The weekend before Lucy and I left for California we went on our first Idaho camping trip.  We went about 67 miles away but it took a good 3 hours to get there because 50 miles of that looked like this:

Dirt road!!!

On the way up we saw a heard of deer!

Shaun thinks that big one is an elk.  I have no clue.

Our camp site was right by the river and incredibly remote.  We saw 4 other cars on the main road all weekend!

On Saturday we went on a beautiful hike.  I was 100% sure that I would die on the drive to get to the hike but thankfully we didn’t.  That road was scary!!!

I did get some beautiful pictures of flowers!

 

There was still a lot of snow!

The river was the focal point of our trip!

Doesn’t Lucy look jazzed?!?!?!  (she had just woken up from a nap)

The whole family

Sawtooth hiking!

Awesome sights!

River crossings!

Our destination was a big, beautiful meadow.

Lucy loves camping!

Mommy loves camp cooking-cobbler!!!

Men playing dominoes.  Aren’t they manly?

Lucy and one of her favorites-Miss Sarah!

Lucy got over her fear of dogs this trip (there were 5!).  It was great.  Here she is hand feeding Mateo:

Her first s’more!

It was an awesome trip!  Numerous times while we were in CA, Lu asked to go camping-she loved it.  We’re off for another one in a few weeks!!!

Tomorrow? Disneyland!

This weekend we started a new tradition-going out and finding our Christmas tree in the forest.  My sister and brother-in-law have done this for years and I knew that when we moved here that I wanted to get in on the tradition.

We drove up to McCall on Friday (it’s about a 2 hour drive) and then woke up on Saturday to go find our tree!  We bought our permit, rented our snow shoes, and set out to find the perfect tree.

It didn’t start off so well…

But it quickly turned around:

We hiked down hills with saws:

Staked out the perfect trees:

Got one! (We were on the lookout for four):

Got two! (Look at that stud):

Got three!

We still hadn’t found OUR perfect tree.  We went on the hunt and saw one on our way back, WAY down the hill.  Shaun got on the sled to get down to it and proclaimed that it was THE PERFECT tree.  He cut it down and got it back up the hill (with the help of my brother-in-law).

We were a happy family:

It’s the tree standing up behind us.  We stuck it in the snow and we’re below it.  It was still 10 feet and when we got it home we had to trim it down a bit.

Here she is on top of the car:

And outside our house:

That’s one beautiful tree!  Pretty trees that are under 12 feet are hard to find out in the forest.  They are few and far between.  We totally lucked out.

When we got home, we put the tree in the house (you should smell it in here!) and decorated with Christmas music going.  Lu LOVED it.  It was the first year that she’s really understood Christmas and got into it.  We had such a nice night. 

Shaun just came upstairs and proclaimed, “I love our tree.  This is the best Christmas yet!”

I think I need some more ornaments since I’ve never had a big tree before. My old tree topper also won’t work because it’s too skinny to fit on top of the tree.  Expect to see some improvements .

I agree with Shaun though, this IS the best Christmas yet!

WOW!  I had a FABULOUS birthday and weekend.  I took the day off on Friday and went to the spa.  I got a massage and facial.  The facial was absolutely amazing.  I was in another state of consciousness during that facial.

Friday night was my BIRTHDAY PARTY!

My sister, Willy, and Shaun REALLY outdid themselves.  Check out this gluten free and mostly milk free cake:

Numerous people commented that it was the best CAKE (not the best Gluten Free Cake but best CAKE) they have ever had.  My sister hit this one out of the park.

Her house looked gorgeous:

The food was all gluten free and AMAZING. As were the flowers.

They even sang to me!

The Margaritas were STRONG and good!

Everyone kinda looked like this by the end of the night:

Ahh, that’s better:

(Luke evidently doesn’t know how to use zoom )

The happy hostess:

My piece with dairy free ice cream! (She thought of everything peeps!)

It was seriously the best party I have EVER been to.  NO joke.  I love all my friends-new and old.  This really is home.

The next day we woke up to snow!

Not a lot, but snow none the less.

Yesterday, I hosted Megan’s baby shower!

(My sister strikes again!)

Presents!

This one cracks me up.

Mommy and Grandma Mikey

11 years after moving in next door to each other at Porter.  Go Banana Slugs!

My co-host

Megan is going to be such a wonderful Mommy.  Baby Loaf is one lucky kid!  I feel so fortunate that I got to host the shower and do something nice for Megan and Luke.  They are truly wonderful friends and I’m so thankful that we live 3 miles away from each other!

More snow fell during the party.

And we woke up this morning to this:

And here’s Lucy telling Mommy: “Lotsa snow Mama! Lostsa snow!”

The weatherman is predicting 5-10 inches by Tuesday night.  Wednesday it’s supposed to be sunny but the high is 15 and the low is 4.  It appears that we are NOT in California anymore!

Next up?  Thanksgiving for 12.  You should see my ham.