McCall with friends!

 Back in September we had a fun get-together with long-time friends from Utah. They should just be called family! Sad that only one in their family couldn't come (missed you Jamie!), but we had a blast with the rest. We hiked, biked, swam, played in the sand, took family pictures, celebrated a birthday, ate a lot of food, played games, and did lots of visiting. So many memories with the Shurtleff crew! I was terrible at taking pictures that weekend and really only have a select few. These are the ones worth posting. This was also the first trip with all the babies together. 4 babies to love on!

Some of these pictures are courtesy of Jessie. She's the gorgeous one blowing out her candles! She did a great job taking our family pictures too (below). Considering we had grumpy kids and mosquitoes! All of us had burp rags hiding to swat them in between shots. They were out to get us. These are some of my favorites from the shoot.

Thanks to all the Shurtleff's for coming and chilling with us. We loved it!! 

Fish hatchery in McCall

 We took a trip up to McCall (minus James) and decided to visit the fish hatchery. I've been going to McCall for so many years and have never gone there. It was a fun little outing and we got there and found out they were about to close. Luckily they were super nice and said we could do some walking around while they were closing down. Little A had the camera controls and she even managed to take a picture of a fish jumping out of the water! The time we were there was just long enough. CJ was starting to get a little bored (you can only look at so many fish in the water) so we grabbed some dinner and took it to the lake to eat. Good times!

Hike to Josephine Lake

Beginning of September we went to McCall and did a fun hike with Nana and Papa. James even caught a fish! We love getting out and wearing the kids out. Good times!

4th of July festivities

We went to McCall to celebrate the 4th with my parents, Eric, Jamie, & Ammon. Of course I didn't take all the pictures that I wanted, but I did get some.
We started out Saturday morning with a pancake breakfast at the church. Tradition is to shoot off rockets too. CJ had fun pointing them out and watching them land. The kids were also able to ride a trailer pulled by a tractor. CJ was in heaven!The previous week they had a big wind/thunderstorm that wiped out trees around town. Here is one that was almost entirely uprooted. The other trees around it weren't even damaged in the slightest.
Later during the day James, Eric, Jamie, and I went mountain biking. It was fun to get out and have a good ride. Eric decided he needed to do some more riding when we were done and rode all the way up to Brundage lookout and back. Let's just say we didn't see him until dinner was almost over! :) No pics but he did get some sweet footage on his helmet cam.
After biking we hit the beach. It was sunny, but it was sure cold! It was breezy down at the lake so we didn't stay too long. The kids still had fun playing in the water & sand.

Here we are watching the fireworks in the back on the truck. We got smart this year and staked out a spot up on the hill from the lake. We all laid in the back of the truck during the show, then when it was over, Eric jumped in the drivers seat, we closed the tail, and drove home. It took a total of 5 minutes from the end of the fireworks to us pulling into the driveway. It was the fastest we've ever made it back from watching fireworks. No doubt the best way to do it!

Happy Fourth of July!

Pancake House

Need I say more?