Autumn Afternoons

Friday night MJ and I walked over to Westside Drive-In, a neighborhood icon and grabbed some meatloaf and mashed potatoes for dinner. One meal is enough for both of us, and the food at this place is not your typical drive-in food so we were very satisfied. We spent the rest of the evening at home, chatting over a bottle of wine. Saturday morning I got the rest of my plants snuggled into their new home as rain drizzled down all day. It wasn't really what most people would refer to as rain - but in Boise we'll take what we can get... mist, sprinkles, drizzles, dew, downpours, torrents and just plain showers are all welcome here. My new plants will love it, and the snow pack in the mountains is (knock on wood) a good omen of the winter to come. I'm actually looking forward to breaking out the skis this year.
Saturday night after MJ got off work we drove up to Garden Valley to meet up with Carol, Jan, Mom and Dad. It was almost a complete reenactment of our weekend up there with them last year. A late dinner, little wine, a little Balderdash. Wet dogs in and out the door. Rain hitting the metal roof. Cozy as it gets. Nothing smells better than the ground in the woods after a good strong rain. Nothing says fall to me more than a drive along the Payette as the leaves start to change and a night spent in stocking feet playing board games with family.
Sunday as we drove home we stopped by a nursery in Horseshoe Bend.
*A side note here: I linked to this nursery's website because I am amazed that a business in Horseshoe Bend has a honest to goodness website. I'm not sure if that says more about the prevalence of the Internet in our lives these days or how far Horseshoe Bend has come in the last few years.
Anyway, they had some very creative ideas. MJ's favorite was a flower bed. It was an actual old rusty bed frame filled with flowers. I liked the kitchen complete with an old stove and stock pots and frying plans filled with succulents. I can't wait to see what that place looks like in the summer. It will definitely be on our list of places to stop when we are heading home from the cabin.
It was a quiet weekend, exactly what we needed. I hope everyone out there had the weekend that they needed to have as well.One of these days I'll charge up the batteries on the camera and start taking pictures again. Love to all, -M

Post Wedding Pics - North Idaho

Self portrait I

Fountain in Sandpoint
Self portrait II




Contemplating life's mysteries or wondering when the heck were going to get some breakfast? You decide...

Self portrait part tres

MJ & I with Josh Ritter

A beautiful venue for beautiful music

North Idaho is... hmmm... how can I possibly do it justice? I keep erasing everything I write about it because I simply cannot explain what an incredible spot North Idaho is. There are vineyards, rolling hills, huckleberry plants lining the roads, a very tempting looking amusement park, mammoth mountain lakes, universities and colleges tucked into every nook and cranny. North Idaho is the best of Western Montana and the best of Eastern Washington rolled into one. We were there the second weekend in August for the Sandpoint Music Festival and couldn't have had a better time. In Coeur d'Alene we walked the streets of downtown in awe of all of the antique shops, restaurants, public art, and quirky places to shop. We bought un-filtered olive oil that had been pressed there in the shop by a family owned business and have been enjoying it since our return dripping from bread and in MJ's case covered in Parmesan cheese. At the music festival we saw Madeline Peyroux, a French Canadian that sounds so much like Billy Holiday her voice puts a shiver down your spine. We also saw our favorite singer/songwriter Josh Ritter, a North Idaho native. He was gracious enough to stand for three hours after his show to meet and greet all of his fans as he always does. We had him sign our wine cork as we did in Stanley and were a bit thankful he didn't remember us. I'd hate for him to feel like we are stalking him when we see him again next month at the Egyptian Theatre in Boise! We camped in the car while we were there and had a fantastic trip, staying at the family cabin in Garden Valley on our way home.

Pictures post wedding... camping trip with the girls

MJ fishing as Zach looks on wistfully

Sleeping beauty... Geneva manages to make even sleeping in a tent in a flannel sleeping bag look glamorous!

Ripley just cannot accept the fact that MJ is NOT a morning (or even early afternoon) person

The first weekend in August we headed for the hills for some fun in the mountain sun. Our camping spot was above Idaho City. We had just girls (Kim, Tobi, Geneva and I) the first night, MJ, Ripley & Wendy and her dogs joined us the second night. It was important to me to spend as much time with my friend Geneva as I could steal away before she went back home to Australia. We camped in a gorgeous area... probably the best place I have ever "car camped" (this is what we call camping when no real effort or hiking is involved in getting to the camp spot). We were on a bit of an island, so the river wrapped around our tents. I woke up a couple of times late into the night and just layed there looking at the stars and listening to the river. We saw a lot of little creatures such as frogs and snakes... the usual suspects - deer & hawks... MJ caught a few small(ish) fish... our friend Tobi grilled up the thickest, juiciest, yummiest steaks ever... the four of us finished all the wine the first night... the sky was FULL of satellites, shooting stars and constellations and since there was a burn ban we sat for hours just looking at the heavens and chatting the night away... good times...

