Banana Ball in Boise

Trevor and I flew to Boise, Idaho two weeks ago to visit my mom and my sister's family. We chose the timeframe we did for a very special reason: we were there to attend a Banana Ball game. I've been wanting to go for years, so it was so exciting that it was finally going to happen. After we weren't chosen during the lottery for tickets for the game in Sacramento, my sister (Kari) and brother-in-law (Brian) worked hard to secure tickets for us in Boise. I am so grateful!

If you're not familiar with Banana Ball, it's a highly entertaining, fast-paced version of baseball with rules designed to maximize the action. The antics of Banana Ball lead to comparisons with the Harlem Globetrotters, although there are key differences. Banana Ball games are not scripted and all six teams within the league compete to win, whereas the Globetrotters always play the same opponent and (nearly) always win. 

This was the first time that Banana Ball came to Idaho. The people of Boise, particularly at the host venue of Boise State, were really excited.

 

In the days before we flew, I was really nervous that the game was going to be canceled or postponed. Not only was the temperature in Boise topping 100°F, but the air quality was absolutely horrible, with numbers reaching well into the Hazardous level. Fortunately, the air quality improved significantly before the game. It was still smoky (and HOT) but not dangerously so. Hurray!

The game we saw featured the Party Animals vs the Texas Tailgaters. I decided to root for the Party Animals. 

The Party Animals' mascot is named Pharty. He has quite a backstory. 

Our group was seated in three different areas. Kari and I were together. 

Here is Trevor with my mom. And Brian with Timothy and Allison. 

  

We arrived in plenty of time for the pre-game festivities. 

We weren't allowed to bring water into the stadium (100°+) and the lines to buy water were outrageous. Brian stood in line to get waters for all of us. He and Allison came by to deliver them. 

While our seats were good for watching the game and the antics, they were pretty terrible for photography. All my pictures are through a net and into the sun. You can barely make out the Boise Bronco on the field toward the back. 

During the pre-game (and throughout the game) there was so much going on. It was hard to know where to look. The guy in the blue morph suit was slowly making his way toward the pitcher while teams of dancers were performing and players were in the crowds giving away stuff. 

The music is constant. Literally. Songs change every 10-30 seconds and there is no break between them. Songs play throughout the game, which is not a thing in standard baseball. There's always somebody dancing somewhere. 

Because the Boise games were played at a football stadium and not a baseball stadium, there were some quirks that were a lot of fun. One example: there were no dugouts, so all the players were just right there. 

To our left, a make-shift bullpen. 

It was a HUGE relief when the sun finally dipped enough to be partially blocked by the stadium. It was so hot and it made a big difference not to be in direct sun. 

The friends of Brian who were sitting with Kari and me left with 30 minutes on the clock to avoid the crush of 36,000 people. Timothy, Allison, and Brian took their seats. 

Kari, Mom, Trevor, and I left with 15 minutes remaining so that we too could get ahead of the masses. 

The Party Animals ended up winning the game 4-1. Yea! 

Watching Banana Ball in person is a fantastic experience, but so is watching it on TV. I was really happy to see the game on YouTube. It was great fun to watch the things I saw from a better angle... and even more fun to see the things I completely missed! 

I am so glad to have been to a Banana Ball game. I would happily go again, although ideally on a much cooler day and in real seats instead of bleachers. I'd especially like to see the original team, the Savannah Bananas, play. Huge thanks to Kari and Brian for everything they did for me to experience this bucket-list item!

Luxembourg

I have a bad habit of putting off scrapping our travels because it is so hard for me to go through hundreds of photos and select just a few for a layout. I currently have 19 travel pages and and 8 non-travel pages on my to-be-scrapped list. Of the last 15 pages I've completed, only 4 were about travel. For as much as we travel, I'd like to keep those numbers a bit more balanced. All this to say, I'm finally starting to scrap photos from our 2024 trip to Europe. 

I started with Luxembourg, even though it wasn't chronologically first. I missed the country entirely, but I still want to document it in the album for the rest of the family. Since I wasn't there and obviously have no memory of the visit, I leaned heavily on the blog post that Steve helped me write just after the trip.  

Luxembourg (affiliate link)

Looking at these photos makes me sad that I missed seeing such a beautiful country, but I am so grateful that's all I missed. There was a very real possibility that I could have missed visiting the other nine countries we saw on that trip.

