Sawtooth Mountain Mania

What a fabulous place to be! We headed up to Idaho and stayed at the Sawtooth Mountains for a few days to "decompress" as Clay said. Well, anyone who has tried to decompress with four little kids around hasn't decompressed. It was fun anyways. Last year Clay went climbing with some friends up there and had a fabulous time, so he thought we would enjoy it too. His plans were squashed when the hikes he wanted to do were closed due to fires. He also wanted to take the kids on a float trip down the Salmon river, but it was closed due to the spawning season. If only we had come last week! He was a little disappointed that none of his plans panned out. So, we paid 40 bucks (rip-off) to have someone drive us across the lake to hike up to another lake, but the kids were whining too much, so we gave up. We hiked 1/2 mile to Lily Pond instead. Lucy lost both her new water shoes in the muddy pond.
But we had a good time chillin' by the lake waiting for the boat to come pick us back up.
The next day, we did some more chillin' by the lake. The kids found a nice log to play with. Clay rented a boat to "raft down the lake".

Will could have stayed all week there by the lake, but the rest of my red-headed children (and husband) were sick of the sunshine and ready to hunker-down in the shade.

We ended up leaving a day or two early. It was beautiful up there, but mother nature and the fishes were conspiring against us. Next time, we'll stay on the lake, make sure there aren't fires and bring a ski boat for me! All the glassy water made me so sad as I watched the skiiers and wakeboarders fly past us. Anyone have a boat I could borrow? I promise to take good care of it!

Lagoon with Lucy

Lagoon is so fun...especially with family. My sister Jennefer and her family have season passes to Lagoon this summer and so my Mom thought it would be a great idea for the cousins to meet up with them a few at a time to have fun. Well, since mom was paying, I was all over that. I dropped my boys off at Grandmas, picked up a couple cousins on the way, went to my sister's house and then headed to Lagoon. We had six cousins between the ages of 7 and 10. To quote Lucy, "That was the BEST day of my LIFE!" (Maybe not my life, but it was really fun!)


Jonah, Matilda, Leanne, Lucy, and Riley (minus cranky Mitchell).

And finally got back to Grandma's where Pete was snuggling with his favorite person in the world, cousin Sydney. Thanks so much, Grandma! You ROCK!

Slackline-in' it!

Anyone have a hankerin' for a good time? Come down to our house and we'll pull out our newly purchased slackline Clay bought when he went to the Outdoor Retailers Show. Pretty fun, and I'm assuming you can actually figure it out after a while. I have a feeling the whole key to it is a low center of gravity...so Nate is our best slackliner so far.

Lucy was pretty good, too. Will and Pete didn't get it and gave up easily. I wish we had some pictures of Clay flailing. Our slackline had too much slack for our first attempt. And besides, our little tree was screaming "NO MORE TRAUMA!!!" *Julie Osborne stopped and asked if we were trying to pull the little tree out!)

Clay talked me into trying some crazy hand and foot pose, and well, this is the result. Let us know if you have a couple trees big enough so we can bring our slackline and take pictures of you looking oh so coordinated too!