Bachelorette/ Bachelor Parties Last Weekend

This will probably be my last post before the wedding. I can't believe that it's already here! Kathy gets in today and Scott either Friday or Saturday. Peggy will arrive in Nampa Saturday. I am taking the next week off of work. Crazy, crazy crazy!

Last weekend MJ and the guys from the shop went on a mountain bike/ fishing trip that just so happened to get written about in the Statesman this week. You can check it out here:

http://www.idahostatesman.com/eyepiece/story/104863.html

The article starts out: "Getting into the Boulder/Whiteclouds on a mountain bike requires a full gruntal assault. High elevation, relentless climbs, heat, rocky trails and mosquitoes all conspire against you as if they are gatekeepers of the mountains.
But the payoff is worth it — Idaho's backcountry is full of rewards."

By all accounts they had a great time, saw some amazing scenery, took advantage of the downhill on the way out and enjoyed some nice steaks afterwards in Sun Valley.

Meanwhile... I left in a big silver bird on Friday afternoon and headed down south to Reno. In the airport we found a billboard of the band that brought us there and had a snapshot taken in front of it.

We headed over to the hotel and had dinner and called it an early night in anticipation of the next day. To preface this story a bit my friends and I have a long history of doing our best to completely humiliate the bride to be during their bachelorette party. Some past dress up themes have included 80's prom night, hick cowgirls also from the 80's, and punk rock girls. That night as we went to bed I had a fleeting thought that since everyone was pregnant that I was going to get off easy.

As we got ready for the pool the next morning after breakfast my friends surprised me with a beach outfit they were determined I wear. I got a lovely sign letting everyone know I was soon to be wed. A blow-up dolphin we promptly named Flipper. And a headband, lei and arm bands to make sure that no one missed the sign.

The fun didn't stop there. After a long day laying by the pool, sipping on cocktails (well Susan and I were sipping... everyone else was pregnant and drinking "mocktails") we met up with a friend that lives in Reno and prepared for the concert that night. I had a lot of interesting gifts given to me that culminated into our theme for the evening... wigged out.

I hope to have a picture of everyone after we donned wigs... but for now I'll leave you with a truly frightening picture of the result of my friends work on me that night... false eyelashes, wig, hippie dress and all, in all it's glory... don't I make a pretty bride??? As I said ever time I caught sight of myself in the mirror that night... I now know that blond does not look good on me! The Indigo Girls show was awesome though, and we were able to go right up to the stage. I think Amy & Emily were appreciative of the humor all six of us caused with our outfits.

See you next week! Love to all, -M

Pictures From a Beautiful Sun Valley Wedding

Good Friends

MJ thinks he's pulling a fast one on us....

Our breath-taking Basque bride

I love this one!

Da Girlz.

Two Tickets to Paradise...

This guy is an Albatros... the cutest endangered baby bird I've ever come across. He's about the size of my cat.

MJ and Mark at Queen's Bath with Bali Hai in the back ground.

Another of Mark and MJ at Queen's Bath.

MJ really liked watching the waves. This was at Lydgate Park.

This was taken in front the on the "Grand Canyon of the Pacific" - Waimea Canyon. The white line to the left of my shoulder is one of hundreds (maybe thousands) of waterfalls we saw on Kauai.

MJ and Isaac getting their boogie board on. The waves always look so much smaller on film.

So we're walking down the beach at Tunnels and pass a rather large older man. I look over at MJ and say, "Did you see who that was." He laughs, "Yeah, he really looks like him, huh?"
"No, I'm serious - that is totally him. I saw he and his family on the cover of Rolling Stone a few years ago and that is his daughter that he's digging a hole with."
MJ's Reply- "Huh, I guess we should take a picture, but from far away so people don't believe that we really saw him. It will be funny."
So here it is people - David Crosby... the guy standing in the water with the huge belly. Apparently Stephen Stills owns a home on Tunnels. Must be nice.

Mom and Dad bought us a sunset cruise up the NaPali Coast. It was by far the highlight of our trip. We saw a ton of dolphins and whales and even a distant turtle or two. The captain pulled the front of the boat up to a waterfall and MJ got to shower in it. He was very upset I didn't get any pictures of that.

Cheers! Salut! Skol!

Josh Ritter Weekend