Summertime in McCall

We had such a blast up in McCall this summer.  We were able to get up there 4 or 5 times.  We got out on the lake a few times, played at the beach, tried a few different hikes, ate ice cream and just spent a lot of time together as a family.

Brooklyn had fun tubing and driving the boat, McKay was content to just sit on my lap.  I was able to ski a few times.  We built quite a few sand castles and even rented a paddle board.  The kids absolutely love the beach and were happy to stay all day.

We also had a lot of fun trying out some new hikes.  Craig found an awesome book with a ton of hikes around the McCall/Cascade area.  We of course hit up Blue Lake and then we tried out Goose Creek Falls (my favorite with the kiddos), and we also tried one that wasn't as well marked to Ellis Lake and the kids weren't as big of fans of that one, but still with a pretty lake at the end.  McKay has become quite the hiker and will normally hike at least a couple of miles each time we go.

Craig and I were also able to do a few longer hikes on our own.  Craig has always wanted to hike to the top of Jug Mountain and we finally figured out how to get to the trail.  It was about 6 miles total but very steep toward the top.  We were both soar the next day, but it was awesome.  It was so gorgeous up at the top.  Definitely my favorite hike of the summer.

Just the two of us then hiked to Granite Mountain Lookout.  It was supposed to be just shy of 6 miles round trip, but we may have made it about a mile longer by somehow getting on a different trail for a little bit.  We weren't sure where we got off the right trail, so instead of trying to find it we decided to hike straight up to the look out since we were able to see it and knew that is where we were supposed to end up.  We ended up gaining about 1200 feet of elevation in about a mile.  It was steep and the legs and lungs were burning, but we got to where we were supposed to be.  The lookout was sweet and you could see so far in every direction.  On the way back down we took a little detour to Twins Lake.  It really was beautiful.  You can't get any better than being out in nature and enjoying what was created just for us.

We were able to enjoy a lot of our time up there with some of Craig's family.  The kids always had a blast with their cousins and were always asking when we could go up to the cabin again.  We are so blessed to be able to have a place to go in such a wonderful place to escape and just be together.

Brooklyn is in 1st Grade!!

Brooklyn is officially back in school!  We loved summer but we were all ready for school to start again and get back into the routine of things.  On Monday August 26th she became a first grader in Ms. Sparks class, at Galileo Elementary school.  She says she wants to be a dentist when she grows up, she loves to swim, her favorite food is brownies and her favorite books are Amelia Bedelia.   McKay was dreading having his sister at school all day and would fake cry about it fairly often.  Luckily he still naps so that takes up our afternoons.  We took Brooklyn to school the first day but she will ride the bus to and from this year.  This summer we did our best to stay on top of her reading.  We put together a rewards chart for her and gathered together a bunch of books that would challenger her a little bit, but still give her confidence in her reading.  She got through all 50 books, which gave her 10 different rewards, everything from snow cones and ice cream, going to a movie, going bowling, getting a new board game, a sleepover with cousins, and finished it off with getting our nails done.  We will definitely be doing it again next summer.  It is definitely an adjustment getting used to her being gone for 8 hours a day, but she loves it and loves her teacher.  I love how excited she is about learning.  McKay is getting used to be with just mommy for all of our errands, although he does ask quite often when Brooklyn will be getting home.  We love our first grader and are so proud of her kind and loving spirit and how hard she works.