Idaho Camping.

Back to vacation!

After Maddy’s races, we all went camping up above Fernan lake (about 7 miles past the Saddle for those fellow past partiers) for a few days. We had a great time, taking the motorcycles out and enjoying the river. The first day, Stevie and I (one of Hayden’s friends) while waiting for Dad and Stu to come back with the trailer, turned rocks into spears by sharpening them on other rocks. It pretty much set the mood for the whole trip: lazy, slightly odd behavior, with good company and good conversation.

The first night was pretty tough for our little family because it was so cold. Stu and I froze. Kaden woke up and couldn’t go back to sleep so my Mom brought him from our tent into the camper with her so he could finally sleep. The second night Marcia went into town and got warm supplies and a blow-up mattress for him so he could stay with her in her tent. Then it ended up being much warmer the second night so it didn’t matter as much. He slept through the night and got up as a happy baby. That’s always nice.

It was, as always, beautiful up there. It was a great opportunity for Stu and I to relax and forget about Abu Dhabi (and sand), eat good Momma E food, and just enjoy the trees and outdoors without sweating to death. Stu had a blast on the bikes with my Dad. He came back to camp ready to purchase one for each of us! I had a little less luck. My Dad patiently showed me how to ride the bike but by the time I’d mastered going straight, I started to feel icky…

Sooooo, the REAL fun part about this trip was that me, Hayden, Maddison, my Mom, Tori (Maddy’s friend who came with us) and Stevie, all got “food poisoning” while we were there. We got home on the third day and Hayden started to feel bad first. That night all of us were up throwing up and “going to the bathroom” ten or 15 times a piece. It turned out to be that there were cows (which we knew about, and took pictures of) that were grazing free range near our campsite, who went potty in the river water we were using to cool our drinks in our makeshift fridge. Note to self: Don’t eat cow poop EVER again!

So instead of having a great time for the next few days, Hayden and I “bonded” by switching places all day long between the couch and floor in the living room. He even gave me control of the remote a few times. It had been a long time since I hurt so bad while I was sick. All of my joints hurt in addition to the severe tummy ache. It really put a damper on our plans to just lay around on the floor all day. But the next day Hayden and I were hoping we were up to going to Silverwood (our local theme park) since Stu felt fine and had been bored the whole day before. We got there and we all went on the Panic Plunge which is a ride that takes you a hundred feet in the air and then drops you straight down, stopping right before you crash to your death at the bottom. It was awesome. But that was the extent of my riding abilities (I was all dizzy and cold sweaty... and still nauseous) so Stu and Hayden went on the Aftershock roller coaster which is the new cool ride that takes you up vertically (you’re facing straight down) almost 200 feet then drops you straight down, you do a couple loops and go up backwards another vertical tower and do the whole ride backwards. Pretty intense. I sat out on that one (only to go back on it several days later when we went back) and by the time they were done we were all ready to go home.

Mom was on her way to get the pig for the Pig Pickin’ with Jeff and Harrison so we went along to get it… Pig Pickin’ blog to follow!

Momma E and her grandbaby!

God I love Idaho.

Fernan Lake

Dad getting ready to ride.

Tori and Maddison

Stevie and Mom

Mommy!

My rockstar brother Hayden.

Stu being a champion rider.

Tori, Maddy, and Stu just back from riding.

Listening intently to Dad's instructions.

Trying my hand at it!

The best of campany.

Sickness: The culprit!

Kaden showing Marcia around the riverbed.

Stevie playing with Kaden in his tube.

A studly muffin!

Chopping wood.

Kaden and Grandad having a moment.

Stitches

Taking a brief break from the updates from vacation, here is what Stu came home looking like last night…

Yeah, so apparently he stood up into a part of a plane and cut his head open. They shaved part of it so they could put 4 stitches in. Poor baby. He is doing fine but they gave him some antibiotics and some ointment to put on it. He then made me cut his hair shorter last night so it would grow back in somewhat even… boy was THAT gross! Haha. I had to really carefully go around the dried blood and stitches. But it does look better now that it is shorter and there isn’t such a huge gaping hole.

And here are some pictures of Sir!

Races

Day 2 & 3: Maddy’s Race

So after a good night’s sleep… Stu and I got up at 5 to watch TV and contemplate why the heck we were up. I was thrilled to get some Peanut Butter Crunch for breakfast and smell the cool, grassy air coming in the windows.

