Onward Ho!

We wrapped up our time in Fossil on Sunday Morning and started on our next leg of the trip. The next stop was Priest Lake. 

Our long time friends, the Thompsons, had invited us the first time about 10 years ago when the house was built. Due to babies being born and then, well, being babies it was too tough. And it's about 8 hours from our house with only a couple stops. Given that I have been travel training the kids for the last couple years, I felt they were ready. 

From Fossil it was about 6.5 hours.....piece of cake. We arrived at about 7 on the 3rd and were greeted with open arms. Man, it has been too long!  To our surprise their daughter Nicole was there. The last time we saw her she was about 10, she's a Sophomore at WSU now. Time flies! We got settled a bit, had a bite to eat and went to see some fireworks. What fun. 

Over the next couple days we did all the lake stuff. We went out on the boat and pulled the kids on an float thing. Sophia and Kees spent very little time in the boat since they were dragged behind the boat almost the entire time.  Kees kept wanting to go faster and Sophia was right there with him.  Coulter was beaming as the "captain" of the ship. Wayne was great with him and let him steer all the way across the lake. So cool.  My babies were so happy and Bob and I got a real charge out of watching them. Anne talked about when Nicole was younger and had many of her summer birthdays on the lake.  Lucky girl. 

My favorite thing was sitting on the beach at the marina. It was a perfect set up. There was a building with a bar area and bathrooms on the back side. In front of that was a lawn with some lawn chairs and a little sandy beach. There was a creek feeding into the lake and then another beach beyond that. The kids were having a real adventure. They called the further beach Treasure Island. They played so nicely and the adults got to just sit and talk and lay in the sun. Ah peace, quiet and great company. We liked the beach so much that we spent part of each of our 4 days there and he kids were equally as happy each day. That makes life much easier. 

Another one of the kids favorite things was riding the 4 wheelers. We could get all 5 of us on 2 ATVs. Bob scouted out the trails and then we all went for a ride. The first time was  great. We figured out a few trails, ran through a few puddles and even got stuck in some deep mud.   Coulter got a little nervous but he didn't know that his mama has been stuck in the mud 4 wheeling before. I rocked it out and we were off and running again.  

The second day out we decided to see some things that Anne had recommended.  Wayne gave us a map, got us oriented and they set us free. We saw a cool old growth forest. Cool trees, unfortunately it was also the ULTIMATE mosquito habitat.  We read all the information markers at lightening speed while hopping around and slapping each other. It was comical.  Next we went up the mountain for a beautiful view. It doesn't get any better. Blue skies, 75 degrees and peace and quiet. Nature at it's best. 

Each evening we had cocktails out on the deck. The view was amazing with the lake below and the mountains beyond that.  Heaven.  Anne and Wayne were so gracious and generous.  We are extremely blessed to have such great friends in our lives.   

Anne and Wayne were gracious enough to let us stay at their place for a couple nights on our own.  The first night we let the kids watch a movie while we read outside. The second night there was a big storm. We raced around and brought in all the fabric stuff and watched it roll by. It was powerful and beautiful at the same time. The power went out....for 3 hours. It came back on, the kids cheered, another storm came and it went out again 5 minutes later. The kids groaned.  No sweat. We played ping pong in dimming light and then drew pictures. Bob and I read and the went to bed. So relaxing. 

Today we packed up, cleaned up and set our sights on home. The kids and I have been gone almost a month.  We tried to be good stewards and leave everything as clean as possible. I hope we did a good job. 

It's always fun to see friends that you haven't seen for a while. At times you don't know how it will go. I was pretty sure it would go well and it did. It was as if no time had passed and that's as good as one can hope for, like we'd been doing things together for all the in between years. Again I know I am blessed. 

And the kids had a great time too. They were well behaved and played outside a lot. They watched some TV in the evenings but during the day they used their imaginations. It's a thing of beauty. This is the first trip we've taken where we didn't bring any toys. They didn't need them. 

So I will call this one a complete success. We're now 20 minutes from home and there's hardly been a cross word for almost 8 hours.  Bob said he thoroughly enjoyed himself and feels relaxed. It usually takes him a week to really wind down. This time it was a couple days. Thanks again Anne and Wayne, we love you guys and your beautiful place. Let's not wait 10 years again.