The Crown Jewel of Idaho

We just returned from a week at Priest Lake, which the locals call the "Crown Jewel of Idaho." I honestly think any large amount of water surrounded by mountains is such an amazing gift of beauty from our Heavenly Father that I could never pick just one as the "Crown Jewel," but Priest Lake is a treasure to our family because of the memories we've made there over the last 6 years.

This year we got a little adventurous and decided to teach Ally and Nicholas to water ski. A big task for 2 inexperienced parents. Unfortunately, they take after their mother and didn't get up. Here's a picture of Nicholas getting ready to say "hit it!"

Aren't those skis suppose to be perpendicular to the water???

My grandparents also came up. My grandpa LOVES to read with the kids. I'm so thankful for his patience. Here's a pic. of Natalie and Grandpa reading on the hammock. Note Natalie's outfit: I let the kids pack their own suitcases this year. When I opened hers, I found 2 swimsuits, a swimsuit cover up (which she's wearing) and A LOT of Barbies. What more does a girl need???

We also went on a 6-mile hike to Upper Priest Lake. This portion of the lake is only accessible by boat or on foot. It's so pristine. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of the lake, but here's a picture of us on the trail. If I did a close up of our fingers you'd see the purple stains from huckleberry picking. Yum - homemade huckleberry ice cream - another family tradition at the lake.

Here's some more pictures from our week at the lake:

see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil

Natalie Kayaking

All smiles

Adam - tube extraordinaire. I kept telling my kids they were "totally tubular" - it's so great to use those 80's sayings!

non-skiing siblings - maybe next year??

And, last but not least, here's a picture of the cabin where we stayed. We use to stay at another cabin nearby, but met the owners of this cabin last summer. They offered to rent their cabin to us this year, something they've NEVER done before. The owners are a cute retired couple who feel their days of maintaining a lake house may be numbered - enters our family who is dying to buy a lake house. To make a long story short, we're hoping when they decide to sell, they'll sell to us. It's a perfect fit for our family, there's lots of room for friends, and it's across the street from the lake rather than right on the water, which means it's less than a million dollars! :-) We're waiting patiently . . . .

Main cabin - sorry it's hard to make out through the trees.


Back yard of main cabin

Guest cabin next door

OUT WITH THE "OAK" - IN WITH THE NEW

Last week I got the "home project" bug. Those who know me well know I don't get bitten by this bug often. A matter of fact, I've found that I'm even more content with my house since my husband started throwing away my Pottery Barn catalogs before I can look at them.

Anyway, last week I was antsy to replace the oak dresser in the boys' room because the drawers were falling apart. I envisioned a nice, navy blue replacement. I even thought to myself, "This is it, my last piece of 90s oak furniture will officially be out of the house!"

But, a navy blue dresser was not to be found. To improvise, I found a white one and bought blue paint. I came home and started on my project. I quickly realized my navy blue dresser was actually the color of those exit signs off the freeway that let you know there's food or gas at the next exit. My dresser looked like a giant, bright blue warning sign!

I went back to the store and got a darker color. I applied it and LOVED it. I even applied polyurethane to protect the dresser against chips (again, those who know me will be impressed I even know about polyurethane!)

Here's the final product:

After feeling so proud of myself and my move into the 2000s, I walked into our formal dining room and there staring me in the face was my large OAK dining room table.

Oops, I forgot about that! To my credit though, it's in the one room in our house that's almost NEVER used. Seriously, when we have friends or family over, no one ever goes in the formal dining room. We mainly use it when the missionaries come over for dinner. So, it's not too far of a stretch that I'd forget about the furniture in that room. I began hatching a plan to replace the table and chairs - but felt too guilty since they've rarely been used. So alas, I still have a little 90s oak. Maybe if I hold out long enough it will come back in style. My black stretch pants did!

SUMMER FUN

I've really enjoyed reading everyone's summer recaps on their blogs. It's so easy to catch up that way and feel connected even though we're all busy going in different directions this summer. I've attached pictures with desciptions to fill you in on what our family's been up to.

Adam at our neighbor's birthday party. They had it at a Fire Station. What a great place for a bunch of 3-year-old boys!

Our friends, the Murphys, were in town from Nevada. They use to be in our ward, but moved about 3 years ago. Here's a picture of Jodi, Valynn, me, and Crysti having a BBQ at the park. We now have 16 kids between our 4 families!

Andrew had a business trip in Park City. I joined him for a couple days and left the kids with a young couple from our ward. This is the first time I've done that. It worked out great! I highly recommend it!

While going for a walk in Park City we looked up and saw shoes in the trees. Must be a Utah thing! ;-)

Here's where we stayed.

Alpine Slide - bring back any memories Utah girls???

Andrew taking a little rest on the 6-person chair lift. I've been skiing a long time and I've never seen such a large lift!



Here's a picture of "The Best Thing I Did This Summer" (i.e., joined a club with an outdoor swimming pool - worth every penny!)



My new favorite treat - Apple Pie Caramel Apple. They'll even cut it for you so it's not so messy to eat.

4th of July - watching fireworks from Grandma and Grandpa's backyard and wearing $5 Old Navy shirts!