A few weeks ago we wanted to do something fun with Lil, and something that was different than the zoo.  So I looked up the Discovery Center of Idaho and figured out that there were probably some things that Lil would enjoy.  We packed up Lil and headed to Boise.

I was a little worried that Lil wouldn’t have fun, but figured that the Discovery Center is in the Zoo parking lot so we could always make a stop there if necessary.  I was totally worried for nothing.

Everything at the Discovery Center could be touched and played with.  Lily loved it.

Of course a lot of the exhibits were way over my her head, but she still had fun touching them or turning their dials or whatever.

Lil loves looking at herself in the mirror, so this infinite mirror thing was the best thing she’s ever seen.

I was wrong, the little grocery store was the BEST. THING. EVER. EVER. EVER.

She put little fruits and veggies in her cart and had a blast.

Then she got to check out. Oh, the excitement of it all.

She goes grocery shopping with us every weekend and sees how the whole thing works and the fact that she got to do it herself was so much fun.

Every time she scanned a item she went “boop boop”. I have a video of it somewhere, I need to find that.

We were on our way out the door when we saw this bubble tank and had to stop by and see what it was all about.

This was my favorite thing at the Center. Lil and I had so much fun blowing huge bubbles, while Waldo took pictures.

You know it’s a good sign when Lily asked as we were walking out the door to come back soon. And the next day she kept asking to go back to the place with the store.  We will definitely be going back to the Discovery Center. It was a blast.

We haven’t had much snow here this winter and I’m surprised to say that I’m a bit sad, but I’m sad for Lil so it’s not so surprising. She had so much fun playing in the snow in Montana and she keeps asking me when we’re going to get to do it again that I just feel bad that we haven’t had a day or two more then we have had. So the last time she asked I told her that we’d drive up to the mountains and find her some snow. Waldo told her the same thing later that day or the next day so we figured we’d better really do this.

Waldo’s brother gave us an idea of a good place to go that was about 45 minutes away. We got as ready as we were going to get and we were off. The drive was closer to 90 minutes, but we got to Idaho City and just past the tiny town they have a whole hill and play area for sledding. I guess the people of Idaho City take their sledding pretty seriously, all 450 of them. There were port-a-potties and dogs, lots of dogs. A few people had set up camp fires and had chairs set up around them. We thought that was pretty weird, but I guess they probably thought we were the weird ones. In our canvas shoes and jeans, Waldo and I anyway. Lily had jeans and rain boots on. We figured out really quickly that we are city people, small cities, but cities non the less. We are not made for hanging out in the snow.

After finding a parking place and getting Lil’s jacket and all of our gloves on we surveyed the sledding area and decided on a area out past the majority of people because there was a very gradual hill there and we thought Lil would have more fun there. There was a reason that all of the seasoned sledders weren’t playing over there and we figured it out quickly. On our way to our chosen spot we wondered off of the trampled path for a bit and ended up in snow up to our knees. Once we worked our way the edge of the wonder-hill’s area it became so hard to walk, because just about every step your feet would break though the snow and you’d end up to your ankles if we were lucky, our knees if we were and then have to try to take another step. Even thought I know that snow had many different characteristics on any given day I always assume that it’s light and fluffy. Not this snow, it was too frozen, hard, it had sharp edges and wouldn’t stick together for anything. Lil really wanted to make a snow cat, but this snow would have none of that. When we finally got to wonder-hill Waldo loaded Lil on the sled and took her up the little incline and let her go.

She loved it.

They went up and down a dozen or so times and I took pictures.

After a bit Waldo was tired of pulling his legs our of the snow and Lil was tried of being cold so we started the trek back to the car.

At this point Waldo realizes his jacket is still hanging out on a tree and I’m closer (but not by much) so I turn around and go back for it. This was so miserable. Every time my foot would break thought the snow I felt little razors on my leg and my shoe was full of ice, it just wasn’t fun. After I got back to him and gave him his jacket I took a look at my leg and it was bleeding a little bit from the sharp edges of the snow. Let me repeat myself, the sharp edges of the SNOW. I would have taken a picture, but I didn’t shave so I wouldn’t have shown it to anyone anyway.

After trudging past the majority of sledders I offered Lil a little bit of free play in the snow before we left. She didn’t want to do that, but while she was thinking about it Waldo and I decided to give sledding another try at a spot where the snow looked shallower. It was a lie, it was just as deep, but we could get there from the parking lot a lot easier. So we let Lil have some more sledding time.

She didn’t even really mind falling off the sled.  She just got back on that horse sled and told Daddy to “do it again, but this time don’t fall me off.”

This was easily the best part of the day and made the whole thing worth our while. Lily had so much fun sledding and can’t wait to do it again.

Just to prove what city folk we truly are, none of us had extra socks when we got back to the car. The diaper bag, thankfully had extra pants and underwear for Lil, but somehow even that held no socks. We had to drive to the tiny local grocery store (if you can really call it that) and buy socks. Of course they had no kiddo socks so I had to buy her women’s socks and we called them tights. She didn’t fall for it and hated them, but they warmed her feet so she left them on. When we got home she told me to take them back to the store and when I told her we couldn’t and I would just use them she told me to take a picture of them. So I did.