Thorpe Saturdays

A family that bikes together stays together! That's our new motto. I think we've spent 6 of the last 8 Saturdays biking. We bought Rosie a bike seat 2 months ago and now all we want to do is bike. She loves it which makes us love it. Whenever we pull out our helmets she lights up because she know what's coming.

Boise is a GREAT place to bike. It's in the top 30 biking friendly city's, or something like that. We like to bike the Green Belt which runs right next to the river and goes through multiple shady/grassy parks, a wave park for kayakers & surfers, a pond, BSU, a golf course, a bmx park (which Trevor totally ate it on - so funny), baseball fields, the zoo, restaurants...and probably a lot more. I've written about the Green Belt in the past HERE. So we bike and people watch on the Green Belt for an hour or two, have a picnic, then head home and nap.

So far there's only one thing I don't like about our biking excursions - the ride home. It's UP HILL. It's not a steep hill, but it's enough to make me groan the whole ride home. Sometimes I make Trevor switch me and bike Rosie up, which is hilarious since his legs are so long he has to bike with his knees out to the side :) It should be getting easier and easier, but Rosie just keeps getting heavier and heavier...oh well.

A Lovely Evening

Rosie's first time on the swings. She was VERY pleased.

It's Sabbath Day appropriate to go to the park, right? Eh, sure. It was SO beautiful outside today that we had to get out and I think the rest of Boise thought the same thing. The park was FULL of picnicking, slacklining, hoolahooping, yoga-ing, frisbee-ing, and everything else you can imagine. Spring is in the air!

Two Hikes One Post

I can't believe these pictures are from last month! Where'd the warmth and sunshine go?!

We finally hiked the hills behind our home. It's a fairly popular destination. I see people up there 24/7, even in this cold weather!

On the way down Rosie pulled her arms into the carrier, tucked her head down, sucked on her fingers and fell asleep. What a sweet lil' babe. We had such a nice time as a family doing this simple, free activity.

This wasn't Rosie's first hike though. A week before she was born we went on a hike - aka - I carried her in my belly. That was the longest hike of my life! Not because I was uncomfortable or that it wasn't fun, but because it was literally a long hike since we had to stop every 3 minutes for me to catch my breath! So when we went on the hike last month, I told Trevor it was HIS turn to carry her up the hill.

These are shots from our hike in March. I meant to blog about it right after it happened...but I ended up having a baby before I got a chance :)

We were trying to re-create the shot found HERE, but it doesn't look as scary.

Halloween!!!

We had such a good time this Halloween. We enjoy Halloween every year, but everything's just better with Rosie. We dressed up as E.T. characters. Trev - Elliot, Rosie - E.T. Me - Gertie. It was Trevor's idea. I love dressing up for Halloween, but I just wasn't in the mood for it this year, just seemed like too much work. But Trevor really wanted to do it, so I figured why not. We wore it to our Ward Halloween party last weekend and it was a hit. Everyone kept taking pictures. Mainly of Rosie. We then walked around through the trick or treating rooms, which were dimly lit, and some of the youth thought Rosie was some sort of fake alien doll. So when she MOVED it freaked them out. I kept hearing, "is that real?" Yes. My baby is real.

The day of Halloween we dressed up and hit the town. First stop - Chipotle. They had the $3-BOO-rito-if-you-wear-a-costume deal. We've gone the last three years. You can see those trips here and here. We joked how Chipotle on Halloween is now a family tradition and our kids are going to grow up thinking that they can't go trick-or-treating until after we stop at Chipotle.

She seriously loved sitting in this basket. I now want to bring it every where we go now because she'll happily sit in it all night.

After dinner, we hit up Harrison Blvd, the same street I talked about in the last blog post. This street goes ALL OUT on Halloween! All of the houses were decked out and everyone in Boise showed up for it. It was like a carnival. One house had fire dancers on their yard, another house had a fun little back drop so you could take pictures with, one corner had cops with their car lights flashing handing out candy from their trunks, there were multiple news crews up and down the street, smoke machines, it was so much fun!

I also liked seeing all of the cute costumes and all of the excited kids. It made me excited to take our own kids trick-or-treating in the future. We got stopped a couple times so people could take pictures of Rosie. I'm just glad people got the costume. At Chipotle, one girl asked if Rosie was supposed to be the baby Jesus in a manger. Hm.

