Heading Back Home

We zombied out of bed and got our stuff ready to go.  Josh had to be at school by 8 but our flight didn't leave until about 10:30 so he had to take us to the airport early and drop us off.  We, unfortunately, will have to be there for a while waiting for our flight.

We left the extra food we bought for them.  I think there were some chips, cereal and bananas.  We grabbed our bags and put them in Josh's car.  We thanked them for letting us stay with them and to come visit since our visit was very long over due.  We gave Sam a hug before we got in the car...she was getting ready to head to work for the day.

I asked Josh if we could stop at Walmart really fast since it was along the way.  I told them I would be in there for less than 15 minutes.  He said sure.  I ran into the store and found what I was looking for.  I wanted some cheap Boise State shirts to bring home with me.  I got one for myself and one for Willmarth since his birthday had passed and I didn't send him anything.  I would just bring it with us when we went to see him in June.

We got onto I-84 and headed towards the airport.  It was cold.

When we got there, we parked in the departures area and unloaded our bags.  We thanked Josh again for having us visit the past few days and he said the next time he was in Washington he would give us a call.

We gave out some hugs and we grabbed our bags and headed in to print off our tickets and check our bag in.  Since we were there early in a smaller airport we got through check in and security pretty fast.  We had a lot of time to kill now.

We walked around the Boise Airport to see what kind of breakfast foods they had available.  We really didn't want to spend a lot of money if we could help it.  We decided upon River City Coffee and Café.  Ben got a coffee and I got orange juice.  We both thought the breakfast burritos looked pretty good so we ordered them.  The place was hoppin so we had to wait a little bit for our food.  Once it came out I could not wait to eat it...I was so hungry!

Since we weren't in any hurry we took our time eating our food.  I was just happy not to be at work today but knew there would probably be a lot of date extensions for me to do tomorrow.  We thought about calling Trish but decided to wait since she just started work not too long ago.

We finished our food, found our gate and sat down.  We were going to be here a while.

We played on our phones, used the restroom one more time before they called our group number to come stand in line.  This was a Delta flight rather than Alaskan.  Ben had booked these flights this way because ultimately they were cheaper to purchase two one way flights with different airlines.

We were close to the back of the plane with seats together. We got comfortable for our hour and a half plane ride back to Seattle.

Ben played on his phone for a bit and I got my book out to read for a while.  We took off and Ben slept for a bit.  I watched the landscape change as we headed west.

The plane ride back wasn't as bumpy or turbulent.  They came around and gave us drinks and pretzels.  I started to notice familiar landmarks down below once we got into Washington.  We were on the wrong side of the plane to see Mount Rainier.

We landed around noonish and noticed it was raining.  Ew.  But of course it was.  We waited forever to get off the plane since we were in practically the last row.  We grabbed our stuff and headed to the luggage carousel.  I'm glad we didn't have to wait that long.  We grabbed the suitcase and went up the escalator to the first level.  We crossed the cross walk and found a place to stand for our shuttle back to Ajax2.  For some reason it took a while.  A shuttle would come around the corner and we would get all excited and then we read the top and it wasn't for us we got all sad.  One finally came around the corner and we were probably waiting for at least 20 minutes.

We jumped on, gave him our parking ticket and we were on our way to the lot.  I was ready to be home.  I wanted a shower, lunch and a place to lounge for a bit.

We got back to the Escape around 1ish, threw our stuff in and headed to the gate.  We paid for our five days plus a state employee discount and was on our way.  We got onto I-5.  Luckily it was still the middle of the day so we really didn't hit a lot of traffic on our way home.  We got off at Mounts Road and it was a breeze all the way home.

We got home just before 3, got a shower, changed our clothes into clean comfy ones, started some laundry and ate some food.  We watched some shows and just enjoyed not having to be at work the rest of the day.  It was awesome.  My cat, Calvin, was glad we were home.  That night he just couldn't be close enough to us.  I thanked him for guarding the house while we were gone.

We got our stuff ready for the rest of the work week together...I am so happy I only have to be at work for three days and then another weekend!  Yeah!

