Sunsets, Stalking, and a Shindig

The fun continued in Northern Idaho for the remainder of this week, and when we got home on Thursday, we just kept the party going!!

We went parasailing over Lake Coeur d'Alene on Tuesday evening, and it was so beautiful both on the boat and far, far above the boat. 

This was a nice aerial view of Tubbs Hill, our next stop after the parasailing cruise was over. 

It's traditional for the pilot of the boat to "dip" the parasailing guests' feet in the water as they are reeled back down to the deck stern. It takes a certain skill level to do it oh-so-gently and to not completely drench and dunk the guests, ha ha. 

Click here for the video of us coming down for our little "dip":

https://photos.app.goo.gl/1FXLNS2oPAMCu9g68 

And then here is the video of us coming down the rest of the way to land safely back on the boat:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/QdWXaJo19ggJ5Hgn6

If you're wondering how I got a video and pictures without dropping my phone into the lake, well that is an excellent question. I used the same watertight pouch on the lanyard around my neck that I used while on the jet ski. It worked like a charm! 

One of the other passengers on the boat was kind enough to take some pictures of us coming down. I had loaned him my waterproof phone protector when he went up, so he was very, very grateful! 

Taking our gear off . . . and then we just sat back and enjoyed the rest of the cruise around the lake while a few other passengers went up and took their turn.

Here is where we came back to the docks at Independence Point.

From there, we walked slightly east of the docks over to the trailhead at Tubbs Hill. We wanted to hike around the entire hill before dark. We barely made it! The sun was setting fast!!

The 2 mile loop had plenty of uphill trail, mixed with climbing over rocks and intricate footing. It was very scenic and quiet, although muggy and somewhat strenuous at times.

As we came around the back side, we were in quite a hurry to beat the darkness that was settling in. 

And we even had to use the flashlights on our cellphones for the last 10 minutes or so of the trail. Here we were coming around the horn, back where we could see the CDA Resort once again. What a relief!

The next day, Wednesday, Scott finished his training a little later than we expected. He had two days of online training on how to be an online educator during the school year. The first day, the classes ended a little earlier than we anticipated, which was great! But Wednesday, he didn't get done until 4:00 p.m. 

We headed over to see my sister-in-law, Stephanie Snider, and her two cute little boys, Jaxon (5) and Logan (2) one more time while we were in the area. They live in Post Falls, ID. My brother, Michael, was away on work related business in Missoula, Montana, so we didn't get to hug him before we left Northern Idaho. But we sure enjoyed visiting with him earlier in the week on Monday!

After we left Post Falls, we found some tasty Mexican food for dinner and then headed back to Lake Coeur d'Alene. We had hoped to squeeze in some paddle boarding or kayaking around Tubbs Hill, but it was too late in the day and everything on the docks was closed. 

So we went for a walk instead. There is a beautiful park and campus along the north side of the lake (North Idaho College), with plenty of activities for everyone: basketball courts, a big performing stage, volleyball nets, sandy beaches, trees galore, and beautiful homes to gape at. We started down the trail and just walked and walked until the sun went down and it turned to dusk once again. Then we turned around and came back the same way.

The quality of homes along the edge of the lake . . .

Thursday, we started our long drive back home to Idaho Falls. We opted to take a slightly different route this time, turning south on Hwy 1 (east of Missoula) so that we could take a scenic byway that took us to Philipsburg, Montana. The main reason: to see if we could find Kelly Clarkson's ranch, ha ha. (We are big fans of hers)

I had done quite a bit of sleuthing already, and had some good information to begin with. We stopped for lunch in Philipsburg and I asked the waitress if she knew much about Kelly's ranch. "Yes!" the waitress said, "She lives pretty close to my place!" And then she proceeded to give us clarification and important details on where to look. (Sadly, Kelly and her husband got a divorce this summer - irreconcilable differences. But we still love her and think she's doing some pretty great things!)

Downtown Philipsburg: (a very tiny town)

My lunch of Huckleberry BBQ pulled pork and sweet potato fries . . .

Then we went across the street to a darling and very old-fashioned candy store.

They had just about everything under the sun in way of candies! Gummy everything: butterflies, bullfrogs, tools (hammers, saws, etc.), and a bunch more that I can't remember right now! They had dozens and dozens of flavors of taffy, and even had some hard candies that were dill pickle flavored! I bought a few of those to send to Benson in Italy. He loves pickles!

Everything was by the pound. You just fill up your bag(s) and bring it up to the register when you're done.

They also had several types of fudge up front. I didn't buy any fudge though, I was already pretty loaded down with my giant bag o' candy! :)

 

Then, we pushed onward toward home, keeping a sharp eye out for Kelly's ranch on the way, per our instructions. :)

This is approximately where Kelly's Vintage Valley Ranch is, off in the somewhat near distance.

Just a couple of miles past the area of Kelly Clarkson's ranch, we went up a very steep grade. It was incredibly beautiful! Right behind that big green pine tree was a gorgeous waterfall, just cascading down the canyon! But with all the twists and turns and not much time to get my camera opened up and ready on my cellphone, this was the best that I could do.

