Too Good

Sometimes, something is so good, that words just don't do it justice.
We spent this past week in McCall, Idaho at a cabin, on a lake, with my family.
I guess the best word to describe it would be heaven.

There were so many things that made the whole trip amazing, but the best part was the way my spirit felt there.  I felt free, loved, happy, in tune with God and my family, and peaceful.

The beauty, the serenity, the constant companionship of those I love and who love me, and the stunning beauty of the surroundings all make me believe that it must be, at least a taste, of what heaven will be like.

The week went by too fast, and I didn't want to leave....ever. But life needs to be lived, so here I am, back in reality. It is a good life, a life Ben and I have created, and we are happy.  We just had such an amazing time, it was hard to let go.

I wasn't the only one who loved it. Mary and Sam went nuts for the beach. We would have to beg them to come inside to eat. They just swam and played and swam and played and swam and played. It was awesome to see them love something as much as we do. It made it even better.

 So...here is what we did, in my heaven, in a nutshell.

We waterskied, surfed, wakeboarded and tubed.


Mary's hero is Bethany, from Soul Surfer. When she discovered that she could surf with Kelsey, she grinned and grinned and grinned. It was her favorite thing.

Mary and Sam rode the tube together. It was so cute.

We rode in Bop's boat...a lot

William loved the boat rides. He asked for them all week.

 

We made a lot of bracelets and jewelry. It was so fun!

Our "craft" table.

 

 

We made bird feeders out of pinecones, oatmeal, crisco and bird seed.  The birds loved them.

 

 

 

 

We went to the fish hatchery

 

 

We made "rock monsters' and

"animals" out of the rocks collected from the fish hatchery.

 

We made buildings out of toothpicks and mini-marshmallows. Sam was amazing at this!

 

We launched waterballons with the slingshot and laughed our heads off when it hit someone (my brothers) on the beach.

 

Ben made slingshots for Mary and Sam, and they practiced lots and lots.

 

We went to ice cream alley...yummy!

 

We ate at the pancake house where you can get giant cinnamon rolls shaped like poop. They taste so yummy though!

 

We buried kids in the sand.

 

The cousins played.

 

We made ice cream in a bag.

 

The guys blew stuff up for a while.

 

My mom and I ran every day, and I finally hit my goal of 6 miles! We saw lots of deer, a fox and other cool mountain animals.

 

Ben went mountain biking a lot. He brought his go-pro and got lots of cool footage.

 

We chilled out in teddy bear chairs and watched cars about 500 times.

 

 

We went cliff jumping

 

 

We went to "treasure island" where blackbeard's map (which washed up on the beach in a bottle) took us on a treasure hunt to his treasure.

X marks the spot. The treasure was buried here.

the treasure

 

we found blackbeards hide-out

 

 

we found poor Davey Jones' skull

 

 

We colored a lot of pictures, for fun.

 

 

We had fun together.

And we miss it a lot already.

After leaving McCall, we spent the rest of the weekend at the Maynards. We had a great time visiting, hanging out, laughing and enjoying family. The kids had a lot of fun with their cousins.

We had such an awesome trip, and I am so grateful for family and the blessing it is. We missed my brother Ryan and his family so much this year, but they are doing better things right now. Like having a baby any day. :)  I am sure we will see them soon though.

So there you have it, my heaven.

Good Times.