odds and ends ...

Hi there!
So, Cliff is working this weekend and the kids and I are trying to stay out of the camper and let him sleep! So, Alexa did some swimming in the pool this morning and Gavin has been playing with a new friend all over the campground!

The pool here is a lap pool to the left that is 5 feet deep and then a 3 foot section in front of the hot tub that you can see here. The bottom and sides are really rough, Alexa's feet have been torn up a bit and she swam into the wall one day without her googles, that left a scrape down her nose! But she is a mermaid and nothing will keep her out of the pool!

This is a view of the Payette River from a turnout on highway 55. Crazy white water rapids.  We came upon a kayak event on the way into town a couple of weeks ago. I think there will be more opportunities to view an event this summer!

This is an amphitheater! Right here in the RV park. It is a beautiful spot to sit and read and hang out! I have not seen it in official use, but I imagine there have been weddings here.

McCall Aviation/ Airport :: This "little" airport is pretty much across the street from the RV park. They seem to be able to accommodate some pretty large airplanes and a flight school. There is a smoke jumper school as well; and St Luke's; the hospital Cliff is working at is very limited and there have been several life flights, but only 1 in the middle of the night, that I heard!

Ok! We will be changing sites and moving down to Donnelly, 12 miles outside of McCall on tuesday morning. I will post more after that!

Have a great day!

Hi! We are in Boise for a few days, actually heading back into the mountains later today! We are on a shopping excursion, prices are high in the mountain and stores are limited! We decided to try some tent camping, but did not have a tent! more on that later :)

Alexa was so funny tuesday morning, Cliff had worked nights and was trying to sleep a little before heading to Boise, so we were being quiet and trying to stay out of the camper, Gav & I ... Alexa slept until 10! And at that point, I woke her up. She is still calculating back to Eastern time and was so smug when she realized she had slept until 12, EST. She said "Write that in the blog Mom!!"

We have enjoyed Boise, the Zoo especially. We spent a little time in the Capitol district, generally trying to find Goldy's which, according to Alexa's internet search was where we should have breakfast! This is quite a lovely, hip, young city. We did have an enjoyable, breakfast, the place was packed, and they will call you on your cell when the table is ready! -- yeah, no room to wait in there! 

Here are a few pictures from the zoo and hotel!

I don't know what this is, but when Cliff walked up to the fence it performed a crazy dance for him, he just looked at me and shrugged, "red heads" was his comment!

this is Wilson, papa red panda. The babies were born June 6, until they are about a month old, he will try to kill them, so mama is on look out to keep him out of the den! After that he plays with them!

Alexa and I spent some time watching this amazing fella! He stopped at one point and turned and came directly to the glass in front of us, but then just turned and went back to pacing.

ok, more soon!

Hi!
So, many of you know that my goal is to post at least weekly, but it seems like it has been forever since I posted anything!

We have been laying low in McCall this week. We, meaning Cliff, did a few upgrades to the camper, adding shelves to the "pantry", and *trying* to tint the windows in the kids bunk beds, it is crazy light out here, until 10 pm!!! And, yes I do realize we just hit the summer solstice, but it seems like the days are much, much lighter and longer than we are used to!

So, the kids bed time and our bed times are syncing a lot closer together, than ever before!

And tonight is Cliff's first night shift! We are lucky, because even though he is having to rotate shifts, after the next 2 weeks, he seems to not be on nights anymore!

We are in McCall until July 1; which is nice because we are very close to town, yes we have now biked in, and it was not awful! In fact, I did not have to walk my bike at all! I know, I was amazed too!

The kids are all about biking into town. we are signed up for the summer reading program, which will be independent reading, and they both wanted to join the peer reading groups, so hopefully we will meet some kids there! McCall is building a beautiful looking community center, but there is not one for us to use at this time, bummer!

There are 2 foxes that visit the campground nightly,  and many of the regulars who live & work here feed them by hand! There is also a mule deer (perhaps many ... I do not know that it is always the same) that we see, about every other evening.

I will post some pictures here, I forgot the camera on the bike ride into town, but we biked to the river today and there are a few pictures of that, and we drove down to Donnelly yesterday to introduce ourselves and see if we could ensure our site is away from the main road, which it is, yeah! There are some lovely farms on the main road between McCall and Donnely!

