Hanging Out in Boise

Hi everyone!

I am alive and well, just hanging out in Boise, Idaho (no you da ho).  (no... that joke never EVER gets old)  I have a ton of wedding pictures to show you from last weekend in South Carolina, but haven't had time to load them.

 Okay... that isn't true. I am sitting alone each night in my hotel room. I totally could have posted them last night. But I had a long day of learning about seed germination... and I drank a couple glasses of wine with dinner...and laziness won.

  For the record, the wedding was AMAZING. One of the nicest weddings I have ever been to. I can't wait to show you! It's just things like this huge, fluffy robe keep distracting me
I don't even like bath robes... but it just felt wrong to not wear it...

So I am enjoying my work trip. I am eating a ton of great food (as expected, potatoes are fantastic) and I am making some new work friends... contacts... associates... what do you call work people you meet at a conference? I am not close enough to any of them to start handing out my blog address, but I have a few I am enjoying eating dinner with.
I haven't ventured into much of Boise yet beyond the PF Changs and the Old Spaghetti Factory (Boise...I am doing it wrong. STOP EATING AT NATIONAL CHAIN RESTAURANTS) but tonight the group is heading out for some kind of tour and a nice dinner. Tomorrow night is the banquet and Thursday morning I fly home. I am already missing a couple of fellas really bad, so I know by Thursday I will be 100% ready to be back in Kentucky

Thank god for Skype... it helps to fill the Henry and Nick sized hole in my heart, but I am already feeling the need to get home to these two ASAP.

Wedding pictures to come... most likely tomorrow. Be prepared to be amazed.

Hitting the Road

Wow.  So... the birthday is officially a wrap, right?  I think we covered it forward and back around here... if you didn't notice.  We will now close the birthday book for another year and move on. 

(are you all sighing with relief?)

So now we are packed up and leaving town! 

What?  Didn't I mention that we are going out of town?  I guess I was distracted.

Saturday is Kelsey and Thomas' wedding, so Nick and Henry went to South Carolina yesterday (they need to be there for the Thursday evening rehearsal) and I am catching a ride with Candice today after work.  It will be a fun filled family weekend, and you can expect a lot of pictures of the beautiful couple, as well as the STAR OF THE SHOW, the RING-BEARER! 

Okay, Kelsey is the star of the show. But Henry will be a close second (Sorry Thomas).

After the wedding I am actually flying out of South Carolina and going to Idaho for several days for a work conference.  Do I have any readers in Boise?  Anybody have any suggestions for things to do or see?  I am open to all suggestions, seeing as how my current plans for my evenings in Boise include reading, blogging wedding pictures and watching movies in my hotel room.  Maybe eating some junk food. (I am a wild one).

Anyway, it is going to be kinda a whirl wind week; three days in South Carolina, five days in Idaho. Fingers crossed it all goes well!

Henry's Nintendo Land Birthday Party!

Last Christmas Nick got a new Wii U, and with that Wii U came the game Nintendo Land. NintendoLand offers several (ten?) mini games based on old Nintendo classics. Mario, Donkey Kong, Yoshi, Super Metroid, Balloon Fight... things that people who love Nintendo know and love. They are pretty simple, and they are extremely fun. From the moment Henry saw this game, a new little die hard Nintendo fan was born. Henry LOVES it. So when we started throwing out birthday party ideas to him, he jumped on the Nintendo Land party idea and held on tight.  I was worried about how it would come together... mainly because there were no Nintendo Land parties on Pinterest and... well... THERE ARE NO NINTENDO LAND PARTIES ON PINTEREST. Where will my IDEAS be 'borrowed' from??  Plus I wondered if people would get it, since not everyone has a Wii U, and most people have never heard of Nintendo Land.  So I fretted and repeatedly talked about how cool an Outer Space party might be.  No dice.  It was Nintendo Land or Bust.

 
Hats made by my mom, who is AMAZING! She got the pattern here.

Turns out I didn't need to worry about Pinterest, not when I have Nick.  The man knows how to come up with Nintendo themed party ideas.



Mario post it wall: by Nick

 cupcakes with the Nintendo Land game symbols, chocolate sucker mustaches. Ellie begging for food in the background. Good dog.
 
The hats went along with the kids playing Mario Chase in the yard... which pretty much just meant I told them to run and play.

Turns out, that is a pretty popular game. We could have just left it at that.

But we made a few more; like Yoshi's Fruit Cart. This entire idea was mine... I was pretty proud of it.
 
They were timed and had to collect fruit on the patio. IF they did it in under 30 seconds they got a gold coin

Now we get to the games Nick built... they were... a little more impressive than my Yoshi's Fruit Cart...

I can't imagine why the kids list this as their favorite game of the party... (using a Nerf gun, the targets fall if you hit the bulls-eye)
 
The little kids got some help sighting up the targets. I am surprisingly good at this game, but it hung out in my living room for a few days pre-party, so I got a lot of practice.
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And then Nick built this one... which... okay, this thing was just awesome.

You put a balloon on a track and have to navigate through a spiky maze... with a fan blowing. If you get to the end without your balloon popping, you get a coin!

 
With a little extra help for the little ones


The gold coins the kids collected when they played each game were then used to play plunko for prizes
 
Also a hit with the kids. Who doesn't want to play plunko??
 
After the games singing was done, candles were blown out

Presents were opened

An excellent time was had by all.

 And now for lots of pictures of friends and family!
 
Henry and Hudson. These two are become the best of friends. It's adorable!

Here is our sweet boy with his Nanny


And of course one with his Papaw
 
Nana and her boys
 
 Grandaddy and Grandma Val
 
The Bio Girl Family
 
 Boo and Cici
 
Grandaddy, Grandma Val and Great-Grandma from Alabama!

 
Liz and Wesley

Aunt Candice and Uncle Chris....it was maybe a LITTLE cold outside, but as you can see this party REQUIRED use of the back yard.
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The kids table

Ethan enjoying his Nintendo Land cupcake

girls
 
 guys

 playing
 
Morgan and Carter

More playing

Hanging out with Andy

Aunt Boo and Uncle Chris with the birthday boy


Ryan and Arielle, giver of the AWESOME Wreck it Ralph Hands.

 
Seriously, he never wants to take them off

 
 But he will share with his Papa

Aunt Candice taking an inside break with Cici

Chris, Nicole and Nieem


It was an amazing party. We all loved it, especially our sweet birthday boy!

There are lots more pictures. LOTS MORE. If you want to see the 100 I loaded to flicker, click on any picture and it will take you to my page. If you were at the party and want to have access to order any of the 400 pictures in the snapfish album, let me know and I will send you an invite!

THANKS SO MUCH to Aunt Nicole for being our photographer and capturing so many great moments from the party!!