When we had decided to attend the Boise Regional Soccer tournament I wondered what we were going to do there. Turns out that Boise is an amazing small city.  There is a list of things to do and when I read about Freak Alley, Lona piped up about wanting to see it.  It was free, not far from our accommodations and sounded interesting. I would classify it as an art museum even though it is an alley. There was so much to see and ponder. Yes, these murals are pieces of art but not on traditional canvases. We could have spent a couple of hours and I would have loved to have a little guide.  Some of the paintings had instagram tags so you could see their other works. One of them was a tattoo artist. There were ones that a single swirling brush stroke was two feet and created a portion of a person. Others had so much detail that you had to look at the whole and then step close to get the individual details. Every year in August this alley gets a face light and new works of art are created and displayed. Some pieces were from previous years and made me wonder if there were rules to which ones were painted over. We were impressed and hope to come back and see how it has changed.

So the very next weekend, she had another tournament with her new team.  There was no way I was going to let her quit after a week.  She approached the coach and asked how she could get more playing time.  His response was that she needed to earn it and win it from the girls on the team.  She was ok with that. In fact she thought most competitive coaches should handle it the same way. I think he earned respect in her eyes for this very honest answer. So the next tournament, she played more, not a starter yet, not a ton of playing time, but we see improvement in her movement.  She is developing at such a fast pace instead of being more stagnant.  She is still learning the way the team plays, how the coaches implement things, and they are learning about her. Her team is constantly talking on the field and the players give each other directions, which of course has it's good and bad but mostly good.  To top off the weekend, they won the tournament.  One of the girls came over and asked her, how she likes being on a winning team.  She is getting to know her team and they are getting to know her.

This year Lona decided to try something different.  She had been frustrated and needed a change of pace.  That is exactly what she got when she decided to join NCA.  There were some big changes that she wasn't counting on and I really think that it was what she needed but not what she expected.  With her previous team she was used to being one of the best. She knew that she wasn't going to be able to change that or be able to be on a higher level team.  This new team though, it was a higher caliber team. They were fast, technical and tough. They practiced for a week and the tournament started right away.  The first game she played maybe 10 minutes for the whole game. It wasn't her usual.  The next game, same or less. There was anger, tears, frustration. She was ready to quit. She didn't know the girls on the team. They didn't pass to her.  She was quiet and withdrawn with her coaches and her teammates.  This was new to her. This wasn't the way it was supposed to be. We tried to be patient while explaining that the team needed to see how she played, to be able to trust her on the field. She needed to catch up to their technical knowledge and toughness.  I have to admit both John and I lost it with her at different times.  I had to remind myself that her lashing out at me wasn't personal but it was a safe way to vent feelings.  I would still love her when she was done, but doing that to teammates would not have the same grace be given to her.  It also hurt when they played her previous team and she wasn't one of the stars like before. On one hand, I get it and I wanted to protect and nurture, coming along side of her .
On the other hand, this will happen more than once and learning to deal appropriately with it now would be better than later.  It's hard when natural lessons come along but oh so worth learning them early rather than making poor decisions when those lessons arrive later.

I've made my bucket list for the summer and they have my usual things such as favorite hikes, backyard projects, and finding new favorite food trucks. Yet the idea of listing 5 new things to experience intrigued me.  They needed to be attainable because lets face it, I probably will not be able to experience ziplining in Costa Rica this summer, if that was what I even wanted to do.  Not that I would mind it but it isn't realistic for this summer.  So they have to be realistic and fit into our already packed summer of soccer.  They also need to be free or close to it.  After brainstorming and looking at my summer bucket list I put pen to paper and wrote 5 things I would like to experience this summer.

1. Sleep in a Yurt.  Yep, it's a glorified tent.  A friend of ours would load up his four kids into backpacks and sleds then he and his wife would ski into a yurt for 3 to 5 days.  I've always wanted to do something similar with our family.  This summer Lona has a soccer tournament and wanting to save a little money I started looking at Air B&B's instead of hotels.  When a yurt was listed I decided to book it.  We will have to see if the experience actually lives up to expectation.

2. The Freemont Farmer's Market. It looks intriguing. I've experienced farmer's markets before but it is always fun to tryout a new one in a different place.  There are crafts, food, vintage stuff, and music.  This market is open every Sunday, all year round, from 9 am to 4pm and is in it's 27th year.  Maybe a date with my husband some Sunday? When we have a free Sunday. That is going to be the key.


3. Photographing the stars.  I've only done this once before but I haven't photographed the milky way and then there is light painting where you light up the foreground with the stars in the background.  Maybe Oyster Dome or Sumas Mountain with Baker in the background.  A thermos of hot cocoa or coffee, blankets in the back of the truck or headlights and hammocks.  It should be an experience hiking in or driving in and the view should be amazing. Stars always are.






4. Driving my car with the top down as much as possible.  This is my first summer with a convertible and I want to experience every nice day that I can.  I love being able to do that.





5. Kayaking the creeks that empty into the Sound.  The key is to start when the tide is coming in to land and it will make paddling easier. Then when the tide turns, you ride the current back down the creek.  I just need to wait until the days are warmer and so is the water.





These are 5 things, some small, some bigger. Some take planning and some can be more spur of the moment things. I am excited to take on this challenge of tackling these new experiences and whatever comes with them this summer.

Really you never know what you will find at Value Village.  This time we found a telescope and it was only $10.  I mean you can't pass that up. We had passed up a $50 telescope a couple of years ago but this was practically free.  So we came home with a telescope.  John thought that was part of having kids. We as adults would think cool but walk on by, but a kid says cool and gets it.  By the time we got home Job knew how it worked using mirrors and lenses, how to set it up and focus it and why the object is upside down.  He set it up and looked at the trees beyond our subdivision.  You could see the leaves move!  John, Job and I headed down to the soccer fields to look at Mount Baker which unfortunately was covered with clouds.  Undeterred we went home only to have him look up various things online about viewing the moon. He was hoping to be able to view the moon tonight but maybe he will try for the international space station or Jupiter.  We will see where this new "hobby" takes him.

 As is typical in the spring we get out into the yard and work. Usually our big project is setting up the swimming pool but this year is different. We sold our pool. I thought we would have the pool until all of the kids had graduated from high school but it wasn't used last year much and filling it up is pricy.  Then we took a look at the calendar and realized that one of two things had to go 1) the pool or 2) the boat.  We couldn't do both and rarely did either.  I love the boat since everytime I'm on it, I feel as though I'm on a vacation.  But it is pricey and takes time each year to get it ready.  I also can not put the boat in the water or take it out.  That hopefully will change this summer, though I fear it will be the last summer with the boat as well.  Since we sold the pool though, we are faced with a large 18 foot diameter circle of sand.  During the winter the trampoline usually goes where the pool is but we took the trampoline down and sent most of it to the dump.  It was rusted so badly that I feared it would be a danger if anyone jumped on it.  So two large items left our yard this year.  I feel like the yard is so much bigger but what to do with the sand circle in the yard.  We have decided to keep part of it as sand and ring it with interlocking bricks and reseed the rest with grass.  I truly thought that the grass would sprout in a week but it has taken longer that than.  The key is to keep the dog out of the grass seeded area while still allowing his access to dig in the non grass area, which is no easy task.  We are waiting for next month to purchase the bricks.  We may decide to go a different direction. I would have to say this is a milestone in our kids' lives to get rid of both the pool and the trampoline all at once.  They've provided a lot of entertainment and memories but we are looking to create different memories with a firepit and patio lights and having dinners and lunches out on the patio.