I love Hailey.

Ames is a lot bigger than I always thought. I love the size of Hailey. When I go to the coffee shop the person at the check out already knows my name and face. I see people I recognize everywhere. I run into neighbors at the market. Strangers wave and say "Hi" all the time. Everyone is smiling. Last night we had trouble finding a place to park our bikes outside of the Wicked Spud (the beer and burger joint), because thirty-forty people rode. There is a huge bike community. Locals call themselves 5B'ers because all the Hailey license plates are 5B XXXX. Boise is A1XXXX, etc. 5B'ers pride themselves in being super pedestrian friendly. If you're standing on the sidewalk even thinking about crossing the road, all five lanes of State Highway 75 (which is Main St. through Hailey) come to a stop so that you can start crossing. So cool.

They are environmentally friendly too. Atkinson's (the market) encourages you to bring your own bag. Milk costs 5.00, and comes in a glass container, they give you 2.50 back when you return the container. Everyone has recycling bins they put out on garbage days. We recycle at the pool. There are even recycling bins at the post office, and everyone goes to the post office almost daily because mail is delivered to the PO Box instead of to the houses.

They are extremely dog friendly too. There are more dogs in Blaine County then there are children. Everyone is extremely conscientious of dogs being in the roads and paths. People pick up after their dogs. Dogs are everywhere and they are so well mannered and mellow.

Everyone loves the outdoors and are into being fit and active. They are not as much into dieting... but they run, hike, bike, swim, kayak, raft, on and on. The frame of mind people have is awesome. They travel and have lived many places. They are care free and enjoy the simplicity of life. They love other people and don't hold a lot of value on job titles or salary's. They are happy with their old pick up truck and mountain bike and just being. Towns in Idaho are like Summit County Colorado towns only less touristy. It is exhilarating and inspiring.

I'm not sure I want to hitch hike the country and back pack for months in Europe like some of the people we have met out here have. But I do want to be more of a traveler, to be adventurous, a little more spontanioius. I would like our kids to grow up in this kind of environment, with these kind of ideals, a little less tied to stuff, and willing to accept change.

Holly with Eric's help

Update Time

Hi everyone!

We had a bit of a scare today... I took Peyton for a mountain bike ride, and I apparently misunderestimated the temperature. I'm not sure if maybe he was a bit dehydrated to begin with or what, but partway through the ride he kind of just shut down. He was doing great, and all of a sudden he just laid down. We walked the rest of the way home, and put him in the shower with cool water and got him some water to drink. He yacked in the shower, but then seemed to be OK. About an hour later (I'm at a P&Z meeting at this point) he lost bowel control and hurled again. (sorry for the unappetizing nature of the story.) He laid down in the yard, drooling, and then started dry heaving. Holly and Brian took him to a vet's office in Bellevue that had after-hours service, and they pumped him full of fluids and sent him home. $280.36 later, we have a dog who is very tired but not in danger. Painful, but well worth the peace of mind.

Also, Brian had a close encounter of the ursis kind. He was out for a mountain bike ride on Sunday and rounded a bend to find a large, brown, furry bear in the trail about ten yards away. The bear wandered off his own direction, and Brian headed back down the mountain with a little bit of blood in his adrenaline stream.

We were in McCall this weekend for our fourth wedding anniversary. We have a crappy work schedule this week because of a combination of my meetings and Holly covering shifts for a coworker, so we celebrated early. It was tons of fun, and a beautiful drive!


The hotel was really nice, including a jetted Jacuzzi tub in the room, and a nice indoor pool. We made a nice dinner of wood-grilled steak and roasted vegetables in the park by the lake, we waded in the water, watched sailboats, and just relaxed. On our way home, we witnessed a low-speed police chase. A white Suburban almost sideswiped us going down the interstate, and was tailgating, weaving, and just being unsafe. We were commenting that he really should get pulled over for driving like that, when a State Trooper tore out of the median after him. The trooper turned on his lights, and the Suburban just kept going. We were behind this whole thing, and it took literally 10 minutes for the Suburban driver to pull over. He was doing between 5 under and 5 over the whole time. Wierd. We were watching in the rearview mirror as the officer stepped out. He did not appear to be a happy camper as he slammed the door to his patrol car as hard he could and approached the Suburban with his hand on his sidearm. Two minutes later, four Sheriff and Statie cars came flying by in the opposite direction going toward the stop.

