Welcome to Boise, Now Get Outta Here

We began our stay in Boise at Seth's maternal grandmother's home--otherwise known as Grandma Joan's House.  She has one of the coolest back yards I've ever seen, and I'm not talking about the weather.  The back corner of the house extends over a natural creek, so yes, the water tumbles past, and under, her house.  

Even more curious is the fact that the house is surrounded by city and neighborhoods.  Yet every day and night, a host of deer, beavers, foxes, mink, raccoons, and squirrels party in the yard.  How do we know?  The deer and squirrels can be spied during the day.  The beavers leave evidence by chewing down any tree that isn't wrapped in chicken wire.  The fox, mink, and raccoon are caught on tape. Grandma Joan has motion sensor equipped camera in her yard that captures video every time an animal trots by.  It even works in the dark with a tiny infrared light that doesn't disturb the animals.  We had lots of fun putting scraps of veggies, peanut butter and other left-overs out, enticing the creatures to walk in front of the camera.  Then, the next day, we would watch the video clips with rabid interest.

Today, however we spent most of the day out of the house.  First, Seth took the girls for a walk around the neighborhood, during which they found a frozen pond and proceded to slide across it on their bellies.  Of course, a passer-by saw them and shook his mean 'ole finger at them to warn them of danger, which they promptly ignored.  Fortunately, I was not there, because I would have been as nervous as a mother hen--even though the ice was extremely thick (says Seth).  Dads.  Sigh.

After that, we headed out to Seth's mother's house in Emmett, ID.  She is also known as Nanabanana amongst the grandchildren (a name she picked out because she once had a Nanabanana grandmother).  Her house is about an hour from Boise, giving us plenty of time to see the landscape in between and make a few stops as well.



Seth and his mom at her house in Emmett.



I drool over the mountains.  I think my camera even drools over them.  Each time I look up and see them on the horizon, I mentally jump with surprise.  Mountians!  Weird.



And the snow! Oh so beautiful the way it contrasts with the dark earth.





Rocks covered in an amazing array of colored lichen.  Be still my heart.


During our wanderings, we stopped to visit a friend of Nanabanana's.  She lives in this ancient house that was reportedly once a brothel--you know, back in the day.  It is partly a home and partly a rock/gem shop now.  The lovely lady makes jewelry and other art pieces.  She gave me an ornament made from the smoothed chunk of a porcelain plate, crusted with german glass glitter. Very cool.  Seth surprised me by buying a necklace for me there.  Yep, he's a keeper.

After the gem shop, we continued picking our way through what must have been the senic route to Emmett.  The roads were muddy and winding--sometimes passing alongside the edge of a cliff, other times shooting through open fields.  I jumped out of the truck at one point to try to catch a photo of a lovely pheasant.  Instead, all I got were confused looks from cows.  They're really cute though, aren't they?

Emmett has an inn and a road, both named Frozen Dog.  There's a story there....but I try not to think too hard about it.

Finally, we made it to Emmett.  Just as we were looking around the house, the gray sky began to produce snow.  Woohoo!  We ran outside like true tourists to play in it.  The kids climbed some trees in Nanabana's yard.