Boise, Idaho

Hello, hello family and friends!

We left Petaluma, CA at 6 am this morning in hopes of making it to Boise at a somewhat reasonable time and much to our surprise we made it here around 5:30 pm! It was not that hard to get us moving this morning after Shannon shooed us out of our warm sleeping bags because it was a chilly morning! We took down the tent and brushed our teeth in less than 15 minutes! Because I have been a little groggy on medication and unable to drive lately, I told the girls I would gladly take the first shift today. Today we went through four states, which rivals our first night of five states: California, Nevada, Oregon, and Idaho. We drove through a lot of desert and mountain/hills. Being from Pennsylvania, most of these large geographic structures look like mountains, but I'm not sure if that is a ignorant generalization or if most of them really are mountains. I try to find them on the map, but most of you know my map skills, so I will leave it at that :)

I have been excited about coming to visit Jeff and Laurie since Jimmy expressed enthusiasm about this place. For those that don't know my cousin Jimmy is normally a pretty subdued, happy-go-lucky individual with minimal emotional outbursts, so when he expressed sadness that I was only going to be staying here one night, I knew it had to be amazing! :) How right he was!!! Jeff was afraid we would get lost on the mountain so he kindly offered to meet us about a half hour away and then we followed him to his house. Oh my goodness -- what a beautiful place! Beautiful cannot even begin to describe it, and being an English teacher, I feel bad for not being able to come up with better adjectives. They honestly live on the top of a mountain! Jeff has gotten quite comfortable with the guardless roads that lead to huge drops, Shannie was a bit more cautious and reserved with her driving though. We passed several wild turkeys on the way up, only later to learn that they are frequent visitors and are actually pretty tame. We were also greeted by humming birds, dogs, cats, fish, and the less than desirable yellow jackets. How fun!

Then we had the most delicious fresh veggies with hummus. Now normally, I'm not the biggest hummus fan, but this just tasted so good! I could not stop eating it! (sorry Mom, I'll be sure to give your hummus another try) We had grilled chicken and pesto pasta for dinner and it was so nice to sit at a table and have a home cooked meal! Now don't get me wrong, we loved eating out at the different restaurants, but at this point in the trip, this place is just what we needed! The house and, obviously, the hosts were so welcoming and wonderful it is not going to be an easy departure tomorrow. Even Sam and Linus are just so sweet and adorable.
We have the entire downstairs to ourselves and Laurie has made it abundantly clear that we are welcome to take advantage of being in an actual stable home and not our tent! A big thanks goes out to Uncle Jay for helping to arrange this for us and of course to Laurie and Jeff for accepting three strange girls into their home so willingly! On our way down the mountain, we saw 2 foxes!!

Tomorrow we are off to visit Uncle Wendell's Aunt Alice in Helena, Montana. She is a retired biology teacher excited about hanging out with more teachers! Fun, fun! Thanks for keeping us traveling girls in your thoughts and prayers, it is truly and sincerely appreciated!