Our family decided to go to Hayden Lake, Idaho again this summer. Remember when we went there, about 4 years ago? Click here to see. Lily at one point said, "So, are we going to come back here again in another 4 years? I'll be 13 then!" Crazy to think Lily was Olivia's age last time we were here. Time flies so fast.
We wanted to get away somewhere this summer, and when we were looking for places on the awesome website VRBO.com, there were just so many good deals at this lake. We remembered how much we loved it last time, so when we saw this place for such a good deal, we decided to go with it. The owner is a very friendly man, and he offered us the use of his boat for the whole week as well, for another really great deal, a fraction of what they offered at the Marina in town. It was a huge bonus that he brought the boat to his place and we didn't have to tow it down or anything like that.
Well, we left Edmonton at the crack 'o' dawn, literally. It was 4:00 am. We wanted to try to get there at 2 pm, and we figured this gave us about 11 hrs. We carried the kids into the van in their pjs and they changed later along the way. We went down through Calgary, through the Crowsnest Pass, down through Sparwood and Fernie. And then, the plan was to go to Cranbrook and cross the border there, but we actually crossed the border a bit earlier, it was somewhere closer to Fernie. Anyway, we ended up in Libby, Montana, and then had to trek our way back to Bonner's Ferry, Idaho, where we were supposed to go originally. AHHHH, oh well. It added about another 2 hours onto the drive.
The kids were amazing, actually, the whole way....
We were SO happy to finally arrive! The owner left the door open for us and was going to meet us later with the boat. We were all so excited to check the place out:
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| It is actually a carriage suite, an apartment like place over a garage. I guess the owner and his wife plan to build an actual house in front of this down the way. Until then, they just rent this place out. It has 2 bedrooms and then he converted one of the little garages into another bedroom. The place slept about 6-7 people in total. |
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| Lovely kitchen and dining |
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| Fun living room for movies and chillaxin' |
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| Lily enjoying the bed in our master bedroom. The views from this room were beautiful. |
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| This was the converted bunkroom from a garage. It had it's own little tv and he had a tonne of movies. He had Star Wars! The original 3 episodes. The girls actually got to watch all of them throughout the course of the week, and fell in love! They all love R2D2 the most. They think he is "so cute!" |
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| And here was the 2nd bedroom. It was really more like a little office, but it had a pull out bed and a door, so it was all we needed! The girls all took turns sleeping everywhere and changed it all up every night. |
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| The deck with BBQ. |
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| They LOVED this little dinner bell and constantly rang it. |
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| This is the view of the cabin on the other side, facing the lake. So many garages! 5 in total. |
We were most excited to check out the lake and dock area! He had this little deck area, and then you had to walk down these steps to get to their beach.
The sandy beach area was actually pretty nice. Last time we were here there was so much algae close to the shore, and even around the docks, but not this time. None at all in fact. He said they treated the lake a couple of years before and it has been really clean since. There was a tonne of seaweed though, in the water between our beach and our dock. So the girls did not swim there at all, just on the other side of the dock. But they didn't mind paddling a kayak through it.
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| Me and Olivia getting ready to go out |
The girls had fun kayaking and swimming while we waited for the owner to bring his boat in.
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| It was beautiful weather all week. It thunderstormed 2 nights, and one of the mornings, but then heated up later in the day. That day we just went into town to go shopping. |
Ben loved driving it. He said it was really powerful and cut through choppy water effortlessly. Actually the owner said he was out once on another boat that did not cut through wakes and waves very well, and he saw a boat like this one and was so impressed with how it cut through the water, it inspired him to buy one like it.
The front of the boat actually could be folded out into a flat bed. We just left it like that the entire time, it was so fun to lay out on it.
There was actually a toilet on the boat! The girls thought it was hilarious. It wasn't set up for use though, they just liked to laugh at it every now and then.