We got to go watch Maddy race Supercross out at Airway Heights. That was a blast! We got some pretty good pictures so be sure to check them out. This is a pretty new sport for my family. When I lived at home they hadn’t discovered it yet, so it was cool to learn about it and see my baby sister so brave and OLD now! She did great and it was so cool to watch something so adrenaline-filled! It’s almost like the last 30 seconds of one of my brother’s basketball games. I just love watching them play their sports. I am so sad about how much I am missing.

It took about 6 minutes for Stu to start planning Kaden’s Motocross future. Lol. They can start racing at 3 so Stu is pretty stoked. The little kids out there on their bikes were the cutest things I’ve ever seen. For the younger kids the parents are allowed to go out and stand around the track so they can help them up if they fall down (since they’re too tiny to pick their bikes back up by themselves!).

Stu and I treated our intestines to some chili dogs and tater tots. Even as we bought them Stu said, “I can’t believe we’re doing this!” But they were sooooo good.

I also ran into my friend Kale from High School. I had talked to her before we came home about trying to get together while I was there. She just had baby Easton a couple months ago and he was so sweet in person. It is always nice to catch up with people you haven’t seen in years, so that was pretty fun. Her brother was there racing in the age group above my sister.

Marcia and Flower unexpectedly showed up a day earlier than we expected so they surprised us at the race! Flower got to see her Kaden finally and we all got to chat and hang out while the sound of the bikes thundered all around us. I found a new sport to love.

Maddison getting her bike out of the truck at the beginning of the day.

The Blue Angels were having an Air Show at Fairchild Air Force Base (which is across the street basically) so we got a free show between the races. They also inadvertently did a fly over during the National Anthem... it seemed very appropriate.

Dad giving Maddy some last minute pointers before she raced.

There she is coming around a corner!

Me, thoroughly enjoying myself.

Kaden and Daddy having a moment.

Yay! Flower finally holding her Sir!

All of us playing on the grass.

Marcia kept saying, "Oh my Gosh!" as each rider came up over the hill.

I love how you can see the dirt flying

The track.

Take Off

Day One: Thursday, August 6th

So, I should start out by saying that with all of the travelling we’ve done recently, I’ve become quite the airport connoisseur. There are definitely some things that make an airport stand out from the rest (both in good ways and bad)…

Before we left for the airport on the “Zero Day”, we were met with some slight havoc. We went to the mall to withdraw some cash for the trip and our card was inactive. “Huh???” So after trying several different ATMs (here, sometimes the bank you pick won’t take American bank cards) we went home to check our online banking and sure enough, fraudulent charges were pending. There were over 500 bucks in charges at Walmart, Best Buy, and a gas station somewhere in Illinois. Since we weren’t even in AMERICA, it wasn’t too tough to convince the bank lady that they were not our charges. She nonchalantly explained that it happens quite often (what???) and basically somewhere we used our debit card, someone pulled the information from the electronic strip in their system and made a fake card... sketchy, but the money was returned and we were good to go. It still put us in an uneasy mood merely hours before we had to fly across the planet. No good.

Kaden was a perfect angel staying up late waiting for our plane to depart Abu Dhabi. Our plane was supposed to leave at 2 AM… it didn’t actually leave until after 3, and he was still just barely grouchy. Abu Dhabi airport is a perfect example of why airports should probably all have been designed with some basic criteria in mind. First of all, it is very “busy” both visually and physically. The terminal is fairly small, but it situated in a round fashion with a huge green and blue sort of futuristic-looking stream of barf coming out of the middle. Around it are the terminals, which are unclearly marked, and only provide seating after you have checked in… which you can only do a half hour before your flight actually leaves. Before that, you and the 500 other people on your flight are seated on the floor in a hallway. Kaden thought it was great.

All complaining aside, once we actually boarded, it should be noted that other than Qatar Airways, Etihad has to be one of the best airlines left on the planet. The planes are all brand new and spacious (there is a test for this… on Etihad I can cross my leg under my butt and sit on my foot comfortably… on DELTA I can barely sit with just my butt on the seat.), the staff is elegantly dressed and helpful (speaking upwards of 10 languages between the attendants), the food is good, and the ambiance is calming. We took 7 hours on Etihad to get to Paris…

Ahhhh, Paris. Write it down now: If you have never flown through Paris, DON’T! I have never really had a beef with the French before this trip… I’ve heard all the best puns and boycotts directed at the French that there are. I would always smirk at a mere good joke, but not with any underlying reason to dislike the French. It’s just been like laughing at a Jewish joke or a blonde joke. Until now.

