This week, Tyler and I had to get our ears lowered, so it was Nora and Flossie. Over the past few trips, Nora has been eying a pair of cheerleader pom-pom's in the toy aisle for some reason. And, for some other reason (unknown to myself), Flossie decided to give in to Nora's conning and running in the door this afternoon, Nora had to show me her new found play item. With that...words cannot describe things, so I will let the audio/visual aides complete this short story. Go...Broncos !

We left Boise just before noon, and enjoyed a nice drive on Idaho 21 through Idaho City. The sky was clear, with the temperature hovering around 78-79 degrees on the way to the trailhead. We arrived just before 2PM, tossed on the packs, saddled up the dog, and set out on the adventure.

We made it about two minutes down the trail before Nora had to use the restroom. While Flossie took this chance (and period of time) to teach Nora how to be a lady in the great outdoors, Tyler, Eros and I jumped down to the river and kicked off the shoes to see what the water felt like. After spending a few minutes on our own, the girls re-joined us, and Nora and Tyler kicked off their pants and had a good time. We walked out into the middle of the stream, but the water climbed up to waist level of both kids, so we halted our advancement across the river.

After getting clothes and shoes back on, we continued down the trail for a quarter of a mile, and took a break for lunch. The kids were a bit upset the jelly was showing through the bread, they are not used to roughing it I guess. Eros enjoyed the break, finding a comfortable spot in the shade, and she was rewarded with the crusts from Tyler's sandwich. Then, we put the packs on and headed back onto the trail.

We made it another quarter mile, and then the toils of hiking for a bit began to set in with the short-legged kids. Tyler bemoaned how much he hated walking and Nora just plumb started to wear out. Eros, however, voiced no such concerns. We made it down to a bend in the river, snapped a few pictures of the surroundings, and then turned around, going about 8/10th's of a mile along the Crooked River in just over an hour.

The trail was fairly busy, and we passed one family camping just off the trail with a few older pooches guarding the camp. A number of kids, some right around Tyler's age and a few years older, also trekked along the river on this beautiful day. Eros loved the smells, and on our way back, she had the opportunity to visit a rodent friend. Unfortunately for her, she never caught wind of him, although Tyler's keen eyes picked him out as he casually enjoyed a snack, ignoring our picture taking and gawking.

The kids had enough of the fun, and we did not take a dip in the water again. We arrived back at the Escalade after three hours on the trail. The temperature had warmed to the mid-80's, although the shaded trail with river nearby made it very pleasant and it never felt a bit hot. The dusty Erben's hopped back in the car, and we headed toward big city again (snagging buffalo wings on the way home for dinner).

You can view all the pictures from the day in the Flickr set. The kids may not have been wild about the entire journey, but it was good to get them out of town and into the woods. They are excited for Grandpa Larry to come with them next time and "maybe we can bring our tents and eat marshmallows" they claim. May need a few more hikes to roughen them up a bit still.

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20110904 - Crooked River Trail Hike in a larger map

Tyler's First Logo Program

Tyler has computer class two days a week as we understand it -- Tuesday and Thursday, just after lunch, taught by his kindergarden teacher from last year. The first week of school, he learned the username and password to logon (passwords are supposed to be secrets he informed us, but he could tell us because you cannot keep secrets from your parents). Now, it appears they have jumped right into Logo. On Thursday, Tyler created a box, 100 units on a side, and was able to bring home the proof.

The only downside I suppose is that he is using a Windows program to learn Logo instead of cutting his teeth on an Apple II like I did, but he is about four years ahead of me as I did not get my first crack at programming (with Logo at least) until fifth grade as I recall. I did however spend a little bit of time with Basic on the Commodore 64 a bit before then, but probably not around first grade (more fun to play Donkey Kong and Sea Wolf).

Now you'll have to excuse me, downloaded ACSLogo and I am off coding...

Come breakfast time, Nora continued down the sugar high-like roller coaster, bouncing off the walls, hopping and dancing, prancing and talking all morning long. She only ate about half her oatmeal, but was all into getting her uniform on, brushing her teeth, and doing her hair. Then there was Tyler. He took some rustling to get out of bed after ten or so hours of slumbering. He left his summer vacation mode on, dawdling through breakfast, and getting dressed slower than Eros wandering the backyard at 2AM looking for chickens. Not a smile, not a frown, not a single emotion from him, although he did show a little bit of excitement for a split second as he tossed his lunch pail in his bag.

