Enjoying Today: Cabin living is the life for me!!!

We just got home from my absolute favorite place in the world- our cabin in High Valley, Idaho. On the way up there I was calculating how long we have been going there. I was very shocked when I realized that it's been 15 years. That's a long time. However, our cabin is a place that you could never, ever get tired of going to. In fact, it's quite the opposite. Each time we go, I love it more and more. I think a lot of the fun now is in seeing my kids having fun doing all the things that I loved doing up there when I was younger. It's also so nice to be able to just relax. So, here's a few of the highlights of the trip. Now when I say a few, I mean a lot. However, I probably took over 100 pictures. So it is a few in comparison to what I could post.

Here are a few reasons why we love the cabin (in no particular order)...

1. We love the cabin because we always see so many cool animals. This trip was no exception. Some of the spotting's included snakes, a beaver, a pot gut with four little babies, thousands of tadpoles, a toad, a wolf (or coyote), tons of catfish, squirrels,bats, and lots of neat birds. Of course our favorite bald eagle friend was still at Tripod. I think he's getting more daring each year. This year he swooped down right in front of us to get a fish that had gone belly up after being caught. We tried to get a picture but ended up with this...

Here's a picture of the toad we caught...

And here's a picture of what some mysterious creatures did to our bollo balls (I'm pretty sure they stole my flip flops, too!)...

Last but not least, a picture of our favorite bear...

2. We love the cabin because there's always time to fish. Once again we headed to Tripod Lake for a day of fishing. We didn't make it up on Idaho's free fishing day this year so just the guys (who bought licenses) and the kiddo's actually fished. Hailey caught her first fish on her Disney Princess fishing rod. Her face says it all...

A few of us decided to take a little walk around the lake. It ended up being longer than we had planned but was still fun. After carrying Ashlyn the one way, I've concluded that I am very out of shape.

Here's a picture of the hikers taking a break...

All in all, I'd say it was a very successful trip. Baylen said that between Corey and him, they caught around 30 fish. We brought five back to the cabin for dinner. I'm not a trout eater but they said they were delicious!

3. We love the cabin because of our need for speed! Just kidding mom and dad. We always go very slowly (smile). One of my all time favorite things to do is ATV riding. This trip was awesome for that because we had four ATV's. We were all able to go on several rides. It was extremely dusty this year (which is obvious from the pictures).

This year was especially memorable because Tanner, Mickell, and Hailey were able to head up to the hills for their first "long rides." They loved it! Tanner also learned how to drive the ATV's. I was quite impressed at how well he did.

Ashlyn and Raylee rode on the ATV's for the first time. Ashlyn loved it. She was all grins and said WEE for most of her ride.

4. We love the cabin because only HERE is work FUN! We were able to help with a few maintenance jobs during our trip. We raked and burned pine needles.

The guys were able to use their new waders to fix the dock.

5. We love the cabin because it has the coolest tire swing ever. Because it was so blazing hot, grandpa had the fun idea to put the sprinkler under the swing. He even put his swimsuit on to play with the kids.

Ashlyn loved the tire swing.

6. We love the cabin because of all the fun we have on Leo's Lake. It's always fun to head out on the paddle boat to catch a few tadpoles or go for a relaxing ride in the canoe. One of the days Cherice and I headed out on the canoe right as a thunderstorm began. We made it back to the dock safely but there were a few strong winds that scared us. Tanner was brave enough to go for a ride in the canoe, too.

7. We love the cabin because of all the beautiful wild flowers.
This time they were exceptionally pretty. Here are a few pictures from our amateur photo shoot. (Note- There isn't a picture of Tanner because he didn't think posing with flowers is a very manly thing- he's probably right!)

8. We love the cabin because we get to spend so much time with some of our favorite people.

Mickell made a new friend named Ashley on this trip. They spent a lot of time together. Ashley is quite the character. She could never remember Mickell's name so asked if she could call her Michelle. It was really funny watching Mickell answer to "Michelle."

We went on our Sunday walk over to the big rock. I guess it's become tradition to pose as muscle men at the top.

The kids had a lot of fun painting faces with Leslie. It reminded me of the time I took Baylen to the cabin right before we got married. We did the exact same thing.