We land in Paris and it is pouring rain. Not that this is Paris’ fault, but when they brought up our gate-checked stroller only after ten minutes of it sitting on the tarmac, it was less than dry and I HAD to put my baby in it or we would have been leaving luggage behind instead. Right on.

THEN, the completely unhelpful Delta ground crew lady told us that the Delta terminal was in 2E or E2, she wasn’t sure. After a quarter-mile walk we were faced with a flight of 40 stairs and no “lift” available. Stu asked her if she could help us find someone to assist us with getting our luggage and stroller (and kid) down the stairs and she, in a flabbergasted tone, informed us that it was “not her job” and promptly left us standing there. Awesome. So then, dripping wet and moody (none of us got a lot of sleep on the previous flight, including a thoroughly confused and irritable Kaden), I flagged down a security guard and motioned for him to walk up the stairs to me. After some hand signals of protest, he reluctantly gave in and came up the stairs, telling us the whole way down that there was an escalator (helpful…) to the right.

At the bottom of the stairs, manning a security check point sits “Camille”. Camille is a heavy-set Parisian who speaks no English, and is apparently angry about life in general. Stu approached her to ask where we go to find the E terminal and she said something in French… that sounded rather short with him. He tries again, “E Terminal?” She waves her hand in the general direction of a departures screen and turns around and walks away, eyeing us and complaining to her little man-slave nearby. I say, “Bitch.” As of yet, I don’t like France.

Then finally another woman walks up to us and in very broken English tells us to wait here and a bus would be coming shortly to take us to the proper terminal. Now, I realize I’m complaining that these French folk do not speak English… learn French you might say. If I were in the French countryside and a local farmer did not happen to speak English to help me out, I would never have anything to say. But we were in an International airport where every sign is written in English THEN in French, which happens to service hundreds of thousands of people who all typically speak English as a first or second language because they know to get anywhere in the world they need to. So I’m just saying, if you're going to work somewhere where your nametag says, “Hello, my name is Camille, may I help you?” and who’s uniform is emblazoned with the words “Customer Service” on the back, you might want to speak something other than useless French!!!

Anyway, rant over. The bus driver, who also spoke nothing but gibberish, kept telling me to “go to back” when I was asking if this was our stop (no signs ANYWHERE). FINALLY we arrived at the correct terminal and got our boarding passes… we headed to security where a nice gentleman asks us if we are British. Once he discovers we are American, he turns sour and is suddenly unhelpful. (Assbag. See if we help you again next time Germany decides they’d like some more property.) Our stroller (since the guy wasn't listening to the idiot American when I told him he needed to turn the wheels towards each other so it wouldn't get stuck) got stuck in the screening machine and the lady operating kept giving me orders in French, “blah blah blah blah blah”. Me: “I don’t speak French.” She slowed it down for me and got sterner and louder, like it would help me to suddenly speak her language… “BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH”… “I. Don’t. Speak. French!” She gaffed at me and walked back to the original security man to talk smack. But we were finally free to go to our gate. Thank freaking God. We were supposed to have a 4 hour layover in Paris, but after being delayed in Abu Dhabi and then having to deal with so much crap once we’d arrived in Paris, we were cutting it close. Luckily, because France sucks, our plane was delayed by another hour.

Kaden had a great time running around the airport though. He was quite the little explorer. We got our first look at things being listed in Euros for prices. Interesting as well. Then, just as we thought we were free to go, a French security lady realized we were arriving from the dreaded Middle East and proceeded to ask us the most obnoxious questions that I could hardly contain my glee or giggles. “Tell me about the item someone has given you to hold.” And, “Tell me about the explosives you have in your luggage.” We finally did get to board… without being arrested.

Now is the time to REALLY complain about how crappy our domestic carriers have become. Etihad was so nice we were truly spoiled, but THEN we had to ride with Delta. The seats were so painful I LITERALLY hurt my tailbone during the ten hour ride that even today if I lean back on it I get a stinging pain up my back. The food was ok, about what you would expect. But the flight attendants were HORRIBLE! We, as you are aware, were travelling with a baby… we need a little more help (like water to make bottles) than the typical traveler. We would push the call button and literally 45 minutes would go by with not so much as a stewardess even walking by! Not to mention that on this ride Kaden screamed for a good portion of the time, putting Mom and Dad in a pretty antsy mood.

