Jumping off the Bridge

The road that leads into Pine and Featherville follows a winding path around the lake and eventually crosses it at the tip where a river empties into it. Every year when we pass over this bridge my kids talk about how Mommy, Uncle Michael and Uncle John used to jump off of this bridge. When we first told them we jumped off the bridge the water was about 40 feet lower and all you could see was the tiny creek which was coming into the river, they couldn't believe we would jump into that shallow water off of such a high bridge. We had to explain that the water was just down really low and we didn't jump when the lake wasn't full. Well, finally for the first time in almost 10 years the lake is full and the water is high enough to jump off the bridge. My kids noticed this right away even though we had been traveling for 16 hours by then and it was almost 10 PM but still dusk outside. I told them we could jump off one day while we were there and they were thrilled. When Michael got back with the boat we made another trip to the lake and started things off down at the bridge. Sheri, Lewis, my mom and I stayed in the boat while Michael took the kids to the bridge to supervise the jumping off point. He gets Griffin set up and starts to explain what to do and......bam...Griffin is off!

Griffin starts it all off by bailing in almost before I even got my camera ready. After all the kids jump once, Michael gives them a few tips on how not to smack the water so hard. He spends a good 5 minutes explaining things to Griffin like stand up straight, hold your life jacket, jump feet first, you know, the important things, so here is Griffin's 2nd jump..........

Quite the improvement wouldn't you say?! Yeah, that one hurt his face just a little!

Helen's 1st jump

Mary's 1st jump

Girls together--Grif was supposed to jump but he waited so he could jump alone...

Go Willow!

Not a chance of this guy jumping! Ced just says NO!

Lewis was so mad we wouldn't let him jump off the bridge. He kept saying MY JUMP and he was not impressed we didn't let his 2 year old self throw his body off the bridge, maybe when he's 3? We did let him jump off the boat so he did get plenty of water time.

This was our second adventure to the lake, this time with the boat and new jetski. Cedric didn't go for the jumping but he was all for wakeboarding! He did a fantastic job. We also had a tube which was a total blast and when Sheri and I rode I thought we were going to laugh ourselves right off the tube it was so much fun. Unfortunately my camera battery died just after Ced got done wakeboarding so no tube pictures and only 1 of the jetski. It was a super fun day and we didn't eat dinner until 10 PM because we were having too much fun!

Hiking Willow Creek

Grammy and Pap came up to Idaho for the last 5 days of our stay there. We always have fun with them and this time was no exception. Pap wanted to take us up Willow Creek because there was a large fire up there last year and he wanted to see how much damage there was. It was a beautiful hike even with all of the fire damage. Most of where we hiked--2 miles up--was only burned on one side of the mountain. The fire hadn't crossed the creek and burned both sides.

Pap and Lew

Most of my pictures are of Lewis since I was bringing up the rear with him. He refused to be carried or let you hold his hand. Griffin age 6 and Ani age 5 both whined and wanted to be held and it was too far to walk etc but not Lewis he pitched a fit when I put him on my shoulders so we could catch up with the group. (He isn't the fastest hiker) We had a great time and it was such a beautiful hike, it is great to be out in nature.

Map

Stopped by the creek

The Handsome Prince

The whole gang--yes I like to match!! :>

Grammy and Pap

fire damage

Lew walked all the way, what a trooper

after the hike snack and water break

Featherville Fantasy

If anyone wants to rent a beautiful home on the Boise river for their family vacation, family reunion, family snowmobile trip or just to get away, in beautiful Featherville, Idaho please check this listing out.

When I tell people that my bother and his family live in a cabin in Idaho and their kids go to school in a 1 room school house they get little-house-on-the-prairie pictures in their head.

What I should say is that my bro lives in a luxury home on the south fork of the Boise river with views to die for and his kids get home schooled without Sheri or Michael doing the teaching. They have a school with the latest technology and a teacher and aide for 8 students. My niece and nephew's have excelled in everything having to do with school. Malcolm and 2 other students won a contest which netted them a free trip to South Africa in 2008 to discuss their environmental study with students from all over the world. Willow has been invited to Washington DC for a leadership conference this September. They have been living the dream with motorcycles and wakeboarding in the summer and snowmobiling and skiing in the winter and now they are willing to share it with others for a small fee. Don't worry about them, when they get people to rent their home they only have to go 1/4 mile down the road to this tiny shack and hang out there for a few days. It is one bummer of a life!

Swimmin at Anderson Ranch Reservoir

There is a lake about 10 miles south of Featherville, called Anderson Ranch Reservoir. It is really busy on the weekends but weekdays you only get a handful of boats, especially in June when it is still cold.

It was raining and cold the first 3 days we were up in Idaho, (seriously like 42 degrees in the mornings kind of cold) the river is running super high because of all of the run-off and with the additional rain this spring/summer the water is still really cold but the day it hit the 80's outside, we had to take the plunge and dive on in down at the lake. Once you got used to the water (aka numb) it was great. This is our non-motorized day with only the canoe since Michael had the boat up in McCall for a church outing. We swam and jumped off the dock and had lots of fun playing in the water.

We had the whole dock to ourselves and it was fantastic.

Look real close and you can see all the minnows....

Our little Men

Haircuts by Malcolm

While on our trip to Idaho, Griffin and Lewis both got haircuts by Malcolm. Lewis went with the regular shave-it-short look. Malcolm did a great job and Lewis loves having his haircut so he sits really still and loves to tell everyone "hair bye bye"!!

Griffin went for the extra special do. A sweet Mohawk for all to enjoy. We went to church 3 times with that beauty before I finally had Molly-Wally-Doodle cut it off in Mt. Pleasant. Malcolm loved giving the haircuts and Griffin looked sweeet with that do!!!

Totally AWESOME!

Frog Princess? Kiss her to find out!

Griffin loved Idaho. He had a great time catching frogs with his "best-friend-girl-friend" Anika. They do everything together. I am surprised that poor frog lived they played with her so much. I told Griffin to give it a smooch to see if it would turn into a princess. He did but no princess, maybe next time!

Vacation Over

Well after 26 days, 3137 miles, and 202.5 gallons of gas we have finally arrived back home.

We had a fantastic time with 15 days in Featherville, Idaho,

4 days in Orem/Lehi which included Stadium of Fire and the Freedom Festival,

3 days in Mt. Pleasant and
4 days at Lake Powell to cap it off.

We spent all of our time outside on our vacation because now we are stuck inside for the next 2 months or so. We came home to the summer season of Hell here in with a balmy temperature of 115 Fahrenheit or 46 Celsius the day we got home. Here is what we have to look forward to this week. Kinda makes me want to leave again!

4th of July--Girls meet Elder Holland

Yes--here in Provo, Utah, land of the Freedom Festival 4th of July Parade you just might run into an Apostle of the Lord.

How totally sweet is that?!?

Mary "Hello President Holland."
Elder Holland "Hello girls, (shake hands) are you sisters?"
Girls together "We're twins!"
Elder Holland-pulls down his sunglasses and takes a good look "Twins?! Well this one is a bit taller isn't she?! (while patting Helen on the head)
Girls giggling "Bye Bye, nice to meet you."

Girl in Black shirt came up while the girls were there and said Elder Holland I love you, you are my favorite speaker at conference, you're my favorite!"
Elder Holland replied "Well, you're my favorite too!"