Overall it was a good visit and definitely way over due.

**Update October 2019** Unfortunately, Josh and Sam ended up getting a divorce about a month and a half later on April 1, yes on April Fool's Day.  We all thought it was a joke but it wasn't.  What an interesting day to pick to get a divorce right?  We still don't know what happened or why it happened.  Sam contacted Ben that afternoon and told her side of the story but we still haven't heard from Josh as of now.  Ben has tried several times to get a hold of him but he ignores the messages.  Hindsight, Ben and I did notice some stuff that was off while we were there.  They never touched each other, snuggled on the couch or even did the weird stuff they used to do the last time we were around them.  We were very disappointed in Josh.

Next Adventure:  The Week of Charlie

Boise Again: Exploring Downtown, Geocaching and Pizza for Dinner

I slept in until I got uncomfortable.  I heard Sam get up early this morning so she could get ready for work.  Ben and Josh were still sleeping so I decided to start some laundry since Ben and I didn't bring that much with us so we didn't have to pay for more bags than we really needed to.

I went downstairs and grabbed some cereal and a banana and ate breakfast.  Ben made his way downstairs and eventually Josh did the same.  They both ate some cereal.  We all got ready for another day in Boise.

Our fist stop was going to be at the body exhibit at the Discovery Center.  Josh received credit for going for one of his classes so we went.  We paid the $6 admission fee and went inside.  It reminded me of a scaled down Pacific Science Center when we walked through for the exhibit.  We were in the for at least an hour and a half looking at every single human body and body parts.  We were not allowed to take pictures.  They were arranged in different poses, their veins, muscles and organs.  Some were complete and others were specific body parts dissected for us to see.  I had not been to an exhibit like this one and it was interesting to see what everything looks like close up.

We also messed around with the science part of the center.  I even gave a fake weather report.  Snow, snow and more snow.

We headed back out and took a small walk in the park next to Boise State.  We saw ducks, geese and part of the small river was ice so that gave you an indication on how cold it was outside.  At least it wasn't raining.  We found where Stroll in the Park #12 (JD) (GCQMRY) should have been but the container was missing.  I gave it a smiley anyway.  We headed back to the car.

Josh asked us where we wanted to go and I just said just wherever.  I do have to pick up a few things at store that sells souvenirs.  I had to get a couple of postcards for my penpal in Germany.  He took us back to where we were yesterday in downtown.  We parked in the same lot as yesterday and walked to a small shop that we saw when we were here but it was closed.  It was called Taters.  How could you not want to go into that store just because of its name?!  We went in and browsed.  I got a few postcards, a magnet and some stuff for mom.  They didn't have a lot of Boise State stuff.

I wanted to geocache and I knew Josh really didn't want to so I let Ben and Josh go have some bro time.  I knew they hadn't seen each other in a while and needed to catch up.  They walked to the Bardenay Distillery to drink beer and I wandered around the town for a few hours.

The first cache I saw on my map was called JUMP (GC7B929) and it required me to get a picture of a nest.  I walked to the spot where the coordinates took me.  It was an empty parking lot.  I was so confused.  I read some of the logs and they directed me to the correct place.  It was across the street.  I did a lot of walking for this cache.  The front side of the JUMP building.  I looked up what this building was suppose to be.

JUMP stands for Jack's Urban Meeting Place and it is a not-for-profit, interactive, creative and community gathering place in the heart of downtown Boise.  I followed the instructions and made my way up to the second floor where the nest was waiting for me.  I got my picture proof and walked back down.

I walked down to the next one.  "B" Careful (GC1QJWM) was covered in muggles.  I had a really hard time zeroing in on it.  I'm sure I was in the right place but I just couldn't come out with a smiley on this one.  Maybe next time?

I continued down the main road towards the Idaho State Capitol building where William Kidd - Infamous Pirate (GC5R6Q3) was.  I was starting to get cold but I trekked on.  There really wasn't a lot of people near the capitol building for it being a Monday but it was President's Day.

