Sun Valley

We went to Sun Valley for our annual family vacation - we've been going there over the 24th of July for the last five years! It was nice to have our new car this year for all of the extra kid and baby gear (not to mention two sets of golf clubs) that we brought along. A stop at the Twin Falls Costco is also part of the tradition to get gas and load up on food and drinks for the week. Everyone was very well behaved in the car, which means that they both slept most of the way!

We stayed in the Lake Cottage at the Sun Valley Resort this year. We ended up in the master bedroom because it had a giant bathroom/closet where we could set up the port-a-crib and roll-a-way bed for Kennedy - which she refused to sleep in, preferring to share the king bed with us. Most nights the only way we could get her to go to sleep was to read lots of stories and then finally resort to turning on a movie and lying in bed with her. My aunt learned that the woman who used to own this home used to do some entertaining in the bathroom/closet. I have no idea why anyone would want party guests to spend time in this space! It was great for us all to be together in the house, and we took advantage of the patio and cooked on the grill almost every night. Jeff and Kennedy built some amazing things with the blocks they found in the toy closet. The adults spent lots of time around the dining room table doing sodukus, crossword puzzles and playing a game called bananagrams (very fun! it's like scrabble, but you each build your own board). We watched the Tour de France in the den. Grandpa Ray was a little lost, forgetting where his bedroom was (and sometimes even that we were in Sun Valley), but the house worked well for all eleven of us. We were sad that Andrew and Meg couldn't make it.

Of course we also spent lots of time outside in the pool, on the golf course and on the tennis court. Jake and Jeff found some geocaches in Hailey. Jake and I took the kids on a nice walk to Elk Horn and we took the required pictures of everyone at the Hemmingway statue and with the three bears. I'm not sure why, but the picture with the bears is a big deal and is always the last thing we do before leaving. No biking, bowling or ice skating this year. I have to say that I missed riding my bike because Sun Valley has such great bike lanes. Macy is still a bit too small for the bike trailer. She did have a great time playing on her mat on the floor, pushed in the stroller, and being carried everywhere. She's one happy baby!

Kennedy managed to get hurt just about every day - she tripped going down the patio stairs and skinned her knee and nose...those are not freckles on her nose in the pictures :) She scratched her thigh on a dresser drawer while jumping on the bed. She tripped again and scraped her elbow and other knee. And the worst was when she pulled the swinging kitchen door over her toe. She was really in pain from that one, and the toenail wouldn't stop bleeding, so we took a trip to the St. Luke's emergency room. Kennedy kept saying through her sobs, "My toe is bleeding! It really, really, really hurts!" It turns out that everything was just fine, but they soaked it in a cleaning solution and gave her some tylenol. We're still waiting for the nail to fall off, but it will be any day now. Even with all of the injuries, Kennedy did NOT want to go home. She loved Sun Valley so much and cried when we packed up to leave. She said, "Let's not go home. I want to stay in Sun Valley!" I guess we'll have to come back next year!