This was the first summer that I have scaled back with blogging. Normally I am busting out projects left and right and posting all the time. My oldest is a senior this year and this could very well be my last, full summer with him at home for awhile so I wanted to make the most of it. I feel lucky that I am my own boss and can make that kind of decision (even if it does affect my income). One of my favorite things we were able to do as a family was visit McCall, Idaho. There is a beautiful lake called Payette Lake and a charming little town with shops. It has been called "Idaho's best kept secret".
It is a resort town so there are plenty of hotels, shopping, and outdoor activities. We love camping so we stayed at the Ponderosa campground. It was right on the lake and had plenty of docks for my boys to fish off of.
My favorite thing we did was go canoeing. I LOVE canoeing. Only a couple of my boys had been before so it was fun to teach them. The water is crystal clear. We went up the river that feeds into the lake. My boys thought it was cool to be able to see the fish swimming around. We rented our canoes from a place called Backwoods Adventures. They also had kayaks and stand-up paddle boards. My kids liked the paddleboards as well.
While there are several good beaches along the lake's shore, our favorite was the North Beach. It is a beautiful drive (about 20 minutes from the campground). There was plenty of shade and was shallow enough for the kids to swim out pretty far.
The boys skimmed boarded, floated on tubes, body boarded, and dove to look for "treasure".
They also took turns burying each other in the sand.
There's a trail near the campground where you can go to pick huckleberries. If you have never had fresh huckleberries, you are missing out!
The campground was also covered in this beautiful moss. I brought some home to use for an upcoming project.
Speaking of upcoming projects, I have gotten behind on sharing the things I did this summer. I will get these posted as soon as I can write up the tutorials. I have had a hard time getting back into the groove of blogging after summer break. But the kids are back in school and I plan on buckling down and getting caught up!
This is also canning season so I will be balancing my time between bottling and blogging. I'll be sharing a Canning 101 blog post too!
Tell me about your summer and the upcoming projects you have planned! If you have any projects you want me to tackle or any questions about canning, let me know!
What a fun trip! Enjoy this next year with your son. This summer was probably the last with our youngest of the five. She’s at her university’s career fair today, in fact, looking for internships for next summer. Her next oldest sister was interning in CO this summer so we went to see her. We hiked in RMNP and had a blast! I wanted to learn how to can so I’ll be following along in your Canning 101.
Thanks for the beautiful post - your family is gorgeous! I am glad you had such a good time.
Enjoyed this post. It is so important to spent time with the family. Children grow up so fast though when they are babies that seems a long way off!!