When I was little I loved to make up stories in my head. I loved to imagine and create worlds. But as I got older it seemed harder and harder to make it back to that place of pure imagination. As the logical side of my brain developed my creativity seemed to diminish.
For a long time I felt bad that I'd lost the ability to imagine and create worlds. Had growing up robbed me of a talent I'd enjoyed as a child?
A few weeks ago I had an epiphany. I'd never lost my ability to create and imagine - I'd just changed how I did it. Every time I plan something, every time I "run the scenarios," every time I envision how I'm going to make something happen I'm tapping into that creative and imaginative talent I'd developed as a child.
And right now I've had plenty of time to flex those creative muscles. Brandon and I have so many options for what our life together will look like in the next few months. I've been imagining all the different scenarios of where we'll live, when we'll move, and how we'll pull it off. It's been fun to try to figure it all out.
Nothing is set in stone yet so we won't talk about any of that right now. Instead let's do a recap of the last two weeks. We've done a lot. I had my last day of work, Brandon had another job interview, we went on a little road trip, and most of all we've been enjoying all the nice spring weather!
Let's recap!
March 26th was my last day off in the middle of the week. Usually I'm running around and trying to get everything done on my days off, but since I'd have unlimited days off in the next week I wasn't too worried about getting anything done this day. When the kids got out of school we planned to go up to Idaho Falls to visit my friend Sarah, but we had some miscommunication and so that ended up not happening.
My kids had been really excited about seeing Sarah's dog so I had to come up with something to do that would make up for that. I decided we'd go to McKey's in Chubbuck and visit the petting zoo in the back. Derrick has come here with his therapist and they told us there were baby goats. So we were all excited to see them.
We were not disappointed. The goats were SUPER cute. Charlotte told me she now wants a goat instead of a puppy. That is not happening.
The kids all rolled down the hill. We are all happy it's not snowy any more.
Charlotte and Lydia went inside for their activity. Derrick, Veronica and I stayed outside and they played with the creek that runs through the church property.
Friday was my last day of work with Bannock County. I always work for 5 months and then get laid off for a month before getting rehired for another 5 months. A few months ago I decided I wouldn't come back to work in May. Brandon will graduate on May 4th and with everything up in the air it seemed like a good idea to just finish work now. Even though I knew it was a good idea, it was still a hard last day.
It wasn't just my last day of work. It was also my co-worker Deanna's last day. She was retiring after 21 YEARS with the county. She didn't want a retirement party so she was keeping a low profile on her last day. Still, a few people made their way in to say good bye to her. The commissioners came in to present Deanna with a three volume set of "The history of Bannock County." Then they surprised me with my own copies. I'd didn't think that my 18 months with the county compared in anyway to Deanna's 21 years, so I was very honored that I got a gift too.
It also helped that we had a fun thing planned for the day. We were going to the Idaho Falls Aquarium. The kids and Brandon went here as part of Adventure Camp last summer. They've wanted to go back with me for a long time. We decided that we'd go there for Derrick's birthday activity. This was a little early for his birthday, but it was the day that worked best for us.
We invited my parents along for the trip. They loved seeing the kids enjoy everything.
Derrick loved the rays. He stayed at that tank for a long time and came back often. He would flap his arms like the rays. He told me, "They are my friends."
Charlotte and Lydia liked the birds. (Veronica and I were kind of freaked out when the birds flew close to us.)
Derrick with the rays again.
Derrick and Veronica spent a lot of time in this observation area of the shark tank..
On Sunday after church we went for a walk to the church and then to the park. Derrick fell into the creek, but other than that the walk was great.
Monday was my first day of being off of work. It was also April 1st. I considered playing an April Fools Day joke on my co-workers. I thought about going into the office and acting like I'd forgot that I didn't work there anymore. But Friday night had been some good closure and I didn't want to go back and have to say goodbye to everyone again so soon. So instead I took care of some things at home.
I have a LOT of things I'm want to do over the next few weeks, but every time I looked at my desk I didn't want to do anything. I've felt for several months that my desk is too big. I just pile things on it. I decided that I wanted a smaller desk with less surface area. I also wanted a book case so I could stack things on it.
On Tuesday Veronica and I ran a ton of errands. I needed to buy a handful of things for the various projects so I decided it was just best to buy them all up front so I don't have to worry about buying things when I'm in the middle of a project.