I made my way over to the cache and I was looking for a really small treasure chest.  I started looking then all of a sudden a guy and his daughter showed up to the cache site.  At first I wasn't sure if they were cachers but then I asked if he was looking for the same thing I was and he said yes.  Oh, well, let's find it together.  We searched every nook and cranny of the corner of the landscape and we finally found it.

So 1HappyDad, his daughter and I found a cache together in Boise, Idaho.  We put it back after signing it and we each said have a great rest of your day and nice meeting you.  We all moved on to the rest of our day.

I found the next closest one, Top of the Hoff (GC2AMTY) which was nearby.  I had to be sneaky because it was by a public parking lot hidden in the trees.

Afterwards I ducked into McU Sports Shop to get warm and to do some browsing.  I wanted to find some cheap Boise State shirts.  I looked around for about a half hour but found nothing good.  I texted Ben to find out where they went exactly.  He couldn't figure out the name of the place so he just sent me his location and I wandered the blocks of downtown Boise to find him.  Of course I went the longest way there possible.

There they were on their second or third beer.  We hung out there for a while.  I watched the TV and started to get hungry.  I really didn't want to spend money there so I asked them if it was time to go.  I asked Ben later what they talked about.  He said really nothing much.  He thought they would catch up more than they did.  We walked back to the parking garage and headed home.  I asked Josh if we could stop at the Walmart but he forgot.  We wouldn't have been able to go anyway because the Walmart closed early.  Bummer.

We decided on pizza for dinner.  Josh said we needed to order it from Idaho Pizza Company because he said it was the best pizza he'd ever had.  He also added that their gooey cinnamon bread was delicious.  He called it in and had to delivered.  About an hour or so later we got our pizza and Josh was right, it was delicious.

We ate our pizza and watched a show called Lucifer.  I wasn't really into it so I worked on my blog as they watched TV.  A little while later we called it quits because we all had to get up early tomorrow.  Josh had to go to class and Sam had to go to work and Ben and I had to get on a flight.  We showered and packed up our stuff so we didn't have to tomorrow morning.

We headed to bed.  I didn't sleep very well becasue I knew we had to get up early.

Next Adventure:  Heading Back Home

Boise: Idaho State Penitentiary, Freak Alley, Buffalo Wild Wings and The Stil Ice Cream Parlor

I slept bad for some reason but I had the whole bed to myself because Ben stayed up with Josh until about 6 a.m.  They both slept on the couch.  I got up around 9:30 and ate some cereal.  Sam came down and she had some food as well.  We hung out in the kitchen talking about random stuff and waited for them to wake up.  They finally did around 11:15.  Ben and Josh ate some cereal and we all got ready to get into Boise for the day.

We left around noonish in Josh's car.  We had to hit up the Dutch Bros before we got any further.  I don't drink coffee so I really didn't care.  I just wanted to go do something since we were stuck at the house all day yesterday.  I was ready for an adventure.  We got onto I-84 and headed east to Boise.

Since we came in the winter time there was really not a lot of outdoors stuff to do unless you headed north towards McCall and went skiing or snowboarding for the weekend.  Instead, we had to figure out things to do since most hikes were closed due to trail conditions and other activities were closed for the season.  I asked them what there was to do around here.  They said we could go to the Idaho State Penitentiary and check the place out.

We drove up to the prison.  We parked in the lot and walked across the street to the entrance.  We paid our $6 in admission and headed inside.  They were either self tours or you can join one that was already going.  We joined one that was going and just followed them from building to building.  We visited the dining hall, which the inmates lit on fire in the 1970s, we looked at what was left of it.

We toured several of the cell blocks, death row and solidary confinement and the gallows.  Many people were imprisoned over the active years of the prison and many stories of infamous inmates were also shared with us.

Afterwards, we went into the museum where we saw a lot of guns, war exhibits and swords.  We were probably there for about two hours.

Ben and I walked over to the woman's ward because it was a virtual cache.  Boise History Series #1 (GCA898) was pretty easy.  All we had to do was find the sign within the ward that described two years.  We had to find out what happened in those years.  Of course we got ourselves a picture to prove we were there.

