Summer Raspberries

We are fortunate that our new house had a raspberry bush already planted when we moved in and in the next week or two we should be able to harvest delicious, sweet ripe raspberries! We have picked a few that were ready early and they were quite sweet and juicy so we are excited about this next batch ready to pick! Lochie is such a big helper with watering the garden. Daddy planted a tomato shrub, some potatoes (well we ARE in Idaho!), some sweet potatoes and some spring onions. He also planted some seeds which will grow an array of flowers that attracts hummingbirds & butterflies. We're a little late in the season for planting, but the people at Zamzows thought we might be ok since it has been quite a mild summer so far. Here are some pictures and video of our raspberries and red rose bush in our backyard...

4th July video

Happy 4th July!

We had fun celebrating America's birthday yesterday with the McDonald family and had some great BBQ followed by some fireworks. The boys had fun with water balloons, glow sticks and bubbles but of course for Lochie the highlight of the night was the fireworks. His favourite was a little one that looked like a cardboard monkey driving a car. I found a picture online of what it looks like pre-lit. The thing lasted like 12 seconds and moved forward probably 8 inches - but Lochie is still talking about that one today! We had cool spinners, flashers and pretty glitter cones but it was the monkey drive one that did it for Lachlan! I really liked the ground blossoms (?) that spun around in different colours and also the glitter cones. My friend Shanell provided some great fireworks for us (they're running a stand this year) and Josh got some great ones too so between ours, the neighbours across the street and the sky lit up with pretty illegal fireworks from people in neighbouring subdivisions we had quite a great display! As always, Lachlan was so excited to spend time with his "best friend" Aiden - he is always SO excited to play with him and the older boys too. Lachlan is so cute because whenever he talks about Aiden he always calls him "my best friend Aiden" - as in, "Are we going to my best friend Aiden's house?" or "Me and my best friend Aiden played with the glow sticks like lightsabers!". Aiden is a super-cute little boy and he is such a crack-up because he is always so animated and excited about everything I find myself grinning whenever I'm around him. We had so much fun and it was a really relaxed, enjoyable holiday. Here are some pics of Lachlan in our front yard before we went over to the McDonalds and also some of the boys and the fireworks (I didn't use a flash so they are a bit blurry but it captured the fireworks better).

First BBQ in the new house

We had our first barbeque in our new house this Sunday evening and it was so much fun! We used to barbeque in the old house but the barbeque sat out in our back driveway off the alley and any random stranger driving by or walking past would say "Smells like you're havin' a barbeque!" or "Grillin?" or some other genius comment like that. And also anytime a car plummeted down the dusty back alleyway it would kick up so much dust we'd hurry to shut the lid on our little Weber so we didn't end up with dirt burgers! So you can understand the sheer bliss David, Lochie and I experienced grilling for the first time in our own backyard tonight! Now a Merrick barbeque wouldn't be the same without David making King of the Hill references to "Sweet Lady Propane" versus charcoal (David is a charcoal man all the way!), and me with my required sliced beetroot (pickled beets for you yanks!). In Australia we put beets on burgers and a burger just ain't the same without 'em for me! So here is a BBQ hamburger Merrick style: Charbroiled all beef lean patty on a fresh white sesame seed bun, thousand island dressing (only Kraft because it doesn't have high fructose corn syrup and it has little pickle pieces in it), melted provalone cheese on the patty, sliced tomato, romaine lettuce, grilled pineapple ring, slices of onion, three small slices of beetroot - squish together and enjoy (omit the beetroot if you're a yank). I was so proud of Lachlan as he had beetroot on his burger tonight - what a little Aussie boy! I didn't put any on at first but he requested them - knows how to melt his Mum's heart! As you can see we're saving up for patio furniture and that's going to be our next big purchase! It was great fun and we plan on grilling Alaskan salmon burgers in a few days, and maybe turkey burgers next weekend - yum! We also grilled Hebrew National Kosher franks (the best hotdogs in the world bar none! - except maybe sausage sizzle sausages!) and they were awesome - I was so full from my burger though I couldn't have much of a dog but the boys finished off mine no problem! We've noticed a huge increase in Lochie's appetite since we've been in the new house - all that running around the backyard makes a growing boy hungry!

Adventure Island @ Settlers Park, Meridian

By the way Lochie is not screaming/squealing in this video - it appears like it but it's some random little girl in the background.

