We're Back from Priest Lake!

*Warning* This will be a hugely long post. I'm trying to make it a trip journal, so it will be very over-descriptive and packed with pictures!
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Mon 7/19: We packed into our van and started our long road trip towards vacation. Because of work, we had to leave Justin at home. We also had to leave my sister Marissa, her fiance, Brandon, and my brother Kevin at home for work. So our trip was me, Carrie, my parents and my 15 year old brother Jake (who just got his learner's permit a month ago).
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Jake made it his personal mission on the trip to drive in as many states as possible. I think over the course of the trip he got Arizona, Utah, Idaho, Montana and Washington. Pretty good I'd say :)
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Monday we drove for 10 hours and stopped for the night in Fillmore, Utah at our Grandma Shupe's. Carrie was a little fussy the first day, but her Grandma (my mom) gave in pretty quickly and let her have her binky and her "B" pretty much anytime we were in the car.
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Tuesday 7/20: We made it into American Fork, Utah to visit my Uncle Dan's family, but they weren't even home. Luckily, they ended up coming to Priest Lake a few days late so we still got to see them (they weren't originally planning on coming). Tuesday afternoon we made it to Idaho Falls to my Aunt Leslie's house. She treated us really well with homemade cherry cobbler, homemade ice cream and a few ping pong tournaments.
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*(Also a side note, on Tuesday, we found out Justin's sister Danielle is having a baby girl!! We're so excited to have another niece in December!)
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Wednesday 7/21: We made a short little caravan with my Uncle David's family and started the official drive to Priest Lake. We made several stops along the way, mostly to eat or get treats. By this point in the trip Carrie had pretty much given up fighting being in the car. It worked out pretty well for all of us, she was relaxed, and we didn't have to hear her whine or try too hard to keep her entertained. (Although we did have several toys, puzzles and sing-a-longs of "Monkeys jumping on the bed")
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We stopped at a campground called Tarkio Wednesday night and following tradition, put pennies on the railroad track to get smushed. Luckily I laid out extra pennies (about 10) because when we went to get them the next morning, I think we only found 4. Just enough for all the little kids that were there.
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My dad and Jake in the tunnel on the way to the train tracks
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Thursday 7/22: A few more hours of driving finally brought us to Priest Lake! It's awesome! We are totally camping in the woods (pine trees, squirrels, campfires etc.), but a 3 minute walk from the campsite brings you to the beach! The lake is pretty cold, but you get used to it pretty quickly. We checked out the beach when we got there and Carrie was ready to dive right in. She loved walking along in the shallow water getting sandy and splashing. My parents rented a big trailer for us to stay in.
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Friday 7/23: (Carrie's Half-Birthday! 18 months, yeah!! Quick time-jump to a few days after getting home: Carrie's check-up. Weight: 20lbs, about the 1st percentile.... Height: 31.5 inches, 45th percentile.)Anyways, back to Friday at Priest Lake- Our first full day on the beach.
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Carrie loved to sit and play with shovels and buckets in the sand.
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She liked the water too, but lucky me, she never tried to just run in on her own. She'd get about to her shins and then she'd reach up and behind her for someone to hold her hand so she could go in a little further. I think eventually she got in up to her armpits, but she usually preferred to play right on the beach with water only on her legs.
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Cute little sandy tooshie
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Floating in the little tube was not her favorite thing.
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But this one seemed to be ok
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This one was our favorite. It had mesh in the bottom so we could still get wet, but not soaked.
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I told myself I needed to get a "base" of color before I applied sunscreen. I got many "I told you so" looks later that night. I. Got. Fried... It did eventually fade and turn a little tan, but it was really really painful for a few days.
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Jake got a little excited with the sunscreen
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Carrie and her 4th cousin London. (Yes, we figured it out... they're 4th cousins)
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The big Priest Lake "wahoo" though, isn't the camping or the lake. It's the CANDY WAGON. We literally have a wagon on the beach that is FULL of candy. All the time. My uncle Brad described the candy wagon pretty well. He said, "The only rule about the candy wagon is kids can have whatever they want, as much as they want, any time they want and adults aren't allowed to say anything about it." I amended the rule with, "If you puke, you have to wait 10 minutes before you come back for more."Carrie's mode of transportation to and from the beach was the candy wagon. Fun, fun, fun. :)
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That's a dum-dum sucker in her mouth.
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She found the perfect sized walking stick
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Saturday 7/24: I can't remember anything specific about this day, it was probably very similar to Friday. Although, since I can't think of any activities from this day, I'll throw in a little about "the parachute".
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Between my mom's siblings, their kids and a few friends, we had 37 people this year. We eat all of our meals together and take turns cooking. We gather all the picnic tables from the campsites, bring them to one site, hoist an actual parachute over the top and vio-la! Instant eating area! The gathering of tables is also a very handy place to play card or board games at night.
