Summer Vacay

Well, looks like I'm playing blog catch-up like always.  Since we are only a few days away from the first of October I guess I better hurry and post something about our summer vacation!  It's hard to believe that it was just last month that we were in beautiful northern Idaho enjoying a week-long family vacation together.  With the busyness of school starting and all of the changes that September has brought that vacation already seems like a distant memory.

I was born and raised in Idaho but until this summer had never been to the northern part of the state.  Growing up, I had always heard how beautiful it was and let me just say the rumors were true!  We stayed at the Silver Mountain Resort in Kellog which is east of Coeur d'Alene and we had the best week together.  My mom and her husband drove up from Boise and met us for the week so it was fun to have them there with us as well.  My only complaint was that it went by way too fast.  I wish we could have had a few more days to relax and enjoy our time together.

We spent our first day exploring the little town of Wallace.

 

Charlie had an accident that day and I didn't bring any extra shorts so he spent the rest of the afternoon without any pants on (I think you can still get away with that when you're two)!

We also spent one full day in the beautiful city of Coeur d'alene.  I absolutely loved this place!  I'm already dreaming of going back there next summer. 

Jared took the kids kayaking on the lake while the rest of us sat on the beach and watched. 

I can't say enough good things about Coeur d'alene.  We all had such a fun day there.  I mean look at Maggie.... she was having the time of her life!

When we got back to our hotel after spending the day in Coeur d'alene there was a fire on the mountain not too far from the resort.  It was a little scary.  We sat for a long time and watched the helicopters and planes dropping water and fire retardant.  Thank goodness the fire didn't spread too much and was under control by morning.

This was our look-out point for watching the fire. 

Maggie spent most of the week hanging out in this backpack and she didn't seem to mind a bit.

This little guy had birthday while on vacation. 

 Three years old!

Can you tell that this kid loves cars?

The resort we stayed at had an indoor water park and the kids had so much fun there.  Actually, the adults had a pretty good time there as well.

Hallie conquered some of her fears and did a lot of things at the water park that I didn't think she'd do.  It's nice to see her be brave sometimes and take some chances (of course there were a lot of tears as well but that's to be expected).

 We also went to a dude ranch one evening and took a hayride around this beautiful meadow.

The kids each got to ride a horse (which they loved) and we roasted hot dogs over the fire for dinner and had smores for dessert.  It was a great night.

Our last night in Kellogg we rode the gondola at the resort to the top of the mountain and spent some time enjoying the view.