Couer d'Alene must be French for "amazing & beautiful beach"!

On one of the last hot days this summer, we decided to capitalize on that and head out to Lake Couer d'Alene.  We have been to the beach and the adjacent park many times, but every time we've gone it's been too cold to swim!  So we had a blast swimming, watching the boats, planes, and paragliders, and playing on the beach!  Lake C'DA is so amazing and beautiful, one of those places everyone should visit!

 



Lucy loved eating the sand - she would pick up huge globs of sand and just shove them in her mouth!  We "loved" trying to get her not to eat the sand the whole time!  Let me tell you, her diaper was so much fun to change the next time.  Little stinker!  But how can you get upset at this?

Cal worked hard digging most of the time.  He loves digging and shoveling and playing in the dirt.  True boy!  :)

Emma didn't want to get out of the water, she enjoys swimming so much!!  Here she is making a splash!

The gang.

Daddy and Emma kept getting into water fights.  And believe me, I was on Emma's side...I even dunked Daddy!  We laughed so much, I love those days you laugh until your tummy hurts!

You can't really see it well in this picture, but Emma made a "sand pillow" and had a nice little rest on the beach.  Cute.

Our kids' hair all looks so red in the sun!  Check that out!

Emma wanted to bury me and turn me into a mermaid.  With a little help from Daddy, of course!

What a beautiful, amazing day at the beach with my little fam!! 

Dam it! At Grand Coulee Dam

We decided to visit Grand Coulee Dam, since it's the largest one of its kind and it's not too far from here!  We had a *dam good time at Grand Coulee Dam.  I didn't think I'd been there, which is surprising, because in my dad's line of work and interest in them, if feels like I've been to every dam there is!  But talking to him the day after, I quickly learned that I had been there.  Dam it.  Okay, I'll stop with the dam jokes now.  I guess we had to keep sane growing up when we went to visit all of these "exciting" places!  :)  (Just for the record, I am not swearing, I'm leaving the N out...okay?!  Now that I've got that clear, on with this blog post)

We drove there and on the way had a discussion on how kids need to just look out the window and be bored sometimes.  The kids didn't like that, but we told them no to movies.  We told them to use their imaginations.  Watch the pretty country we were driving by.  We got to go on a ferry ride!  We drove our car right onto the ferry and over the Columbia river, so that was pretty cool.

When we got to the dam, we walked around it.  It was ginormous, as the kids said!

Then we went to the Visitor's Center.  They had some neat displays and interactive exhibits that piqued the kids' interest.

Had to put this one in for Dad. He works for the Army Corpos of Engineers. 

After we went to the Dam and Visitor's Center, we went to explore the small town of Grand Cooley.  We found this interesting Windmill Garden.  We all picked out their favorite. 

Then we went to the park.  Cal loved this shovel.

Around and around and around!

Not very evenly balanced, but they had fun anyways!

Then we visited Banks Lake for a picnic and to dip our feet in the water and skip rocks. 

After that it was to a concert.  It was a band that played 50's and 60's rock and roll.  They were really good and we all danced to the music.  As you can see, not many showed up.  Keep in mind, more showed up later, maybe a dozen more.  So it was all the better for us, more space for the kids to roll down the hill and run around.  The best was this grandma up front that got her groove on!  You go, Granny! 

Once it got dark, it was back to the dam where they do a laser show right on the walls of the dam explaining the history of the area, the dam, and the benefits the dam provides.  It was pretty sweet actually!  I liked it!

Camping at Round Lake and Silverwood

Our good friends, the Bennetts, invited us to go camping with them.  We went to Round Lake, ID.  We checked in and then checked out the lake...it was a pretty place and a good time was had by all!

Panoramic view

Snack time...Lucy trying to get a chip from Cal

 Lucy loved playing in between these two trees that were so close together, a perfect little place for her!

Cal in time out.  :(

Playing in the sand at the campground.

Back at the lake...water, sand, friends and sun, but no sun-burns since it was late afternoon/early evening.

Dinner time!  Yum!  We had tin-foil dinners with shaved beef, it was way tasty!  The kids roasted hot dogs!

 We enjoyed a nice night, it was the perfect temperature!  After we had dinner, we talked, roasted marshmallows, watched the stars and the meteor shower, and then went to bed.  The next morning, Emma woke me up early, which is unusal for her.  "Mom!  I think there's a frog on our tent!"  she said.  Sure enough, she was right!  There was a leopard frog that just parked on top of our tent!  It was so funny!  I guess Emma was up quite a while just watching it.

Not very happy!  Somebody woke up on the wrong side of the sleeping bag!

Playing hide-and-go-seek at the campground!

Breakfast- yum!  Why is it that pancakes when you're camping always taste better than the pancakes you make at home?

Trying to get the frog down.  Emma wanted to take it home...

We got it!  All of the kids were excited to see it!

But then we went to release it in the lake.

Goodbye, froggy!

Then we went for a hike.  It was a nice little hike, perfect for kids!

 Our family!  We loved camping here, it was a nice spot.  I loved the tall, tall trees!

Then it was back to the lake for a whole day of beach and swimming fun!

Catching tadpoles and baby cat fish - this occupied the kids most of the day!  Again, they wanted to keep these too, but we told them they probably wouldn't live all day in the heat of our car the next day as we were going to Silverwood.

 We also rented a paddleboat and did that, so that was cool.  The kids only lasted about 15 minutes before they got bored with that. That night, we made dutch oven nachos, which turned out really well with dutch oven cherry crisp on the menu.  Delicious!  We played games that night around the campfire, and then hit the sack.  It was so windy and many of our things blew around or away that night and it was hard to sleep.  But none of us slept in, we were too excited because it was the day to go to Silverwood theme park!

 Garfield and Yodie are the mascots you'll see walking around the park.  They were there to greet us.

 Daddy and Emma coming down the slide...they loved the slides and went down some big scary ones!

 Cal loved the water park a lot too!  We had a fun time and stayed so long there because there was just so much to do!

Arms up!  Getting on their first ride...the butterfly swing!

And the verdict is...they all loved it!  Cal never even got scared on any of the rides!

 Lucy was sad because she couldn't go on very many of the rides!  She kept trying to climb over the fences to get in.

This Froggy drop ride was Cal's favorite thing!

 I love Cruz's face in this shot!

 Even waiting in lines was a treat...they couldn't wait for the next thing!

Barrel ride

 Lucy trying to sneak through a gate to get to a ride...

 She probably felt like she was locked in jail, poor girl!

 Lucy could play at the playground though, which she loved!

 At the train station...

 In line for the train ride!

We were on the front seats of the long train!  It was a standard-sized train and we had a fun, informative, long ride!

 Buffalo!

 Cal had too much fun...he fell asleep on the train and had a nice nap!

While the dads went on all of the scary rides, the moms took the kids over to the kid rides.  Then we all went on some rides together.  Dave's favorite was the After Shock.  He and Derek were in the front and were screaming like girls!  They were dangling upside down with nothing in front of them, and then it twists and does a loop and then you suspend and drop again.  It was great to watch them!  My favorite was the log flume.  

Emma and Lily on the Airplanes

Emma loved Timber Terror, her first roller coaster, which I went on it with her.  She was barely tall enough for all of the scary rides, at 48".  The wood roller coaster was so jerky, and we were getting jarred all over the place.  I thought she was going to cry at the end, but when we got off and the ride finally ended, she looked me and started breathing again and I said "did you have fun?" and it took her a second to answer, but she responded "yes!" after the color returned to her face again!

We had so much fun!  Thanks, Bennetts!