Like an Olive Garden Commercial, but Cool

Seth and I decided Easter weekend was the perfect time to make a trip up to Boise to see some friends. My wonderful "animated" friend, Heidi and her witty husband, Paul were generous enough to less us crash at their place. Because of our trip up there last year, Heidi and Paul have also become friends with Seth's childhood friend, Cory, whom we also had the pleasure of hanging out with during this eventful weekend. Got all that?

Friday evening we all met together at Heidi and Paul's house where we were graced with the culinary genius that is Chef Paul. He made some amazing lasagna and avocado salad after which his apprentice (aka aspiring pastry chef), Heidi served up some deliciously rich brownies with whipped cream. Yes, it was as tasty as it looks.

Saturday morning Seth and I got up early (despite staying up way past our 9:00 pm bedtime) and headed out to do some fly-fishing on the Boise River. If you haven't already heard about the awesomeness that ensued, click here. As if we didn't already have enough reason to love Boise!

When we got back from fishing, Chef Paul cooked up another masterpiece for breakfast. I'm not exactly sure what you'd call this... a bit of a quiche of sorts. But who cares? It was so good!

So after breakfast Cory came over and Seth and I went with him to the Home Depot because he needed to get a saw to hack apart some tungsten. Don't ask. And in case you're wondering, the employees at Home Depot not only know about saws, but good medical t.v. shows as well. Did you see the one where the guy got his hand chopped off by the street sign when he tried to save that little girl? It was bloody but totally awesome.

After our successful trip to Home Depot we all jumped in the car and headed over to Caldwell for a tour of the wine country. It was incredibly beautiful there with rolling hills full of fruit orchards and grape vines. You'd think I would have taken some pictures, but somehow.... no.

We were all pretty hungry by the time we got back to Boise so we stopped into Heidi and Paul's favorite Thai restaurant, Siam. We got to try several dishes including Pad Woonsen with Tofu, Spicy Noodles with Beef, Combination Fried Rice, Cha Gior, Sweet & Sour Chicken and Heidi got a Som Tum (Papaya Salad) which we were all too wussy to try. I recommend the Cha Gior. Mmmm. (Uh... still no pictures). Oh, this is the place with the magical retro-active fortune cookies.

So we all head on back to Heidi and Paul's house after dinner and just hang out for a little while. Seth and I had never seen Cory's house so we went over there for a bit to check it out. We weren't surprised to find the place filled with dead hobos. Ok ok, it was nice and clean and was filled with the wonderful smells of his Indian roommate cooking dinner. Hard life, Cory. Hard life. A little disappointed there weren't any hobos though. Just being honest.

Somehow Seth and I made it back to Heidi and Paul's house in the dark without getting lost. I was even driving because you all know how cold this weekend was and the driver's seat in Blackie is the only one with a butt warmer. To our delight Heidi had made a fabulous cherry topped cheesecake which was waiting for us on the kitchen table when we got back. I told you she was an aspiring pastry chef. Again we stayed up way past our bedtime chatting and it was wonderful.

In the morning we were surprised and thrilled that the Easter bunny had found us all the way in Boise. Ok, it was Heidi and Paul but the baskets they gave us were so adorable and fun! We found them filled with various candy, tea selections and a jar of Mango jam made in Swaziland! I totally forgot about taking a picture of them until we'd already eaten half of the goods, but you get the gist.

 

After breakfast we talked for a bit more and then it was time to head home. We're always sad to leave Boise and our amazing friends and hope to get to see them all again soon. Thanks again guys, you're the greatest!

Retro-Active Fortune Cookies & the Women Who Love Them

We went to Boise this weekend to visit some wonderful friends of ours. There is more to come on that subject later as it deserves more thought and effort than two minutes of downloading pictures and a catch phrase. But I know you're all dying to see another post, so I thought this could serve as an appetizer for more to come.

Behold.... the Biggest Fish I've Ever Caught.