Well, our Lily was the most daring and brave girl. She LOVED running off the dock and jumping in the water! She did it so much! Then on Tuesday morning, she woke up with a terrible earache. She was in pain and not feeling well. So Ben took her into town to an Urgent Care Center. It cost us $100, just to see the doctor. Our insurance reimbursed us once we got back to Canada. The doctor said she had a really bad ear infection, and all the water could have really irritated it, or have even caused it. So we had to get her antibiotics to take everyday (those were actually only about $3) and the doctor also said she was no longer allowed to put her head under water, until the pain went away. It kind of put a damper in Lily's adventurous jumping, but she still had fun. She still swam and went on tube rides, she was just careful to not go under.
Izzy jumped in a lot too, but the other two only carefully waded in!
Even Olivia learned how to handle and paddle one on her own:
The girls loved exploring, and one day found this blob of gelatinous mass sitting on the beach. They named it Bob the Blob. We were later told by our friendly neighbours that is was a blob of fish eggs.
Ben took the girls kayaking to our old place that we stayed at 4 years ago. It was actually literally just around the corner. They came back with some lily pad flowers.
Some random head shots of all the girls:
The hike back up to the place was good exercise:
Always nice to relax:
There was a whole bunch of board games and card games to play. Apples to Apples was everyone's first choice.
Everyday ended like this--exhausted and happy children who slept very well....
Our days were filled with tonnes of fun boating, tubing, and swimming. Ben let each of the girls take turns driving the boat:
Fun times riding the boat:
It was fun to lay on the front while in motion!
One of my favorite things to do was drive out to the middle of the lake, turn the boat off, and jump off!
Me and Lily hold hands:
The water was so warm! We are so used to Lake Summerside, and Long Island Lake here in Alberta that are so cold in comparison. When you jump into an Alberta lake, it takes your breath away for a minute it is so cold, even on hotter days. Here, the water is lukewarm, and so nice to swim in!
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| Beautiful sights of mountains all around. Hayden Lake is in a kind of valley, and so there was hardly any wind. The water was so smooth and mercury-like most days. |
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| Lily got some photos of Ben and I jumping in together! |
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| Not the most flattering picture of us, but it was oh so fun! |
Tubing was awesome!!!!! We thought about maybe renting a knee board or something else, but the girls were only interested in tubing. I think Izzy may have liked to try out a knee board, but then the Marina didn't have one to rent, and so we just tubed! Fun fun!
Chloe and Lily "surfing" the tube:
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Getting ready to go out...
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| She looks a tad nervous, haha. She loved it though |
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| All smiles |
We actually saw so much wildlife. About a dozen deer, right outside our window! One day they were right up next to our van. It actually made me so nervous as we drove on the super winding road to the cabin. I was so worried a deer would jump out! And then, one day we saw a MOOSE standing on the side of the winding road! And then a few days later, another moose. Crazy. Last time we came here, I didn't see one deer or moose. There were also some turkeys, and blue herons. They were very beautiful.
Sunday we went to church in the town of Hayden. There is actually an entire Stake in Hayden, which is so surprising because it is such a small, dinky town. The ward was a good size, and I of course, noticed that the Primary was a really good size too. It looked about as big as ours, and the one leader said that a lot of people happened to be away that week too. It was nice to attend RS. I sat next to a girl who actually knew someone from Edmonton, and when I asked who, it was someone I knew from an old ward of mine a few years ago. Small world.
After church we went into Coeur d'Alene to walk the floating boardwalk there. Hayden is only about 20 min away.
Ben asked me to take a picture of this guy driving his ATV on a city road with his dog on the back. Ben said to caption this photo, "Only in 'Merica." haha!
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| I think it is so crazy how nobody wears helmets in the States!!!! We saw people on motorcycles on the highways with NO helmets. Crazy! |
Coeur d'Alene Lake was so busy that day! It was crazy hot that day. And we were fully clothed and so of course it seemed that much hotter. It was still really fun to walk around.
They had this restaurant on a ferry boat, and there was parachute sailing going on. Is that what you call this?
The floating boardwalk was cool. So long. There were lots of boats and jet skis out.
