Elba, Idaho

Part of our journey to Burley included seeing Cole's old stomping grounds just around the bend in Elba.

When we pulled up to the Nelson homestead Phil said, "Oh, when did we pass Elba?"

That's the beauty of it folks. Elba is so small and quaint. We loved spending time there.

We got a private tour from Paula Nelson herself and she told us all about the history of the place.

I love homes with a story!

It was big, open and beautifully serene. We truly felt like we had stepped back in time.

We also got to tour the old mine that Cole's uncle has so beautifully restored. 

To learn more about the labor of love visit here.

I could have stayed there for hours and listened to all the stories about the place. So much fun and so much history. I would love to jump back in time to see places like this in their hay day.

I conveniently forgot my camera that day but it probably was better so we could just enjoy our time exploring. Luckily, cell phones can take a few pics for memory's sake.

A little bit about the builder of the house: Peer Mc-Intire built it for his wife after he fell in love with the area. When Peer brought his wife, Tess, to their new home, she didn't hold the same fascination for the place as her husband did and left shortly thereafter.

The home was advanced for its time. It had electricity and running water through an easement from Albion in 1920. The city of Elba didn't have electricity until 1940! After spending $1 million on the mine, Mc-Intire closed it in 1920. The mansion was left with the china in the closet and bedding on the beds as if someone was still living there.

Here's just half of the huge front porch.

The mansion has a living area of 5,400 square feet, three levels each with 1,800 square feet. The original owner, Peer McIntire, hired an artist who handpainted the living room walls with a floral design. Jones traced the pattern and colors from the original walls. Each room's handpainted designs were meticulously restored.

I'm glad we got a picture of this beautiful stove...I love it though!

 

And a view of the place from the side. It is massive!

Told you - pictures are less than satisfying but it was amazing. It was certainly a fun part of our getaway.

Thanks again Jamie and Cole!

Burley Idaho

Life brings a lot of firsts...first steps, first solid food, first day of school, first love etc.

All so memorable and touching. 

But folks, none as memorable as the first time your foreign hubs sees a real life cowboy.

Run down:

Phil's glance around turns into wide eyes.

Wide eyes turns into a wide-eyed stare.

Mouth drops open.

"Kaylee, they actually live and dress like this. In REAL life."

And then you walk into the county fair's photography display and a pleased with this masterpiece...

Yesir. That most certainly is a bride and a gun and a truck.

and the only response I can muster is, "Phil, it's Burley, Idaho!"

Yes folks, that's about all we could say many-a-time throughout our weekend.

You see, it was the only explanation we could give.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Here's the real reason we came to Burley. These two beauts...

Jamie and Cole. Jamie is one of the best people you'll ever meet. 

We bonded our freshman year with help from mutual friends Pocahontas and Clark Kent. thanks guys!

So naturally we had to go to Burley, Idaho to see them. Luck would have it that our visit was during the Cassia Country fair.

Well, not luck, more like elegant planning on mine and Jamie's part. We knew Phil needed to experience this and by golly was it an experience!

Jamie and Cole gave us the grand tour. We were at the fair every day taking it all in. Remember old time county fairs? Burley has kept it real.

Judging of pies? Check.

Judging of home grown flowers? Check.

Judging of fruits and veggies? Check.

Complete with ribbons and all.

We feel like we the whole experience because one night we meandered into Idaho Falls for a ritzy wedding reception. Sure we had to drive on a 90 degree slope to get there and peek in the door to make sure we were in the right place but we made it and it was gorgeous.

It was down in the canyon and had a beautiful view and the food consisted of salmon, prime rib and endless desserts.

We couldn't get over how posh we felt, even in Idaho. Who would've thought?

And then it was straight back to Burley for night one of the rodeo.

Gee whiz was it a ro-dee-O!

We were laughing, ooing, gawking, laughing, eating, learning, yearning, churning, burning....

ok minus the last few but we were educated by Cole as to what gets points and what a "broken barrier" is.

Speaking of broken barriers, definitely was included in the pre-rodeo prayer along with the beautiful pastures in heaven above with knee high grass and horses.

Can I have an AMEN?

Anyway, we had so much fun and seriously were in love with the wild cow chase and the rodeo queens/princesses. Phil just kept shaking his head in unbelief. Oh my foreigner. :)

I'll let the video Phil made do the rest of the talking. Just realize that the way the contestants are dressed is really how everyone was dressed there. We were certainly the odd ones out in our shorts and t-shirts.
Plus we didn't have a cowboy hat or belt buckle.
ps. a belt buckle was the reward for the wild cow chase. You tell me if you think it's worth it after watching the vid...

And that's one side of Burley...to be continued!

Vegas II

Blogging exists? Whaaaaat?

I'm not going to make any excuses other than this:

School.

Summer school is not my forte but its okay cuz this is the last summer I will ever endure.

After turning in my last french essay ever I'm happy to sit here and not feel guilty when I jump on the ole f-book or blogspot.

Et voila-je suis ici pour vous donner une poste.

Looking back at our Vegas trip, we didn't take as many photos as I remember. It seems so long ago...but it was really only two months back.

Anyway I made a video to make up for our lack of photos.

We loved Vegas.

Its such a different place from hotel to hotel and day to night. It was a much needed break after finishing winter semester. Good sun therapy too. With lots of $1 slurpees :).

We saw Phantom of the Opera which was better than I even remembered.

We had unlimited rides on the stratosphere (big shot, claw and roller coaster on top of a 1,148 foot tall building...350 meters tall :) 

We walked through all the hotels and loved the details and themes for each one.

Plus we swam, shopped and relaxed. Vacation complete.

Enjoy the vid...

Bless America {2} Maceys

Macey's is our local grocery store. 