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Sunday 7/25: On Sundays, we don't go to the beach, or out on the boats. After breakfast we had "church". We combined with my great-uncle Thad's family (about the same number of people) under the parachute for our meeting. It usually only lasts about 30 minutes; sing a song, say a prayer, have a speaker (this year is was my cousin Jared who had recently returned from a mission to Russia), and close.
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In past years, we usually would have a water fight in camp after church. (Kind of defeats the purpose of not going to the beach, I know) We decided that nobody really likes it and it's usually only the kids about ages 7-11 and my great-aunt Jean (age 80) who participate, so we decided to for-go it.This year, we had a different fun activity for the afternoon. We drove to a cedar grove and went on a hike.
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My mom caught a picture of me being so tired, my belly was totally pooching out...
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I don't know how long the actual trail was, but it felt like 10 miles (I'm sure it was probably only like 2). By the top of the trail, Carrie was hungry and tired... Poor thing. Good thing Grandpa (my dad) was there to carry her most of the way.
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At the top of our trail we got to a tree that took 6 adults stretched fingertip to fingertip to wrap around its trunk. (You can only see 4 people in my picture, but you get the idea, HUGE!)
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At the bottom of the trail, we were dipping our feet in a nice cool creek when a deer walked by, not even 20 feet away. Sorry my picture's a little blurry, but I wasn't expecting it :)
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Monday and Tuesday were pretty much the same stuff, hanging out at the beach, exploring the campsite (with Carrie wearing her new monkey backpack *[leash]*) Luckily, she loved to wear it around and feel independent all the while actually being very much safer than she would have been without it.
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"I'm wearing the monkey! Let's go outside!"
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My cousin Cody jumping off the pole of the dock (a small rite-of-passage thing for the 5-6-7 year olds)
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Dirty dirty dirty feet!!
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Getting her nightly bath in the teeny tiny trailer bathtub
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Wednesday 7/28: We got to go on a little kid joyride on the boat. One of my cousins took us and some of the little kids out on the lake and made sure to go over plenty of waves and make lots of little turns to make the kids giggle. I'm not quite sure what Carrie thought of it. She wasn't laughing, but she definitely wasn't crying. I think she was probably thinking "What is going on? It's really windy. Where are we?"
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Thursday 7/29: The last day at Priest Lake is always sad. We clean out the candy wagon, take down the parachute and wish we could stay longer. Carrie and I were definitely excited to be heading back home to Justin. I really wish he could have gone.
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Super-trendy city girl, all cleaned up and ready to go home
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Friday 7/30: One big long driving day (11 hours) from Priest Lake all the way to Idaho Falls. Really, the only good thing was stopping in Dillon, Idaho at the Dairy Queen (tradition..., you have to)
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Saturday 7/31: We hung out at my Grandparents' and Uncle Brian & Aunt Janet's house most of the morning. My parents wanted to get their laundry done before they got home because the school year starts here this week (my mom's a teacher). We left right after lunch and made it to Fillmore, Utah for dinner.
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Our plan was to drive to Kanab, and stop at a hotel for the night. When we got to Kanab around 9:30, we tried several hotels only to find out that there were absolutely NO vacancies. In the whole town. 13 hotels, motels, lodges, inns etc... Nothing. (By now, Carrie had decided that quietly suffering the drive wasn't enough anymore. Most of the day was spent with constant whimper-whines and about a 3 second attention span for any toy/book/song distraction. Although, Anastasia on DVD did seem to work for a little while)
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So we kept driving. Another hour later we were in Page, Arizona. 15 hotels etc... Nothing... It looked like we were going to have to keep going further. One very helpful hotel desk clerk was calling around town for my dad so we wouldn't have to stop and check everywhere, and hallelujah!- One hotel in town had just a couple of rooms left. We got one! Goodnight!!
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Sunday 8/1: We pulled into my parents house about 2:30 in the afternoon and unloaded their stuff. Carrie was definitely NOT excited to get back in the car to go the 45 more minutes to our house. It was heaven to get home though! Justin had just gotten back from church and was ready and anxiously waiting to greet us! After a round of hugs and kisses, he unloaded everything out of the van for me and made us frozen waffles for dinner. :)
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Justin also had a suprise waiting for me when I got home. He not only had vacuumed the whole house (which was greatly appreciated), but even more so,... He got rid of ALL the weeds in the backyard! This may not sound very amazing to some people, but the weeds were literally as tall as the fence in some places! And they were SUPER prickly. So, thanks babe :)
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I'm insanely proud of myself because by Monday at 1:00pm, I had done four loads of laundry, folded them and put them away, unpacked ALL our things from the trip, dusted the house, Carrie was down for a nap, a homemade frozen lasagna (yeah freezer meals!) was thawing on the counter for dinner, and I got to sit on the couch with a chocolate snack pack and watch a Tivo'd episode of Project Runway that Justin had saved for me. :)
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Now that it's taken me 3 full days to write this post, I think I'll take a break. We had tons of fun, but we're glad to be home.