Mayhem and Memories in McCall

Well, with our first camping trip under our belt, it now officially feels like summer! We just spent last weekend in beautiful McCall, Idaho with 64 of our closest friends! :) With 13 families we had about 39 children and 25 adults (we missed you Joey!). It was a little bit of mayhem but a lot of fun!


Unfortunately, the lake was still a little frigid for boating...at a chilly 47 degrees! In fact, the day before we arrived the campground was covered in 4 inches of snow! Snow in June! What's up with that? By the time we got there, there was only a bit of snow near the bathrooms, and the rest of the campground was great. And lucky for us, we couldn't have had better weather!


The kids had a great time catching ants in their bug catchers, riding bikes, making crafts, playing games (especially Bohnanza), discovering "secret" hideaways, playing at the sandy beach and most importantly....

creating plays for the parents at the amphitheatre (aka: the nampatheatre, antatheatre). They had some awesome plays including, "Brendon and the evil pine cone," "The good ol' days camping at Ponderosa," "Nun's breakout," "River Water," "The sparkly rock," - which included my favorite quote for the weekend... "you wish it and I poof it!" The kids even put together a special father's day program including some special songs for their dads!

On the flip side of all the fun, I had an unfortunate run in with the dog and my bike. At home I ride my bike with the dog almost daily in the summer to exercise her. So here I was, in these beautiful surroundings on a nice bike ride with my sweet dog. Right? NOT! We were headed to the lake for some beach fun so I was wearing my flip flops (which of course I am always telling my kids not to do while riding their bikes). We were riding along at a good pace like usual and I had the leash in my hand so that if she jerked it would slip right out and not cause me to fall. Or so I thought.

Suddenly she completely put the brakes on and skidded to a halt and my instincts kicked in and I grabbed the leash tighter. As I skidded to a stop, I went over the handlebars sideways, hit my arm on the bike and as I put my foot down to stop, my toenail caught the concrete and ripped off. Nice.

I looked down and saw my toenail standing straight up on my foot and I think I kind of went into a bit of shock. I pressed it back on and tried to hold it there like if I held it long enough it might just re-attach. Wishful thinking... It felt really weird...like these shooting pains through my toe. The only other time I've felt something similar was when I crushed my finger between a door jam and a metal pillar. Let me assure you that both hurt to the point of not being able to articulate a sentence.

I composed myself slightly as Shane headed back to the campsite with the dog (whom I am still attempting to re-connect with) to get me a first aid kit. Soon after, some of our friends came riding along. My good friends who are blog enthusiasts started shooting some pictures and informed me that this incident was, "blog worthy." So here is my story.

So this is what my poor toe looked like all weekend. I've since cleaned it more thoroughly and I'm scheduled to see a doctor tomorrow. I took some other pictures of it, but decided against posting them because I feel like they would gross you all out. The toenail is almost completely off except in one corner. I'm sure the doctor will remove it, and that is fine with me. I feel like there is some foreign object on my toe now and I'm afraid of catching it on something so I have to keep it wrapped up.

My arm didn't hurt too badly right after the accident, but a bruise is developing nicely (and quite colorfully too). It's a little tender, but it'll be fine here soon. In the meantime, I just have to convince everyone that my relationship with Shane is good! So despite my minor mishap with Lady, we had a great weekend! We're looking forward to many other summer memories and fun!

The mere possibility...

With all this talk of a possible cruise excursion out of the Orlando area...I couldn't help but look back at all the fun we had the last time we were there! Seeing these photos starts my heart pumping at the mere possibility of going back! This was one of my favorite places...Blizzard Beach waterpark in Walt Disney World! This slide will clean you right out!

This rollercoaster was MY FAVORITE EVER! It is the Montu in Bush Gardens, Tampa. It was incredible...we rode it over and over. Obviously we rode it so many times that Shane figured out where all the cameras were! Cheesy!

This rollercoaster is a very close second...it is in my favorite theme park in the world...Universal Studios Islands of Adventure. This is the Incredible Hulk rollercoaster and the beginning is wickedly intense. My dad rode it and LOVED IT!

This roller coaster is called Fire and Ice (can you tell we like rollercoasters?) It is in Bush Garden's too. There are 2 rollercoasters that run independently but wind through each other. If you look carefully here, you can see that the two come within a couple of feet of each other. It is sooooooooooooooo fun!

We took one day and went to Discovery Cove and swam with the dolphins! This was probably my favorite thing of all. This is Lester, the dolphin that we spent the most time with. I'm ready to go back right now!
Lester showin' us his tricks...

When we weren't swimming with the dolphins, we were exploring the underwater life and fine tuning our snorkling skills. Don't ya just want to go now?

All I can say is that we're in. We're definately going to try and extend the trip on the front or back end and relive some of our best experiences in Orlando. With all our friends on the cruise and all the fun in Orlando...this could be the trip of a lifetime!

I hope you all enjoyed seeing the pictures of Shane with hair. This trip was back in 2001. You'll never see hair like that again on his head!