Rose Lake, Idaho trip...cliff notes

read with caution...lots of pictures and too many words...

We arrived at the beautiful house on Rose Lake in Northern Idaho (23 miles east of Couer d'Alene, ID) Saturday afternoon and immediately started unpacking the kids and hugging uncles and Nana & Pa. We anxiously awaited the arrival of the Darci & Candice with their families. I can't believe we weren't the last to arrive!! The house and property were more beautiful than the pictures implied!

That first day we unpacked, played a little down by the lake, went grocery shopping (buying enough food for 17 people for 7 days...3 shopping carts FULL) and stayed up visiting.

We went to church on Sunday and boy was the congregation tiny! I thought our ward here in Sidney was small! Their chapel didn't have any pews, it was different! Brayden woke up sick this morning but still took him to church. We had to make a dash to the bathroom a few times during Sacrament Meeting...but he was fine by late afternoon.

It was relaxing to just sit, talk, play and eat...all of course with family!

Nana and the grand kids made sock puppets and started preparing their script for the puppet show scheduled for Monday night. We also had a family 'talent show' Monday night. My parents kicked it off with some goofy songs and the Haley family just did a few dorky, buy funny scout camp songs that Matt led us in. My brother Tom did hilarious imitations of all the siblings. Everyone did a great job, it was fun!

Matt & Chris did some 12:01am fishing Monday morning, but didn't catch anything, except a few bug bites. The rest of slept until about 7am and the boys wanted to head right down to the water first thing...um, sorry! We were able to hold them off for a little while, but not long. By lunch time, we were all down by the water and enjoying the perfect weather. Everyone had their turn in the canoe, boat and kayak. The boys really enjoyed their 'freedom' in the water. Rafts, tons of water toys, water balloon sling shots and koosh ball...we kept busy.

The only things we had on our 'schedule' was Silverwood Theme Park and Boulder Beach water park near Couer d'Alene on Tuesday. We braved the 90 degree weather and 17 of us headed out for a day of fun.

The rest of our 'schedule' for the week was filled with golf, fishing, jewelry making, laying in the sun, playing in the water, purse sewing, skin tanning and memory making!! My mom and sisters did a 'favorite things' exchange too! That of course was so much fun...where was the camera? Thanks to Darci for bringing all the jewelry making supplies...I came home with a pair of earrings and a beautiful bracelet!

It was so great to be gone for 10 days, have the chance to 'escape reality' and hang out with your entire family. Thanks to Mom & Dad for making all possible! We love you so much!!!

We also had professional family portraits taken at the lake...so in a few weeks I'll post some of those! I can't wait to see how they turned out!!!

If you didn't have a chance to view all the slide shows before they timed out...just refresh your page and it will load again. And...as usual...you can see the rest of the photos HERE.