Adventures in Idaho.......part 3

I love kayaking.  But someone had to hang out with Caroline........we tried to kayak with her, but she didn't really fit into a life jacket & was screaming her head off.......so she & I watched from the shore.  Some of the kids had never kayaked before, so it was a fun, new experience.  And the scenery doesn't get much better.  Jake even worked on a kayaking scout badge while he was at it.

Right next door to Ice Cream Alley was this cute place called Mountain Monet where you could paint pottery & make jewelry.  So we spent an afternoon there one day.  Max was in heaven!

We made some super cool stuff.

One day, we stopped to play at this beach area.

And we discovered that there were globs of clay in the sand.  Quite a bit of it.

So the kids started to collect it.

And made a big clay ball.

Then one thing led to another..........

.......til they looked like this!

Frightening, I know.   The teeth, I mean.  Good thing Dad's on Orthodontist!

Did I mention that we ate alot of ice cream?

It was just so good, & huge scoops, for so cheap!

We'll never forget our Ice Cream Alley.  We even got to calling it ICA for short.

Max usually got mint chocolate chip.  Jake usually got double-fudge brownie (when it wasn't already gone).  Zane & Mars would usually get Butterfinger blast.  And Gus would always get rainbow sherbet.

And Brian & I sure liked the chocolate peanut butter!

I had brought a bunch of craft supplies for the boys to make boats to float down the creek.  And man were they into it!  We had boat-making stuff all over the kitchen table for a week!

Then we took them down to the river for some boat races.

Max's had a dock that it was tied to.  So cute.

Then we watched & cheered them on.

The ones that got stuck then became rock-throwing targets & they were 'bombed' and destroyed.  This became the highlight of the day.

I could have left these guys here & come back a week later, and they'd still be throwing rocks!

Such boys!!

We loved this little park, right on the lake.  And we loved how it was never crowded.

We'd pick up some pizzas & wings and bring a frisbee & blanket and hang out til the sun went down.

Which wasn't until 10!

The cutest little face in the  whole wide world!

And the cutest little bum in the whole wide world!

And I love how she curls up her toes like that.

Adventures in Idaho........part 2

Family Pictures

I forced everyone to put smiles on their faces, spray themselves with Off, and indulge me in some family shots.

And told them they should feel lucky that we're only doing it once!

I could hardly sleep at night, envisioning all the photo-shoots that could be done among the fabulous, natural, no-man-made-things-around, backdrops everywhere!  So I had to try to get something with all of us in it.

By the time we found the perfect spot & set up the tripod, the sun was getting kind of low, then kept going behind clouds.  Not ideal.  But anyway, I would push the self-timer button, then run to my spot, yell at everybody to look at the camera, fluff up my hair, and then try to look relaxed & happy.......not harried & sweaty like I really was.  Then run back to the camera to do it again.......and again........and again.  And guess which picture was the winner?  Yep.  The very first one.

Aaaahhh.  So worth the hassle.

Adventures in Idaho......part 1

Wow! We loved this trip.

This place had everything.

We hiked.  We jet-skied.  We kayaked.  We cliff-jumped.  We boated.  We beached it.  We picnicked.  We white-water rafted.  We picked huckleberries.  We ate lots of icecream.  And we spent some days just hanging out in the cabin all day, playing Settlers & doing puzzles. 

Just our family.

For two whole weeks.

It was dreamy.


OK, not always dreamy.

It was some seriously intense family time & I'm thinking we don't need to have Family Home Evening for months.

But I'd still call it dreamy.

And much more action-packed than I expected it to be.  Baby and all.

We got to know this cute little town of McCall pretty well by the time we left.

We knew where to get the best pizza (Home Town Pizza), and where to get the best wings to go (Lardo's) .  We found the best little bakery (Flight of Fancy) with things like huckleberry lemon cake & awesome cinnamon rolls.
We shopped at Paul's Market & hit the McCall Candy Shop.
And then there's Ice Cream Alley.  I think we went there every other day!

And the lake!  We knew there was a lake nearby, but we were not prepared to be totally blown away by it's awesome-ness!  It was the most beautiful lake I have ever seen.  So obviously, we wanted to spend alot of time there.

Along the road to our cabin.  I love this picture.

I love farmer's markets & this one was so great. There were baskets of potatoes that were just dug from the ground that morning!  This city girl was in heaven!  And there was tons of fresh meat from ranchers in the area.  We picked up some ribeye steaks that were the best we've ever had.  Yee-haw!

So here's our cabin.

Also known as the McCall Nintendo Detox Center. No video games of any kind were allowed.  They went through withdrawals for a day or two, and then the most amazing thing happened.  They were OK.  They didn't die.  They read books & drew pictures & played Risk & Ticket to Ride.

It was miraculous.

The wrap-around porch was awesome, but we could have done without the mosquitoes.  We had to be all Off-ed up to go out there.

We finished four puzzles & played Settlers a ton.

Brian discovered his inner grill-man on this trip.  He was so into it. And he made us some great stuff!

The kids were perfectly happy to not leave the cabin all day & just play board games.  They love it.  I do too.