That afternoon I hosted another clothing swap at the Library. I'd thought I didn't have a lot of clothes to get rid of, but after going through all our closets I ended up with three boxes. The swap was successful. We had about 5 family's come and everyone left with lots of clothes.
Tuesday was also the day that a post I wrote about Derrick's Autism diagnosis was published on the Idaho Falls Mom's Blog. This was a super hard post to write. I spent quite a bit of time on it and then decided that I didn't like how it was going. So I rewrote it. I'm happy with how it turned out. A lot of people have told me they liked it and that makes me even happier.
On Wednesday I went thrift shopping for some summer clothes. I haven't bought casual summer clothes since we lived in Alabama three years ago so I definitely needed some new things. It was fun to buy clothes based solely on "will this be comfortable?" And not have to worry about "will this be work appropriate?"
Thursday was a busy busy day. We had a weekend trip planned and so I had to get the car packed for that. Veronica was super excited to help. After I got the kids on the school bus I came back into the house to take a shower. While I was in the shower Veronica found my keys, unlocked the car, and started carrying our stuff out to the car. I was so impressed by her initiative. (And also not very surprised because this is my daughter we are talking about here.)
Later in the morning we went to the elementary school and registered Veronica for kindergarten. I don't know where we will be living this fall, but I'm keeping my options open. I was also curious if her hand written birth certificate would cause any issues with the registration. It didn't.
Veronica was kind of nervous about the screening. She didn't have anything to worry about though. She's known all her letters for years and can count to 100 without any help. Still she was nervous about having a stranger sit down and ask her questions. Well, the "stranger" turned out to be Derrick's kindergarten teacher who Veronica loves. So she wasn't scared at all.
After the screening I went back to the office and checked out the three older kids. They were so excited to get out of school early. We were going to Boise with Brandon.
We drove back home to drop off backpacks and meet up with Brandon. On the way there the kids started singing the family chant Charlotte made up last summer.
Look out, look out, look out!
The WILD family's out!
They like to hike,
They like to see the sights!
Their names are
Charlotte, Lydia, Derrick, Veronica
Valerie, Brandon,
ILLGUTH!
We were all so excited to be going on an adventure!
Brandon had to be in Boise that evening for the first part of the State SKILLS club competition. Last year he'd gone to Boise on his own. But this year I decided it would be fun if we turned it into a little family trip too. So the kids and I planned to tag along and hang out in Boise while Brandon competed in the competition. At first I planned to stay in a hotel in Boise on Thursday night and Friday night. But after our accidental trip to Twin Falls over spring break I realized I wanted to spend some more time in Twin Falls. I cancelled our Friday night reservation with the hotel in Boise and made reservations in Twin Falls.
That accidental trip to Twin Falls had reminded us that we really liked Twin Falls. Somehow we hadn't been paying much attention to it as a place to live, but we decided to start exploring job opportunities there. Miraculously, on Tuesday or Wednesday a company in Twin Falls e-mailed the school about a job opportunity and Brandon hurried to apply. Brandon said that he would be in the area that weekend and asked if he could stop by for a tour. They replied back and said they would love to meet with him. The best time would be Thursday afternoon on our way to Boise.
The plan was that I would drop Brandon off at the hangar and then take the kids to a park or something for a little while until Brandon called me and told me he was done with the tour/interview. But things didn't go as planned. We had to go through a security gate to get into the area where the hangar was. Someone from the company had to drive out to the gate to open it. Then we followed them back to the hangar.
When we got to the hangar all the kids had to go to the bathroom. So Brandon asked the lady who'd driven out to get us if the kids could use the bathroom in the hangar. She said yes. So all 6 of us trooped into the building and said hi to the prospective employer. Bringing your kids to a job interview isn't something I recommend, but it was certainly a good way to give the company the full picture of who they were interviewing.
Actually it turned out to be a pretty good way to gauge the company. Everyone was super nice. Derrick was taking to everyone who would listen and people were engaging back with him. Derrick has an ability to sweet talk and charm anyone so I realized that having him along was probably a good thing. All it would take would be him asking, "Um excuse me? Can my dad work here?" and Brandon would be guaranteed a job.
We got back on the road and kept driving to Boise. We checked into our hotel around 4:00 and then took Brandon to the Boise airport and dropped him off there. The kids and I drove to a Jack in the Box and had dinner. Brandon went on a tour of the company that was hosting the SKILLS competition and then went to a BBQ with the other students doing the competition. The kids and I could have gone to the BBQ too, but it didn't start until 7:00 and I figured the kids wouldn't like the food and would be bored.
