Silverwood!

Friday, August 1 - Journey Continues
We continued driving on Friday. Got a late start from Butte (left at 11 AM) and I was driving. James had to work the entire way. I had a few calls during the drive. We were trying to arrive by 3PM so that I could have a conference call. Wow! Work can really get in the way of a vacation sometimes! The drive was good and Kenna was good. We had planned to take our Honda, but our hectic week changed our minds and we decided to take "Diego" for the convenience of a big car, with DVD players, tinted windows and lots of room. We arrived in CdA at about 3:15 (had to stop just a few miles outside of town to change drivers so I could get on my call). Kenna was so happy to be here. All of us were! We went over to Erin's in the evening for a BBQ and playtime with the cousins!

Saturday, August 2 - Silverwood!
I got to start my day with a beautiful run on the mountain. I encounter lots of deer - it's amazing. We made it to Silverwood in the late afternoon. We went swimming in the water park. Kenna absolutely loved it. We took several laps in the lazy river ("Mom, is this the lazy wiver?"). We rode rides and Kenna loved riding with her cousins. She still struggles with the shyness and doesn't like too much attention or people to laugh when she is talking.



Of course, my little spoiled Disney-child asked, "well Mom, when are they going to have a parade? and the fireworks?!" Obviously, we have not taken her to a regular theme park often enough.

Family Trip to Coeur d' Alene

Thursday, July 31st - Journey Begins
Leave at 3:00 PM? Ha?! When, in the history of the Murphy or Jepsen family, have we ever left on time?! James and I travel frequently, so we both were thinking we could pack and go in just a few minutes (since we can do that ourselves for a business trip). I'm here to tell you, it doesn't translate. Plus, it doesn't help if you continue to take calls from your co-workers throughout the afternoon while you "pack". More like throw crap into suitcases while thinking to myself "geez, I really have no clue how to pack for a trip where I am not wearing suits." And then the whole exercise of trying to keep track of a lot of things that you need to pack (Kenna's stuff, toys, DVDs, swim suits, etc...) while talking on the phone to more work people.

So, a cool 2 hours later, we were on our way. Lovely. 5PM traffic to start our trip off right. And James and I were both exhausted from lack of sleep the last couple of nights. But we survived the horrible northbound I-15 traffic and drove all the way to "Butt" Montana.

Side note...I tried to convince Kenna for hours that we were going to a place called Butt Montana. She kept saying "Mom, we are not going to Butt Montana." I felt like my dad - those are the kind of jokes he would tell us. I remember a book - a Chinese Little Red Riding Hood called "Lon Po Po". He would say "Long Poo Poo" instead of the real title and my sister and I would pitch fits and say "Dad, it's Lon Po Po". So I'm turning into my father I guess.

Usana Concerts: Journey Last Week, The Police This Week

OK, so I must be getting old now that James and I go off to these "oldie" concerts and know all of the songs and sing along.

Attended Journey (with their new lead singer that sounds EXACTLY like Steve Perry) last Friday with all of our friends. Brandon Mooney has the sweet hookup where we get a Suite at the Usana, comp tickets, VIP parking, and free dinner. It makes me never want to go to a concert under other circumstances. Awesome concert. Heart and Cheap Trick opened. They were great too!

Attended the Police last night at Usana again. Had to pay our own money and ended up with lawn seats. Attended the concert with the Bastians. It was super fun and the lawn seats weren't as bad as we thought - compared to the suite.

People watching is ALWAYS good - especially at concerts like these where 40 and 50-year-olds come out of the closet, dressed like rockers, get drunk and go crazy. Please don't ever let me become one of those guys... well, of course I won't do the get drunk thing, but please don't let me dress like the 80's and go back in time with no awareness that I am no longer cool.

Makenna Thinks She Can Fly

Kenna (age 3 1/2) is big into imagination. She loves a lot of TV and movies and likes to re-enact the shows. Yesterday she was into super heroes. James tied her blanket around her neck to make a cape. We do this all the time and so who would have known that yesterday would be different!

But yesterday was different and scared James to death! She thought she could fly with her cape and jumped off the top of a very large flight of stairs. Fortunately, James was only a few steps ahead of her and caught her!

Murphy Mayhem begins!