The Stevenson Ohana

Monday, October 28, 2019

Lucky Peak Boating, End of September!

I was honestly pretty bummed not coming to Boise this summer and thought that I for sure missed the window of boating (because it was the last week of September when we arrived). One HUGE tender mercy & highlight though was going to Lucky Peak and taking the boat out. The sun came out and we all had one last hot day together before the boat got winterized. The water was actually FREEZING, and I almost chickened out and didn't get in, but right before the sun went down I got up the courage and went wakeboarding and had no regrets (. . . other than right now, and not taking enough pictures this day/trip)!

Luke's ponytail brought to you by Aunt Kaylee, I think Luke's face pretty much sums up how he felt about it ha :)

Boise River Greenbelt

It is not a trip to Boise without biking down the greenbelt. One of my family's favorite activities to do is loading up the bikes and going along the Boise River. I have so many good memories with my family (and even dating Riley) and biking along the river. The bike path is 25 miles long and way scenic with parks along the way, river surfing spots, rope swings and pretty bridge views. One of my first days in Boise, we packed a picnic and all went and spent the evening on the greenbelt.

It has been a long standing tradition in my family to yell/hollar/whistle super loud while going under the bridges/tunnels. It was especially funny this trip because my dad taught Luke and Maisyn this tradition and they had a scream off for miles. We thought maybe they were fighting or crying in the bike carrier, but turns out they were just yelling loud and loving every minute.

I really didn't take any pictures of the green belt ha, but made my family stop at this underpass because the paintjob was so cool.

Briggs and Landon

kissing cousins... riley did not appreciate this picture.

Sunday, September 15, 2019

It's a BOY!

We had such a fun surprise this weekend finding out the gender!! I had my 20 week appointment on Tuesday, but Riley couldn't make the appointment so we decided to have them write it down and find out together this weekend. We went out to ice cream when we found out we were having a boy with Luke, and decided to keep the tradition going with each kid!

This time, we gave the envelope to the workers at the icecream store and told them to decorate our cone according to the gender and bring it out. . . after some language confusion and then pure excitement from them they took the card and went back and decorated our cone. We totally were expecting it to be a baby girl. . . but then they came out and we found out we were having another little BOY! I didn't expect to tear up with joy! We are so so excited and so so surprised! It was so nice, then they didn't charge us for the icecream at all! We can't wait for Luke to have a lil playmate. Such a 'sweet' surprise, literally :)

Eddy's Icecream in Harajuku

As you can tell from my restaurant selection (with pink walls), totally expected a girl haha!

Luke cracks me up in this one, ready to eat it up!

hello baby BOY!

When we were young and innocent after finding out Luke's gender :)

Good Tokyo Restaurant Weekend!

This past weekend was a BIG win for awesome restaurants in Tokyo. We went to this cute train themed restaurant 'Niagara Curry' that brought dishes out on a train that circled the restaurant and had such a fun environment. Perfect for kids, and food was great. Riley thought it was like a 'disney land' experience with the staff dressed up and ticket process and announcements. It had a little kid toy area to the side that Luke loved as well.

We also found the BEST mexican restaurant in Tokyo. We thought we figured it out and love 'la jolla', but were proven wrong this weekend when we went to 'Fonda de la Madrugada' that made the top of our list. The ambience, food, service, and music really was so so fun. Luke ended up dancing by the table and really hit the spot.

Didn't take to many pictures of mexican place! But was GREAT.

Matsuri Season

Living in Japan, you get these moments and realizations that you live in a really neat, unique place that just hits you hard. This past weekend we stumbled upon so many matsuri events and lanterns along the streets and marching and music that we both were in awe and felt pretty lucky to be here experiencing these things. We decided to go to one of the festivals and walk through and almost took home a pet turtle.

Ueno Zoo Trip

Sept. 7, 2019- Took our annual trip to the Zoo! Fun, humid day with the family. It was a memorable trip for Luke--every day since going when we read he's been telling us all the animals he saw 'at the zoo' in his animal book and when we 'play cars' we take the cars to see all the different animals (for pretend) around the zoo.