We had to be up early the next morning. Brandon had to be back at the airport at 7:00 for the start of the competition. The kids and I all got up to give him a ride. Then we drove back and went straight to breakfast. The kids were really well behaved at breakfast.
We checked out of the hotel and went on a walk on the riverwalk path that was behind the hotel.
The trail was kind of steep, but fun.
They kids found this sandy area and played here for a long time.
Then we went back to the park and sat on the picnic blanket and ate more snacks. Our towels and life jackets were still wet from the pool so I set those out to dry.
Around 3:00 everyone was getting tired so we got in the car and went to find a gas station. Brandon was texting me saying the competition was done, and he was guessing they would get the results and be able to leave soon. So I drove to the airport and parked outside the company's main hangar. The kids were watching Moana so I just left the car running and took a nap while we waited for Brandon.
"Soon" ended up being over an hour so in retrospect I would have come up with a different plan, but it worked. At 4:15 they still didn't have the results, but Brandon's teacher said they could all leave and get pizza at a restaurant and that he'd meet them there with the results later. Brandon told his teacher that his family was waiting and to just text him the results. He came out and we took off.
We really didn't have anything planned for dinner so when we saw a Burger King at the next exit we decided that was the plan. It was great to be together after a day apart. The kids filled Brandon in on their adventures and he told us about the competition. He'd won it last year, but he wasn't sure if he'd won it again.
I went in to the office to check in and Brandon attempted to check his voicemail. His teacher and some classmates had called him and left him messages while we were driving. Brandon discovered that we didn't have any cell phone service so finding out the results would have to wait until morning.
I'd noticed this place on our Idaho Road Trip last year. It's directly across the Snake River from Ritter Island and we'd stopped there so I could take pictures of the springs and waterfalls that are near Ritter Island. I mentioned it when I wrote about Ritter Island on my travel blog.
I'd considered coming here for Spring Break, but had decided against it since our Spring Break plans were so up in the air. When we decided to spend time in Twin Falls after the SKILLS competition I'd originally booked a hotel. But then I decided that I really wanted to visit the 1000 Springs resort. I called them up and booked Cabin #2.
We had so much fun. One corner of the pool is a kiddie area that is only 2 feet deep. The kids liked playing in there. I liked that their was a wall around it so I didn't have to worry about them drifting into the deeper water.
Then we packed up and went on our adventure for the day. We were planning to visit some of the waterfalls and springs across the river, but I'd forgotten to print off a map of the area. Fortunately I knew where we had a good chance of finding a map. We drove into Hagerman to the Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument Visitor Center. We had to wait 5 minutes for it to open, but once we got inside the nice ranger gave me a Thousand Springs State Park Map. Success!
Brandon said, "who knew that I'd win a competition for fixing things?" And I told him, "Brandon, anyone who's known you for longer than a month knows that you would win a competition for fixing things."
After the map was found, and the voicemail checked we went to find the various locations of Thousand Springs State Park. I've written about this state park on my travel blog, so let me quote myself here for a minute:
Before we go any further, we need to pause and do some defining so you know what I'm talking about in this post. (Trust me, it's taken some time for me to sort all this out.)
Thousand Springs Area - This is a section of the Snake River Canyon where many natural springs burst out of different areas of the canyon wall.
Ritter Island - And island ringed by the Snake River water on one side and run off from natural springs on the other. This was formerly the Thousand Springs Nature Preserve. Now it is part of Thousand Springs State Park. The name comes from a family that owned the island.
Thousand Springs Nature Preserve - This was a section of the Thousand Springs Area that was purchased by the Nature Conservancy in 1986. It included Ritter Island and about 2 miles of land along the northeast bank of the Snake River Canyon. This area has several natural springs and is an important habitat for birds and other animals. In 2006 the land was donated to the State of Idaho and became the Ritter Island Unit of Thousand Springs State Park.
Thousand Springs State Park - This is an Idaho State Park that is made up of six different units (Malad Gorge, Kelton Trail, Earl M. Hardy Box Canyon Springs Nature Preserve, Billingsley Creek, Ritter Island, Niagara Springs/Crystal Springs). These units are not connected, but they are all within a short drive of each other. Park Headquarters are at the Malad Gorge unit. Thousand Springs State Park includes sections of the Thousand Springs Area.
