Day 1: I flew to Boise, ID and met up with James and his family who drove in from Sacramento, CA. We stayed with some friends who we grew up with in Kansas. My nieces LOVED having their kids to play with, in fact- I camped out in the backyard!!! My Sis-in-law wouldn't let the girls sleep out there without an adult and I was the only adult willing to be the one to camp out in the tent with the 6 kids who wanted to. (all under the age of 10). It was AWESOME!
Day 2: We all went white water rafting on the Payette River. It was just a short river trip, but definitely the best run I've ever done! In about 2 hours time, we went 8 miles and hit fantastic rapids about every 5-10 minutes. The water was freezing cold since it was still so early in the season, but the rafting company was kind enough to provide us all with full wetsuits.
My nieces had no idea what to expect, and some admitted they were a bit scared. As you can see little 10 yr old Jasmine was up front and paddling like crazy!! She got totally rocked! It was hilarious. Lily (12) and Iris (8) were next to me (Iris in the middle, holding on for dear life) and miraculously- no one fell out. We all had a blast and the girls totally loved it! (Holly (14) isn't in the pictures because she was in the other raft with the family we stayed with).
Day 3: I witnessed my brother compete in, and complete (with an amazing finish time) the Boise Half Ironman (2.5 mile swim, 112 mile bike and 13.1 mile run).
The weather was horrible the whole time, but he still did amazing! He finished in 5 hours and 11 minutes! This is my sister-in-law getting creative with fighting the random cold that blew in just before the swim started.
Swim 2.5 miles in the reservoir
Transitioning to bike:
Off to Bike 112 miles in the piercing rain:
And I don't have pictures of the 13.1 mile run part (oops). He's crazy, if you ask me, but way to go big bro!
