.: "is that your first tumbleweed, honey?” :.

what a weekend! dave and i worked on friday and hit the road on our way to idaho about 4 o’clock. i don’t think i was mentally prepared for the drive ahead of us. i was just so excited to be heading out to visit brent, ruth, lil’ brent, sarah, jake, penny and maralyn and robert. we hauled the whole way down there. few stops on the way and only if they were absolutely necessary. our last necessary stop was to get gas on this lonely highway just outside of hailey. it was a scene straight out of a horror flick. complete with tumbleweeds, and a vacant motel with the “o-t-e” burnt out on its sign. when the gas pump shut off it made this huge clanging sound and i’ve never jumped back in the car so fast as i did right then. pretty sure i tripped on the blanket i had wrapped around me. anyways- we hit the road and made it safely to brent’s dwelling at about 2:30 our time, 3:30 idaho time. we said quick hello’s to those awake enough to greet us and both brent’s who came home after doing a spot of cable work in the middle of the night. then we hit the sack. literally- the hope’s have this HUGE bean bag that dave and i both fit on. this thing was incredible! we quickly jumped on that and rapidly fell asleep.

saturday morning came quick, however we were ready to get up and see what sun valley (and brent) had planned for us. we ate a little breakfast, said hi to the sleepy heads, and hit the road for the first of the tours. brent, ruth and penny showed us around their town of hailey. what an adorable, quaint town. we stopped at a few places and headed home to wait for maralyn and robert to arrive. how great to see them! i had only met maralyn once last summer and had yet to meet robert. once they arrived we had a quick lunch and hopped back in the car for the big tour. we cruised through hailey again and in to sun valley. brent was sure to point out all the celebrity’s houses. felt like an authentic ‘star tour’. we stopped at this small shopping village that was simply delightful. dave and i picked up our commemorative golf ball there. we all splurged on some fudge and walked around in the beautiful sun. we snapped a few pictures and headed back to the car. once we got back to chateau hope that huge bean bag sucked dave and i in again and we took a quick power nap. brent woke us up to hit the slopes. i’ve never said that before! we rounded up all our gear and piled into the truck. brent, lil brent, dave, penny and i all headed to the mountain. tubing was SO amazing! we hiked up to the top and let ‘er rip. dave and i flew down that mountain so fast. i had no idea that was what i was getting myself in to! as we came to an adrenaline pumping stop we flipped and i landed smack in the middle of a huge mudd puddle and dave landed right on top of me! you would have thought we were in a romantic comedy where the two love birds accidentally fall down together and steal a kiss. we hiked back to the top even higher than the time before and we all went down at the same time. brent, lil brent, and penny all on one tractor tube, and dave and i on the other. what a blast! penny was the one to land in that nasty mudd puddle on this run- but what a great sport she was. you can tell she’s a tough cookie for being the baby of 7. we had an absolute amazing time! dave and i will try and get the video from brent and post it on here. we headed home and got cleaned up for a delicious dinner prepared by ruth. she made a scrumptious stir-fry that we all devoured.

saturday night was reserved for decorating eggs. some amazing talent at their dinner table. you can check out The Daily Item for the top ten eggs... and vote! i showed penny how my family blows eggs... bless her heart she rocked it out!

sunday morning came, and happy easter! we had a leisurely morning and then dave and i went and explored hailey a little by ourselves. we stopped at a cute little coffee shop and tried this cream cheese jalapeño thing that was a little goofy, but good. we walked around in the sun for a bit and headed back to the house. the whole gang rounded up to play some basketball, walk the dogs and a spot of bocce ball! it was brent, lil brent, dave and i who played. pretty sure dave and i won... oh wait... yeah, it was the brent’s who won. that was a way fun time and i know dave and i will be playing again and again. there was yet another feast prepared for easter dinner. the meat was amazing- well, i heard the meat was amazing. couldn’t tell ya from experience though. everything else was delectable. we wrapped up the night with a game of apples to apples (a schaeperkoetter/hope favorite).

we hit the road monday morning about 8:30. hugged and kissed our family goodbye... tears rolling down our cheeks as we drove away. okay, no tears, but almost! we had sun almost the whole way home, hit a tumbleweed- oops, my bad. and about 10 and a half hours later dave and i were pulling in our driveway. home sweet home. and back to reality.

what a wonderful trip we had. it was so great to visit with everyone. next time we’ll be taking the girls out there to visit this magical town and phenomenal family.
we’re celebrating easter with the girls on sunday. chloe has ballet tomorrow and lily has baseball games both tomorrow and saturday. we’ll just be dragging ella along to all the activities- she keeps us entertained.

until next time...

kb. aka zoe.

*photos courtesy of brent hope*