I tried to get pictures to show you all how cool this street was, but it was too dark for my phone, so I found these photos online.

credit: Idaho Statesman

credit: Idaho Statesman

Hope everyone's Halloween was merry and bright!

Two Weekends Ago

Two weekends ago the Jazz and Blazers played in Boise. So we of course HAD to go. Well, Trevor HAD to go, and so I tagged along.

At the half, Trevor stood in line to high-five all of the players and try to smack their bottoms (his words). He was the oldest guy in line. I think the next oldest was maybe 13? It was cute.

And then we had company! Trevor's cousin Alyssa and her husband Patrick came down from Portland and we LOVED having them.

This fall has been so beautiful with perfect weather - a comfortable 70 degrees, so we spent a good amount of time relaxing outside.

We live a little bit up from a beautiful/cool street. Fun houses with lovely porches and big trees. So on Sunday we all strolled the street while discussing which homes we would like to live in. One thing we all agreed on is that we don't want large stone lions in front of our homes...pretentious much?

And to end the weekend off right, we played Settlers of Catan until 3AM!!! I then went to feed Rosie, planning to come back to the game, but instead zonked out while everyone else played until 4AM!!!! It was the first time Trev and I had played and it was surprisingly addicting. I seriously have NO idea how I used to do all-nighters back in the day. Ug, the next morning was so awful. I can only imagine how awful a hangover would be!

Music Festival

Boise has it's own music festival. Ahh yeah! We got to go to the festival two years ago and had a blast, you can read about it here. This year it was a cool 100* with Vanilla Ice, Carly Rae Jepson, and Jason Derulo, and a bunch of other bands (those were the only 3 I knew).

I had no idea how things were going to go with a baby, but it actually worked quite well. We just lathered her in white clay (sunscreen), gave her a bonnet and hearing protectors, then threw her in the carrier. She was adorable. Over and over again I would hear, "Look! Look at that baby!" I'm not sure if they were saying it because she was the youngest kid there or if it was because she's so darn cute, but it made me smile.

I love the hearing protectors that we got her, they really work. She was even able to sleep through Call Me Maybe! Then later, when we were away from the stage, we took her headphones off and her eyes lit up! It was as if she forgot she could hear. She loves music. I think we've got a future rocker on our hands!

Big News

So in February we found out Trevor had been accepted to the the MBA programs at William & Mary (Virginia) and at Boise State. We were torn on what we should do. Stay here in Boise or go back East. We both thought there were pros and cons to each decision so we went back and forth for months. We prayed and fasted on what we should do but kept getting the same answer: "They're both good decisions so whatever you want to do is great." UG! Don't you find agency annoying sometimes and you just want someone to tell you what to do?!

Finally, last month we made the decision – William & Mary. Once the decision was made we both felt good about it and were relieved to have one less decision to think about. Now that we're parents I feel like we are presented non-stop with decision to make for Rosie - vaccinate/not to vaccinate, clip her tongue/don't clip her tongue, let her cry it out/don't let her cry it out...I could go on and on but I'll save that for another post.

Anyway, right when I'm about to blog and tell you all our plans, Trevor was offered the position of Executive Director. When he first told me about it, I was really confused. Was he really considering taking on the job? Didn't we just decide on William & Mary? So we were forced to make yet another decision, but this time we were only given a few days to decide. And the decision is...(drum roll)...He's deferring from W&M and taking the job! Woah! He's now THE guy at the Republican Party in Idaho. Pretty exciting. It's going to be tough and a lot of work, but he's going to do a great job and I'm already so proud of him!

Grad school is still in our future, but we feel like this is a good thing for us right now. And that's what's new at the Thorpe residence…

Walkin'

We love to walk as a family at the park. We wear exercising clothes to make us feel like we're burning calories, when really we're just moseying around.

This time we paused in the shade to change Rosie's diaper and ended up lounging there for an hour. Rosie loves being outside and was all smiles!

Map

Have you heard of SkillShare? It's a marketplace for fun/cool online classes! I just finished my first class "Map Design: Learn to Communicate Places Beautifully". I didn't have a strong desire or need to make a map, but I thought the class looked fun and would help me think outside of my regular box. I get to do a lot of graphic design for work...but you can only be so artistic with GPS and IP topics.

