On the hunt (vacation part 2)

Joe recently came up with the idea that he might want to live in Boise. I swear he came up with this idea all on his own, but I must say, I wan't upset with this idea. I love Boise. I did a lot of growing up there. So since we would be in the general area of the mountain west we decided to inform those that he had sent resumes to that we would be in Idaho for about a week and if they wanted to interview him we would be happy to find our way to their offices. We took our time driving up, stopping to eat and to make a long overdue visit to my aunt's house. She loved AJ to bits and just got a kick out of his singing skills. Sadly we couldn't stay long because we had to check into our hotel for the evening. We found a cute little Bed and Breakfast to stay at. It was called the Boise Great House. 

A quaint little home just a block or so from the court house. 

This was the bedroom

The kitchen

And the bathroom. 

http://www.tajmahalofboise.com/

I loved every corner of it. We got there early afternoon and decided to find a local restaurant on Yelp. We came across this Indian Resataurant in the middle of Downtown Boise. The Taj Mahal. It was such a cute little place. It was practically empty when we got there at 5. I guess the dinner rush doesn't come until after 6. The owner came over to seat us. He was a sweet old man, with a very friendly face. AJ had found him to be his new best friend. (this happens frequently at restaurants) We ordered our food and while we waited we watched a Bollywood film on the big screen in front of our table. Soon the owner came back to just chat with us about his business and his life. It was so nice. He gave us some advice as parents. He asked if he could pick up AJ and show him around the restaurant. We consented, and AJ was given the grand tour. He was even taken back to the kitchen to get our food. AJ made a great assistant waiter. The food was spectacular. If we end up moving there I would make that place a regular stop.

While we were there AJ picked up the habit of eaves dropping. Luckily he is so cute people don't seem to mind.

He got so much attention from the owner and the other costumers to there that he started to act really strange just to get people to laugh at him. I guess the craving for attention has begun. What will we have to face in the future? A child that knows he is cute, and knows he can get what he wants because of it...

This went on for almost 20 minutes. What a crazy kid. It makes it a little difficult to feed him. (Sorry about the lack of sound. I guess Joe had his hand over the mic or something.)

I had to get my exercise in for the day somehow so we decided to take a walk around the Outlet stores...bad idea. We came away from our walk with half a professional wardrobe for Joe and an entire wardrobe for AJ for the next two sizes. I couldn't pass up these sales. I would have paid twice as much back in Virginia. SO needless to say...we will need to borrow another suitcase on our way back to VA.
The next morning Joe had an interview with one of the judges and was asked to accompany him to a presentation he was making to the Jay Rubin Clarke Society. His interview took place in the car and he was introduced to make of the lawyers in the area at the presentation. It was a great opportunity for him to network. While Joe was off with the professional folk I met up with Savanna and Melissa (my cousins) for lunch. It was so nice to catch up with them. We chatted about the area and they told me everything there was to love about Boise. It was just making me want to live there even more. This place just felt right and we were loving every minute of our stay. The people were friendly, the area was beautiful, it was clean, safe, and just wonderful.
I picked Joe up from his interview and we took a little drive around town. We saw Kathryn Albertson Park, the Boise River, my old elementary school, and we even found my old house.

Looks a little different than I remember, but this is it!

This is what it looked like when we lived there. I think it looks better with the big tree.

After taking our self guided tour we found a new hotel to stay at. We wanted to get a feel for different parts of town so this time we went to the outskirts, closer to Meridian, and found a sweet family owned hotel to stay at. It was wonderful. Huge room, great staff, and a beautiful view. We checked in and were planning on exploring a little more when we got a phone call from a law firm in the area. They asked Joe to come in for an un-official interview. They don't hire first year law interns, but they found his resume to be impressive and wanted to put a face to his name for next year. I drove him into town and took a walk while I waited. He must of had a good time because I took a very long walk. After he finished I picked him up and we walked down the street to The Spaghetti Factory for dinner. We talked about his interview and all the options if we got an offer here. Oh I hope we do!!!

We got to eat in the trolley car.

We enjoyed our spacious hotel suite and slept in (well as much as you can with a baby).

We packed up

We took off for Bellevue. It wasn't too long of a drive. An added bonus if we end up out here. I could see Grandma whenever I wanted. Just 2 1/2 hours away.

Thanks Rebecca for the added sun protection. These looked just lovely on Joe. 

We were so excited to see Grandma Collier. She hadn't seen us since AJ was about 2 months old. It was just as fun as I had hoped it would be. We showed her all of AJ's little tricks, sat and chatted for a while, and enjoyed a slice of lemon meringue pie. We loved or time there!

AJ found Grandma's buttons to be quite entertaining. 

We had made plans to see my bestest friends in the whole wide world, so we left Grandma's house for the evening and drove down the road to Dietrich, ID to see Jacqui and Andy. They made us a lovely dinner. We love Andy's meatloaf and had requested it for this visit. Just as good as ever. We laughed and caught up over dinner and then got into competition mode when we all sat down to play Mario Cart.

Andy won most of the time, well until Joe got his control working like he wanted it to. I guess he needs the drift.

Later we just sat and played with the our baby and their  baby ( a dozen named Luke)

Andy spent hours in the kitchen crafting our dessert for the evening...creme brulees from Costco.

It was so much fun seeing them. They finally got to meet AJ and they loved him. How could you not?

AJ loved being with them and can't wait to see them again!

Especially so he can tug on Andy's beard and glasses. This was the form of entertainment for hours. 

I really can't wait to see them again. Sadly our time there had to end because we had the last leg of our trip left. we drove back to Grandma's and stayed there for the night. We left the next morning after a delicious breakfast grandma had made and drove to Logan to see Joe's sister's family.
We had offered to make dinner for Katherine's family that evening since we were waltzing right into their regular daily schedule. Katherine was happy to have the break, and to be honest, after all this eating out I was happy to be working in the kitchen again. We got there early afternoon and spent most of the time playing with AJ's cousins. AJ just loved having all these kids around to observe. He watched Baden's every move when we took a walk over to see their new house they have been working on renovating. After dinner Aspen became his obsession. They played and played. I think Aspen liked having someone to play with that was closer to her size.

She showed him her room, which he later used for a nap. I  hope he didn't mind all the pink :)

She read to him for a while and then pulled out the dinosaurs to play with. She played while AJ just chewed on them. 

I wasn't sure where Joe had been during all this. I headed down stairs to find the boys having an extreme Nerf war. I wasn't surprised at all.

Nice action shot Joe.

Chris had brought home a game he got from a friend from work. They have a few of these fun arcade games and so this one was going to be added to the collection.

it had all sorts of games on it. Word guessing, question answering, mind puzzles, card games, dice games; it was pretty much a build in Vegas casino at home. 

Oh I forgot to show you what I was doing...being a child once more. This thing was awesome!

We really enjoyed our time at their house. I only wish we lived closer so we could continue building up friendships with the cousins. I think AJ and Aspen have a great chance of being best friends. Thank s Katherine for taking the time off to see us and making it such a fun afternoon.

Then back to Utah... I didn't know we could fit so much into 3 days! way too much fun for our own good. I guess we will just have to come back and live there!