This is the shot equivalent to Tom Cruise jumping on Oprah's couch. I looked a bit insane. I realized my tonsils were showing so I had Seth take a more refined, dignified shot.

THAT is a 20" rainbow my friends. Caught on a Green Hornet in Boise's own Boise River.

This was all pre-determined by a fortune cookie. A RETRO-ACTIVE fortune cookie I got at a fabulous Thai restaurant we went to that evening AFTER I caught the fish. This is the real life fortune in the flesh:

I KNOW, right? Those retro-active fortune cookies are crazy accurate.

The City of Trees

For Memorial Day Seth and I drove up to Boise. Who do we know in Boise? Well, a couple people actually, but specifically we went to see our new friends, Heidi and Paul.

Paul & Heidi

I met Heidi because of this blog actually. She's the one who leaves me deliciously long comments. What's not to like about that? Heidi knows Collette, Seth's wonderful older sister and has been friends with her since they went to Albertson's together (the college, not the grocery store). They are both phenomenal piano players. So anyway, Heidi began reading my blog because she loves everything "Hanson" and originally was interested in learning about Seth. Long story short, we've been emailing and calling each other for the past few months.

Isn't she cute?

We eventually decided it would be fun to meet in person so Seth and I found some free time over Memorial Day weekend to drive up to Boise. We got to Heidi and Paul's house just after noon on Saturday and immediately felt welcome. It seemed like we'd known Heidi and Paul for years. We all have so much in common with each other from liking Psychology, cooking, and gardening to fancy cheese and hiking.

Me & my new gooder friend

The first night in Boise Heidi and Paul had a BBQ. It was so much fun! Paul made us tuna steaks, brats, fruit salad and potato salad. It was so good! He's an aspiring chef like me! Seth and I invited Cory, one of Seth's old friends to the BBQ as well (don't worry, Heidi and Paul approved first). He lives in Boise too and we thought it'd be a good way for Seth to spend some time with him while we were in town. Heidi and Paul invited Grandpa Dave, an amazing 90 year old man who has been taking piano lessons from Heidi for the last couple years. That's right, he's 90. And he fit in perfectly with our group of 5 30ish year olds. Grandpa Dave is an artist and he has a great singing voice and is one of the most interesting people I've ever met. We all talked about everything from Star Trek to obscure scientists and philosophers. (Ok so they were telling jokes about scientists and philosophers and I had no idea who the people were so I just laughed really hard so it would look like I knew what was going on.) Later on Heidi gave us a short piano recital and she and Dave did a piano/singing performance of "What a Wonderful World." It was so cute. Oh and before I forget, we had the BBQ out on the patio and Paul's garden was amazing! Seth was sitting out in the yard on a bench earlier in the day and said he was pretending like he was in a mental institution and the yard was his sanctuary where he could just go and sit everyday. Anyway, it made us really want a house.



The next day we went walking around this shopping district by BSU (Heidi and Paul live like 2 blocks away from BSU). We looked in a couple stores and then who did we run into? Cory! It was kind of weird. Seth's other childhood buddy Nick was with him too, so we stopped and talked to them for a while before heading off to eat some Mexican food. After dinner we stopped off at this little icecream/candy store and got some chocolates for dessert. Then Heidi and Paul took us on a driving tour of Boise and we looked at all the cute houses. Boise is such a beautiful city. We really liked it there. That night we just hung out at the house and talked and ate fancy cheese and chocolates. It's a hard life, huh?


On Monday morning Cory came over to the house again and we had a nice big breakfast, after which it was time for Seth and I to go back home. We took some pictures together with our new friends and then said goodbye. Heidi and Paul are the most amazing people. Seth and I are both glad to have met them and really enjoy having them as friends.



On our way home we ended up stopping at Shoshone Falls in Twin Falls. It's the Niagara of the West! Actually, Shoshone Falls are taller than Niagara, which I didn't believe at first but it's true. The Internets said so.