S’more Summer Travels

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We went to Coeur d’Alene in July. We tried to go some place different, but Liberty and Levi really wanted to go back to Coeur d’Alene. We stayed at an awesome farmhouse aribnb up in the hills above the lake. It was a huge property we were hoping Levi could explore, but it turns out there was barbed wire blocking half of it. But he saw a porcupine our first night there and we saw deer and turkeys and quail every day. We also almost got hit by a big elk trying to run across the road, but she turned back just in time. Levi was hoping to see a cougar because every road had cougar in the name and Cougar Bay was just down the road, but thankfully, he did not get to see one up close and personal. It was a beautiful and peaceful place to stay.

The only thing it was missing was a weight rack. So Rock improvised.

Our first full day there, Levi went fishing in the river and Liberty and I went to a ballet store in Spokane Valley to get her newest set of pointe shoes.

It was like Olivanders but for ballet shoes!
This girl still loves ballet and she’s excited to start her second year of pointe. I’m less excited about driving her to ballet every day.
The rejects
Professional ballet dancers go through shoes like crazy. These were the owner’s shoes during her time as pro dancer.

And just in case you are wondering, because I was, once you are a pro, dancing for a company, the company pays for all your shoes. Thank goodness! They are NOT cheap! That night the four of us ate at a restaurant on the water and watched the sunset.

The next day we rode the Hiawatha trail! It was really fun to finally be able to do this!

That night Rock and I went on a date and dropped the kids off in downtown to get their own dinner and wander around. It’s really nice having older kids, I gotta say!

The next day the kids and Rock went rock jumping at Tubs Hill. I got all three of them jumping in this video!

It was so hot that day! So we got some gooeys at the resort. Check out how big these ice creams are!

And that was Coeur d’Alene; relaxing and beautiful.

My sisters and I went to Sun Valley for a couple days and then Rock switched them spots. It was very smoky much of the time, but the girls and I got a good hike in with some good views on our one clear morning.

The view from our aribnb. Would LOVE to see this in the winter!
The Sawtooths! By the time we came back past this same spot you couldn’t see them anymore because smoke had moved in. There were some major fires burning right near Redfish Lake so we were lucky to get this view at all!
The beautiful mountain lake we almost got to. The hike ended up being much longer than we thought and by the time we got to this point we were done. It would have taken quite a bit more hiking down and then back up if we’d gone all the way down. We settled for a picture instead.

Sun Valley is awesome but everything closes early. One night we really wanted some ice cream and there was nothing open! As a last ditch effort we went into a small convenience store hoping they might have a small freezer section. But instead we found this:

No, we didn’t ask to see their “outside” freezers.
There really aren’t words to describe this lovely piece of artwork we found on a walk, but I think the girl’s faces say it all.

The first night we were there I was really sick with a weird chills/fever/stomach bug and though I had big plans to hike more and bike around the trails once Rock got to Sun Valley, I didn’t feel a ton better by the time he arrived. But on our anniversary we managed to fit in a bike ride through a beautiful neighborhood at the foot of one of the very first ski lifts.

We had a nice dinner that night and then headed home right after breakfast the next morning because I was still not feeling great and Sun Valley and surrounding mountains were so smoky we couldn’t see much.

My yummy breakfast

Not our best getaway, but a couple lackluster getaways is pretty good for 23 years!

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