We met back up with Josh and Sam and walked back to the car.

We drove back into downtown and found a parking lot to stash the car into.  We paid and walked the few blocks to Freak Alley.  Freak Alley is a notable venue for public art in the form of murals and graffiti located and adjacent to a service alley in downtown Boise, Idaho.  The largest outdoor gallery in the Northwest, and a Boise institution since 2002, it began with a painting of a single alley doorway and now extends from the alley itself to a gravel parking lot.  Extant murals painted over and replaced by new murals (or incorporated into them) every two years, collectively is the work of more than 200 artists.  It has featured prominently in a survey of ten mid-sized American cities with thriving artistic communities in which Boise ranked second.  The site, along with the back of the Union Block, received $500,000 renovation in 2018 from the city.

We spent about a half hour looking at all of the graffiti and murals plastered all over this alley way.  There were some really creative ones and some I was not really a fan of.

Freak Alley, More Than Just a Virtual Reward (GC7B9G5) was published last summer by Erin (Bluecanoe), a cacher who lives near the Shelton area.  To prove we were there, we had to find a mural we liked and get a picture of us with it.  I chose the sloth and Ben chose the human heart.

We wandered around a little bit before asking Josh and Sam if they were ready to eat.  We saw there was a Buffalo Wild Wings a few blocks away and just walked there.  It was getting colder.

It wasn't very busy so we were served pretty quickly.  We got drinks, perused the menu and made our orders.  Ben and I still had some gift cards from my birthday and Christmas so we used those to pay for our meals.  Ben and I ordered the usual.  We enjoyed Josh and Sam's company while we ate our delicious food.  I can now add another Buffalo Wild Wings to the list of ones I've been to.  This marks two for Idaho.

We paid and Sam wanted to take us around the corner to go get ice cream from this shop.  This wasn't just a normal ice cream shop but one who infuses alcohol into their ice cream.  It was called The Stil (the sweetest things in life) and I have never been to a place like it before.  I was so full from food I almost didn't want any ice cream.  I decided on the brownie batter without the alcohol.  The ice cream was pretty good.

We walked back to the car and headed back to Nampa.

On the way back, I checked to see if there were any geocaches near Josh and Sam's place.  There was a traditional down the road within walking distance from them.  We parked and Ben and I decided to go grab it before it got dark.  We needed to walk off all the food and dessert we just stuffed ourselves with anyway.  Hands of Hope Northwest (GC5GAAK) is an organization that accepts medical supplies and equipment from donors in the valley and prepares them for shipment to third world countries.  Luckily, we were the only ones around and we didn't have to see anyone while we grabbed this bison tube.

Ben wrote our names on it and we put it back for the next cacher.  We walked back to Josh and Sam's.

The rest of the evening we hung out watched Dale and Tucker vs. Evil and some episodes of Superstore.  I also worked on my blog as we sat there.  I thought it was some great downtime to catch up on the darn thing.  A little while later we got cleaned up and headed to bed.  This hour time difference sucked.

Next Adventure:  Boise Again:  Exploring Downtown, Geocaching and Pizza for Dinner

Game Night: Betrayal at House on the Hill, Jackbox and Taco Soup

We got up and ate some of the cereal we bought yesterday.  I had a banana as well.  The barber couldn't come to the house so Ben and Josh drove out to him.  That was Josh's birthday gift for Ben, having a professional shave and haircut.

Sam meandered her way into the kitchen and made some food and coffee for herself.  We spent the next hour visiting and catching up.  She talked about moving from Massachusetts to Idaho, finding a job in Idaho, being around her family again and just able to just stay put for awhile and start their life post military.  I told her about what we've been up to besides what she's seen on Facebook about Ben and my life.  I told her about my job, the job opportunities Ben has in front of him, he just has to pursue them, the fun trips we've been on, my upcoming one to Ecuador this March and other miscellaneous things that came up.  It was just nice to catch up and chat with her.