I'm showing you how high up we were, not only because of the view, but also because of what we saw next.

At the top of the mountain was a huge lake!! We were so surprised at its location! But it was so beautiful! It's called Echo Lake, just one in a string of several lakes on the way towards Anaconda, Montana. 

As we got closer to Anaconda, we noticed a lot of smoke and haze in the air. Turns out it's from all the fires in CA. We get our weather from the SW, and that's where all the major fires are right now. I'm sad that CA gets pummeled so badly year after year. Especially when much of my family and loved ones are still living there.

This was the view just south of Anaconda, MT along the interstate.

But we made it home in good time and had a lovely reunion with Amber and Weston and the girls that evening. The girls were especially excited to raid the giant bag of candy that I brought home to share.

Friday night, Jacob and Hannah arrived pretty late, but after a good night of sleep we started the partying Saturday morning. And we partied pretty hard, ha ha!

Firstly, the whole family had collaborated together to get me a very special birthday gift. So I got to open that up right after breakfast. :)

I was pretty surprised! It's so beautiful! And it will allow me to make and bake more things without worrying about my forearms being in pain, ha ha. Maybe that will free up some ability to paint and do even more home improvement projects . . .

Then we went out to shoot some guns. We went out west of Idaho Falls, on Hwy. 20, just a couple miles outside of town. The only picture we didn't get was of Weston shooting his rifle. Darn it. :(

Me:

Jacob and Hannah:

Jacob and Scott:

And Amber:

The rest of the day was spent mostly in doing food prep for our big dinner party that evening. We invited some friends and family over to welcome Scott home. Amber made many, many, many pounds of pork carnitas that were so delicious and amazing! (She reported this morning that she even dreamt most of the night that she was still shredding pork!!)

I made a triple batch of cilantro sweet rice and helped chop and prepare the side dishes.

Jacob and Hannah made a huge batch of mango salsa that was out of this world delicious.

My mother-in-law brought a variety of fresh fruits.

Weston made a burnt cheesecake. Yes, that's what it's called and it's the best dessert you'll ever have!

And I made a German Chocolate cake, with homemade pecan-coconut frosting. 

Hannah and Jacob needed a power nap in the middle of the afternoon. I was a tiny bit jealous, but happy for them. :)

From the left: Jacob, Hannah, Scott, Bishop Erik Larsen and his daughter Jessie and son Sam, and then Scott's parents Coy and Phil.

From the left: Bishop and kids, Coy and Phil, Weston, Abby and Gwen, Andrea Garner, and then in the foreground Amber is talking to the the bishop's wife, Meigin. (pronounced My-Gin)

From the left: Coy and Phil in the foreground, Amber in the background, then the Vances - Barb and Peter, and Hannah and Jacob.

Sorry Bishop, I didn't mean to get such a poor picture of you! Behind him on the left is Scott's childhood friend, Rich Garner, in the blue shirt.

From the left: Weston, Scott, Andrea Garner, Amber and Meigin Larsen.

The Bishop's daughter, Linzie, is buddies with Abby. They are so cute together! I gave them some glow stick necklace materials and they had a ton of fun creating shapes and decorations to wear. They had a blast running around the yard together and playing while all the grown-ups visited until 10:00 p.m.

It was such a great evening spent with all of our company. They are such good people. We are so lucky to have such wonderful friends in the neighborhood or nearby, and to have Scott's parents so close, too. What a fun night!

Today, after church, we called Benson and Kylie to check in with them. I'm so glad we did! Benson was busy packing to head off to England by tomorrow morning (Monday) for some training with the Air Force. Every other training has been canceled in recent months, but this one is a GO! He will be at Lakenheath Royal Air Force Base (near Cambridge, England) for about one full month. He was excited and eager to do some training outside his usual shop on the base in Aviano. He said that about one half of the staff was selected to go on this training adventure, so he felt honored to be part of the 50% that was chosen.

Here he was showing us a picture of a jet engine spark plug that he was packing into his jet engine "doctor bag". Pretty Ginormous! 

Chatting with me as he packed his stuff . . .

I wanted a picture of him and Kylie together, so Benson said he had just the photo. They took this one while together on a little hike recently in Italy. I sure love those two!

And that's it! The rest of the day we just hung out, lounged around, ate leftovers, and played some games. Weston left to drive down to Ogden, Utah to start his next rotation tomorrow. He's confident that he will be able to come up here most weekends and spend time with his family.

Then Jacob and Hannah left to drive back down to Provo. 

Scott and I went on a short walk, and then I've been typing away on this blog, ha ha.

Oh, and I ate burnt cheesecake with strawberries and blueberries for my dinner. I consider it to be very healthy! It's got lots of eggs, and with the fresh fruit, voila! A beautiful meal of choice.

This week we have more family rolling into town, so there will be more to share in my next post. 

Until then, be sure to enjoy every.single.day. Pause to reflect, to connect, to listen, to feel. Whatever that needs to be.