Okay, that should sort of help this next part make sense.
The most important thing to understand is that Thousand Springs State Park has 6 units that aren't connected. They are all fairly close together, but you have to do some driving - and that means some navigating- to see the different features. That's why a map was so important.
Our first stop was the Ritter Island area. Brandon and I had explored the island a little bit on our Valentines Day trip in February, but we hadn't gone over to the waterfall. As we drove down the grade (road down into the canyon) we passed lots of small springs. These are the springs that are diverted to the waterfall.
We made it down to the parking lot and followed a road and then a trail to the waterfall.
The waterfall was really pretty and I was happy to finally stand near it. Earlier in the day I'd looked out the window of the cabin and enjoyed the view of the waterfall from across the river. Up close it was even better.
Then we went back up the grade, followed some farm roads, and found the parking lot for the Earl M Hardy Box Canyon Spring. This one had a mile long hike to the springs.
Most of the hike was on a road next to farm land.
Eventually we made it to an overlook that gave us a view into a canyon.
I was hoping there was a trail down into the canyon, but we couldn't see anything that led down there.
After that we drove on some more county roads, followed another grade down into the canyon and went to the Niagara Springs and Crystal Springs area. We'd visited niagara springs last May, and we thought we'd seen Crystal Springs, but when I wrote about the area for my travel blog I realized that we'd missed Crystal Springs by not travelling far enough down the road. So this time we went all the way down the road and found Crystal Springs and Crystal Springs Lake.
We had lunch there. The weather seemed to be turning a bit cold so we didn't stay long.
We got back in the car and drove across the river to Bulh and then took highway 30 into Twin Falls. We were heading to a Dairy Queen we'd seen on Thursday. Back in October my Aunt Diane sent us some Dairy Queen gift cards for the twins' birthday. I thought we'd be able to use them right away, but we've had some trouble finding a Dairy Queen. So we were very happy when we found one in Twin Falls. We all got Blizzards and enjoyed them a lot.
We drove home and listened to General Conference on the radio. Brandon and I especially liked David P Homer's Talk about listening to the Spirit to make decisions. We have some big ones coming up and it helped us feel calm about our ability to make those decisions.
On Sunday Derrick FINALLY got to make his birthday cake. Every day for the past week he'd come home from school, grab the cake mix and say, "Let's make my lemon cake." And I'd have to point to the picture schedule I'd drawn for the week that showed us making the cake on Sunday. So he was super happy that we could finally do that. He loved helping put in the ingredients and mix the cake. He also carefully cut out the wax paper to line the cake pans.
We listened to general conference and the kids played with Lincoln Logs. Charlotte built this mansion. I told her she's in charge of designing our house one day.
After the cake cooled we worked on decorating it. Derrick wanted a Shark Cake and Veronica and I'd had found the perfect toys/decorations. We ended up not using much cake, but it turned out wonderfully.
It's his birthday today, so I'll write about all of that in another post.
Thanks for reading!
Here's the girls posing silly in front of the waterfall.
Pools made from the run off from the spring were at the bottom of the canyon.
After that we drove on some more county roads, followed another grade down into the canyon and went to the Niagara Springs and Crystal Springs area. We'd visited niagara springs last May, and we thought we'd seen Crystal Springs, but when I wrote about the area for my travel blog I realized that we'd missed Crystal Springs by not travelling far enough down the road. So this time we went all the way down the road and found Crystal Springs and Crystal Springs Lake.
We got back in the car and drove across the river to Bulh and then took highway 30 into Twin Falls. We were heading to a Dairy Queen we'd seen on Thursday. Back in October my Aunt Diane sent us some Dairy Queen gift cards for the twins' birthday. I thought we'd be able to use them right away, but we've had some trouble finding a Dairy Queen. So we were very happy when we found one in Twin Falls. We all got Blizzards and enjoyed them a lot.
On Sunday Derrick FINALLY got to make his birthday cake. Every day for the past week he'd come home from school, grab the cake mix and say, "Let's make my lemon cake." And I'd have to point to the picture schedule I'd drawn for the week that showed us making the cake on Sunday. So he was super happy that we could finally do that. He loved helping put in the ingredients and mix the cake. He also carefully cut out the wax paper to line the cake pans.
Thanks for reading!
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