She still needed a few more things at the store for tonight's taco soup so she asked me if I wanted to go with her to the store.  I said sure why not.  I'll go so she has some company.  She knew what she had to get so we really weren't in the store for very long.  We got back and I helped her bring the stuff into the kitchen.  She finished adding ingredients into the crock pot for the taco soup.

Ben and Josh got back about a half hour after we did.  Ben said it was so nice having a shave and a haircut from a professional barber.  We chilled out for a bit before their friends started to trickle in.  It was weird meeting so many new people all at once.  They were definitely the nerd gamer types.  Some of them worked with Josh at Best Buy.  All together about 10 people showed up.

We ate the taco soup with tortilla chips and the other assortment of stuff people brought over.  I ended up eating an apple because I needed something somewhat healthy for dinner.

We got all set up to play a board game called Betrayal at House on Haunted Hill.  I was one of the first groups of people to play so we took some time to try and figure it out.  There were a lot of scenarios.

In a nutshell, players all begin as allies exploring a haunted house filled with dangers, traps, items and omens.  As players journey into new parts of the mansion, room tiles are chosen at random and placed on the game board; this means the game is different each session.  Eventually the "haunt" begins, with the nature and plot of this session's ghost story revealed; one player usually "betrays" the others and take the side of the ghost, monsters or other enemies, while the remaining players collaborate to defeat them.

Each session took a while and throughout the evening they played it three more times.  The second time I watched instead of play.

We shifted gears for a while and played Jackbox TV.  It is a series of party games you can play through many platforms through your TV.  All the players need is their phones and their charging cables.  You play through your phone.  The games were interesting and there was a lot of laughing.  We played several rounds throughout the evening.

While they played another session of House on Haunted Hill and some sort of Mario video game on the TV while I worked on my blog until about 12:30.  I told Ben I was heading to bed.  I got ready and fell asleep.  I didn't sleep very well and they went to bed around 6 a.m.  Ben and Josh ended up sleeping on the couch.

Next Adventure:  Boise:  Idaho State Penitentiary, Freak Alley, Buffalo Wild Wings and The Stil Ice Cream Parlor

Dave and Buster's, Grocery Shopping, Chimichangas and Deadpool

We got up pretty late but then again we are on vacation so it really didn't matter, plus we were an hour a head of our time.  Sam had to go to work so we wouldn't see her until later.  Josh and Ben were suppose to see Josh's barber who did house calls but he had an emergency so it was scheduled for the next day instead.

Josh told us what kinds of stuff he had to make breakfast with.  We ended up having some really thick bacon and fried eggs.  I had some milk while they had coffee.  It hit the spot.  Josh asked if we wanted to go to Dave and Buster's for a while today and we said sure.  The last time we went to a Dave and Buster's was Ben's birthday last year in Auburn.  I, for one, am not really a video game player per say but I did find plenty of stuff to do while I was there.  This time was the same.

We got ready and headed to the mall in Boise.  The weather was weird during the drive there.  It tried to snow and then it hailed.  It stayed clear and cold most of the day.  We parked the car and headed in.  We each paid for a few hours worth of points and had at it.  I did a lot of the skill games like throwing a football, shooting free throws and other games like that.  Ben and Josh did some of the more hard core games like Star Wars and first person shooter games.

I used up all my points and found out how many tickets were on my card after I was done.  I went into their prize store and found a bright orange narwhal.  I still had to come up with a name for him.

I went over to the bar to watch some TV and to get a drink or two while I waited for Ben and Josh to be done.  I finished two Pepsi's and the bar tender told me they were on the house.  How nice of them!  I told Ben I was going to go out and try to find some of the caches in the area and he said okay.  They were just about done with their points.

The one that was nearby was either not there or really hard to find.  I spent at least a half hour looking for it.  Then I started walking the quarter of a mile to the next cache on the other side of the parking lot.  I had to turn around before getting there because Ben and Josh were done and were waiting on me.  We were at Dave and Buster's until about 4ish.

I asked Josh if we could find a cache on the other side of the road and he said sure.  It was a lamp skirt in front of the Ross store in the parking lot.  We had to be somewhat sneaky.  I had Josh and Ben look for it as I looked on.  Black Cache (GC3894T) was Ben's first Idaho cache and a new county in Idaho for both of us!