We stopped at a couple of gorges, one in the middle of nowhere,


and one in Twin Falls.


We saw two people jump off the bridge and land on the ground below.


If they hadn't had parachutes, they would definitely have been goners.


Sunset was beautiful.


Oh, Steve, if you check the blog this is for you... bring back any memories? It's even cooler in person than in the photo... click the image for a bigger version.

Rubbin' elbows with awesomeness

Holly's boss Cameron is married to Chopper. Holly talks to him a few times a week, and we saw him race at the local Wed night dirt series. He kicked butt on a brakeless fixie semi-cross bike with a flat front tire, in a skinsuit. Cameron said something about him losing a bet... It was super cool to see him passing guys on $5000 carbon dual suspension race rigs on something that looked like it was found in a dumpster.

Camping!

We went camping this weekend. We went north to the Sawtooth National Wilderness Area. It was purty.


Dog had fun! He did some extreme napping Sunday afternoon.


Camping is s much better with campfires.


We had a pretty view from the campsite.


After camping, Holly and I went to Custer, an abandoned mining town that has been preserved. It was pretty neat. Dave, you would have loved this!







Holly made cinnamon rolls this week... mmmmmmm


We went to Boise last weekend and came back the long way. Definitely worth it.

Update from Holly

It has been pretty cold out here this week. There were threats of snow last night, which from what I could tell only yeilded a little bit of frost this morning. But it was in the 40's most of the day. I work at an outdoor pool and am very suprised at the number of swimmers that come out even in the cold.



This is my veiw from work. It was even more beautiful when the mountian was snow capped. I sometimes like rainy days because the the mountain tops seem to get tangled in the clouds and steam rises from the pool's surface.

Switching from a loan officer position to working at a swimming pool office has been like moving from night to day. I'm learning to be a little laid back and enjoying leaving work at work and not needing to worry about much of anything :). I also, for the most part love interacting with the kids. I also like my bike enthusist boss, who is giving lots of encouragement to meet other mountain bikers and be active in general.
Managing 14- 18 year old kids is a challenge. I am realizing that my expectations need to be realistic. I am working on leadership skills, patience, and humility. They are sometimes difficult to motivate, they are always trying to find a loop hole, and me being 22 it is difficult to get their full respect as an authority figure. I have to step out of my comfort zone to point out their failures, but I try to counter act that with encouragement when they are doing somthing right. My most uncomfortable moments have come from pool parents, I am finding that some parents are just strange. Every day I figure out what works and what I need to do a little different.

Last weekend we visited Boise. I would describe it as the feeling of Fort Collins and the size of Madison. Some of the outskirts reminded me of Ames (like s. duff).
We continue to mountain bike and 4 wheel often and have watched a few movies. We found a sweet campsite on the top of a mountain. We explored an old mine and found what Eric and Brian promise is fools gold. I'm still not convinced :).


This is a picture from that campsite.

The suffering!

Holly and I went for a nice Sunday drive yesterday afternoon... in 4Low! I love this place!

Saw a bit of wildlife sorry for the photo, it's pretty heavily cropped. I couldn't get very close; this guy had eyes like a hawk! (I know, I know... sorry.)

We got to the top of a little peak and had 360 degree vistas of mountains. It was awesome!






Then Brian and I went and did the riding of the mountain bikes. There was the climbing. And the pushing. And the climbing. And the pain. And the switchbacks. And the climbing. And the suffering.



This was the view from about halfway to the top. We started out lower than those houses that you can see way down at the bottom.



Then we went down. Our tires instantly filled with mud and we spent the entire trip down hanging on for dear life as we slid around muddy switchbacks, not so much steering our bikes as pleading with them to go kind of in the same direction as the trail.



Yes Tom, I know. Boo friggin' hoo. It was still fun, just not as good as the other riding we've done. When there is traction, and my legs and lungs start working, it will be an awesome trail, but yesterday it just brought the suffering.