Celebrating Dad

One year ago today was the memorial service for my dad. It was a celebration of his life, a time to focus on happy memories. We had a really nice service at my parents' church, followed by reception with a popcorn machine (one of Dad's favorite foods) and a cake inspired by his years coordinating the summertime hot dog lunch giveaway at Hope Lutheran. Family and friends traveled to Idaho from California and Washington, along with the many local friends who attended. Dad would have loved it. 

Celebrating Dad (affiliate link)

Instead of a guest book, I put Dad's photo on cardstock and asked guests to sign that. These two pages are now together in the album.   

I miss you, Dad. Thanks for a lifetime of memories. 

Idaho, December 2025

This layout includes 10 pictures from the five-day visit Trevor and I made to Idaho in December 2025. We stayed at my sister's house as usual. We filled our days with lots of games, good food, and family time. We went for a walk to investigate the nearby construction; Allison intentionally stepped in a hole with no concern for what might be in there while Trevor behaved like the Californian he is, fascinated by a frozen puddle. 

 

Idaho, December 2025 (affiliate link)

One day, my mom took Trevor to the World Center for Birds of Prey. (I skipped it because I'd been there twice before, most recently in 2024.) While they were gone, Kari and I planned a June 2026 trip to California for our mom. We just got back from that trip, so I'll tell you about it tomorrow. 

Honoring George

In my post about the weekend trip to Spokane Steve and I took last fall, I mentioned that I'd seen my aunt, uncle, and cousins twice already that year, both times for memorial services in Idaho. My dad's service was in July; in March, we gathered to remember George, my brother-in-law Brian's dad. 

I'm not sure when I met George for the first time; I certainly knew him by the time my sister married Brian in 1996. I usually saw him a few times a year at family gatherings and I always enjoyed chatting with him. I remember George as kind and friendly, quiet, but with a quick sense of humor. 

Honoring George (affiliate link)

While George was not technically related to me, he felt like family. I'm glad I was able to be there for his memorial service. 

Hidden Money Birthday Card

Each year for his birthday and for Christmas, I give my nephew Timothy a money-themed gift. I started doing that when he was 13. He turned 25 last week (!!) and I'm seriously running out of ideas, particularly since I have to mail his gifts now instead of giving them in person. (No more money trees or Air Force One style gifts). I've given Timothy a hidden money birthday card before, but I hid the money in different ways this time. For this project, I started with the idea of making George Washington the focal point, then built the rest of the card around that. Affiliate links below. 

 

Hidden Money Birthday Card

Materials:

• cardstock
• birthday patterned paper
• scotch tape
• tape runner
• birthday stickers
• baby powder
• foam dots

Steps:

Cut a base from black cardstock. Then cut the layers: a piece of patterned paper that is slightly smaller than the base; a strip of black cardstock that is the same width as the base; and a piece of white cardstock that is slightly smaller than the base. 

Use scotch tape to secure two bills to the black base. 

Use the tape runner to add adhesive JUST to the outside edges of the back of the patterned paper, then adhere it to the base, sandwiching the money in between the layers. 

Tape a bill to the back of the black strip, then use the tape runner to put adhesive onto the exposed black areas. Position the strip in place so that the money is hidden. 

Fold another bill so that just the face is exposed. Use the tape runner to put a tiny bit of adhesive on the back of the bill. Stick it to the center of the card. The bill will want to pop up a bit, but we'll fix that next. 

Select a quote sticker. Dust the back with baby powder, then add a foam dot to the back. Adhere it to the card so that a small part of the sticker holds the focal bill in place. Do the same with a second sticker on the other side. (I used a present.) Fill in the empty spaces with more stickers, as desired. 

Write your message on the white cardstock, tape another bill or two to the back, then adhere it to the back of the card. 

Here are all the places money is hiding:

Happy birthday, Timothy! 

Idaho, December 2024

Today's scrapbook layout is from the December 2024 visit Trevor and I took to see our family in Idaho. We stayed for five nights and packed our time with family fun - lots of games, an early Christmas celebration, and a trip to Zoo Boise where we fed anteaters. (We did not feed them ants. We fed them yogurt. They love yogurt.) We had a great time. 

