Goofy Gracie and Looney Lily!!

In a recent post, Amy and I detailed a trip we went on where we visited with both our families. This time, when my parents flew into town, they decided to bring two of my nieces (Grace and Lily) along with them so they could spend time with their paternal grandmother (are you lost yet?).

In any case, Amy and I got to spend some time playing and goofing around with the girls, and we thought we'd share a few photos of my beautiful nieces.

The girls decided it would be fun to dress me up, tie me to the chair, and put a braid around my head that they decided was my "girl hair". I was really at their mercy.....where did they learn to tie those knots???

Lily, plotting what she can do next to torture her foolishly permissive uncle.....

Could a girl with this angelic face be capable of wrong??

Sorry Grace, but we KNOW that the kind of behavior that YOU are capable of!!!

Skiing, Skittles & Super Soft Snow!!

A few weeks ago, we took a little week and a half trip south. We spent time in Idaho Falls, Logan, UT, Salt Lake City, and Nephi, UT. When you add up all the driving, we spent 27 hours in the car.

But that's beside the point - the truth is, we had a great time! We got to visit with Amy's Grandma and Aunt, Uncle, and Cousin in Idaho Falls, my brother, his wife, and my baby nephew in Logan, my parents in SLC, and we also got to see Amy's Dad and Stepmom in Nephi.

Phew!! We really should have taken more pics, but we were having too much fun to get the camera out very often. However, we did get a few pictures while we were skiing with my family in SLC! The amazing part was that this was essentially Amy's first time downhill skiing, and she picked it up almost immediately!! We had a great time, and we hope we can go again before the snow melts!

Jim trying to be cool with a little jump on the side of the trail

Amy working on her turns in her "Tropical Skittles" ski outfit - this one requires a little explanation.... A local outdoors store was having a huge sale, and my dad bought these bright blue pants for my 8 year old niece - for some reason, the sizing was WAY off, and they ended up fitting Amy perfectly. As it turned out, the bright blue clashed spectacularly with her bright green coat, but at least we always knew where she was...... Amy decided that the color combo looked like Skittles tropical assortment of candies.....

Mom skiing with my niece Lily - the munchkin did great, and the proud Grandma grinned incessantly!

My dad, displaying one of his trademark S.E.G.'s (S__t Eating Grin). Aparently he's quite proud of himself for being able to stand motionless on the ski hill and not fall down.

My older niece, Grace, also proved to be a fast learner on skis - I wish it was this easy for me back when I started snowboarding (and snowboarding is, arguably, an easier sport to master)!!

What trip would be complete without a "Mom, quit taking pictures of me standing here doing nothing" shot. Amy likes the fact that this picture makes it look like I'm peeing in the woods on a public ski hill.

Amy "Skittles" MacNair smiling after a long day on the slopes!! Hopefully we'll see a lot more pictures like this as she continues to progress!

Winter Wonderland

Hey all!! Here are a few more overdue pics!

This year we took a nice long Christmas vacation and visited both of our families. We were gone for more than 3 weeks. Well, during those three weeks, northern Idaho received 5 feet of snow!!

Needless to say, our cars were buried. We only got photos of the Forester, but keep in mind, this car was moved twice while we were away so the snowplows could clear the parking lot. The snow on the car is just a portion of what fell. I wish I got more photos of us driving around Post Falls - it was amazing! There were 5-7 foot snowbanks on both sides of the roads all over town - it didn't even look like the same place!

We also got a few photos of the falls across from our apartment - it's a beautiful sight to see them all covered with icicles and snow.

The Hiawatha Trail

Okay, this post is LOOOOOONG overdue, but I felt that it was worth putting up, even out of sync! This summer, during Mom's visit, we took her on a bike path called the Hiawatha Trail. This is a beautiful stretch of abandoned railroad that travels over and through the Idaho wilderness. The trail you ride on has been cleared of the old railroad ties, but you get to go through 5-6 tunnels carved through the mountains and over 7-8 wooden trestle bridges that span some pretty big canyons. We had a fantastic time, and thought we would share some pics!!

Starting off from the Parking Lot - what's with the long sleeves, isn't it still warm outside?

One of the first things you do is go through a 2 mile long tunnel. You need a headlamp to be able to see where you're going - in the middle of the tunnel, you can't see daylight from either direction and the temperature hovers around 40 degrees!!The light at the end of the tunnel....
Mom and I heading out onto the first trestle bridgeTaking a breather before we head into yet another tunnel - note the sign that says "Turn on Lights". If you forget, you'll probably crash into the wall.
Mom and I one of the longer trestle bridges

Amy made the mistake of looking down..... The trees look kind of small from 220 feet above the ground.
Idaho has plenty of trees.
A beautiful valley - it's really neat to get a birds eye view like this.

After lunch, we took a short rest on one of the bridges. "Amy, let us sleep!!"

Me standing on a trestle bridge with the largest bridge visible in the background. We are pretty high up! But, alas, the end is near....

We ran into a bunch of chipmunks while we were waiting for the shuttle to take us back to the parking lot. These chipmunks were trained con-artists - and fearless!! I actually got this one to come up and take a nut off the toe of my shoe. Cute little bugger!

All in all, we had a great time, and we hope to do it again next summer!