Camping in North Idaho

We just returned from a fun-filled week at Camp Peine (LDS campground) on the great Pend Orielle River in north Idaho. We had a great time with our good friends, the Novakovichs, despite a few days of chilly, wet weather. Nothing can slow us down! We packed in a lot of activities in four days: tubing, trying to make it to shore on popped tubes before they completely deflated, wakeboarding, skiing, "bodysurfing", Gadianton Robbers (Plumb/Novakovich game), boat ride to the fun little town of Sandpoint, dinner in Sandpoint, boating back to camp in the rain, watching squirrels pilfer our trail mix, swimming, s'mores, yummy dutch oven cooking, trying to stay warm by the fire, bike riding, and much to Kaylyn's dismay, workouts. Kaylyn still had her drill sargeant Dad making her work out on our campout. (She really is grateful though - thanks dad!)

Lexi, Marissa and Darbi have fun jumping off the dock. Marissa is a friend who came with Darbi.

McKenna, Aleah, Marissa, Darbi and Zoe

Nothin' like a s'more! Mackie loves them.

Here we are gathered around the fire playing Gadianton Robbers. It's like the game Mafia, only we changed the names to people found in the Book of Mormon. It's a great game of lying, deceiving and trying to kill each other off! haha I think McKenna was one of the best at it - she was the lone-standing Gadianton Robber in one game and won! That's my girl!

We left a little bit a trail mix in a cup in one of the chairs one night. We woke up to find this squirrel running back and forth as fast as he could, swiping the trail mix and hurrying to bury it at the foot of a tree. There were some red cups in some of the other chairs too and we could see little footprints where he had jumped up to check out what was in them. Only the one cup had the mother load though.

He wasn't particular either. Here he is with a red M&M in his mouth. "Forget the nuts, I'm going for the chocolate!"

Marissa, Aleah and Lexi on the three-man.


Who says you can't body surf on a river? Looks like Kaylyn got it down pretty good!

Aleah won the award for flying the furthest off the tube. Way to go Aleah! You should be proud!

We finally had a morning with perfect water for skiing. Rob was in heaven! He would have loved to ski all day but his body was screaming NO! He did get a few good runs though.

Mom even got a good ski in.

Kaylyn doing her training workout. At least she had some of her friends join her. And then how rough is it to go jump in the river after?!

Family in Town

Rob's sister, Stephanie, and her son Tony are in town for a few days so last night we took them out on Lake Coeur d'Alene. We started with Tony, Joey and Derek (a friend) earlier in the day. Tony got up on skis for the first time. He was a natural, after he learned how to keep the slack out of the rope! "Sitting down" when you're going 25 mph behind a boat doesn't feel too good! After the skiing, they went tubing and look out! Uncle Rob was on a rampage to see how far he could make them fly. But, lo and behold, they survived and I think they had a great time.

Tony's first time waterskiing.

There's one of those "sit downs". Ouch!

"Whew! I did it!"

Joey goes down. There's 1 for Uncle Rob!

Oh - there's two!

Tony and Aleah fly !

Tony hangs on for dear life! Uncle Rob

couldn't get him off.

We then picked up Grandma and Grandpa Plumb and Steph. Thanks to our great friends, Mike and Nikki, for tagging along with their boat so we could fit everyone in. We love you guys! We headed up Spokane River towards Post Falls to pick up Cody (another of Steph's sons) and his wife, Jocelyn, who were in town visiting her father.

After a nice boat ride on Lake CdA, Dockside was calling our name for dessert! Jim and Jill met up with us there and all 20 of us enjoyed their fabulous "gooeys". It was so fun to see everyone and catch up on everyone's doings. We're thankful we were able to see Cody and Jocelyn before they head to Milwaukee, Wisconsin for four years, where Cody is starting medical school. We love our family and, as always, there is never a dull moment when we are all together.

Lake Roosevelt Summer 2008

It doesn't get any better than this! This is what summer in the Pacific Northwest is all about. After a long, cold winter and spring it was wonderful to finally get out on our first camping trip. We love to camp on the beaches of Lake Roosevelt. Our favorite spot, Crystal Cove, was vacant and we enjoyed four days and four nights there. We basically had the whole river to ourselves except for a few fishermen.

Just after we had finished setting up camp, we were sitting around the fire and a bald eagle flew into the trees right by us. Tin foil dinners, Blongoball, S'mores, Dutch oven cooking, wakeboarding, skiing, tubing, cliff-jumping, Kaylyn playing the guitar, boat rides at sunset and just relaxing! It was perfect.

Kaylyn loves to wakeboard

Our camp visitor

Aleah jumps!

Kaylyn and Mom on the tubes

Scout Camp 2008

Well, I survived my first BSA Camp(six days & nights). I'm not sure if it was rougher on me or the boys. The boys were pretty kind to their new Scout Master. Truth be known, I had a great time!! Our last night we took an 18 man war canoe and paddled 2.75 miles across Lake CDA to Mica Bay, we had the entire site to ourselves. We played some capture the flag and frisbee!! It was nice to get our troop alone and away from the other 325 scouts at Easton. We enjoyed some ducth oven stew and some dutch oven cherry cholocate cobbler. I can not believe how much food those boys can put away!!


We had 10 boys and 3 leaders there the enitre week. Our scouts accomplished quite a bit.

Never Say Never

Okay. We finally did it. Enough people kept telling us we should have a blog that we decided to give it a shot. We suppose that when soccer season starts up soon, it will be a good way to keep everyone up on the girls' teams and how they are doing. We've enjoyed reading family and friend's blogs and thought it might be fun to have our own. We love taking pictures so we'll try and post a lot of pics for you to see.

We're enjoying summer now that it's finally here! We've had one camping trip and are looking forward to another one in a couple of weeks. Kaylyn is home from college (Whitworth U. here in Spokane) for the summer and is busy working two jobs, playing indoor soccer, and training for the upcoming Whitworth soccer season. Lexi is also working two jobs, playing indoor soccer, and trying to stay in shape for her senior year of soccer at East Valley. Aleah and McKenna are just enjoying having nothing to do! They love playing outside and being in or around water. We (Rob & Cindy) are just trying to not let summer get away from us. We're looking forward to upcoming visits from family, camping trips, s'mores, and lots of good ole Dutch oven cookin'. See why we say Lexi (and the rest of us) is trying to stay in shape? It's soooo hard during the summer!

Hope you enjoy our crazy madness!