Happy Camper's Club--Priest Lake, Idaho, Part 1

It was a change of venue for this year's Happy Camper's Club!

We decided to celebrate Anne's 50th birthday with a trip to Priest Lake, Idaho.

Geoff, Robin and us got one cabin and the others got another.

We decided having all 17 of us under one little roof might be a bit much!
Since Geoff and Robin have "real" jobs and couldn't come until a little later in the week, it worked out perfect to have Grandma and Grandpa come and stay with us for a couple of nights at the cabin before they got there.

The cabin was great....
it had 2 bedrooms and a loft for the girls.

The view was beautiful and it was just a quick little hike down to the dock.

We went to dinner the first night over at Cavanaugh's and watched an awesome sunset!

The next day we took an AMAZING hike with Anne and Aidan to
Slide Rock near Lion's Head at Priest Lake.

There was LOTS to see along the way....
it was beautiful!

Annalise found a 'grass-stache'....

Grandpa couldn't quite make the last creek crossing, but the rest of us made it to Slide Rock.
It's super cool....it's a natural waterslide.  You slide down on garbage bags.
The water was pretty cold, but we all went.
Aidan was the brave one and went first....

Then Avery....

Mark was up next.

Grandma was determined to go!
Woo Hoo!!!!

And only because we watched Grandma...
Anne and I went!

Did I mention it was cold?

Annalise didn't want to go, but she cheered us all on!!

After a long hike and lots of playing in the water, we made the trek back to the cabin and had a yummy BBQ and a late evening swim in the lake with Grandma and Grandpa!

Another highlight of the day....Grandma and Grandpa's good 'tooth losing' luck was in full effect!
Annalise lost another tooth!!!!!
Right at the end of the hike it popped out!!!  How cool is that?

She got things prepared for the tooth fairy's visit....

Our week at Priest Lake was off to a great start!!

A stop in Spokane

We left straight from Duvall to Deer Park.

We were going to drop Charlie off with Gramps before heading up to
Priest Lake with the Happy Campers for a week.

It was a quick stop, but there was enough time to shoot the bow....

And feed Rose and Twinkles....

Camp River Ranch

Avery was soooo excited about her week at Camp River Ranch.

Her friends Alice and Kelsey were both going with her.

Alice had been the summer before and got Avery even more excited about the week!

She wasn't the least bit worried about being away from home without any contact.

(It wasn't so easy for Mom!)

It was a short trip from Duvall to Carnation where the camp was.

We got her all checked in and found out that both Kelsey and Alice were even in the same Cabin!  Yay!

According to Avery she had the BEST time!!!!

Here's her week in review (and the only pictures she took):

Once everyone in our unit got to camp we headed back to our cabin.

Our Unit was Alder Valley B.

The cabins didn't have doors or electricity.

This was mine and Alice's bunks.

We rode horses and went swimming, did archery and went hiking.

My skill builder was kayaking which I got to do almost every day!

We got to go rock wall climbing and made ice cream.

We had a campfire almost every night.

My counselors were Chip and Trot.

This is Trot singing (she's trying out for The Voice!).

One night we slept in teepees!

Our whole unit went raspberry picking at Remlinger Farms which was just past the meadow.  

It was about a 20 minute walk.

My favorite thing about camp was that our counselors didn't even sleep in the cabin with us.

I liked earning beads by completing different tasks.  I earned the dock-to-dock swimming bead, the night hike bead, the polar plunge bead and a yoga bead.  Also the kayaking bead for my skill builder.

I could have stayed another week!!!!!

(*End of Avery's account.)

She was dirty and tired, but had such a great time!!! :)

We really missed her! :)

Annalise did enjoy being an only child....

we even hit the ice cream shop in Duvall right after we dropped Avery off!

The week went pretty fast.

Annalise did a Parkour day camp each morning and 

I went crazy and got my hair cut and straightened.

 We also went to our first Bellingham Bells game!

It was super fun....we'll definitely go again with Avery.

We were sure glad to have her back!

We spent the night with Geoff and Robin again because we were 

heading for Spokane the next morning.

Even Charlie got to come with us....

turns out he and Abbey really hit it off!!!

(Maybe this 'anger towards other dog' thing is over!?!?)