Idaho Part 1

Idaho is truly beautiful! Sometimes I forget how beautiful it is because I grew up in the desert, but just a few hours away you have these beautiful mountains!

This year's Bingham reunion was held at Camp Smokey, near Redfish, from a Wednesday to Saturday. I have many fond memories of this campsite growing up and love going there. I love the rustic feel and the pure nature that surrounds it and to add to that no cell phone reception:). Below is a picture of the lodge on the right and some cabins, I believe there's 11 or more with our family taking up 6.
The closer cabin of the two is where our family stayed along with my little sister Camille and her husband Mike.
There's so much to explore there. I remember going on lots of nature/adventure hikes when little. Below is Chris with a group of boys, Miles bringing up the rear.
Alturas Lake is in the background with the lodge. This lake is COLD! When I was little I was told it was one of the deepest lakes in the world. I'm not sure if that's true or not (did a quick search and didn't find anything). But one thing's for sure it's freezing whether it be the beginning of summer or end.

Coming back from the trek, Michael, Jared mostly hidden, and Miles and me.

Chris took some picture of this pretty little creek (stream?).

Miles and me.

Chris and Miles

Heidi, Mom, Valerie, Jeanine

Thursday morning we headed out to go fishing. It was cold and uneventful. Chris said he was a little paranoid with so many kids and hooks.

David and Nicole

Trent standing, Mike, and Megan

Jared playing with the worms

At one point on Thursday it actually snowed. Those riding four wheelers came back red in the face and fingers. Chris and Miles caught up on some zzzzz's

David, Jared and Scottie (orange hat)

Jacob and Heidi

Horseshoe tournament that my dad took place in and did well.
Our family minus Jared who was off playing (Spencer, Chris, me, and Miles)

Chris was on Tyson's team

Spencer loves his little girl cousins, Emily and Megan, and was often found playing with them.
Angela and Moe were in charge of some games with a minute to win it theme. Here's Spencer trying to eat a doughnut without hands.

Naomi and Jared

Clairee

Spencer using hands

Going down the line (kids only): Micah, Emily, Tommy, Spencer, Megan, Naomi

My mom holding the strings for Ashley and Kenya.
Rachel worked hard to try and get Miles to like her... it worked:)
The girls competed in a game trying to get a pencil, that was tied to a string on your back buckle, into a pop can by squatting. I believe Camille, the 6 month pregnant girl won.
The men's game was knocking over pop cans with a yo-yo that was tied to their back loop buckle. Mike was the sure winner but Chris gave a run for his money a few times.
The "teenagers" did a pickup game where they could only use their mouths. There were several bags that progressively shorter, down to an inch, and David surprised us all with his quickness and agility!
Another person Spencer likes to hang out with is his cousin Micah. Those two would wander through fields and streams. I followed them one time when they started to get farther away. Micah at one point told Spencer they'd better go back because they were too far. That's always nice for a mother to hear.
Friday was a beautiful day and ever since we arrived Jared had been wanting to hike to the top of the mountain. So we set off with a big group. Below is Spencer and Chris.

Naomi, Micah and Jared

David (partially cut off), Angela, Nicole, Camille, and me

Spencer was not a fan of the hike. He'd sit and complain for awhile and then he'd forget about it and trudge along.

I love the expression on Nicole's face here.

Eventually Spencer had enough and Chris was nice enough to take him back down so I could continue on.

At one point it was really steep and slippery. You couldn't gain your bearings, you'd walk up three steps and slide down two or more. I wasn't comfortable taking Jared up any further and I didn't want Camille pulling or straining anything, remember she's the one 6 months pregnant! Below is a picture of either Scottie, Michael or David.

Camille and Jared on their way down.

Angela with her daughter Naomi

Angela with her boy, Micah

Jared enjoying nature

Spencer again with his threesome, Megan, Emily, and Spencer.

Every night we had a fire and s'mores.

Not pictured and worth mentioning was an awesome volleyball game. And Michael, a seven-year-old, getting lost. Freaky! A group had gone up the mountain after we came down and somehow Michael got lost. Once we realized he was lost we spent a good 40-45 mins looking for him. There was another group staying at the Smokey that helped us look too. It was scary especially after 20 mins of looking. I could hear shouts from all over and I thought, "if Mikey can't hear this then he's gone far or is unconscious." Turns out he went down the mountain at an angle and hit the road and walked for about 3-5 miles until he found a ranger and told him he was lost and staying at camp smokey.