On the way back to Nampa we stopped at the Winco just off I-84 on the way home.  We grabbed some snacks, soda, beer and some breakfast foods such as bananas and cereal since we were going to be there a few days.  Josh picked up a few things for the weekend since people were coming over tomorrow for game day/night.

We got home and unloaded the groceries.  We watched some stuff on TV specifically Fail Army videos while I got on my computer and updated some of my blogs since we had some down time.  Sam came home and we all decided to do chimichangas and Deadpool for dinner.  Sam called in the order to a place called Jalapenos, since she said that they are the best Mexican food in the area.  I honestly didn't care where it came from as long as it was delicious.

Our food came about a half hour later and we ate our food and watched our annual Deadpool "Valentine's Day" movie (even though it was a day late.)  We watched a little bit of a TV show called Grace and Frankie and ten a zombie movie called Bloodlines and then Sam decided she was tired and went to bed.  Josh, Ben and I watched one more movie called Swiss Army Man and it was bizarre.  I can't believe we watched it.  We still have no idea what happened.

We stayed up until about midnight and then got ready for bed and fell asleep.

Next Adventure:  Game Night:  Betrayal at House on the Hill, Jackbox and Taco Soup

Traveling to Boise, Idaho

A few years back Josh and Sam got married and Ben was in his wedding.  It was a really nice wedding in Wenatchee.  Then they moved to Massachusetts for a few years and they always tried to get us to come visit.  We really wanted to but we never had the funds or the time to go.  They recently moved to Nampa, Idaho, where Sam is originally from, to settle down, get jobs and go to school.  The last time I was in this area was when I was little and mom had driven us and Angela over to Grandma Karen's house in the early 1990's.

Over the next year they kept making us feel bad for not coming to visit.  I already had two trips planned and adding a third one would make it a bit tighter, not just with money but with my vacation leave at work.  We finally gave in and decided to go near Ben's birthday.  I wasn't too excited about going anywhere in February just because of the weather and my other trip being so close.  Ugh, lots to do.

We booked our flights and let Josh and Sam know when we were going to arrive.  They seemed excited for our visit.  Luckily, this trip was somewhat cheap.  I had Ben be in charge of the tickets and I paid for the food.  The night before I packed my stuff so I would be ready after work.  Ben had the day off so he had some time to pack up before we left.  I had him take me to work that morning and drop me off.  I told him I would let him know when to come and get me.  I wanted to leave as soon as possible so we had plenty of time to get up to Sea-Tac just in case something happens.

I finished my work around 1:50 that afternoon (our case load was on the light side) and Ben came and got me around 2:45.  That gave us another hour plus to grab everything and head up to the airport.  We got on I-5 and made our way to Ajax2.  We have had success there over the past two years I will continue to use it because of my state employee discount.  My philosophy on driving up to Seattle is that I always assume there will be traffic until there isn't.  We got to Ajax2 and parked in lot Q.  There was still a lot of snow in the parking lot from last week's snowmageddon.  The shuttle came immediately and we were driven over to Alaskan Airlines.

Our driver stopped, we grabbed our stuff and headed to the check in area.  We got our boarding passes and then stood in line to check one bag.  We wandered over to the security area and noticed that it had changed a little bit since November.  Going through security was a breeze.  We walked down to our gate (C2B) to see where it was.

We figured we had better eat something before our flight left.  We had a bunch of time so we took advantage of it.  We used the restrooms, I changed into sweatpants (because I wanted to be comfortable) and we then decided what we wanted to eat in the B concourse.  We had to wait a little bit but we were finally seated at this Rel'ish place.

We ate burgers and fries and sat next to a lady and her son, who fiddled with his Ipad the entire time.  I think he was playing Pokémon.  I got some paper out and proceeded with getting our sign ready for the geocache that was in the airport.  Flying Fish at Sea-Tac (GC7B73R) was a fun virtual.  I thought our sign was adorable.  We were going to grab this one last November when we went to Colorado but I had totally forgotten about it.

