• Sunday July 6th
• Elk Meadows / Deer Point Trail at Bogus Basin Ski Resort near Boise ID
• Approx 7 miles, probably 1K elevation gain.  Well maintained (new) trails, except 92/Shindig, which was a bit more of an adventure.
• Several Trail markers were missing or mislabeled.  This is common on mountain biking trails and is “part of the fun”.  A wrong turn here means hours of suffering and the possibility of never finding your way back to civilization:
  
• Alonna hikes back from taking the wrong turn:
  
• Varied and interesting wildflowers everywhere:
  
• Also lots of butterflies and bumble bees (not pictured).
• Never really saw any people, except for two bikers headed the wrong way at the aforementioned fork in the trail.
• Not much shade, probably because we were criss-crossing ski runs.

Today Ben and I went on a bike ride.  We attempted to go “early” (10:30am) to avoid the heat, but it still felt like we were biking in a sauna.  The high today was 96 degrees – it seems a little early for it to be this hot in Boise (the high tomorrow is 102!).  But still, you can’t beat the clear blue sky which we see most of the year.  And the biking was still fun – we just took more breaks to enjoy the view…

This Spring Ben and I are fixing up the house and yard.  Since we’re trying to move closer to work (Eagle area), we’re planning on either selling or renting out this current house.  But there is a decent amount of maintenance that we’ve been opting-out of for the past few years.  If you haven’t already learned this lesson – it turns out that if you put off yard work for 3 years, it’s MUCH harder to get it back under control.  Especially when it involves rapidly spreading vines…

Here’s a photo from last year of the front of our house.  Notice the vines crawling up near the front door – they extend all the way around that nook on the side of the garage.

We cut out all of the vines, dug up an old tree stump, and painstakingly pulled all the vines off of the side of the house, sanded what they left behind, and painted.  We also painted the front door, put in an azalea plant and woodchips.  Here’s some photos:

We also added knobs and drawer handles in the kitchen:

And here’s a couple random photos – Ben planting peppers in the garden, and a praying mantis we found on our house:

I have to say I do enjoy winning 🙂  Last night I won another 1st place victory – this time in a Volleyball Tournament.  The tournament was organized by some volleyball players at HP.  It’s played on the grass with four people on a team.  We played on Wednesday nights for three weeks in a row, and it just finished last night.  It was a lot of fun, here’s a photo of the entire group (32 players).

(I’m in the front row, middle-left, light blue shirt)

• June 13-15
• My sister Kim visited with her friend and fellow hat afficionado Marissa
  
  
• Stopped at the hot springs in Loman, ID
  
  
  
• Drove to Stanley, ID
  
  
  
  
• Stayed in Ketchum / Sun Valley, ID
  • Hiked to a lookout point at the ski resort
    
    
    
  • Kim and Marissa signed up for Paragliding. The wind did not cooperate.
    
    
    
  • Unique wildlife seen: one bald eagle, one fox, one elk, and several distinctive birds.
• The next day we biked on the Boise greenbelt to Anne Morrison park and played Frisby Golf
  • This is the basic concept
    
    
    
  • Proper technique
    
    
    
    
    
  • A scenic picture on the way home
    
    

Last weekend I played in a soccer tournament in Boise. My team is the Royal Bombers and we’ve been playing together for about 4 years. We play outdoor soccer in the Fall and Spring, and indoor soccer during the winter.   We’re in Division 1 of the Southern Idaho Soccer League (there are 3 divisions, we’re in the middle but are moving up next year).  The playoffs for our division ended in a 3-way tie, so to make it to the championship game we had to do a 3-way shoot-out (penalty kicks). We had 6 people take penalty kicks before we won the shoot-out, and I was one of them – and I made it!  Then we went on to win the division title in the championship game.  It was a fun weekend, but 4 games in 2 days is completely exhausting!

For the past four or five years, a group of friends at work have gone on weekly mountain bike rides in the summer, usually followed by beer and pizza. Here’s a photo from last week’s bike ride; we did the Corrals trail with a pretty large group.

A Bullet-Point Blog by Ben

• Weekend of May 9th, 2008
• Visit with the Scott family
  • 5 siblings (Bonnie, Ben, Jon, Beth, Kim)
  • 3 spouses (Jose, Alonna, Amanda)
  • 4 children (Joseph, Joshua, Amanda, Alissa)
  • 1 grandmother (Robin)
• Table tennis, grilling, photo-sharing, balloon-folding, and long walks on the beach
• Weather was cold and windy, with a dash of tornado
• Photos… (more…)

After a full day of traveling, Ben and I are back home safe and sound.  Our trip was so much fun, but as always, it’s nice to be home.

Things I like about coming home:

• Familiar foods – Ben and I had hamburgers with fries and REAL ketchup in the LAX airport, yum.  Today we’re looking forward to hitting Quizno’s.
• Sleeping in our own bed
• Catching up on my favorite TV shows (Chuck, Best Week Ever, Project Runway, etc).  Plus – LOST starts next week!
• Thinking about where to take our next trip

Things I dislike about coming home:

• Cold weather!
• Unpacking
• Laundry and other chores
• Back to work and normal life

Happy travels,
Alonna