Mercifully we were allowed off this plane in Salt Lake City (a fine airport, btw, by Sydney's standards...) where we were informed by customs to not fear, our plane would wait for us (after all the delays we were 15 minutes from departure when we got to customs). Our plane left at 2:55… at 2:49 Stu and I made it through customs and began an Olympic-record-breaking sprint to our gate. A half-mile later (after sitting still for ten hours on a plane, mind you), at 2:54, we reached our gate and were informed that it pulled back ten minutes early and left without us. Drained after over 24 hours of travel at this point, and being up for close to 48 hours, I felt close to tears.

Luckily, there was one more flight to Spokane that night that left in an hour and a half. Thank. God. After a Starbucks and a washed face, I felt much better as we boarded the plane. Kaden slept the whole way in my arms and we landed to find Momma E waiting for us. I got all teary-eyed when I saw her. (We made it!) We got our bags quickly and went out to see Maddison (in full racing gear from her practice Supercross race) and my Dad awaiting us in the truck. That night we told stories of the big sand land and went to bed in Justine’s horribly uncomfortable, but otherwise very welcoming bed. Quite the trip.

Well, We're "Home"!

As I have mentioned, I will definitely be catch-up blogging about our great vacation to Idaho soon, but right now I just wanted to quickly write to let everyone know we made it back here safe and sound and with less trouble than there could have been. Kaden did as well as could be expected... there were plenty of crying spells that seemed to last forever to us, but then he DID sleep for 9 hours on the flight to London, so who are we to complain???

Right now I am still having that "moving" feeling. Like when you finally get off a boat that you've been on all day and it feels like you are still on it. I'm apparently only off the airplane physically... my poor body is so confused. There really ought to be some sort of law that concerns just how many time zones you can travel through at one shot (Kaden would definitely agree!). So as I type this, Kaden and Stu have given in to the pressures of sleeping calling them and I am under strict instructions to wake Stu in ONE hour. If I am not passed out on the computer myself in an hour, I will. I, on the other hand, having listened to many folks here that have travelled much more than myself, am resisting sleep since they all say, "Don't give in to the urge to sleep... stay up until it's night where you are now." So I am shooting for 7 PM as "night". As of now it is barely 11 in the morning and I feel like I could easily sleep for a week. I doubt my eyes have ever felt so dry before.

For those of you eager for the upcoming blogs, here is a little preview of what is to come: The trip was by no means boring... between having to TASTE every bit of liquid in my carry-on (diaper bag... with enough baby food to feed a small army) and the joys of the French, it really was quite an interesting trip. We also went to a theme park while we were in Idaho, went to a Supercross race that my sister raced in, and got to see TONS of family and some friends. I can't think yet, but I will start posting just as soon as Kaden and I are sleeping on some basic schedule.

Thank you to everyone who came out to see us, especially to those who had to travel so far to do it. We had a great time and really appreciate the memories since it will be so long before we're stateside again. I didn't get to see a lot of people I'd hoped to see, but it was still so nice. Bye for now!

Apologize

I know I have been horrible and haven't posted any actual blogs this whole trip. I haven't been able to upload photos since I'm using my parents' computer (no wireless router) and things have been typically busy here. Soooo, I will post blogs once we get back to UAE that have substance and detail the goings on of the trip. When I am more rested and back to being (bored) just a Mom, I will definitely have more time to blog!

So, this is a blog to say I'm not blogging for a few more days still. Sorry for the lag to the four constant readers! :)

We fly out of Spokane tomorrow headed for Los Angeles and then London and back to UAE (with ungodly layovers at each). Give me a few days to recuperate from jet lag, then expect plenty of catch-up blogs.

Camping

Sorry I haven't had any updates thus far about our trip home. We've been really busy having a great time and catching up on sleep (meaning: trying to get Kaden to sleep on a new schedule). I've been taking some pictures and will get them up as soon as possible. These past days we have been camping. We will be back in Coeur d'Alene tomorrow so I will hopefully be able to post soon. We also went to my little sister's Supercross race on Saturday. We took some cool pictures then too so I will be sure to get them up as soon as I can!

Bye for now!