We hung out at our gate until it was time to go.  We both used the restroom one more time and filled up our water bottles.  I came back and a lady had stolen my seat near the gate.  Ben just shrugged so I found another place to sit until they called our group.  We were in group E, yes...the last group to board the plane.  We walked to the plane and had to go outside to board it.  It was chilly.  We got on and found our seats.  We got to sit next to each other.  It was about a 450 mile plane ride which was going to take about an hour and a half.

As we sat down Ben was playing around with his phone.  There is a feature on the I-phone where you can drop pictures or messages into a "cloud" if the other random people had the feature on.  Ben dropped a picture meme making fun of Patriot fans.  The girl in front of us started laughing.  She saw the picture and wondered who dropped it.  Ben started talking to her.  She said it was hilarious and she even said she was a Patriot fan, but not a die hard.  She thanked us for the laugh.

During the flight we played hangman and talked about random stuff.  We did receive cookies but no beverages due to the high turbulence.  There was a lot of turbulence on that flight.  We got to Boise before our scheduled arrival.  The pilot attempted to make his descent and ended up deciding not to when we all felt the huge shift in the plane.  We just had a "just kidding" attempted landing.  We circled around again and this time we made our actual landing.

We finally landed and Ben texted Josh that we've arrived.  He was parking the car and was going to meet us at the arrivals gate.  We got off the plane and headed down the corridor to baggage claim and grabbed our suitcase.  We went up the escalator and out a door into the arrivals.  There was Josh standing there waiting for us.  I haven't seen Josh in years.  We each gave out some hugs and we walked out to the car.  It was chilly outside.

We drove the half hour to Nampa and made it to his and Sam's townhouse apartment.  We unloaded our bags and went inside.  Spiderman and zombie decorations for days!!  Holy cow!  Every wall was covered!

We settled in, he gave us the tour of the house and Sam said hi before she had to go to bed.  He showed us the bedroom and bathroom we were going to use while we were there.  We watched some TV and decided to retire to bed.  We got washed up and passed out.  Today was a long day.

Next Adventure:  Dave and Buster's, Grocery Shopping, Chimichangas and Deadpool

Winter Storm Maya (#Snomageddon)

We do not get that much snow here in the Pacific Northwest during the winter; especially on the west side of the state.  However, every 4-6 years we get a "snomageddon" which usually ranges anywhere from 10-20 inches of snow.  Throughout the week we were getting warnings that certain areas in the lowlands of the Puget Sound were going to get hit hard.  We traditionally are not that well equipped to handle that much snow because again, we do not receive snow that often during our winters.

I made this cat meme and posted it to Facebook.  It was epic and I wasn't wrong.

Here, we have to worry about the trees.  If they get overloaded they will bend, snap and fall on people, houses and cars.  That is the biggest anxiety we have living up here when we get extreme weather.

I didn't make this meme.  I stole it off of Facebook.

That Friday we knew it was going to happen we just didn't know when exactly.  Everyone heard early afternoon around 2 or 3.  I wasn't really worried because my Escape drives pretty well in the snow.  I just worried about everyone else driving around me and possibly hitting me.  However, I was going over to Nicole's house for our February paint night anyway so I really didn't care if it snowed a little or a lot.  I wasn't going to be in the rush hour traffic with everyone.

A lot of people left the building early.  By 2, the place was a ghost town.  I frantically tried to get everything done so maybe I could leave a little early from work.  Two of the four of us in my unit left around 2:30.  The snow started falling around 2.  I got all of my stuff done so I left around 3.  I told Nicole that I was leaving early and I would meet her at her house around 5 since that's when she got off work.  In the meantime, I went to the cemetery, brushed off Grammie's headstone and visited for about a half hour. I made her a snowman.

Afterwards, I went over to Walmart and grabbed a few things...mostly to waste time until paint night.

We painted a kitchen piece with a lime in it.  It was just three of us, Nicole, Lindsay and myself.  We had fun and ate snacks.  We were over there until about 7ish.