They had this old fashioned boat show going on that day. A lot of old, wooden boats out on display. They were pretty cool. Now-a-days the boats are all made of fiberglass.
The girls liked this one the best:
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| They had huge boats and yachts like the ones you see in the background for sale. One had the price on it....$575,000!!!! Hmmmm, should we buy a real house, or a yacht? Crazy. |
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| The girls loved to eat out on the deck on the little table they had there. |
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| There were actually children who lived on both sides of our cabin. Well, they didn't live, there, they vacationed there. On one side, it was an older couple who did actually live there year round, and their grandkids came to visit a couple days. They were 2 boys about Izzy and Lily's age. Our girls of course, were really shy around them and not so social, because they're BOYS....which is just fine by us. On the other side though, there was an older couple who had owned that place for like 30 years, and so their kids and grandkids would come out quite a bit. Well, their grandkids were 2 girls, Lily and Chloe's ages, and so naturally, our kids were drawn to them. They played together a lot, and really kept each other quite occupied. The dad at one point said to us, "You don't happen to have any teenage boys over there do you?" They had one teenage son who had no one to hang out with and was a little bored I guess. Haha, it was funny. In this photo above, they are catching fish with buckets. They actually caught one! And then it jumped out and flopped its way back into the lake. It was pretty cool. |
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| Having fun with the neighbours |
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| Pulling in their sisses |
Tubing, tubing, all day long. The girls had fun mixing up their partners.
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| Izzy and Lily got a little air here and I got it on camera. It was not easy to capture that on camera! |
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| Lovin it |
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| ta da! Chloe and Lily |
I actually drove the boat a couple of times so that Ben could have a turn. This photo below was taken right before he got dumped into the lake! The girls luckily stayed in. He asked me how fast I was going, and I was so embarrassed because I actually had no idea! I wasn't even paying attention to the speedometer at all. Let's just say my driving greatly improved over the week. By the end I gave Ben some really fun rides that weren't too fast or too slow. I was even able to get him some air at some points.
Our feeble attempt at a family selfie on the boat:
The neighbours had these awesome diving towers off their dock. This one and then another smaller one. Here is Lily having fun jumping off them. These were all taken before her ear infection set in:
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| Pencil Dive. She also did the Ballerina Dive, the Old Lady Dive, and of course....the CANON BALL |
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| Hi! |
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| Canon Ball Ben |
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| Here I am having a go. I really do not like heights at all, and so this was a pretty big deal for me. This was my one and only time jumping off. Izzy, Chloe and Olivia never did it at all! |
Here's a pic of Ben jumping off again one day, when I had the better camera out. You can see, this was an especially beautiful day, with glass like water. Ben wanted me to caption this shot, "Breaking the glass."
The girls were all a little scared to go tubing at first, but very quickly warmed up to it. Here is Olivia and I having a go.
Izzy loved to sit in the middle on her own and wave her hands around and dance around:
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| look Ma! No hands! |
Chloe has always been our most apprehensive child to try new things. This was her first time trying out a tube, and she was NOT happy. She started crying right away and wanted it to end right away. Well, the next couple of photos show how she totally warmed up to tubing, and LOVED it! Really, by the next day, she was begging for rides. She only liked to go with someone though. She didn't like to be on a solo ride.
