away. Pearl was an old mining town where Gold was mined years ago. We decided we had better go see it.

My Dad loved Ghost Town's. Because of this I have been to these little places all over Utah, Nevada and some in California and Colorado. I love Ghost Town's now and was really excited about what we would find.

Something like this?

or this maybe? Maybe even just an old Cemetery...

Even something like this would be cool!

So we got the boys excited about a new adventure and we headed to Pearl Idaho.
It was down an old dirt road. 9 miles it said- and they had mile posts to help you count along your way.

Open Range guys--those cows have the right of way... It started to become a long drive

Finally, Mile Marker 9...

There was nothing there! This is a shot of either side of the road... It took us at least 20-30 minutes to drive here. So we kept going hoping that we would find it at some pointand we ended up on highway 55. Apparently, there is no more Pearl, ID.

We looked Pearl, ID up online when we got home, trying to figure out how you miss it on a single dirt road up the canyon-It just so happens they burned it down. Something I think they might add to the little historical information at the top of the hill!

All in all, a great trip. I really think I could move to Emmett too. Come on up guys, I will take you there!!