Warm Welcome in Idaho

This was no normal trip for me to the western US. For the first time (in Idaho) I had a pregnant wife and a two-year-old. The mission was multifold: have a baby, buy a house, hang out with family, try to find some time to relax (never happened), keep a handle on work emails, etc. all without incident. Generally speaking, it went according to plan. 

downward dog

And plan we did. It is daunting how much planning is necessary for this sort of thing. Obviously you can plan less than we did but then you have to deal with the consequences of using napkins for diapers and giving birth in a veterinary hospital. From the travel itself, to the prenatal care, to studying the real estate market, to exploring play options for Kiran, we did the best we could to make sure things went as smoothly as possible given the range of potential mishaps. In retrospect I think we did a fairly decent job, particularly given the chaos that reined in the weeks and days prior to our departure.  

mountain biking at Tamarak

After about three days of travel, we arrived in Idaho ready for our adventures. The weather was hot – far hotter and longer than I remember as a kid. That plus the smoky forest fires made for less than ideal conditions. Nonetheless we were happy to be off and running.

Lake Cascade

We began by heading off to the mountains. The family had its annual camping trip in McCall and, given our situation, we opted against our normal tent accommodation. My sister Lisa’s condo in town would serve as our shelter which we would pay for by the hours of driving back and forth to the campground. It worked out well for us though and I suspect that having a noisy toddler away from the campground at night was also a plus. 

it was her idea...

We ate, water skied, ate, paddle boarded, ate, mountain biked, ate, etc. as we normally do albeit a bit less intense than in years’ past. Priya was more than 8 months pregnant, my brother was reasonably fresh from his horrible bike accident, my brother-in-law Pat was dealing with gout, etc. Most of us seemed to be a bit off our game. Anyway, it good to be together and good to be in the “woods” – even if I generally prefer less tame camping conditions. We would return a couple weeks later to squeeze in another quick camping trip since we apparently didn’t get enough the first time.

the 3 3/4 of us at Shoshone Falls

The rest of the time we were back to the flat lands to focus on having a baby, buying a house (for investment) and running after an energetic child. All that would eat up the bulk of our time until the end of July when, as we thought might happen, our new daughter Kinaya decided to make her rapid appearance into the world.

no longer the only child