Most of the people in the class did cool maps of foreign cities, but I decided to do one of Boise and where we'll be delivering. Maybe we'll hang it in her nursery? We'll see. But I'm hoping to take more classes on SkillShare. It was fun and good for me :)

Gov's Ball

Last weekend was the Governor's Ball. Everyone gets all dressed up and partys hard core (uou know how Republicans are). I actually really enjoyed the ball this year. That might be because this time I purposely showed up late. That way Trevor could spend the first part talking and socializing with everyone that he needs to speak with, and then by the time I showed, he could spend the rest of the time with me!

The end of the night - that's why it's so empty.

The ball ended and we headed to the Young Republican's after party. This event was also better than previous years. They had poker tables set up with free poker chips and Trevor played for a bit while I watched. It started getting late and I was getting tired so he bet his whole hand so he could lose and we could leave...but then he won the whole stash! So we stayed a little bit longer. I can't believe this pregnant body was able to be out on the town partying until 1 AM! What?!

Boise Temple

We have a temple again! The Boise Temple has been closed for full renovation, inside and outside, for the last year and a half, and now it is even more beautiful than before!

During the open house, we got to be ushers twice. The first time I had a great spot – Temple Entrance Greeter! Poor Trevor had a not so great spot. He had to be outside the whole time (4 hours) and it POURED that day. He was in his suit SOAKED, and had to go to work right after.

For the second night, I got placed right next to the exit and I was freeeeezing every time people opened the door, which was often. So I sought out Trevor to switch me places, with wherever his spot was. And where did I find him? Relaxing in a comfy seat in the beautiful bride’s room! So not fair. So he sweetly switched me. However, I then received a few, "You almost look old enough to be a bride!" comments...so funny...

We feel so blessed to have our temple again!

Hallowweeeeeen

For Halloween we were Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf. Trevor sewed his costume all by himself (very proud) and I sewed my skirt and cape with a $2 bed sheet from the DI! We dressed up for our ward party and then again for the actual day of Halloween so we could get a $2 BOOrito from Chipotle. Yum!

After Chipotle we had to run errands, so I made sure to grab clothes to change into. Or at least I THOUGHT I made sure to grab extra clothes. Once we got to the mall, I realized I did not grab my jeans! So I took off my cape and apron and went in with the rest of my frock. Ug. I looked like a pioneer. But not the cute, dressed up for Halloween pioneer. Oh well

We then finished the night off with a delicious pumpkin pie shake and a showing of Clue. Overall, a good night.

Cantor

Since Romney's got Idaho in the bag, we're not too busy with presidential campaign stuff, but that doesn't mean Trevor isn't crazy busy with all of Idaho's state elections. He's gone all day and all night. He goes to work, comes home for dinner (sometimes), then leaves for different debates and fundraisers EVERY NIGHT! If it's a debate on a topic or race I'm interested in, then I'll go with him, but most of the time I just prefer to stay home :]

But whenever a big name comes into town, I definitely tag along. A little bit ago I got to see Anne Romney (love her!), then this week, Eric Cantor. If you don't know who he is, that's alright, I probably wouldn't either if Trevor didn't have a major crush on him. He's the House Majority Leader and Representative for Virginia. "He's MY representative" and "I voted for him" are two things Trevor often says with a big, proud grin on his face.

Well, the other night Trevor got to meet him! I thought it was just going to be a quick handshake, but once Trev said he's from Richmond too, Cantor stopped and started chatting with him. There were other pictures with both of them smiling, but they were all blurry. It was adorable.

Life This Week

For work, Trev had to teach a class in Rigby, so last minute I decided to go. Very last minute because I really didn't want to drive 9 hours round trip! But I'm glad I went, because we got to have dinner with Scott, Shiloh, and their beautiful baby girl! We went to Craigos - or should I say the Pizza Pie Cafe. Changed their name and now the whole place is a buffet. Still yummy.

Then the very next day we went to the BYU v BSU game. Our friend was kindly able to help us get tickets. If it weren't for her, we wouldn't have been able to get in. The stadium was packed (this was taken before the game, hence empty-ish stadium). I thought I would be tired and ready to leave by half time, but I ended up loving it! It was a lot of fun.

Then I saw this mobile a little while ago and wanted one just like it. So I made one! Although, I'm not sure how to hang it. I know where I want it, just not how to go about it. There is one hook in front of our front door, and we mainly use our back door, so for now it's hanging right in front of the door...

Then yesterday, we found this chair at a garage sale. Isn't it cute? We love it.