Welcome to Meridian, ID
We are living in Meridian, Idaho and we love it. It's much much bigger than Hurricane, Utah but surprisingly it feels kind of rural. It is right next to Boise, Idaho and we have a quick shot into town, but we really never need to go there, because we have almost everything we need right here! Since we got here in August we've had some fun getting to know the area.
We went to a hot air balloon exhibit at night to see them lit and glowing. You can also see the moon is starting to rise just over a mountain peak- it was so pretty!!
We went to Ann Morrison Park. Now you haven't seen a park until you see the parks they have in Idaho!! This park is huge!! The trees are Huge, the fountains are huge, the people are...... jk, just a lot of them. Fabulous parks here.
Amanda wasn't trying to gouge out Errin's eye, she was pulling her hair out of her face :)
We made The BEST carmel apples with the BEST Golden Delicious apples we've ever had, courtesy of the wonderful church orchard we have in Caldwell, Idaho!!
Where Waldo/Errin?
The night of the balloon festival we went to a drive in restaurant that served really good baked potatoes! Errin was in heaven because they looked like a potato, but it was a wad of ice cream shaped like a potato rolled in cocoa and had whip cream on top!! Delicious, but not worth the $6.00 it cost. But we have officially eaten a ice cream potato in Meridian, IDaho.
We have an amazing park right around the corner that has three baseball fields, nice ones, with safety wrap on the fences so if you run for a foul ball and try to catch it- you can't fall over the fence!! They have a wonderful sand volleyball court. They have gazebos and picnic tables and trees and treees and treees, and they have a lovely duck pond that you can fish in! All with a nice walking/biking path to enjoy the view!
We decided to have a boat race at the pond because we couldn't get to the river without falling from the steep banks INTO the river..... and there was a slight movement in the pond to get our boats moving. Jacob created a boat with a wind up oar system with balloon propulsion. It was awesome, but it only had a short spurt of engineering and then it was reduced to a floatation device. Still he won for most advanced.
Mine was a milk jug with a sail on top. I taped a big balloon to the bottom but it kind of made the boat sit funny in the water, I ended up ripping it off. Had I laminated my sail it would have proven the most sea worthy, cuz when it tipped over and my plain skinny white sheet of paper got wet, it lost it's sail-power . Errin made hers out of a tin pan and it was really sturdy....it didn't have any problems, but it wasn't fast like mine!! Ivory also used a milk jug and she put a balloon inside the jug to give it a real thrust, but in blowing it up it burst..... so that wasn't good! Amanda made hers out of a sturdy cell phone box that had a coating. she put a sail in hers as well, then she added styrofoam. Not sure why that appealed to her and we later discovered it is an environmental hazard as ducks think it's food. Harry chose cardboard as well and although cleverly taped to keep it water-proof, it wasn't really. This was very fun, and again, I won- in the long run as mine moved furthest, slowest and most consistently even after the water soaking sail debacle! Jacob won for coolest and fastest off the line, but we all felt like winners with this activity, because we kept having NEW events to race. Fastest, most circles, nicest looking, most stable, most stationary..... you get the idea.
Ivory won for the coolest idea in how to fish the boats out of the water as it is illegal to get in the water to fetch them yourself. We weren't sure if they meant it when they said violators would be prosecuted, so she lashed together some willow bows and thwaped the boats all back to safety, except Amanda's. Jacob thought sinking it was the answer and that's when the styrofoam floated out of range. We hatched a plan to return the next day and fish them out of the water..... if they were still there. OOOps.... not too many pieces left upon return. Well we tried and there are still a lot of ducks, so I think we're ok.
Weedle has been practicing for a dance that the youth will do for the rededication of the Boise, Idaho Temple.
The Temple has been redone and it is magnificent. Stunning and I can't wait until November 18th when it will be rededicated. In all of our living by Temples our kids haven't had many opportunities to see a Temple prior to dedication. Jacob, Gabe, Brittany and Brooke were able to go with us to see the Mt. Timpanogos Temple in American Fork with Gramma Stoller and Gramma Banks, back in the 90's, but Brooke was a toddler. Anyway, Errin and Amanda were amazed and touched, I wish we had time to sit and feel- but we went on a busy day and there was a new born baby screaming for a lot of the tour. Still it was fantastic and beautiful. Something to remember.
There we are... up to date.
