oh, where to begin. the last week of july/first couple days of august my family had a reunion. my oldest brother, terry, was in charge of planning it this year. meaning, he got to pick the location and make meal assignments and whatnot. we went to beautiful lake coeur d'alene in northern idaho. the reunion started monday evening, but we left sunday along with shanna and her family, and doug and drove as far as wallace, id, which is most of the way really. ever been to wallace? well it is a little podunk town off I-90. i've never stayed there, just driven past many times. our reason for staying there rather than just driving the hour or so into coeur d'alene was to be close to the hiawatha trail, which we planned to bike the next morning before heading into camp. our hotel was okay, but the rest of the town didn't really have much to offer. after swimming in the pool for a while we went out to find something to eat. we ended up in the town saloon. it was a family-friendly saloon. the service was terrible, meaning we had to wait literally an hour to get our food, and then when the food came it was not that great. it was very disappointing, and we will not be returning.
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my sweet girl with her full cup of water,
right before she knocked it over and into my lap. awesome! |
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| i'm thinking we hadn't been there too long yet because they're still smiling. |
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| smart ryan brought his own food. |
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this was some mining monument next to our hotel.
we let the kids run around after dinner since they had to sit so
long before they got their food. |
the hiawatha trail was amazing! it's a retired railway that has been made into a 15 mile (one way) bike trail. there were several tunnels, pitch black by the way. the longest one was almost two miles. you have to have a headlamp or headlight on your bike to go on the trail, and even that wasn't bright enough for me. it really throws you off riding in such darkness. we rode over quite a few trusses too. it was so cool. russ's family met up with us that morning to ride too! i wish i had taken more pictures of the actual trail, but i spent most of the time trying to catch up to the speedracers ahead of me. i was kinda sad because i felt like i couldn't really enjoy the beauty around me. i really want to go again and go at my own pace and take more pictures.
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| russ and payton on the trail. |
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| the scenery was so beautiful! |
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| snack break and feeding the chipmunks. |
our accomodations at the lake coeur d'alene camp ground were in my opinion pretty nice. we stayed in a little 2 room cabin that actually sleeps 6. shanna's family and terry's stayed in ones just like it. russ and his family tented, along with doug. and mom, dad and aunt lawayne, who we are so happy came and spent some time with us, had a pretty plush stay in the park model. the bathrooms and showers were real close, just across the road, and there was a kitchen facility that terry rented out so we had a big place to gather for meals and games.
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| helmet hair after our long bike ride. |
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| kitchen facility |
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| mom, dad, and aunt lawayne's "cabin." |
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| kiddos up in the loft |
on tuesday, which was payton's 8th birthday, we went to silverwood! once again i did not take enough pictures capturing what all we did. dang, i gotta get better at that. silverwood was a blast. scott and the girls and i didn't really do much in the way of rides. i know, silly right? we were actually more interested in boulder beach, the water park. and of course i have no pictures of that. lame-o! but it was a lot of fun. brooklin had a blast swimming in the lazy river and going down the slides. water parks are my "amusement parks." we had an awesome bbq lunch there too. i would really like to go back and spend more time. we were the first family to leave and when we did lauren was nuclear. she cried herself to sleep on the way to the car. we'll go back when we don't have to worry about kids needing naps.
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| we visited the candy shop and got lollipops and taffy. yumm! |
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| on the train ride around the park. |
on wednesday, scott and i really wanted to go to the park in town. we had heard that there was a really great beach and so we definitely wanted to check it out.
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| our little swimmer! |
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| mackenzie came with us! |
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| last day sad face from franny. |
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| our family minus the haas family. we missed you guys! |
we had an awesome vacation, and plan to go back to coeur d'alene soon. it's a great vacation spot with lots to see and do.
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| the long ride home. |
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| she just looks thrilled to be watching dora AGAIN, doesn't she? |
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| not sure if this was before or after a semi tried to run me off the road. |
