Cliff Jumping at Koocanusa

I think I can fly
(The Archer)
















Dinner at "Cafe Jax" afterward......

ArtDog preferred fishing...

LOWER CLIFFS

"Sweet Tooth Sweetie and Kind Eyes"




Kind Eye's Sister

Super Catman

Onlooking...

Super Catman

The Upper Cliffs




My Amazing Husband...

Elasta Woman...

Kind Eye's Bro-in-law

My Amazing Husband again....

Kind Eye's Amazing Highest Cliff Jump

Archer....

Me...

Archer...

Kind Eyes...

My Amazing Husband with The Archer - pre jump

Lunch at the beach before kayaking/boating to the cliffs....
Aren't they the cutest kids ever?!?!

Super fun day yesterday with Kind Eyes and Elasta Woman's family, along with his sisters family :-) It was a beautiful day at Koocanusa - the skies were clear blue without a cloud in the sky under the 80 degree heat. Warm winds beckoned us over to the cliffs up Big Creek as we piled into a boat, canoe and kayak.

After a crazy ride over there, the guys showed us how it was done!! A lot of us had never done anything like that before, but we decided to try it with lots of encouragement from the men ;-) Too bad Miss SFE, who did jump, only has a shot of her falling behind to show for it - lol!! The guys amazed us with their jumping abilities. Besides SFE's first time, it was also mine and Elasta Womans. It was crazy fun, but a bit extreme. Not saying I would never do it again, but its not the kind of thing I could thrive on either ;-) Its a lot of guts, adrenaline and shutting down of your natural reasoning long enough to take that long jump outward into eternity.....

After all the fun of jumping, swimming, fishing and sunning, we headed over to the most amazing burger place which "Kind Eyes" bought for all...... It was a crazy fun day!!

2011 1.76 Mile Long Bridge Swim

This Link is on my fitness blog :-)



*Please please vote on my side bar poll :-)*

Squatters, Mutant Turkeys and MisAdventures!!

Art Dog was smiling when we stopped at this creek, but when he went to change into his dry clothes, he wasn't smiling for long!! He got chased by a big hive of bees!
Miss Moona in the Morning...

Our camp site on the Moyie

Super Catman contemplates his morning business...

A friend from North Idaho

SFE

I didn't mind being stranded HERE

The boys also found ways to occupy themselves ;-)

The Wild Turkey... gone mad!!

Camping at the creek bed...

The Archer with our North Idaho friends baby....

Kayaking Koocanusa Cliff Diving Expedition




There was this one particular road my co-workers said to "never go on". Of course my husband had to drive that road first - lol!! Here is the only scary hillbilly man we found out there.



Miss Moona and I.... waiting while the men are out exploring

Mist and her little guy at the House warming with a friend...

Our Surprise Housewarming Party....

It was another one of those weekends that never stop. Last Thursday I hostessed a "Surprise House Warming" for one of my girlfriends who just moved up here. It was a ton of fun. The Sock Fashion Expert made a decadent, dense multi layer huckleberry chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting. It was AMAZING! A bunch of us ladies sat around her new lawn in the sunshine....

After that, I raced to the lake to meet up with some more girl friends. Sitting there in the sunshine, we basked together. Mist wasn't there, but she had seen the day before and what she saw.... happened. Angels raced across the sky for a chance encounter that would change things maybe...forever.......

On Friday, we spent the day at Koocanusa with a bunch of our friends and their friends. It was crazy fun. Some of the group took off in kayaks to a hidden water fall and did some cliff jumping. Me, well ,I just layed around the lake with the girls and kids and swam the near by bay. Afterward it was out for ice cream at an Amish Community and then they ALL came for a GIGANTIC dinner of spaghetti. Super Fun!!

The weekend elapsed like Mist. While sitting in a friends yard in North Idaho watching him grill burgers, and his wife and kids pick gigantic berries, it occurred to him maybe he wanted to live in this fertile valley. "Honey" he said, "lets camp in North Idaho"! With that we were all packing up again for another BIG ADVENTURE.

On the first night of the trip, we camped along a sandy creek bed. The meadows were rolling and huckleberries were all over. The Sock Fashion Expert took off on an exploring walk. A drunk lady stumbled out of her country cottage and asked her if she was lost. She said "no", the lady said "well good, because she came out to tell her that she couldn't have a ride." We all laughed about the story.

Not far from that spot, as we were driving away, suddenly we heard a loud falling sound at the bottom of the Tundra. I ushered the kids into the near by meadow in search of huckleberries while my husband assessed the damage. Turns out we got a lot more than bargained for. As we picked big handfuls of beautiful purple berries, a wild eyed turkey jumped up in the middle of us and started gobbling up a storm!! It ran around us madly as if it was all sketched out on some illegal substance. We tried backing away, thinking there was a nest, but it didn't seem to care where we were. It was too close. My husband discovered a broken strut on the truck (ugh)! He decided the safest thing was to dump us off some where take the truck home. That seemed eerie and creepy. I didn't want to stay with the mutant foul fowl.