Nicole stressed to us before we left to call or text when we got home safely since there is a few inches of snow on the roads.  I got home safely and texted everyone I got home.  I found out later on that everyone who headed home on Henderson had a hard time getting up the hill and caused a lot of back ups.  Haha, I didn't have to drive home at that time.

I got home and kept an eye out on how much it accumulated until I went to bed.

The next day we got up and it had snowed a lot.

Guess who doesn't have a snow shovel?  Well, we've never really needed one because it doesn't snow that much here.  All the stores were out of shovels...I tried several of them.  I even had Ben try to get one from Lowes but we were unsuccessful.  We had to suffice with brooms and a spade shovel.

Ben had to go to work at Lowes so we all went outside and brushed off all the vehicles and tried to get as much of the snow off the driveway as possible since we would be getting more that afternoon/evening.

It didn't help that our driveway had a slight uphill either.  Ben ended up sliding down the hill after removing all the snow off the top of his car.  I spent the day watching whatever was on Hulu, cleaning the house and doing laundry.  Erika and I went outside and made some snowmen, sledding down our slight hill in the front yard and threw snowballs at her dog.

It snowed more that night.

The next morning Ben had to get up early and scrape snow (about 12 inches) off of his car so he could drive into Tenino for a 24 hour shift.  I told him to be careful on the way there and to let me know when he got there safely.  I got up a little while later and spent most of the day hanging out in the living room watching TV and working on my blog.  I had considered heading out to Hawks Prairie just for a drive in the snow and possibly stopping at the store to get a few things just in case we are stuck for a few more days.  We had plenty of food but you just never know.  I sat on that thought for a bit.  About an hour later Doug called to ask if I could take Jenn to the store.  I suppose I guess.  I cleaned off the Escape and headed to their house.  My Escape handled the roads very well.  I can't believe some of the vehicles that were out driving around in the snow.

We get to Walmart and just made a parking spot since you couldn't see the lines.  We went inside and I noticed the weirdest stuff that they were completely out of.  Bananas, eggs and hamburger.  I would have figured the bread, milk, cheese and soups would be gone.  At least once a day something surprises me.

Jenn was done so we headed to the checkout and paid for our stuff.  We pushed the cart through the slush out to the Escape.  It was entertaining.  I dropped her off and headed home.  We relaxed the rest of the day.  I got a notification later on that evening stating that the L&I building was going to be closed so I didn't have to go to work.

Monday morning we saw it had snowed more over the course of the night.  All together it snowed 17inches.  In some places around Thurston county it snowed almost 20 inches.  Insane!  I really didn't know what we were going to do today since I didn't have to go to work but I did take advantage of a free paid day by sleeping in.  We made breakfast and watched some shows.  We noticed that the weather was getting warmer and the snow had stopped.  It actually started raining.  The snow outside was turning into slush and large puddles.

Early afternoon my brother called and asked if I could take him to the store because he couldn't get his car out of the garage.  Probably just as well because he wouldn't gotten very far.  We all headed over and got him.  We drove through the slush and to Walmart.  The same thing applied, we just made our own parking spot because we couldn't see the lines.  I found it weird that Doug wanted to go to the store even though I took Jenn the day before.  Oh well.  It got us out of the house for the day.

Everyone got their shopping in.  This time there weren't any empty shelves because the trucks had been here this morning.  There were plenty of bananas, eggs and hamburger.  I just laughed.  We took Doug back home and spent the rest of the day just relaxing.

I got back onto L&I's website and saw that because of the damage to the building by the snow we were going to have late starts on Tuesday and Wednesday.  That meant I needed to be in the building by 10 a.m.  This work week ended up being really weird.  I didn't have hardly any calls, which was nice, not very many reviews because I'm sure the people we get our reviews from and a lot of the provider's offices were closed or had very limited staff.  It was overall a pretty simple week except for Tuesday's slush drive to work.  That was interesting.

I enjoyed having the snow this year and I hope we get a lot next winter.  This time we have a snow shovel.

Next Adventure:  Traveling to Boise, Idaho