It's nice and its really close to our house but sometimes I find myself missing Woolworths. 

Today I walked into Macey's and found this on shelves:

Then I bought all of this for $2:

I no longer miss Woolworths. 

Bless America!

Bless America {1}

A post by Phil:

You may remember Kaylee had a "Thankyou Australia" series going on our Australian blog to point out little bits and pieces of Australia she appreciated. Those around me know that I also frequently find occasion to exclaim "bless America" for my own little favourite parts of living here in the US. It is in that spirit that I wish to enact this Bless America series to share with our friends and family in Australia and the US some of the best perks of living in the US. 

Coupon Combinations

Kaylee and I have a little neighbourhood Sonic we like to visit. For those unfamiliar, Sonic is America's favourite drive-in. Or so they claim. But it is certainly ours. You pull up in your car into one of the bays, order through the speaker and then watch while a girl in roller skates brings out your food. It's a fun place to eat. 

But even more satisfying then this little 50's flashback? The prices. Especially when you come loaded with coupons like we did yesterday. After a fun morning at the waterpark with Kaylee's little sisters we took to Sonic to feed the clan lunch. Our order consisted of the following.

2 Sonic burgers

2 gourmet hotdogs

2 servings of mozzarella sticks with marinara sauce.

2 medium slushies

1 Route 44 real-fruit strawberry lime slush - thats a 44oz (1.3L) drink for those not yet blessed with this experience.

And how much did we pay for all of this you ask.

$9. Nine, yes nine dollars. Because Sonic, like most of the stores here I've encountered in the US lets you combine discounts and use multiple coupons in one go. Even if the actual coupon says otherwise. 

And so today for coupon combinations and frugal fast food I say, Bless America!

Hoover Dam

A post by Phil:

Since moving to the US I have had to adapt to certain things. Things like driving on the opposite side of the road, not using the metric system, factoring consumer tax into purchases at the register, eating fruit and custard with my dinner etc. You know, all those everyday things which serve to remind you you're in another part of the world in just case you start to feel a little too at home. Whilst I haven't struggled too much with any of these adjustments, there has been one lingering change I just haven't been able to adapt to:

Language. 

I don't mean accents and vocabulary, I mean language. As in bad language. You see, back home Phil is a conservative kinda guy. A 'haven't sworn in my life' conservative kinda guy. Australian Phil grew up in a home where fart and crap were swear words. I once had my mouth washed out with a bar of soap for saying shut up to my brother. True story. But apparently here in the US I'm a potty mouth (see I told you I'm doing ok with the american lingo). Here in the land of the brave and free, everyday Australian words like [this is the part where some Americans should cover their eyes] damn and hell are swear words. And try as I might to leave those words at the border and adopt substitutions like dang and heck, sometimes they just slip out. It's not that I mean to swear. I'm sure I've apologised to my BYU students enough times for the class to realise I don't mean to offend them. It's just that when you grow up hearing these words over the pulpit at church, its hard to accept that these everyday words are now swear words. So every once in a while when I'm around other Australians it's nice to be able to relax a little and not worry that I'll innocently offend my American friends.

That said, it should come as no surprise that I felt great delight that in our recent trip to Vegas with the Peruccas we visited Hoover Dam. Yup, excited as I was to see this engineering feat, a part of me was just excited that for a little while... I could say Dam in the US guilt free. Did I make the most of this opportunity? 

You bet I did. 

The day we went to Hoover Dam was Chantel's 14th birthday. As far as I know it was her first dam birthday party. I think she had the best dam birthday yet. We drove past the dam lake, parked in the dam parking lot and walked across the dam road. We took a ton of dam photos, crossed both sides of the dam border (Arizona and Nevada) and even walked across the big dam bridge. 

It really was spectacular and so it is with great pleasure that I can share with you the 

BEST DAM DAY I'VE EVER HAD! 

Now for some Dam photos. 

Lake Mead, the reservoir upstream of the dam. 

The white markings on the rock shows how much water levels have dropped in recent years.

Downstream view from the Dam:

The bridge in the background is the  Mike O'Callaghan – Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge completed in 2010. 

Its construction was an engineering marvel.

Two old fogies. The good looking one is Kaylee

Looking downstream of the dam at the Colorado river. 

The Dam is 221m high, so the water level drops dramatically. 

Constructed in the 1930s, over 100 lives were lost in its construction

Pretty cool - one tower sits on the Nevada side with Nevada time, the other Arizona.

The view from the  Mike O'Callaghan – Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge, the Hoover Dam Bypass. 

It sits 840 feet (260m) above the Colorado river.

All kidding aside, it really was pretty spectacular to see this man made marvel sitting amidst a pretty impressive natural landscape. And while I knew that leaving there would mean I'd have to go back to watching my Australian language again, it just gave me one more reason to feel blessed I could live in this beautiful US of A. Bless this dam country!

randomly

While I was going to check on my blog for today I came upon an unfinished post,

well unfinished would not do so...

Here's our gem Jocelyn, er Voldemort. 

Sometimes I forget she's only 10, then she does stuff like this that reminds me. :) 

She was so proud of her hand-made, hand-stapled mask.

Priceless.

And what did my very own child husband do?

Joined right into the show of course.

Not sure how many times I've said it on the blog and and I know I'll say it many times in the future, Philly-boy is a child and my husband. And I'd have it no other way.

And in case you  needed a pick-me-up today please view what we saw going down the freeway...

Looks like this pick-me-up needs a put-me-down!

Better believe that everyone was snapping pics of this one. Poor girl didn't even know...or didn't even care.

Precious.

And back to ma boy. Ma snow cone lovin machine. Told you, kid at heart this one is. 

If I want to make his summery day all I need is a dollar and a snow shack and all his dreams come true.

There you have it. The now finished random post.