Idaho…no, you da ho

We just got back from our family reunion, and as always when we go on vacation, these blog entries are really really long. So only read this if you’ve got a few minutes.

When I last left you, we were in the middle of our road trip nightmare. Here is the picture of Carmen literally moments before she started doing the Technicolor yawn.

She was dancing so you can see why I might have been caught by surprise.

I tossed the camera down and was scrambling for a bag. I didn’t think to take any pictures again until long into the Idaho trip.

We had an amazing time. We stayed at the Tamarack resort (my part of the agreement that if my husband is going to golf every single day, I sure as heck am going to have running water and electricity). Our cottage was only minutes from the campsite where the reunion was and at the end of the nights, we went home and washed off and climbed into a lovely king size bed. I never had to shiver or roast in a tent, dirty and uncomfortable, or had to find a flashlight to walk to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Yet, I still got to enjoy the wonderful outdoors during the day, and as for stars…well we didn’t sleep under them…but we did sit in the cottage hot tub under them. Lets just say this is the only way to camp…in my opinion. I guess you may have already guessed I am not an outdoorsy person, I know, huge shock.

Here are some pictures of Carmen at the lake that was near the campsite. I know there are a lot but that’s because there were so many cute ones I couldn’t decide between them.

This was one of my favorite places on the lake… it had all these cut off tree stumps sticking out of the water, and in the morning when it was foggy it looked eerie and beautiful. There were so many cool places to take pictures up there unfortunately for some reason or another this was the only location I got. But I thought of Wendy every time I saw a cool old weathered barn or some wind bleached wood, she would have had a hay day at all the photo ops.

The family auction that I have been talking about for months was a success. I think it’s my favorite part of the family reunion. It is full of family tradition and everyone’s talents get displayed. It is really fun… not to mention people throw down some serious cash. The beanies I knit went for 70 bucks a pop…can you believe that! I was actually a little sick to my stomach…they are relatively easy and inexpensive to make so when they went for so much I almost had a heart attack. The toy felt lunch bags I made a last year and the dishrags all went for at least 24 dollars each. I will keep in mind to make some more cute hats and stuff next year. I got some really adorable stuff at the auction, my favorite being this sign for my laundry room that my sisters-in-law Jenny and Mignon made.

Besides all the driving, we had an awesome trip. We also got to cut about 7 hours out of our trip by flying home on this:

This was the payback from Lee’s boss for the horrible road trip up. It was kind of fun flying in such a tiny plane. We ran into some turbulence which at one point made us all bump our heads on the ceiling. And I also was starting to feel a little air sick, but Carmen just said “Weeeee” the whole time and this was the view…

Carl and Chantel were there to pick us up right on the tarmac, it was awesome. Having that much money wouldn’t be so bad, I think I could get used to it.

It was a great vacation and I had so much fun visiting mine and Lee’s family. Lee has such an awesome family. I feel really lucky to have married into a family with all cool, fun people.

Oh and in the hustle and bustle I wasn’t able to blog about this so Happy Anniversary Lee! (it was on the 9th) We have had 4 wonderful years together and I can’t wait to have millions more!

• (picture provided by blue lily photography)