Hiking

At the beginning of the summer we decided that we would be doing a lot of hiking this summer as a family activity. We have done a little but not as much as we had planned. On Wednesday we loaded up the kids, that were home, and headed to a fairly easy trail. It was so beautiful out, I love being in the woods, it was a horse trail and Avrie and I had fun dodging all the droppings we found along the way. She was a little grumpy about going on the hike because we told her she could not bring her I pod to listen to music, but when we got to the dodging she thought this was really fun and pretty soon she was laughing and having a good time. We drug Jayden out with us he went reluctantly and was a grump most of the time, until the very end when we pulled into McDonald's to get ice cream then he cheered right up.

We started off  on the interurban trail just to trick the kids into thinking that it was going to be a nice stroll in the park.  We found blackberries to pick and eat on the way.

 I captured a moment of her not being so grumpy but in the picture below Avrie is not happy! Destina loved picking and eating the berries.

Once we were off the main trail the hike became a little steeper and more beautiful.

 I thought this would be a great picture spot so I gave the camera to Scott and had him take some pictures, but between the time I took this picture and he took the family pictures a setting on the camera was bumped and all of the pictures he took were blurry he didn't bother with checking them to see how they were turning out, and by the time I had my camera back the kids had moved on and grumpy children did not want to come back.
So I took a few more scenery shots.

 I noticed that the leafs were already changing colors on these trees, fall will be here all too soon.

  The kids found a giant tree to climb across.

Jayden didn't want to cross the log so he climbed the rock instead.

 

After we hiked up the trail for about an hour it was time to turn around and hike back down, we took a different part of the trail but we ended up back at the bridge so I gathered everyone back up and had Scott take a couple more pictures, but if I thought they were going to be good for the second round group pictures I was dead wrong.  Half of them were blurry, not the camera setting this time, one or more people either had their eyes closed or a grumpy look on their faces and it was another failure. Except one that turned out okay only because we were so far away that it is hard to tell who is being grumpy or whose eyes are closed.

 Oh well, it was a fun way to spend the afternoon and everyone arrived back home happy.

Last Day

I was so glad that Katie and Jeremy were able to get time off of work and drive the 8 hrs to spend a couple of days with us, they made the trip even more fun, and they are just so cute together. It was really fun having my 2 oldest back together again, they loved spending every minute together.

 I forgot to put in the pictures of Delanie doing the flowrider, she was the first of the little girls that tried it, she really wanted some ice cream and once she did it the other ones were brave enough to try it!

 

 It was also grandma's birthday, during our little vacation, I don't know many 77 year old ladies that will still get into a swimsuit and float down the lazy river, but she did! She had McKenzie guiding them around and Katie brought her camera to capture the moment. It was great fun having them swimming with us!  Grandpa lost his glasses but we found them and grandma did not want to get her hair wet and that lasted about 3 minutes before she was soaked.

Avrie could spend her life floating and swimming around lazy rivers, she never wanted to come out at the end of the day,

 

At night we stayed up too late playing cards, pinochle is the family favorite.

Our last night we attempted a big family picture, we found a stranger to take the pictures for us and it is impossible to get everyone smiling and looking at the camera at the same time, but we had fun trying.

We had a BBQ and made S'mores.

 And it was fun watching someone else chase after a wild 2 year old, it brought back memories of chasing Ryan around and glad I already did my time.

 I made Katie and McKenzie take a picture with me on our way to the pool, I knew I would be missing Katie soon enough.

 We had a really fun time it was so good to see Dan and Lynn and their kids, Scott's parents, and Lynn's parents too.

Silver Mountain Resort, Kimball Idaho

Day 2 brought more swimming in the morning while the brothers were off golfing. In the afternoon most of us rode the gondola to the base of the ski resort, then went on a 3 mile scenic trail hike. It was beautiful and just fun to be outside enjoying the beautiful summer and getting a break from the indoor water park was nice.

I did not think it was funny when they climbed out over the cliff, it made me a little nervous.

 Then McKenzie decided to walk all the way around, she has a thing for beams.

Jeremy looks a little tall in this picture, or the girls look really short.

 Love this picture my oldest and my youngest.

This was the ski lift, not the gondola we rode up the mountain in, it wasn't moving!

 Avrie is not faking this is how she hiked the 3 miles, she fell asleep about 2 minutes into walking and woke up just as we were coming back to the ski lodge about an hour later. This girl will sleep anywhere, except she hates bedtime and never wants to go to bed on time.

Lynn was the only one from her family to make the hike, Dan Jennifer, and both grandma's rode up the gondola but Jennifer had a tummy ache and didn't want to hike so Dan stayed back and we were happy to have Lynn along for the hike.

Weird that this is not all of my kids 3 kids are missing plus Tim.  Kelsie had a summer class she was taking and couldn't miss, and the boys, including Tim were at scout camp for the week. We missed them.

Family Reunion Part 1

We had a "Gordon Family" reunion, although we were missing some of the gang, Mark, Cathlin, Kelsie, Ryan and Jayden. There were 16 of us in 2 condo's at an indoor water park/ski resort in the middle of Idaho, well actually the top corner of Idaho.  We had a great time! We had 2 condo's that slept 8 each and we conveniently put the grandparents with the under 12 kids and the parents of the under 12 kids and adult children in the other room, I did NOT make the room arrangements had nothing to do with it but was really happy about it! And the grandparents were able to spend some quality time with the younger grand kids.

We almost had the place to ourselves it was not crowded at all, and when Scott, Dan and Mckenzie saw the "flowrider" the first evening we were there I knew it was trouble and they spent everyday, except the day Scott and Dan went golfing, got a massage, and fancy lunch, on that thing. They paid extra to have private lessons 2 of the 3 days we were there. I took my camera the first day and captured the "learning curve" there was a lot of falling involved but by the 3rd day they were tearing it up and they actually were really good.
Picture over load....

 Dan caught on pretty quick after some great falls.

 McKenzie tried to be graceful but that was hopeless.

 Katie made sure to bail before she fell because she doe not like to get hurt.

 Scott is still complaining that his elbow hurts from all of the falls he took.

   Jeremy was the pro but he did take one pretty nasty whip-lashing fall. I guess having the ocean as your back yard and surfing helped a little.

By the 3rd day they were all really good, even the little girls tried it because I bribed them with some ice cream.

They were so brave actually going back for more.

All the kids tried it, but I didn't get a good picture of Destina.

The girls had a great time with cousin Jennifer they have missed her since she moved away last summer.  Avrie was being a stinker for pictures but I finally got her to smile!