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| Chloe and Lily on a ride. At this point, Chloe was standing up and dancing while the ride was going. |
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| More standing up with Izzy by her side |
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| Happy girls, and a total 180 degree change in Chloe's love for the tube |
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| More swimming off the boat... |
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| Perfecting the canon ball |
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| Ben and I enjoyed the Kayaks too |
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| Chloe and Olivia |
Ok, so one of the best parts of going to the States is the SHOPPING. We love the stores down there. One of our favorites is Kohls. It did not disappoint! We always save more there than we spend, and there happened to be a huge back to school sale going on. This trip, I discovered ROSS. I had never been in that store before. It is a lot like a Winners or a Marshalls. In ROSS, we found DC Shoes for the girls, a brand they love, for $17!!!! In Canada here, they go for $60, $50 if on sale. Izzy found a pair of Adidas high tops for $15!!! They are also about $60 at home. Ben found a pair of Nike Hyperdunks for $32. They retail at home and in other stores for $130-160. It was funny, he saw the pair in the women's section when he was with me, in a women's size 12, which is a men's size 10, his size. And then he saw the EXACT same ones in the mens' section, in his size 10, but for $10 more. He said there was absolutely NO difference between them, except for the $10 price difference. So, he bought the women's size 12! Save $10 if you can right? We also discovered Fred Meyer for the first time too. I was blown away by how HUGE that store is, and by how nice a quality everything is there. It's like a glorified Wal Mart or Target. It has absolutely everything you would ever need under one roof, and then some. Only the clothes and shoes there are really good brands, like Nike and Sketchers. Ben found a really good deal on a laptop, and I found some cute dress boots for a really good price! I even love the Target in the States. I have found the Target here in Canada is always so picked over, almost like the shelves are bare. It's just fun to go to Target down there and get good deals too. We got Izzy a backpack there for $40, and the exact same one was $80 at Fred Meyer. We even went to the Costco there and scored big time on new jeans and pants for the girls for back to school for great prices.
We were able to have a campfire one night, upon the girls' request. Fun times...
I found it so fun and relaxing to float with a life jacket:
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| ahhh, this is the life! |
We saw this water plane fly over us a few times. Ben said he saw it at the Marina when he went to gas up the boat. We only had to gas up the boat once, to fill it to return it. The gas mileage was amazing! We took it out everyday and it never ran out. Plus, gas was so cheap there. At one point, Ben accidentally filled our van with premium gas, and it still only cost $60 to fill. With premium. We calculated the gas there to be about $0.88 a litre.
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| Picturesque |
Immediately she made the symbol to stop the ride! Olivia did too. Silly girls, they were having fun.
Here they are on the peddle boat:
They decided to do their own tube rides with the peddle boat! Lily kept saying, "Faster, faster!"
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| One of the last group rides |
They loved to climb up and down the ladders on the front and back of the boat. A couple of times we forgot to close them up when we started the boat back up and started driving! oops. We caught it right away, and no damage was done thankfully.
Izzy actually got sun stroke one of the days, and threw up and had a big headache. She is so prone to sun stroke and always has been. So after that day she was certain to always wear her hat when sitting in the sun.
Lounging off the back of the boat....
So one of Izzy's last rides, Ben dumped her off the tube! It wasn't too terrible. Ben dumped me off once too! My arm is still a little sore from it! He was just getting me out of the wake, and the entire tube just flipped over on me. Actually, I went head first into the water so hard, that my shorts came off! And my top was pushed waaaay down. My life jacket was still there though, thankfully, and I was able to get my shorts and top back to normal before anyone saw anything, haha. When Izzy fell in later, she said to me that the first thing she did was check that her shorts were still on, haha! Good times!
It was a super fun week! Hard to say good bye! We will definitely come back to this cabin if we come here again. We shall see!
The ride home was looooooong. I felt like we reached the border and then the Crowsnest Pass, so quick, but then the rest of the trip just seemed to really drag on. I know it had to do with the fact that Chloe got carsick and threw up! So we had to stop to clean that. Oh well, we made it home safe and sound.
We stopped in Sparwood on the way home to take a pic with the giant truck. These cute signs were there too:
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Home again home again! What a mess.
We got Olivia some high heels in her size from Payless for $6. She LOVES them and wears them every day.
Izzy actually got some too. Her first real pair. Here they are on Sunday morning with their new high heels. Izzy looks so grown up here:
Lily and Chloe got some new shoes too. Chloe is so tired here. 9 am church is hard in the summer!
And here we are today....Back to School! The kids find this so much fun, gathering all the supplies needed and sorting it out. I remember it being fun too when I was a kid. I can't believe I will have all 4 of my kids in school this year! I feel so blessed and grateful they all get to go to the same school for the next 4 years. Olivia is so beyond excited for Kindergarten.
