Heyburn State Park

We had a great time camping with Jeromy's parents for a few days. They camped in Yellowstone for 5 days before heading west to meet us at Chatcolet Lake in northern Idaho. The weather was wonderful and much cooler than the Tri-Cities (110 today!) and the kids had a blast at the lake. We borrowed a friend's kayak, and Jeromy's parents brought an inflatable one, so the kids as well as grownups spent the days paddling around. We enjoyed the usual campfires in the evenings, smores, and relaxing. We met a family that was camping next to us that had a 4 year old son as well, and he and Bennett played any time they were both at the campground. Jeromy, the other dad, and their oldest son also spent one night leading us in worship around the campfire with their guitars. It was a wonderful time of fellowship and fun to meet some other Christians. It is always so neat how sharing that bond makes a fast friendship.


Our camp. Yes, we have the world's largest tent! It is one of the two-room kind. It makes it hard to find somewhere to set it up sometimes. We had to use the driveway this time. Mark and Beverlee parked their trailer behind it.


Pop and Popgrandma.


The dirtiest boy ever! We were laughing at our little "Pigpen." When he ran around, he left a trail of dust behind him. Thankfully the campground had showers!


Pop and Popgrandma brought Rachel birthday gifts. She had so much fun with her hula hoop and was getting pretty good at it.


A cool marshy area near our campground. There were lilly pads and lotus blossoms and all sorts of wildlife.


Hiking around.


Chatcolet Lake.


It was hard to get Bennett out of the kayaks. He would have been happy to stay in all day.


Rachel was happiest playing along the shoreline and not going in too deep!


Bennett liked having on all of the flotation devices at once- water wings, life jacket, elmo floaty, goggles and anything else he could get his hands on. I think he thought that the more he had, the safer he would be. It was pretty funny. He got braver as he spent more time in the water. Last year he was comfortable floating around by himself with just a life jacket on, but it is going to take a little more work to get him back to that point again.


Rachel kicking back with her dad. She would get so relaxed floating around that she looked like she was going to fall asleep.


Naptime on the way home. Poor Bennett has a rough time sleeping in his new booster seat. There is nowhere to rest his head like in a carseat, so he has a hard time getting comfortable. At one point, I held a pillow under his head so that it stopped whiplashing forward. He must have a sore neck today.