A Visit with the Bairds {July 19-22}

Mary and I have been best of friends since we were three years old.  Our families were (and still are) the best of friends too, and we did everything together growing up.  They became our family that lived close since we didn’t have any relatives that lived close.  Mary moved to Arizona after she got married, and her parents moved to Boise, so we try to still get together, but it has gotten more and more difficult as we have gotten older.  When Mary invited us to come and stay for a few days with her parents while she stayed with them for a month this summer, we jumped at the chance!  

Mary has three boys – two of which are the same ages as Landon and Davis – and a cute baby girl we got to meet for the first time on this trip.  We had a great time relaxing, visiting, and enjoying watching the kids play!  We also had fun looking through family history books with Chris.  Her ancestors are Malans too, and Shane and her come from the same original ancestor.  It was fun to see how we are all related!

 

Eating lunch together  - and Isaac and Davis talking

The first day we were there, the neighbor came over with an envelope marked “Frog Relocation Reward.”  Inside was a $5 bill.  He told the boys there was a bull frog in the pond behind the house that croaked all night long, keeping him and his wife awake.  He told the boys that if they could catch the frog and relocate it to one of the other ponds downstream, they could earn the $5.  This was of course the perfect activity for five little boys!  They went outside a couple of times to scope out the frog, but then finally got serious with a bucket and a net.  After a few failed attempts, they managed to catch the frog, only to have him jump out before they could get the lid back on!  Dallin was determined, and he tried again.  This time he immediately put the lid on, and Mary, Chris, and I weren’t even sure he was in there, but sure enough, when we took the lid off, there he was!

  

You can see the frog with its eyes poking above the water in the middle of the left picture, above.

  

After the successful frog catching, the boys decided to cool off a little in the sprinkler.  Chris brought out some popsicles and lemonade, and they had a great time playing together.

 

Another favorite past time of the boys was to play with bay blades.  Dallin, Ben, and Isaac were pros, and soon our boys were hooked on having bay blade wars. 

 

The first night we were there, we headed over to the Boise river.  It was the perfect evening, and the boys had fun trying to catch minnows with their cups.  Afterwards, they played in a small stream that fed into the river, and stacked rocks and piled up sand to build up a dam in one of the streams off of the river.

     

The next day, we headed over to a park nearby that had a fun playground and some water fountains to play in. 

 

James and Davis on the motorbike, and Landon and Ben decided to hike around on the trail that surrounded the park.

 

Davis and Landon on the teeter-totter, and Davis, Ben, and Landon hanging out together

That night, Dan and Jill (Dan is another Baird) and their family came over for dinner.  Afterward, Doug had bought a couple of fishing poles, so all of the kids went out to the pond to fish.  They stock the pond with fish for catch and release.  The kids all had so much fun fishing, and the fish must have been hungry, because all of the kids caught one, usually within less than five minutes!

 

Shane getting a fishing pole ready, and Davis pretending to fish with a branch he found.

    

Landon fishing, and cute baby Claire hanging out with her dad.

  

Landon reeling in a fish.

 

Releasing Landon’s fish, and Landon and I sitting together

 

Ben’s fish, and letting it go.

 

Dallin’s fish, and James hanging out with the kids.

Shane and Dan getting more worms ready.

 

Dan giving Davis a few fishing instructions.

 

Davis reeling in his fish.

 

Shane helping Isaac catch a fish.

  

Even James wanted a turn catching a fish!  At first, he wanted to hold it, but then it started flopping around, and he got a little bit freaked out!  He calmed down pretty quickly with dad though.

 

It was a great evening, and a great weekend!  The kids were so sad to go and wanted to stay longer, but we had to head back after church on Sunday so Shane could be back for work Monday.  We will definitely have to do it again!  We just wish we lived closer so we could get together more often.

James was a little worn out on the way home after our five straight weekends of traveling!  We are glad we will be home for a little bit before we go again.