camping at Hell Roaring Creek.

We camped with the Wilkinson and Busch families again this year at Hell Roaring Creek.  This time, Oma graced us with her presence.  I haven't camped with my mom in a very long time, so it was fun to have her with us!  Even if she was a little needy...

We went toward the end of July, and the whole Stanley basin was around 70 degrees all weekend.  It was paradise for hanging out.  But a little chilly for swimming...

She's happy to be at Redfish Lake with all her friends!

We tried to catch more monster trout this year in the secret fishing hole to no avail.  Bummer.  We'll try again, though!

I love this picture of Clara playing with worms.  So funny!

The Wilkinsons are the most prepared campers ever!  They always bring along Mike's four-wheeler with a trailer and haul all of us around!

Here we are standing in front of the Sawtooth Mountain Range.  And getting rained on.

It was so nice to escape to cooler weather in the heat of summer!  And we just had to make it up to Stanley this year.  It is one of our favorite spots!  Thanks Busch family, Dan and Candy, and Oma for making our weekend great!  Maybe next time we can get Opa to join us!

PRE-SCHOOL!!!!

Clara started preschool on Tuesday, September 9.  She's in the polar bear class, and is pretty proud of that fact!  

The weekend before school started, we baked some cookies from Miss Diane, her new teacher.  We attached a cute little note (thanks Pinterest) that said,

"I'll be a smart cookie this year with you as my teacher".

Clara would tell you that she even cracked the eggs by herself!  She was very proud of that, and told Miss Diane all about it after giving her the gift!

The morning of preschool, Kurtis had an early meeting.  So it was just me and Clara at home.  I tried to wake up super early so we didn't feel rushed.  We took her first day of school pictures on the front porch at 7 am, so they're pretty dark.  Sad.  But they still show her as the quirky three-year-old that she is!

Then I took Clara to work with me until 8:45.  We then zipped over to Hillview to meet daddy and start school!

Here's Clara with her teacher, Miss Diane.  Clara loves her already!

We managed to pull her away from her free play time with friends for a quick pic with Mommy and Daddy before we said goodbye.  As we walked out the door, we turned to see Clara looking around the classroom through a set of binoculars, and knew she'd be just fine.

We got outside and Kurtis said, "It was harder to leave than I thought".  Such a rookie!  I told him you just have to leave or things get ugly.  It happens in first grade, for sure!  But, watching her at school as a big three-year-old was bittersweet, for sure!  It's just hard to believe she's old enough to go to school!  We can't wait to watch her learn and grow this year and are so thankful we could both be there on her first day!

a Roaring Springs summer.

When we moved to our house four years ago, I knew we were close to our local water park, Roaring Springs.  But I never thought we'd go.  Oma and Opa have a pool, and I thought we'd spend all our days over there!

Well, fast forward to this summer.  This was Clara's last summer to enter for free at Roaring Springs, and for me to buy a season pass, it cost a little over a hundred bucks!  So I went for it, and never looked back!

We had a fabulous time at the water park!  We went on average once a week.  Sometimes more, sometimes less.  We'd walk over at 11 am and stay until nap time.  Clara got more and more daring as the summer went on, and by the end of summer, her favorite ride was Racing Ridge, a pretty tall slide!  She loved the wave pool, the lazy river, and the kiddie attractions too.  I hope that next year, she'll grow to be 42" tall (she's 40 inches currently) so we can go on some more exciting rides!  For a small fry, she likes a little thrill!

Brooks Family Vacation

Janet, Jeff, and Uncle Arlen were so sweet and treated us all to a long weekend in McCall, Idaho on the lake!  And boy, did we spend time at the lake.  We came up with a vacation routine pretty early on in the stay:

late breakfast and coffee on the balcony

walk down to the beach with a cooler containing adult beverages, and cheese/fruit/crackers for lunch

back to the condo for Clara's nap and adult cocktail hour

dinner

walk into town for ice cream

sit at the lake and enjoy the gorgeous vista

I got a few cute pictures of Clara playing in the water.  She made new friends everyday!  Mary Margaret, Isla, and Star.  She still talks about them.  And I felt so proud when I watched her walk up to unfamiliar little girls and introduce herself and ask if they wanted to play.  She's really outgoing!

Clara and Mary Margaret decided to swim out to the buoys alone over and over.  They would swim and laugh together back and forth.  Clara loved having other kids to play with at the beach.

It was such a fun weekend!  Thanks again Jeff, Janet, and Arlen!  We'll need to do it again next year!