On the way to school, we ran through the plan for the day with both kids. Tyler, we will drop you off first, then you will have class, lunch, class, then extended class time, then we will pick you up. He starts to ponder. Nora, we will drop you off after Tyler then pick you up at lunch time and you will go to daycare. "Ohhh man" she exclaims. Then she starts talking about school...and is jumping in her seat, the excitement pouring out. She started coughing and I though she might have worked herself sick, but no. Tyler is just quiet, and just before we get to the school, he remarks "I just want to go to school for half the day, you come pick me up." Now the fun begins for the parents.

After waiting a few minutes, the elementary drop-off process begins. Fourth in line, we pull up, and Tyler clams up, scrunches up in his seat, and the tears and emotion start pouring out. He convinced himself he was not going to school. Flossie hopped out, took him inside and up to his classroom where the hysterics continued as she helped him put his bag up and sit in his desk. Oh boy...what fun. Back in the car, Nora is jabbering my ear off about everything related to school, clothes, her hair, and her shoes. We wait a bit less than ten minutes and she's out the door and off into pre-school, oblivious to our existence.

At lunch time, Flossie scurried out to Challenger and picked up Nora. She talked to Gramma Bean a bit and shared with Flossie that she would miss Tyler at daycare, but otherwise she had a wail of a day. She brought home a badge in the shape of a school bus with her name on it and string so she can wear it around her neck, and she had a piece of paper with her name on it that she traced over three times.

Around 5:30, Flossie had Tyler picked up and had just scooped up Nora from daycare when the Escalade landed at HP to snag yours truly. I get in the car, worried about how Tyler's day turned out, and had zero chance to ask him about it as Nora assaulted me with the events of her day in a ninety second run-on summary. After she stopped to take a breath, I looked at Tyler and asked how his day went. He looks at me and simply states "AWESOME!" Whew. After Flossie left he settled right in, had a good time eating lunch with his classmates, and after school during the extended class time (aka, daycare at school with more educational structure) he played Simon-Says and it was way cool. I asked him if he was ready for school tomorrow and it was all "oh yeah"'s for Tyler.

A few other photos are on the flickr page.

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The day was fairly cold and a nice day to spend inside a museum. The Shanghai museum covers the various eras of Chinese history. There was the Bronze hall, the Sculpture Hall, the Ceramics hall, the Caligraphy Hall, the Painting Hall, the Currency Hall and the Jade Hall. I've included a small sampling of photos from the museum. (The internet connection is pretty slow at the hotel, so I didn't include any descriptions or anything). The exhibits were fascinating.

After a nice lunch, we then headed to the Yuyuan Gardens. These gardens were a house and garden built during the Ming Dynasty. It was chilly outside, but it was enjoyable to wander through the labyrinth of rooms, rock and pools. The architecture was amazing. Everywhere you turned there were hidden carvings, especially on the rooftops. I've included some photos that even show a dragon and a lizard figthing.

Or course, in this day and age, you can't go anywhere without your Starbucks!

We then ate a traditional Chinese dinner of dumplings right next to the Yuyuan Gardens. When we came out, night had fallen and the old buildings where glowing.

I hope you enjoy the photos and I look forward to posting more soon.

Saturday afternoon, Flossie spotted someone checking out the bird feeder. He...well...probably a she I guess, enjoyed a tasty snack for about ten minutes, finally bugging out when Eros came out to see what we were looking at through the window and made enough noise to send him scurrying into the neighbors yard.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/livefromboise/sets/72157625596830785/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/livefromboise/sets/72157625721131194/

Nora Kate, a girly girl on some days, and a rough-n-tough tomboy on others, shows off her girlie side in November. The collection of outfits now overflows the outfit tub, as we can go pink, blue, yellow, fringe, lace, heels, high heels, flats and all sorts of permutations from there of princess outfits and dress-up clothes. On this day, we went with pink formal wear with the purple dancing shoes.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/livefromboise/sets/72157625595730539