Idaho December 2024 (affiliate link)

I completed this page during the National Scrapbook Day event, but it was not inspired by a challenge. If I have any complaints about scrapbook crops, it's that most of the challenges are not compatible with getting lots of photos on a page. For example, one of the challenges from this year's event required participants to fill at least 1/3 of the page with stickers and tiny scraps before adding a photo and journaling. Another challenge requires you to follow a 2-photo sketch, use shades of green, add two patterned papers featuring hearts, AND put your journaling in word bubbles. That is an incredibly difficult challenge with just two photos and literally impossible with nine. 

Family Fun in Europe, Part 8: London

This is my eighth post about our family's 2024 trip to Europe. I recommend reading the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh posts before this one.

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London, United Kingdom

On Friday, July 19, I felt lousy, but so much better than the previous day. My nose and throat were perfectly fine, but I was exhausted and seriously overheated, even in the cool morning. I didn't have a fever, but I'd been struggling with temperature regulation on and off since surgery and this day was the worst. Staying in the hotel room wasn't an option, though. We were leaving Belgium early in the morning. I slept for most of the 2-hour train ride to St. Pancras in London. 

They have paid luggage storage at St. Pancras, so dropping off our suitcases was our first order of business. Once that was done, it was time to do some sightseeing. London was the only city on this trip that we'd previously visited, so I'd hoped to see different things this time. For a number of reasons, that didn't work out and we ended up taking a similar hop-on-hop-off tour to the one we'd done five years ago. 

That was fine - five years is a long time, the narration was up-to-date, and the route was slightly different. What wasn't fine - the traffic and the crowds. Oh my gosh. 

Instead of zipping through town and seeing a bunch of different sites with constant narration, we spent huge amounts of time stuck in traffic with no narration. Since recorded narration is triggered by passing a certain location, there were huge gaps between fun facts while we crawled along. Having a live guide would have made a huge difference. 

  

The plan had been to ride the HOHO partway, then get off in order to transfer to the included Thames River cruise, something we didn't do last time. Either the driver didn't announce the stop or all nine of us missed hearing it. Instead of cruising the Thames, we drove over it. 

I did enjoy the parts of the HOHO where traffic wasn't terrible and the narration was more frequent. It was fun seeing sights we'd visited in 2019. 

  

  

We hopped off to have lunch, then hopped back on to continue the loop. 

It was exciting to see Big Ben. When we visited in 2019, it was covered with scaffolding. 

I can't emphasize enough how bad the traffic was on most of the route. It had been a non-issue in April 2019 - just normal city traffic. On that particular Friday in July 2024, it crawled. It took hours to complete what should have been a 60-90 minute loop. We saw emergency vehicles trying to get through traffic unsuccessfully. I am convinced that there are people who died because gridlock prevented first responders from getting to them in a timely manner. 

By the time we got back to where we could transfer to the river cruise, it was already time to pick up our luggage from St. Pancras and head to our hotel near Heathrow. So no Thames River cruise for us, which was very disappointing. The next time we're in London it will be my top priority. 

With luggage in hand, we got an Uber to take us the 19 miles to our hotel, where we planned to drop off luggage and relax a bit before a friend would arrive to take us to dinner. Care to guess how long the drive took? We went 19 miles in 75 minutes. Yuck. No time to relax. But all was forgotten when Mahendra arrived to pick us up from our hotel. It was great to see him and catch up. And boy, were we in for a treat! He drove us through some cute towns and then turned onto this tiny road. Look at the banks. It's a now-paved holloway!

What was the destination of centuries' worth of travelers? The Royal Standard is the oldest pub in England and has operated for over 900 years!

  

Check out the entry way. It doesn't look as dramatic in the photo as in real life, but there's quite a trench in the center from the feet of countless patrons shuffling in over the centuries. 

It was a beautiful day, so literally everyone else was eating outside. We chose to eat indoors in order to experience the history of the place. It was nice to be able to photograph the empty interior without disturbing anyone. 

Bunny!

The Royal Standard serves classic British food. We loved everything we tried. 

  

  

Thanks to Mahendra for taking us to such an interesting and historic place. It was perfect. 

It was quite late when we got back to the hotel, the Radisson Red Heathrow. Why did we stay at an airport hotel when we wouldn't be flying anywhere for two more weeks? I'll tell you on Monday.