144th Passage

We went to Redfish Lake twice. It was beautiful! We found a beach that wasn't crowded and had fun. The water was cold, and the weather wasn't hot by any means, but after acclimating to the water, it wasn't too bad. A good way to wash your hair, too.

143rd Passage

There was a river somewhat close to our camp ground, so we went there to play one day. By the way, every time we decided to go play in the water because it was hot, dark clouds would cover the sky by the time we'd changed our clothes. It rained a lot that week...

It's not a camping trip if we don't have our four wheeling rides.

Don't you love the dirty faces?

 We were amused to discover that a four wheeling ride, which Allison LOVED also put her to sleep quite effectively. 

142nd Passage

While camping, we did a lot of fun expeditions out. We went in to Stanley to check out the town and the park. We even tried out their disc golf course.

Lydia's camping hair.

 Awesome view there.

 This is supposed to be the most photographed building in Idaho or something. It's a really old cabin, I guess.

Our family also went to the fish hatchery there.

141st Passage

We had a great spot to camp this year, which was pretty secluded. It was very rare that we saw anyone even drive through our camp area. We didn't have any latrines near by, but that's okay because David made a toilet that sat over a hole inside of a shelter thing my dad brought up. 

We had enough space that we could spread out nicely.

Here's camp. The tent in this one was our main gathering area. It's where we cooked, ate, played games, etc. Behind it, which you can't see, is my parents' tent, and another for my brothers.

Our tent is on the right, and the brown on the left is Chris's. The bathroom tent was to the right of the photo. We had a shower tent out there too. 

In camp we had this little creek that ran through it. We used it to keep our ice chests cool, to play in, and to do some sponge bathing. Oh, and once Lydia fell in, which I didn't even know about until she got out and called for me all soaking wet and freezing cold. 

While at camp the kids ran around and played. Sometimes with big sticks which inevitably hurt different kids at different times. The older boys shot bb guns, bikes were ridden, baseball, and fristbee were played, fun was had. 

The adults did a lot of playing too. Frisbee, baseball, boche ball, target shooting, board and card games, and just hanging out. 

Oh, and we ate a lot. We weren't allowed to have campfires, so luckily we had propane stoves and rocket stoves and dutch ovens. 

Creative marshmallow roasting. 

140th Passage

I'm a few months behind in my blogging, so I will do less detailed posts about our summer adventures.
We went on the annual week-long Martin family camping trip. This time we headed up to Stanley. I've never been that way before. If you've heard it's pretty, you're right. The actual camp site and trees and stuff aren't as lovely, but the views are awesome.

First, a faith building story.
We have a little trailer that we used and packed full to haul all of our camping equipment, clothes, and food for a week. We hauled it from Caldwell to up past Stanley, on highways, through towns, and over bumpy dirt roads. As we pulled into camp, where my parents and brothers' family were already set up, my dad pointed to one of the trailer tires and said "It looks like you lost a bearing." I didn't really know what that meant, as my knowledge of tires, axles, and the like is basically nil. But apparently the bearing keeps the tire on. So we parked the trailer, unloaded it, and then David jacked it up to investigate. And then he took the tire off. Just like that. He didn't use any tools, hardly any muscle, it just slipped right off now that the weight was off of it. Yikes!

We're left to wonder then, how in the world we made it to camp after 3-4 hours of driving with a tire that wasn't held on by anything. The only possibility left to consider is that angels literally kept it in place. 

But wait! It's not over! 

Now  we had a problem. We had a trailer in Stanley Idaho with no way to get it home. The little mechanic in town didn't have the parts we needed to put it back together. They couldn't order it in time, either. 

On Sunday we went to church. It was in a tiny building, so there was a big overflow section outside where we could stare at the beautiful view of the Sawtooths. Anyway, we talked to the bishop there and let him know about our situation. As luck would have it, the second counselor worked on a ranch and had the equipment needed to put a trailer back together, and maybe even spare parts. David called him and got permission to use his equipment, but we needed to have the parts brought up. David called his parents and apprised them of the situation and they kindly came to the rescue. David ordered the parts from a place here in Caldwell and his Mom picked them up. David's parents planned on driving up the next morning, bright and early. This next part I might get some of details mixed up, but the gist is this: That night Jon kept thinking that something wasn't quite right and got out of bed to check out the pieces we ordered. I think he discovered that there was an important piece missing, that they hadn't gotten all of the parts we asked for. Needless to say they were back at the shop first thing in the morning getting everything all straightened out. But before heading up to Stanley they stopped at a friends house and he looked at the parts and realized it was the wrong size or something. I know I'm getting things out of order here, but there was something else wrong that was discovered, kind of miraculously, before Jon and Lisa made the long drive and they were able to get all the right pieces and parts. There is definitely no doubting that the Lord was looking out for us during all of this business. 

David and Jon were able to replace the bad parts with good parts and weld things back together at the shop of the man from church. It gave us no problems on the drive home. Whew!