I love Idaho, I love Camp Smokey, but most of all... I LOVE my family!!!

Potty Training has Begun

Who starts potty training and taking away all naps in the same day? I do. (Miles has been fighting naps lately and when he does nap he stays awake for a long time talking to himself. That was fine until we've moved him in with the older boys and he keeps them awake too. So far he's been manageable by evening time. We'll see...)

I so have not wanted to potty train Miles and I've kept putting it off because of summer travel... but it's time. He doesn't want to wear diapers, he lifts his bum into the air to have me wipe it for fun, and he constantly says "potty". My biggest concern was he'd never actually gone on his little toilet all the times I'd let him try, only once for Chris. So yesterday, late afternoon, after trying to get his diaper on him unsuccessfully I asked him if he wanted to go on the potty and he said yes. I brought his little toilet out into our dinning room and had him sit on it. He sat there for awhile and nothing... I went to the bathroom for something and came back and he had gone. I guess it's time.

So now we just finished day two. I don't know how many messes I've cleaned up, at least three different poops, but I don't think there's any turning back now. He's not doing too bad. If he has an accident he shows me where it happened, he loves the praise and rounds of high fives he gets from Jared, Spencer, and me, and many times he goes to the potty and goes without me coaxing.

I've really been impressed with how well he's done today. We have had several accidents but he's started telling me when he needs to go. He often goes to sit on the toilet just to let a few drops fall. He'll sit on the toilet for awhile and turn red in the face to try and poop to please his older brother's request. I think he's ready, I just don't know if I am...

The biggest con is I'm stuck in my home at least this next week. I love getting out and doing things but that's impossible when potty training. Another con... he's the third. I can't watch him like a hawk like I was able to with the other two, hence I think I'm in for more accidents. But luckily he does tell me when he forgets to use the toilet.

Safe at Home!

It's now been two weeks that we've been back from our almost month long trip to Idaho and I miss it. I miss family, the country, the openness, and the relaxing environment. We drove out in June and Chris flew back after a week and flew back out on July 4th so we could begin our trek back.

This is the second time we've hit wildlife when driving across country but the first time we had to stop and take care of it before finishing.

We had just stopped for dinner in Sydney NE, headquarters for Cabela's, and were beginning to start our drive again. When out of the median flew a pheasant and I immediately thought, "We're going to hit it, there's no way we're going to miss it." Sure enough, SMACK, I killed my first pheasant. My instinct was to turn my head and when I turned I guess I swerved. Luckily Chris saw the bird too and put his hand up to the steering wheel and countered my swerve. I didn't think I swerved a lot but I'm grateful Chris had the instinct to put his hand there because who knows what could've happened. It could've been a big swerve and then an over correction and lets just stop there...

We pulled off at the next exit tried to work with our insurance, which was a little difficult, and ended up driving back to Sydney going 45 mph with our hazards on. Since it was July 4th there was no shot of beginning the process so we checked in to a hotel. I had glass every where on me and when I stepped out I tried to shake it off but there was so many little pieces that wouldn't come off. I gently tried rubbing it off but that didn't work either. I did manage not to get any more cuts other than the small ones I'd received from the first impact, and luckily no cuts on my face just one shard of glass was stuck in my jawline but that's it. You can't really see the glass but it was everywhere.

I tried to rinse off but I still felt like glass was everywhere. The boys wanted to go swimming so I went too. Much better after that.

It was a nice break to have Chris with us and just enjoy our little family. The next day no one had our windshield so they'd have to order it and do it the next day, Wednesday. After hanging out at Cabela's and swimming a lot we were ready to go. We were at Walmart getting some snacks for the trip when we got a call saying the windshield they received was cracked:(. So now there was no way we'd be out of there until Thursday, we went from planing on being home Tuesday morning to getting home Late Thursday early Friday.

Up until this point Chris had tried to squeeze and hour or two in of work here or there but after the phone call he said he needed to try and get in at least eight hours for the day and suggested we go to a park. Well that lasted 5 minutes. No one was there, the toys were mediocre at best, and it was hot. Luckily I thought to go to a library and did a quick search on our GPS and set off. It was a cute little library that had a toy section so it was perfect and we spent all our time there.

The next day our van was ready and we were off, after finding a place to vacuum out our van. They did a horrible job, very disappointed on that front. But our kids were happy we were eager to get going and we made it back without any other occurrences.

We're scheduled to go to Idaho again soon and I'm glad we'll be flying then!