The Mini Mini

For extended time with the grandchildren, my father-in-law categorizes road trips into three buckets - road trips, mini road trips, and mini-mini road trips - with the biggest distinction being time and distance. Road trips would be like week long trips from Boise to Seattle. Mini road trips would maybe be a weekend in McCall, and mini minis would be a night at a nearby hotel. (I wonder what he would call our 2 month cross country trip? A mega road trip?)

In that spirit, we set off on a mini mini road trip to Cascade, Idaho with Krista's parents Dan and Yvonne - who will going forward be called D&Y - and "the kids" - Krista's sister's 3 adorable children, Austin, Casey, and Madison.

While Cascade isn't that far from Boise, when kids and cars are involved - as we are learning - distance is relative. You've got bathroom breaks, snack breaks, lunch breaks, sightseeing breaks, etc. Our early start and 75 mile mini mini road trip quickly becomes a half day affair, and we arrive well into the afternoon. The next lesson on our road trip with the kids is that indoor pools and children are like peanut butter and jelly. They go great together, and once you mix them together, it's hard to pull them apart.

For the evening accommodations, we were tasked with taking care of the two youngest. Essentially, we were parents for the night. There was bath time, teeth brushing time, down time, and then sleep time. In between, that's where a parent really earns their keep. Kids can be adamant about the weirdest things, and sometimes we as parents or prospective parents need to bend a little. We had three beds in the room, 2 full beds and a pull-out. Casey stubbornly wanted to sleep alone on a full bed, and Madison wanted to sleep with Krista. I wasn't going to sleep on the lumpy pull-out, so the pull-out went empty and I squeezed into the other full bed. Ahhh, compromise, or might it be called poor parenting. Who knows, let's just keep the crocodile tears to a minimum.

In spite of the many wildfires in Idaho right now - the most in the US - we had a great time staying at the Ashley Inn Hotel, a beautiful resort owned by friends of D&Y. They made us feel right at home with their warm hospitality and comfortable accommodations.

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