Our August Trip to Priest Lake

We just returned last night from our annual, August trip to Priest Lake. We make this trip every year without Ron since he is always back to school full-time by now. Usually, this is our "family reunion" in the summer, but Hawaii took the place of it. As a result, only a few other people were able to join us since a lot of the grandkids had to attend high school band camps, were participating in EFY, or needed to stay home and work to earn money for college. We are definitely starting to see a change in summer availability as so many of the grandchildren are now in high school and even college.  Besides the grandparents, Brent and Kelsey came over from Montana for our first weekend there.  In addition, Natalee was able to join us for most of the week with her three youngest and Bryce.  Our small group had a lot of fun amidst the crazy amounts of smoke in the air that had come down from the fires in Canada.  We enjoyed the usual activities of swimming, skiing, playing games, eating, and just enjoying cousin time.  Luckily, my three kids match up really well with Riley and Trenton which made for some great times although most of the family was absent this trip.

Since Sunday, August 19th, turned out to be the smokiest day of the week (we couldn't even see the other side of the lake!), the kids were not in a hurry to get down to the beach in the morning.  As a result, I helped them make an epic, blanket fort that took up most of the catwalk upstairs.

Ella and Lia playing in their section of the fort.

Logan and Trenton doing the same.

Although we could see the other side of the lake on Monday, August 20th, it was still pretty smokey.  However, it made for a beautiful sunset that night with a red/orange sun setting over the mountains.

The little and big kids enjoyed playing some games throughout the week.  Here are the little ones playing, "Pop the Pig!"

Tuesday and Wednesday, August 21st and 22nd, were our best days with very little smoke.  The kids all enjoyed playing in the water and at the beach for several hours. Here are Trenton and Logan paddling around on the inner tube that always ends up getting tied to the dock.

Cute Lia cruising around on the paddle board.

This is the first trip ever that Logan started jumping off the dock and swimming around without his life jacket.  After Trenton saw Logan doing this, he started doing the same thing.  It was pretty fun to see these little boys swimming like the big kids.

Ella decided to do some action shots for me after running down the gang plank.  Look at those straight legs and pointed toes.  I need to get this girl in gymnastics this school year.

Here's another shot we got.

Recently, Ella has fallen in love with Riley and enjoys wrestling with him.  Riley is so nice and always just tolerates this abundance of affection.  Here she is attacking him on the dock.

Riley standing up with Ella on his back.

Another exciting thing that happened this trip was Lia and Callie finally learning how to dive.  Although I have worked on diving with Lia the past few summers, it has never quite clicked.  But one afternoon, I was able to talk both Lia and Callie through it and they did it!  As a result, the two of them were constantly diving the rest of the week.  Here are Lia, Callie, Riley, and Bryce all lined up to dive in the water.

And here they go!

All four kids diving in the water.

Although it was a much smaller group this summer, grandma still agreed to plan a scavenger hunt for all of the kids to enjoy.  Natalee and I helped the younger set while the older set was on their own.  Here are Logan and Trenton climbing around a ladder to find one of their clues.

Natalee helping the kids find a clue on the sundial.

Trenton and Ella running off to find another clue.

The big kids reading a clue found in the neighbor's wood shed.

All the kiddos with their loot after the hunt was complete!

Riley and Lia enjoyed some tubing one afternoon.

Riley showing off and kneeling while the two were tubing.

Since Bryce is fascinated with all things electronic, he often times ended up in the boat listening to music.  One afternoon, this evolved into a spontaneous dance party with all of the grandchildren.  It was absolutely hilarious.

Ella busted out some of the funniest moves while standing on the back of the boat.

Trenton rocking out in the front of the boat.

Lia was able to go skiing every morning while we were there.  It has been so fun to watch her participate in this sport this summer.

Another shot of Lia on the glassy water.

Most of the kids hanging out in the bow of the boat.

Lia went tubing with Callie another afternoon.  Here they are being pulled past the dock at the beginning of their ride.

And finishing up afterwards!

Logan has always loved this green bucket that has a funny, shower head attachment.  Although he has used it for various things over the years, he discovered a new purpose this summer and offered "dockside hair washing" services for any willing customer.  Here Logan is washing grandpa's head off before heading out on his afternoon swim.

Another shot of this funny, dockside scene.  For some reason, it was the funniest to watch Logan rinse grandpa's hair.

By Thursday, August 23rd, the smoke had returned a quite a bit.  Natalee and the kids left this day, so we spent a more quiet afternoon at the beach with just the grandparents.  I realized that I had not had a single picture taken of me all week long, so I finally asked grandma to take this photo to record my presence on this trip. :-)

Lia and me in the water together.

Touching toes!

Logan and Ella spent a bit of time on Thursday afternoon building little houses in the sand.  It was so cute to see what they had come up with!  That evening after dinner, we began packing up and doing our cleaning after deciding to drive home a day early.  Between the smoke returning, the cousins leaving, and feeling like we had been gone most of the summer, the kids and I decided that we would rather go home a day early to see papa.  And, so with that said, we headed out Friday morning, August 24th, to make the long trip home grateful for another wonderful, smokey week at Priest Lake!