I Can Make It

:: 20 DAYS AFTER THE FACT ::

So now that we're approaching Utah's celebration of July 24th, I guess today I might as well tell you about our July 4th trip. My brother Jeff was blessing his new baby that weekend so we decided to make a trip out of it. I'll just post the festivities in chronological order.

THURSDAY


I loaded up Mike's parents Subaru, picked Mike up at work, and then headed out to Boise. Both kids were such troopers and traveled so well.

FRIDAY

We met Bridger Reed for the first time. He is a darling little boy. Here are Piper and Bridger ready for our day at the beach. I am glad Piper will have a cousin her age just like Cohen has a bunch his age.


This is Remington. We picked strawberries out of Jeff and Heather's garden for delicious pancakes. Heather made the best syrup.

Recipe:
1/2 cup butter
1 Cup Sugar
3/4 Cup Buttermilk (or soured milk using lemons)

Bring this mixture to boil. Then add 1 teaspoon of baking soda before serving. Oh my... lip smacking!

While we finished up breakfast we started packing for a day in McCall. What was supposed to take 2 hours, ended up taking 6. We got to see everything along the road. :-)


We stopped at Horseshoe Bend pond for lunch. The kids had all fallen asleep and were a little cranky. But they had fun playing in the sand for a few minutes before we had to get back in the car.


We went to a little beach right in town (McCall is home to Payette Lake). I lived in McCall when I was Cohen's age. I don't really remember much about it, but there are little parts. Jeff says my mom used to take us to this beach all of the time. I remember going to play in the lake but that is about it. Jeff and Mike played in the freezing water while Heather and I stayed on the beach with the babies.


The kids would have played in the sand until dark if we'd have let them. Cohen was a little nervous of the water so he would not take his floaties off.


After we played in the lake we went for ice cream and then headed to the campground for dinner. Because July 4th weekend is ridiculously crowded in McCall, we headed back towards Donnely and camped at Cascade.


I love the beautiful Idaho mountain meadows.

our campsite was beautiful, but there were so many mosquitoes. We built enough fire to cook a hotdog and a s'more and then hid in our tent for the evening.


As you can see, we really know how to rough it.

Mike and Cohen looking across the lake at the cabins on the other side.


Both kids slept all night and it was wonderful. I can't wait to take them camping again soon.

SATURDAY


On Saturday morning you would have never known there were billions of mosquitoes the night before. We took a walk around the campground before cleaning up. I wish that dumb kid wouldn't have been so convinced to just stand there and keep asking "what are you doing?" so I could have taken a nice pic of Mike and Cohen on the docks.

We headed back to Nampa because Jeff was having a barbecue before the fireworks that evening. After checking into the hotel (Thanks Pops! Those beds were so comfortable after sleeping the night before on the ground).


After finding out the place Jeff wanted to take us wasn't doing their firework display that year, we headed to Boise and parked in the parking lot of a bar across from the baseball stadium. We made s'mores again and had a great time.



SUNDAY

After a beautiful blessing for Bridger, we headed back to Jeff's house to let the kids play a little longer before we headed home. It was a wonderful trip and I hope they'll let us come back next year. Whattaya say, Jeff and Heather?