Exploring our new area

For the first time in many, many years we have had a full weekend together at home - Saturday and Sunday off! When he was working at Alaska Airlines, David's schedule gave him Mondays & Tuesdays off and working from 4pm to 1:30am - with me working the weekdays so we were like two ships that passed in the night. We had a few random weekends off together when David paid other people to work his shifts so we could fly down for a visit to California, but this weekend was our first real, unplanned weekend off together we've probably had since about a year and a half. It was AWESOME!! I worked a full day on Friday and Lochie (still recovering from his frenectomy) fell asleep really early around 6:30pm - so David and I went out in our new backyard and played lawn darts with a set we got him for Fathers Day! It was so nice just to spend time together alone (something we'd almost forgotten!) and he beat me 6-2 (grr - rematch!). He only won because he had the "lucky" orange darts though and I had the puke green coloured darts which jinxed me! On Saturday we continued to unpack moving boxes - but it was fun to have so much storage space to decide where to put everything! And, in Lochie's words, we spent a lot of time "brr-laxing". Lochie who is still forbidden from jumping on the trampoline or running around too much spent a lazy Saturday morning befriending all of the worms in the yard. He spent hours both yesterday and today gathering, naming and talking to his new "friends". After lunch we took a drive around our new town of Meridian and came across a small local festival called Meridian Dairy Days. We wandered around looking at different booths set up and Lochie had his face painted and got some free candy, but it was near the closing of the festival and there wasn't much action going on there so we drove into Boise around our old haunt (shudder) and visited the Bench Commission to see if we could find a cheap but nice second-hand desk - no luck, better deals on Craigslist I reckon. After that we drove back to Meridian and took a photo of an old barn which is on the corner of Ustick & Linder right near our new subdivision. I drive past this cool old barn every day and wanted a snapshot of it because it looks like one big gust of wind would send it over! We had driven past this huge, cool baseball complex on Ustick and Meridian Rd a few times and had noticed from a distance there looked like a lot of activity and families at this playground with a jungle gym that looked like a pirate ship so we decided to inspect closer - it turned out to be a cool park called Settlers Park which has a fishing pond, concession building, a huge playground, and the "pirate ship" turned out to be a cute free mini-water park for kids! It was so awesome and Lochie's eyes bugged out when he saw it so of course it was hard to say no to him. He was supposed to take it easy still a bit because he still has the sutures from his frenectomy but we figured it wasn't like he was going down waterslides or splashing around in a pool or anything so we let him go play in the water in his clothes and he loved it! It had a whale with a squirting spout and a pirate ship mast that filled up and splashed all over the kids standing under it when it became heavy with water. It also had many other small sprinklers and sprays and the flooring was a soft textured cushioned foam material with a pebbletex like non-slip grip. It is only a few blocks from our house so I can tell Settlers Park is going to be our new favourite hang-out this Summer! Also, there are two new features going in that look to open soon - one David & I couldn't figure out what it was supposed to be - the other looked like a music park as it had an array of chimes, drums with tethered drumsticks etc and music pipes etc so that will be really fun for him as well! We plan to have a barbeque on Sunday afternoon and continue unpacking - and I'm challenging David to a lawn darts tournament and this time I'm playing with the lucky orange darts!
**Update** I saw our friend Brent at Winco tonight and he told me that Settlers Park hosts a free family movie night every Friday night throughout the Summer - last Friday night they showed Charlotte's Web. They set up a big outdoor movie screen apparently - we'll check it out next Friday night!**
Click here for more info on the Settlers Park Adventure Island Park

I got worms!

It's hard to know what you're going to get when your 4 year old all-boy boy tells you that!

Darth Lochie

Lochie filmed today in our new backyard in his new Darth Vader costume. As you can see he has quickly made a full recovery!
Also, I can't believe how much like a yank I sound in this video! I was super tired as I didn't sleep much last night worried we'd sleep through our alarm since we were up late unpacking still last night. I find when I am really tired my accent goes haywire. I need to get a bunch of Kath n Kim videos or something an immerse myself in Aussie language again!

Ropey before and after

Lachlan had his "ropey" (lingual frenum) surgically removed under IV sedation by Dr Kempers at Boise OMS today. He did so well and was such a brave boy - the nurses said they had no problems putting the IV in - the whole procedure including recovery took only one hour and Lochie was a little sleepy but very excited about his prize for being such a brave boy - a Darth Vader costume he had been oggling at Target for months now!



The doctor cauterized the incisions and only had to do a few sutures where he had to cut deeper to remove muscle attachment both sides of the midline. I was surprised that the nurses didn't set a follow-up appointment - they said if there is no sign of infection or problems etc Lochie is all finished with them and his sutures should come out by themselves in 5-10 days!



We came home and watched a Scooby-Doo DVD and I gave him the pain meds they had given me and am keeping him on them every 4 hours for today and tomorrow. Lochie played with some moon sand outside and of course tried on his costume and stalked around the backyard in character for a while too! The picture here in his new costume was taken only about 2 hours after his procedure! He is back to his old self already - keeping him quiet is proving to be a challenge but it's a good sign he is unfazed by the whole experience! Thanks for your prayers! xoxo Bi

The new house!

We're all moved in to our new house! If you need our new address just email me at biancamerrick@msn.com!

I have most of my pictures I took during our walkthrough pasted on over at facebook and you can click this link to view them (without having to be a member or sign up or anything):

David & Bi's New House Pictures Link