PRIEST LAKE: 4th of july

this is our second year we have been up at priest lake for the 4th of july. i was kinda bummed cause the ONLY cold day while we were up there was the 4th of july..... so we didn't go swimming or boating or anything. but we did have a good time! we went four wheeling in the morning up in the mountains so we could overlook the beautiful lake!

^^^this was our attempt at a selfie with a DSLR camera^^^

then we came back and hung out at camp with family and talked. that evening we had dinner with everyone and then treats at the beach while we looked for fireworks around the lake.

^^norman thinking he's a cool kid playing hacky sack with the teens^^

grant thought it was a good idea for the two seconds i took to take a picture of norman and i, to walk into the cold water with this sweats on. (face palm)

my cousin britney bought a bunch of glow sticks for the kiddos. pictures are pretty blurry but...you get the picture...

(^^this was the picture we were taking while grant went to play in the water...you can see him in right hand corner by normans ear....walking to the water....i look away for TWO seconds people....^^)

it's always nice to be in God's country over the 4th of july. we are blessed with a beautiful country and i am grateful for the freedoms we enjoy every day. happy belated 4th of july!

Priest Lake a million years ago....

so who has time to blog in the summer??? not me, obviously. plus, i hadn't been feeling the whole blogging thing. sometimes i get in these ruts where i start comparing myself (or my blog) to others... (who doesn't...) and then i just have to refocus and remember why i started a blog in the first place...it wasn't to get random readers that i don't even know. it was to write down memories. for my sake. and mine only, really. so...here i am. remembering why i blog, and continuing to do so. :)

but i have a whole heck of a lot of catch up. and i kind of hate catch up posts, but i just had the best summer and i can't NOT blog about it. 

SOOOOOO first...we will start with priest lake. my beloved priest lake. We went the end of june, beginning of june and this year was, shall we say, QUITE different. i hadn't been to priest lake for 2 summers... and i was missing it TERRIBLY, so when we found out that norman couldn't go this year because of school, i said, well...sorry...i'm going without you. i traveled up with my cousin, her husband, her two kids, and grant. it was quite the car full. the kids did surprisingly well for an 8-9 ish hour drive! 

this would be my first year with a child. and let me tell you...camping/swimming/boating is NOT as fun when you have an almost toddler to worry about. Priest Lake for me was always a care free, do whatever you want when you want, how you want, kind of place. with an almost toddler.....not so much. So it was quite the adjustment for me. Especially without norman there to help me out. It felt more of a job this year than a vacation. haha. but at the same time, seeing grant with dirty hands and feet and clothes and sunburned cheeks (my bad) and little flip flop tan lines and helmet hair from four wheeler rides with grandpa...to see him love and play in a place that i hold so dear was enough to make me bawl (i may or may not have teared up a few times....surprise surprise). so although this year was a lot different, it was still so special. as it always is.

we also celebrated the fourth of july while we were there. fireworks over the lake, treats on the beach, it was heavenly. we wished norman could've been there every day and vowed that we would never go back without him :) i didn't get a ton of pictures this year unfortunately because i was making sure my 1 year old wasn't drowning so.....you pick your battles, you know...

WE LOVE YOU, PRIEST LAKE!!! til next time....

"i learned from john taylor how to tie a blood knot"

i'm finally getting around to blogging about our 4th of july weekend! yay!! and i'm just going to say up front...it was the shiz. this year we were supposed to be up at priest lake for the 4th, but because my dad just got a kidney transplant...the doc said no camping and such for a while to keep him away from germs. so...we didn't end up going this year. TOTAL bummer and i miss it so bad since we didn't get to go last year, either. but all is well...we still had fun.

norman's mission buddy, trevor came to visit us for about a week all the way from deleware! we picked him up on the night of the 3rd...talked til about 2:30 am and then the next morning headed to poky for some 4th of july fun with friends. we went to lava to go swimming, this was grant's first time swimming (and my first time in a swimming suit post birth...ugh) he seemed to enjoy it...he fell asleep while we were wading in the pool. it was very cute. after lava we headed to poky to shower and get ready for a BBQ at our friends house. hamburgers, brats, shishkabobs, fruit, chips, ice cream, redneck horseshoes, chatting with close friends...it was fantastic. we then went to stake out a spot for fireworks (which grant also fell asleep during). it was a great end to the evening!

the next morning we headed for island park with norman's family to stay for the rest of the weekend. and lets just say...island park is the land of no need for filters. it is all beautiful on its own. trevor (norm's mission buddy) is more of a city kid and hadn't really camped much so it was fun experiencing island park in a new light..seeing it through his perspective. it made me appreciate the beauty that we have here in idaho so close to us. it really is breathtakingly beautiful.

at island park we fished, ate, went boating, played games, took a hike, ate some more, fed some huge fish some pancakes, saw an otter AND a muskrat AND a mama moose with her calf, made s'mores, talked around the fire, and did all things that create a great trip to the cabin. 

it was a great little break and breath of fresh air....literally. then we came back home, trevor headed out, and norman went back to the grind (we hate summer school). but it's almost over!! that's the good news. hope everyone had a great 4th of july weekend and celebrated their pants off!