Camping

Ethan was only going to be home for less than two weeks before he had to head to Idaho State University to begin cross country practice, and Katelyn was only home through the weekend, so we had planned a family camping trip for the short time we would all be together.  We hit the road on Thursday and headed up to Idaho, north of Ketchum.

We found a great campsite in the Wood River campground and go busy setting up.

Griffin making a shelter for his Wilderness Survival merit badge.

The trusty silver bullet, over 200,000 miles...still getting us where we need to go. :)

After securing a campsite, we headed to Easley Hot Springs for some swimming and soaking.  We had the place to ourselves!  It was so fun.

After swimming, it was back to camp for a relaxing evening.

Friday morning we took our time getting up and getting going and these two cute kids sat around the fire reading their scriptures.

We stopped in at the SNRA ranger station for a minute.

They had some cool stuff in there.  The kids added to the art work...

Typical Carson antics. haha

Then we headed up to Stanley.

Then headed out on a hike to Alpine Lake.

So pretty!

Carson made friends with a llama.  😂

Ethan tried his hand at fishing.  He may have been a bit rusty.

And may have snagged a tree.  😂

After the hike we made a stop along the highway outside of Stanley at a hot spring.  Not only were there some areas along the edge of the river to sit and soak . . .

but someone had rigged up this really cool "tub" that was filled with the water from the hot spring.  So fun!

Ethan opted for more fishing instead.

Last morning at camp.  Loved being around the fire and hearing Ethan play the guitar.

Our attempt to recreate a picture from Katelyn's childhood. haha

We took a little walk up the Harriman trail to a little cave after breakfast.

Then hit another fishing spot on our way out of camp.

We stopped for a late lunch at the Burger Grill in Ketchum before heading home.

We had debated doing this camping trip or not.  In a way, we hated to run off with Ethan right after he came home, not giving him a chance to catch up with friends, etc.  But I am so glad we did it!  It gave us some really great uninterrupted family time including time to sit around the campfire and hear Ethan's mission stories that we otherwise wouldn't have had with all the hustle and bustle of getting him ready to head off to college.

I sure do cherish these trips with the kids.  No telling how many more we'll have.