Destination: Boise and Stops Along the Way

"For decades, Butte was the largest city between Denver and the coast. Butte was whores, gambling and knockabout violence. Butte was also families, neighborhoods and fraternal societies. It was a sprawling and slovenly, a bully of a city stridently made, profane and blustering and boastful, the biggest mining camp in the world, a mile high and a mile deep. The richest hill on earth - the miner made up to $20 a day on contract - a true "good times" town. Thousands of workers fought and some died in and above the mines. Bullets racked the city during the battle for control of the copper riches -  All of this happened in the 1890s through the 1910 decade. Butte was born in violence, bred in violence and lived in violence."               Joseph Kensey Howard

Stories of Butte, Montana, are legendary on both sides of my Dad's family. 
Both families were lured there for the supposed high pay in copper mining in the years mentioned above. 
His mother was born there and his dad's family moved there 
when he was a kid after a devastating home fire in Logan. 
When Grandpa was old enough, he worked in the mines.
Both families returned to Logan 
after sojourns there filled with plenty of family stories. 
Neither made their fortunes there 
and were glad to return to Cache Valley.
Curious, I have always wanted to visit Butte.
It was right on our path as we wended our way to Boise to take care of Anderson and Claire
while Missy, Jedd and Ellie traveled in Europe for twelve days, after picking up Jared and Sam in Germany. 
The boys had been living with German families there in a student exchange program, 
after having had two students living in Boise with Missy and Jedd's family last fall. 

You can view the contrasting, light-colored mined hills against the mountains.

W. A. Clark built the Copper King Mansion as a symbol of his wealth and power. 

It is now a Bed and Breakfast.

Roger and I drove up and down the streets in Old Town, which were remarkably preserved. 

Some were tumble down, but many have been restored to how they were during the boom times.

We ate lunch in this Sports Bar and Grill, which had been Metals Bank. 

The steps were marble, outlined in copper.

We found a Minerals Museum on the campus of Montana Tech.

I have always been fascinated with pretty rocks, 

many of which contain semi-precious stones. 

This was an impressive little museum.

This specimen was painstakingly unearthed over time with a screwdriver.

A gorgeous amethyst geode

Our drive was gorgeous, taking us on Hwy 93 through Salmon and Challis, then to Hwy 75 to Stanley.
The Sawtooth Mountains are spectacular!
Roger took several pretty pics.

We stayed overnight in a rustic cabin that sat near the banks of the  Salmon River.

We asked for a recommendation for a good dinner and weren't disappointed when we ate here.

Next morning, we ate breakfast here. 

We remembered eating here when the Balladiers had a reunion at Linda and Kent Smith's cabin in 2013. 

We drove to revisit the chapel where the Balladiers had sung at Sacrament meeting.

We drove to Stanley Lake and took some pics.

 New pinecones growing

As we were driving out of Stanley, we saw some elk off of the side of the road.

We arrived in Boise late afternoon and spent a couple of days before the 4th with our cute Smith family. 

On July 4th we enjoyed a fun cook-out with two other families in the neighbor's backyard. 

We brought Smith's baked beans, potato salad and a marinated asparagus salad. 

We took some fun family pics.

Sisters

The Smith girls

Three generations of Girl Power! ;)

We're proud of our beautiful Missy!

Missy and Jedd were in charge of fireworks. We drove back to their lovely home and set up shop.

 Other neighbors came joined us, too, with their fireworks.

We had a great show in the street.

Missy brought out kettle corn and fixin's for s'mores. 

She had a little machine that melted the marshmallows.

Missy had lots of neon to light everybody up!

We did lots of fun things with the kids in the days we stayed with them. 

One afternoon we went for a drive and decided to go through this museum 

to see if they were any planes that Roger had flown.

A cute retired military guide brought out these helmets for the kids to wear.

Grandpa showing them the cockpit of an F-4

The kids got a kick out of seeing the old aircraft, models and memorabilia.

We were with the kids two Sundays and really enjoyed our "Come Follow Me" sessions. 

Anders prepared a power point demo with one of them. They are such precious kids!

Each day they each had their list of chores to do before they could play. 

We made a list of what Claire called fun chores, which were some of the activities we did with them, 

like going to the library, the parks and swimming.

Anders was good about watering the plants, emptying the dishwasher, taking out the garbage 

and practicing the piano. 

Claire set the table and they both put their clean clothes away, made their beds and straightened their rooms.

Claire woke up singing every morning, and I taught her some new songs. 

They're both such happy little kids.

I was so glad I got to connect and have lunch with my high school friend, Dana. 

We sang in a quartet together in high school and she lives in Nampa. 

I found out that she had a stroke last November and will soon be moving to North Carolina 

to live with her son's family. I'm hoping that this won't be the last time I see her! 

She is a very special person!

After our lunch in Nampa, Roger picked me up and we took the kids to show them where I lived in Caldwell 

in my growing up years. Kinda sad going by the home Mom and dad lived in for over 50 years, 

now owned by strangers. 

I was glad to see Dad's rose bushes are still growing under the picture window.

We drove by the beautiful home Patty and Hal built and lived in before they moved to Utah.

We drove out to visit Joan and Tom in their lovely new home in Hidden Springs. 
It has the best views out the front and the back of the Boise foothills and a beautiful landscaping. 
It was so fun to see them and Whitney and Sara and her kids were visiting that week 
and Claire and Anders got to play with them. 
On the way home, Anders asked about Sara's kids, "Now, how are they related? 
They're fun!" 
He was hoping the blood ties would bring them together down the road.
Wish we had gotten some pics.

Grandpa took the kids swimming at their HOA pool. 

We had delicious Reed's ice cream cones on Family Home Evening.

I took a quick pic of Claire and a friend she had over to play while they were having milk and cookies.

The highlight of each of the kids' day was getting Marco Polos from their family - from Germany, from Switzerland, Austria and Prague. Missy and Jedd had such a wonderful vacation with Jared, Sam and Ellie and saw so many gorgeous sights!

Pic Missy took in Switzerland

We're so glad we could spend time with Claire and Anders. We got to know and appreciate them 

as budding little individuals and had great fun with them.

We left Boise Wednesday, July 17, to Salt Lake, where Missy, Jedd and Ellie flew in from Europe 

and we all stayed with Rick and Jodie. 

Claire and Anders greeting their returning family at Rick's house


Delicious chocolates from Germany

 Jared and Sam flew to Boise that day with the other kids 

in their exchange program, 
then flew to SLC the next day, where Jedd picked them up 

and brought them to Park City, 
where the Stratford Family Reunion began.  
Stay tuned . . .