In the end, I was EXTREMELY RELIEVED to be left at a camp site surrounded by unusual characters. Just kidding, the characters somewhat creeped me out, but the part I was relieved about was that we were left at john doe lake. After cooking lunch over a fire, the men left us to lounge around the lake all day. I was all about that ;-)

My husband discovered our Suburban also had a big problem too. In the end he picked us up in his dads old truck. It makes sounds like a loud sub woofer so people around us (including me) think somebodies listening to loud car music but really its just the truck. The Archer drove the kids in the Corolla. What an adventure!! That night we camped up high on a mountain over looking a game preserve. Big Black Raspberries could be found as well as large game crossing up to the mountain. In the morning Archer found himself just feet from a moose!!

The next day we ended up camping along the Moyie River. It was so beautiful. The first spot that I really really wanted to go needed a 4wd so we couldn't go there, but I am determined to go there sometime soon. Its amazing!! After that we found a nice river spot except for the ominous suv stuffed full of dogs near by. We assumed it was squatters and that made us all Leary. Darkness was falling and so we didn't want to move on. After enjoying the river and setting up camp the SQUATTERS came to visit!! I stopped cooking the burgers and gawked at the scary couple who emerged from the forest......... Just kidding. They were really nice squatter people. They seemed a big rough with some scars and tattoos and such, but were otherwise decent acting. They have 4 dogs and hadn't been able to find a place to rent because of that so they decided to just live in the woods until something "comes up". They were so nice, in fact, that I kept thinking of this horror movie I'd recently seen about a "nice couple" gone mad. I wanted to bring them some of our left over burgers, but the burgers were consumed. In the morning we moved on, though we saw the squatters at the grocery store. No I didn't take any pictures of them :-) All in all, the trip was incredible fun and a lot of driving around looking at property. Who knows what the future will hold?

Working Mom Blues Adjusts Her Vision.....

VBS program (can you pick out my boys?!?!)
Spur of the moment Backpacking Trip!! Notice my husband smiles in back pack photos?!?!

Half an hour after I got home from our "Girls River Float Trip", we headed out to meet our friends back packing 4 miles into the wilderness!!

We girls floated to the local tavern for delicious burgers and volleyball!! Before we knew it, as some girls left, others came and joined in the game - patrons, goat girl driving by.....

Me and "Carrot Lady" at the secret island....

This gal just moved up here and is yet to be "blog named"

We pulled this crew in the double kayak when the current was slow ;-)

Embarking on the Adventure!!

Its been a C-R-A-Z-Y week that seems to blur together around the edges!! Summer tends to do that any way ;-) Yesterday, I became an Aunt to my first Nephew!! Surreal. I wish I could have been there.....

Monday was a romantic date at the end of a long 4 day camping trip.... Got home at 11pm. Felt exhausted, the house was a mess, I was ready to collapse....

Tuesday after updating my blog and running 7 miles, I got called in to work a 12 hour night shift......... Did i mention it was VBS week?

Wednesday i cant remember anything.......... (and vbs)

Thursday Was our girls accountability day. We had a nice get together. (and vbs)

Friday I dyed my hair (that is an incredibly stressful event - lol). I ran another 7 miles. VBS and VBS parents night program....

Saturday I swam about a mile and ate too much of my daughters Mexican Cherry Chocolate Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting. The rest is a blur.....

Sunday - Church

- hosted a "Girls River Float Party", pulling everybody down river in the kayak. We pulled out at the local tavern, played volleyball and had killer burgers.

- got home, threw a bunch of stuff in a back pack and had a crazy trek out 4 miles into the wilderness to meet up with a group of friends in a race to beat the darkness.

Monday Got home at 11am, Felt Exhausted, The house was a mess, I was ready to collapse...... Are you noticing a common theme here?!?!?

Tuesday More swim training and another 12 hour night shift......

How do I even get creative and tell you stories with such a blurry life? I don't know. I need some prescription glasses for my brain so I can tell you all the silly things that happened to me all week. Hmm.... here are just a couple of tidbits :

At the VBS program, my son, Super Catman stood up to answer a question. Then he got a bit of "stage fright" and wouldn't answer it. In fact, he wouldn't answer any of the questions. He just kept saying "I don't know" and "Ask my mom". I was standing, sheepishly with a camera taking pictures of the stinker up there as he dawdled on and on and on.......

Miss Moonbeam has done multiple "poops" on the potty frog. She does these in the stealthiest manner. After that she tries to dump out her own excrement, wipe herself and wipe out her potty frog. Imagine a 3 year old doing this??!! As you may have guessed, at any given moment, I may be surprised with smears and clumps of fecal materials at any given location ;-) She also changes her clothes about a hundred times each day........

I have received an unusual number of insults this week but have managed to laugh them off hysterically without offense. I have met a lot of unusual people and have made allot of new friends. I am consumed with passion, anticipation, and great expectation of the future. Of one thing I am confident I will not look behind me, only ahead..... It would behoove you to do the same.... Selah...................