McCall Weekend

We decided to take advantage of our Fridays off and headed to McCall after Andrew's Thursday night game.  It made for a very late arrival at the condo where everyone slunk into bed but enjoyed a long sleep in the next morning.  Around 10 we got everyone out of bed, made lunches and drove to Riggins to go rafting.

The rapids were just right for our group, big enough that everyone got wet and thouroghly bumped, but mellow enough that Kate decided it was fun.

It was hot enough that at the first chance we jumped floating down stream for a while to cool off and watch Andrew mermaid flip his hair - wow!

The kids all loved the rafting and were ready to stop at Ice Cream Alley for dinner on the way back.

The next morning Greg and I wanted to hike but Kate and Lily were a hard pass and Andrew had a bruised quad from his soccer game that made going upstairs really painful so he was out.  Brave Emmy came on our 3.5 mile, 1500 ft elevation gain hike.  I figured we would be in an out pretty quick but that elevation gain felt a bit more intense than I expected.  I had to take some breaks to get my heart rate down but we eventually made it to a beautiful lake.

Emmy and I spotted three frogs, caught our breath and headed back down making it back to the car in half the time it took us to go up even with a slight path confusion and backtracking.

We spent the rest of the day playing in the sand, playing extremely long and painful games of Kubb, playing Wii Sports, reading, paddle boarding and playing games.  What a great weekend.  

First Day of School

One last temple trip before Mack left us.

Sept 15th these guys started school - as soon as they ran out the door Mack and I got in the car and headed to Moscow.

4th grade - how can she almost be done with elementary school?

Sophomore 

7th Grade

Senior - seriously doing this two years in a row is not fair.

Had to do one of him fixing his hair- it is pretty glorious.

Mack and I drove 5 hours to Moscow with little of note except being pulled over for speeding in New Meadows and not having a current insurance card🤦🏽‍♀️.  Luckily I didn't get a ticket.  We got into town and during lunch I asked Mack to check where exactly we needed to go.  He was reading and broke the silence, "We might have a problem."  Apparently move in day was the 17th not the 15th.  We made some calls, talked to some nice people and made a plan to move in the next morning at 11.

Greg got us a hotel in Lewiston while we wandered around campus, bought books and got familiar with everything so that I could take off as soon as possible the next morning.  Greg was out of town so Grandma went to our house to help the kids and Mack and I enjoyed a fabulous dinner, a trip to Walmart and watched gameshows all evening.  One surprise extra night together was fun for me and probably safer than trying to drive all the way home that night.

The next morning we enjoyed some tasty waffles and moved in quickly with this nice cart.

I grabbed him some food for his mini fridge then had a tearful goodbye - well tearful on my side - and drove another 5 hours to arrive home at 9, kiss the kids and climb into bed.

The next weekend I helped Andrew put his room back together and found this under their bed - Mack!!!

Last Weeks of Summer

The morning after we got home from North Dakota Kate dragged herself onto a bus at 6:45am and headed to Moscow for FSY.  She had sore throat and runny nose but a negative covid test so I sent her anyway😬.  She was a bit sick the whole week but she would have been sad to miss it so endured the head cold and had a blast.

Meanwhile Emily and Lily and I partied - well may a little bit, but most of the week was spent cleaning their room.  In June I started collecting 15 things a day from their room.  I could take anything that wasn't put away and wasn't a squishamellow.  The original plan said they could claim anything they noticed was missing but by the time they noticed things that were missing I had taken so many items I wasn't willing to dig through it all to find a specific item.  New plan- as soon as I couldn't take 15 things they could have it all back as long as they put everything away.

It took some effort but by mid week they had cleaned up their room so well that I had nothing to take.  I started pulling their treasures out of my hiding places.  I put all the stollen goods in a box about 5 ft x 2 ft and it was overflowing (I wish I'd taken a picture).  It took the girls another two days to sort through everything and put it away (thankfully they threw a lot of it in the trash).  It was a huge accomplishment; now I just worry about how long they can keep it that way!

After all that hard work, Friday was play day.  Lily went to Payton's and Lily had Abby, Kylie, and Emma over for a paint party.  They did pour painting, as well as using beads to pull the paint.  They had a blast although the garage floor may not ever be paint free🤦🏽‍♀️.

Greg and Andrew also left that week to backpack in Yellowstone.  They started hiking Thursday morning and got in their car again Saturday afternoon.

They saw mountain goats and bears and hiked about 31 miles.

They had a great time together but they were both very happy to rest their bodies in the car and eat some real food!

They filled their bellies then headed home arriving sore, covered in mosquito bites and ready to get a shower and sleep in their own beds.

Summer Moments - Dog Sitting, DemiPointe, Frieniversary, Grandma's Wild Kitty

Summer was full of fun.  Lily and Emily pet sat a few times.  Lily was especially excited to ear $100 for watching R-lo all by herself while Emmy was at camp.

Emmy got demi point shoes!

Lily and Haze Leavitt celebrated their first frieniversary but repeating their first outing together, painting ceramics and eating at Texas Roadhouse.

A sleepover at grandma's became even more exciting when Mack found a kitten while mowing the lawn.  It belonged to a neighbor but the kids loved on it for quite a while before they found it's home.