This mule deer is in our campsite! He bounded up the hill behind our camper while Cliff & I were talking at the picnic table, once he realized we were there he walked very, very slowly along the top of the hill then wandered back down! 

Gavin is riding his bike constantly! He is also enjoying the playground and a few fellow camper buddies!

Alexa is also enjoying the playground, her friend showed her some new tricks off of this swing bar!

My computer keeps freezing up, so I will gin off here, and maybe be able to post more pictures soon!

We miss you all! 

Hope everyone is having a fun & safe summer!

Hi there!
I hope this, being public, is easier for many folks to be able to get in and see!
We have landed in McCall, Idaho ... as of saturday afternoon. It has been 36 degrees in the morning, but the forecast suggests we will see the 80's next week. It rained on and off all day yesterday, and more is predicted for tonight and tomorrow. Cliff will begin work tomorrow.
We scoped out the town a bit yesterday. It is a tourist area, right on Payette Lake, with 2 public beaches that we saw yesterday ... without looking too hard for them. And an indoor ice arena smack in the middle of down town!
The kids and I will be able to ride our bikes into town on the bike path, and it's not even too hilly (although, I will get back to you on that once we actuality pedal it!)

downtown McCall beach with walking path

there is another public swim area down this grassy slop between Marinas

Our "home" for the next 2 weeks, thankfully it is the largest site we have been too!

This campground has an indoor pool, I will get some photos of that today, but the water is freezing!!!

We are in southern Idaho! We arrived yesterday, after traveling through the south west side of Yellowstone, out thru the Grand Teton National Park and then into Idaho on wednesday. We spent that evening on the side of the road just outside the Targhee National Forest, just over into Idaho. When leaving Yellowstone we saw a grizzly bear walking along about 75 yards off the road. He had spent sometime near the road and crossed a very open meadow, but we came along just as he was getting into some thickets, so not a good picture opportunity, but we all where able to see him!
The Tetons are beautiful, as you can imagine, but we were all mountained out, so we did not drive through them, just drove by. We did get some amazing pictures. We had dinner in Jackson, Wyoming. And saw the national elk refuge where approx 5000 elk winter over. None there for us to see right now, though.
We have seen a lot of potato fields, and stockyards full of cattle. Not much wildlife here in southern Idaho, that we have seen. It is prairie land, flat mostly.

Grand Prismatic Spring

Old Faithful

Grand Tetons

Day 2 at Yellowstone!
I commented to Cliff that I keep interchanging Yosemite and Yellowstone the other day, unfortunately now he is too! The kids are trying to keep us straight, "It's Yellowstone!". We also are saying buffalo, and thru the Jr Ranger program they completed, they now know we are wrong about that as well! In USA, we only have bison!!! Don't slip up with Alexa & Gav, they will catch it, every time!
We did see a mama black bear with 2 cubs yesterday! Mostly thru the thicket, but the cubs scampered up a tree once the crowd really started to gather and I got a shot of him disappearing!
We also saw lots of Geysers and hot springs, beautiful vistas, climbed Mount Washburn, then were in a hail/slush storm briefly! Today we will leave via Old Faithful and move on to the Tetons. Unfortunately we are a little burnt out with the up and down of the mountains, so we may just photograph and move on.
The Jr Ranger program is really a terrific experience, it keeps the kids focused on learning about the place! We did have to declare the park an electronics free zone! They have been reading like crazy! At least that is not causing any motion sickness! Even I am able to do more map reading and browsing in the car, but not any true book reading like they are doing!

and here is your baby "bison" Mrs J!

Well, since we checked in last, we have gone to Thermopolis, WY and played in a hot mineral water pool. Alexa & Cliff jumped from the high board into the 11 foot end of the pool and we all enjoyed a large water slide and a much smaller one. It smelt like sulfur (rotten eggs, if you are not familiar ) but it was a nice way to unwind!
We continued down the road to just outside of Meeteetse, WY and stayed on a turn off! That ease of camping is a lovely thing!
Then we continued on this morning into Cody, far too early to enjoy the Irma Hotel, but it was a brief Walmart stop for groceries then on to Yellowstone!
We saw so very many bison, several elk, and mule deer as well.
We also enjoyed the scenery and waterfalls.

We also had a snowball fight in the Big Horn National forest!

We are spending tonight and tomorrow night in West Yellowstone, Montana. This means the kids have now been in more than half of the 50 states!