Education Week, the Farm, and My Birthday

After cleaning up and bidding fond farewells at Bear Lake, we headed straight up to Ashton, Idaho to spend time with Jared's wonderful mother and enjoy the Loosli farm while I presented a bunch of workshops on motherhood and that sort of thing at Education Week at BYU Idaho in Rexburg.  I got to celebrate my birthday with some of my very favorite people in one of my very favorite places.  

While I presented classes, Jared and the kids had a great time exploring Yellowstone and hanging out with Grandma and cousins.  I was a bit jealous.  But my classes went really well and I had a fun time presenting.

I'll let photos tell the story of our 4 days in Ashton.  The light up there is so pretty that these totally un-edited photos turned out pretty darn good, if I do say so myself.

Here we are behind Jared's mom's house

As a bonus, my wonderful sister-in-law Anita (who wanted to check out the fabled farm and attend classes at Education Week) and my dear Power of Moms friend, Allyson Reynolds (who was also presenting at Education Week) joined us at the Loosli farm house for the weekend.  Jared's mom is such a wonderfully welcoming hostess and great cook and it was fun to have Anita and Allyson meet her and see the great places that I love so much. Allyson and Anita had so much fun enjoying the farm with us and I was so glad to have such great company.

Somehow, this is the only picture I took at BYUI.  Ooops.  I guess they've added flip flops to the dress code - and all Anita  brought was flip flops.  Plus I had to use my flip flops to get around campus thanks to my messed-up ankle and my uncomfortable dress shoes (but I did try - and sometimes succeeded - to remember to put on my dress shoes while presenting).  We're such rebels!

The potato fields all over Ashton were frosted with potato blossoms - love that.

The huge swings in the backyard were a huge hit, as always.

The kids spent a lot of their days on the good old super bouncy trampoline.
Even Allyson got out there and enjoyed it.

We spent an evening touring the Loosli farm.

We took a tractor ride - can't visit the farm without one!

Allyson, Anita, Jared and I all crammed into the cab of a tractor for a joy ride.  Top speed = 26 mph.

I love these vintage Loosli farm signs on the trucks.

The sunset over the Tetons at the end of our farm tour.

After the farm tour, Allyson said "I always knew you married a potato farmer but now I think I really get it - you married a SERIOUS potato farmer."  Yep.  I sure did.  My mom always said, "find yourself an Idaho farm boy and you'll be happy."  I thought she was silly.  I was going to college in Boston.  I was finding myself a professor-type.  But no.  I found me a super hard-working, smart, wonderful farm boy who also happened to be a brilliant MIT student.  My mom was right.  Farm boys are the best.  

And my farm boy earned himself a lot of extra points by showing up at one of my classes on the morning of my birthday. Totally ignoring my embarrassment, he got up there and hung up a birthday banner, passed out birthday hats and noisemakers, and led the class of 100 or so in a lovely rendition of "Happy Birthday."  His little presentation actually ended up being a great object lesson as I went on to present my class on building family traditions and culture including ideas for celebrating birthdays.  What a guy.

Here I am with my birthday stuff at BYUI.  Some nice people brought me cookies and cards
and I got Facebook messages and emails all day from so many kind people.

My birthday dinner - stuffed pizza from Papa Murphy's - yum!

Allyson brought me a yummy cake and singing candle and the kids made my favorite cookies.

We finished off the day with a little jaunt out to this beautiful old train bridge.  This was always one of Jared's favorite places on the farm and he showed it to me right after we got engaged, telling me he'd planned to propose there but the timing worked out so that we ended up getting engaged up Emigration Canyon in SLC.  Somehow we've never been back to visit this place since Jared first showed it to me - probably because it used to be very non-kid-friendly - the railings are brand new and you used to have to step across the old railroad ties, looking down a couple hundred feet as you inched your way across.  It was fun to see how they've fixed it up and to share it with the kids.  And it was a perfect spot to end my birthday.

view from the bridge

I got a rainbow for my birthday!  Isaac was so excited to get a rainbow on his birthday and I told him I was a little jealous. Then low and behold, I got one too!

I love these people.  I love this place.  Happy birthday to me.