Our Family Adventure

WARNING: Long

This was a complete different vacation for all of us. We usually as a rule for the past 5 years go on vacation in the winter for thats when my hubbies work slows down. But this year my hubby said no we're having a summer vacation. I said where to , how about Oregon. So we decided on the Hood River area. We were first going to take the kids to Mt. St. Helens then proceed on from there. Well we with my husband hints we decided to take kids to Silverwood Theme park in Idaho. So last minute we were looking for places to stay mind you I caved literally 3 days before we were to leave. Luckily we found some places we agreed to we'd stay in a house or hotel for a few days and we'd camp the rest. So we found this A- Frame in Bayview ID which is near Sandpoint. Then we stayed a little outside of Couer d'lene ID at the camp resort called Wolf Lodge.

On our first day of travel mind you we hadn't told the kids our new plan it took us about 7 hrs. of drive time to get to our destination. The kids were like what's taking so long we told them we were taking the scenic root. My son figured out finally when we stopped at a gas station around Spokane WA area that we were heading to ID. He had a little idea about possibly going to Silverwood cause his Dad hinted that we had been thinking about it, where our daughter had no clue until her brother said something. Once they had figured it out they were very excited and then understood why the longer car ride.

So we get to the A-Frame unload , put things away and then go for a little walk to the marina. Then we headed back had a great dinner and watched some Olympics. I had brought a scrapbooking project that really needed to get finished with me so I worked on that for a bit. The next day we went into Sandpoint, looked around there, did a few errands, and bought a gallon of Huckleberries and the stuff to make jam. So while I scrapbooked that night my husband made jam. This is definetly an out of ordernary vacation for us.

So on Monday and Tuesday we took the kids to Silverwood. Where we road on bumper cars, bumper boats, the scrambler,the mini cars, and more, we even saw a bird show, had pizza, and went on waterslides, river rides, wave pool, get drenched by the waterbucket. I had promised my children on Monday that I would go down this raft ride at the water park called Avalache. I did but I will never go again. It scared me to death. I am not a water person to begin with and going down a waterslide on a raft that about done me in. My husband did go on most of the roller coasters but did not do the Aftershock. Which I was glad he didn't. On the last day there my husband pulled me aside and said should we just buy dinner here tonight and stay til closing . I agreed so at the end of our day when the kids thought we were leaving we went to check out this place for dinner and the kids said aren't we leaving with sad long faces. Their Dad said thought we'd eat dinner first then maybe catch a few more rides and stay til closing. They loved him for that. We all had a great deal of fun.

So then the next day we loaded up and headed for our camping destination and went shopping for the rest of our food for the week Once there we all helped pitch the tent, put up the canopy, made our lunch, played a few games of shuffle board, and hulu ball, put up camp, made dinner and just had some all around great fun. The kids tried a little bit of fishing in the creek.Fun family times. We planned the next day to go on a little scenic drive to see some flower gardens located in Spokane. They were truly amazing and I am looking forward to scrapbooking them. Once we were done there we came back to camp and had some more family sport fun and of course food. The following day we just stayed at camp where we played games, took a canoe ride where again I was scared out of my mind, took lots of fun pictures. Definetly fun times. On Saturday we went to the Local Farmers Market, to Costco to get pictures developed cause the coupon was due up on Sunday the day we traveled home, checked out Michael's cause I needed a few things, got my son a pair of new soccer cleats, and then we headed to the beach. Boy oh boy was it packed. We didnt realize that the bite of Couerd'lane was also that same weekend. So we got another fun little surprise for us that day.  After walking around, playing on the beach and of course sampling some food , we headed to this HIll called TUBBS Hill. Its was an amazing hike wish we could have done more but we were not dressed accordingly. The views of Lake Couerd'lane we just spectacular. I'd definetly like to go back just so we could hike some more of its wonderful trails. Then we headed back to camp for our last night .

Out of all of our vacations this one is right up there at the top. It was spontaneous, no real planning, definetly more Godly lead. Everyone was more relaxed, enjoyed our really fun days but also our down days. It just was truly amazing. I said this was adventure in the title because everyone who knows me knows I'm a planner and I'm organized. So for me to just go spontaneously like that was off kilter. I am glad I did though. I learned that not all things in life have to be planned. You can still have fun without completely planning.

I'm sure I missed some of the things we saw and did, but the point here is it doesn't matter. What matters is that it was fun, it was God lead, we focused on each other and on our family as a whole.

I am thankful that God was there for us every step of the way. I am thankful that he pulled down the tight reigns I had and told me to let go , to just go have fun. Forget about plans for once. I mean really bringing scrapbooking projects on vacation, making homemade jam, and syrup. Who does that on vacation. We do!!! It was truly a gift.

Thanks for letting me babble and share just a little more of our life with all of you.