Settler's Park

Can I just say that Idaho has the best city parks around?! WOW! This is Settler's Park in Meridian. We had a blast here! Dave had the day off and we went here for our family outing.In this park there is a pond that they stock with fish to go fishing at, they have 5 baseball fields, CLEAN bathrooms, a staff member there to help the kids or to prevent accidents, etc. Then I learned that every Friday night they have movie night in the field...FREE. So we will go and experience that sometime! Typically when I am at a park with my kids...I can feel every minute pass...but here we were here for two hours without even blinking! And look at that SKY!!

In this park there are these giant instruments for the kids to play on and it makes music! Wesley

Samantha and Dave

Wait for it Sammie...

...And there it is! haha

The theme is pirates...arghh!

A fun thing is a snack bar that sells snow cones for $1! With over 40 flavors! Yum!!

A closer look...

Happy 4th of July!

This is probably one of my favorite holidays! We have made it into a day event over the years. Every year we go to Oceanside beach...so this year was a trying one for me. I had NO idea what to do out here! So I explored the internet for ideas and for where to go. All the cities have great websites of things to do in their neck of the woods. I discovered a place called Cascade, Idaho. My first thought was that it sounded like a Disney movie...thanks Cinthia for that thought! haha So we decided that instead of going into Boise or one of the surrounding cities, that we would travel an hour up the mountain and see what Cascade had to offer. They launch the fireworks off the Lake Cascade. There were tons of boats, a small farmers market and lots of locals! Really not too crowded. Which was nice...I bet Boise was crazy busy. So next year....we want to go all day and enjoy the lake and shops. We also went and saw Ice Age with Sammie and Wes....Dylan and Dave saw Transformers...great movies!

I am so grateful to live in a country where we have the ability to live our lives in a manner that we want. I am grateful for those who serve our country to protect us. I am so proud to live in this free country...I am proud to be an American! It is the greatest feeling on this day to celebrate our freedoms, the men and women who serve US, and our families and friends.

The Grogan kids with Mombo

Being silly...what they do best! ha

Dylan always being cool

Sweet Sammie

Fun Wesley

Red, White, and Blue

On our way up...we discovered the river with lots of rapids! It is so beautiful and inspiring!

Gorgeous!

This was really too early in the evening to take this pic...there were hundreds of boats on the lake! What a life!

Wesley with his first sparkler! My battery died and this is the only sparkler pic I have..): There is always next year!

Wes was getting impatient...we had to wait for sundown to see the firework show..and that happens at 10:45pm...yep...very late!

Dad and his girl!

I really don't like myself in pics...I need to get better about being in them! Me and my boys!

I was a bit nervous of the fireworks..were they really legal?? haha...they were so much fun! And the kids thought it was cool to set off our own fireworks!

Boise market

In BoDo....hahahahaha...still makes me giggle....every week they have a market. Actually most of the cities out her have markets. The farmers and local businesses go and sell their items. I am thinking about getting my business license and selling baked goods here. I think it would be fun...so we will see! Anyway, here are a few pics of our adventure...David's Mom and Dad, Sister Kima nd her son went with us! It was fun!

It is so wonderful to be able to get to Boise in 20 minutes! It is like going into Riverside! We are still exploring...there is much much more there that we have'nt discovered yet!

Boise Zooo

Thursdays at the zoo are half off days, so my family got in the zoo for $10! We thought we would check it out. We decided to go on the HOTTEST day of the week...so most of the animals were asleep in the shade...and we wanted to join them! haha...well not the Tigers!

WE really haven't seen a Tiger up close and personal...those animals are HUGE! I wouldn't want to mess with one of them...ever! Dylan was intrigued by this Tiger...and wondered how long it would take for the Tiger to eat one of us...only Dylan would think of that! haha

On a turtle shell...actual size...I think the turtles could eat us too!

Wes exploring the egg shells

We came to the spider monkeys..those things were swinging all over the place! They were alot of fun to watch!

Wes and the actual size of the Tigers...watch out!

Sammie enjoying the prairie dog exhibit...you go underground and pop up in these bubbles and the prairie dogs walk around them...they were very cool!

All in all....Boise zoo gets a 7! And part of that is that it was so hot that the animals were in hiding. I dont have a ton of good pics to share...too hard to get them. But we will go again in the fall..hopefully we can see more of the animals!