Summertime

We have been very bad about getting updates here on our blog - to the point that very few people check it anymore. It's been several months and I'm sorry about that. There's a lot to tell.

First Zach turned 10. We held a party here for him and he had a water slide out back. They had a lot of fun!

In June, John took David for some one-on-one time at the Bruneau Sand Dunes. They went early and camped overnight. The largest public access telescope in the northwest was there, so they did some cool sky watching. A group from the church of kids his age were also there the following day and they joined together and climbed the sand dunes. It was a good father/son over-nighter. This is something John is trying to do with each of the boys every few months.


So then he took Zach for his over-nighter over 4th of July weekend. Boy was it hot out! They backpacked in to a hot spring up near Tamarack Resort and then went over to Tamarack to do some mountain biking the next day. On the way home, they stopped at another hot spring because the one they stayed at was very disappointing. This one was much better - but extremely hot and had quite a hike to get to it. Somewhere during this trip John got a bad case of Poison Ivy - yukk!




In July, John's biological dad passed away. It was very unexpected as he was still very young. We received a call on Friday morning that he'd had a heart attack and John jumped on a flight within 2 hours. He was able to say goodbye to Robby before he passed which was an immense blessing. The other 4 of us took off to Florida the following morning and we stayed for a week to attend the funeral and spend some much needed time with family. It was difficult and sad, but some really good growth came out of it. John was able to help Karen and his siblings through the arrangements and a sad first week. Some good photos of family can be seen below.
(L to R) Joy, Michelle, Karen, Trae & John

Extended Family

Robby


We took a day and went to Magic Kingdom while we were there too. It was a good break for us all and we had a lot of fun.



Schooling started back up in September. The boys are doing well. Alex is beginning to take off with his reading. Zach exploded with his literacy skills over the summer. David is now a 7th grader. He is enjoying the freedom we are permitting with some of his studies. Mom is enjoying that she is able to be a little less hands-on!

Will try to keep this up better in the future! LOL
Steph

Sawtooth Camping

Two weeks ago, we went camping in the Sawtooth Mountains. It is renown for it's remote location and spectacular beauty. The mountains in that region are unique in their rugged features from the rest of the surrounding mountains in Idaho. They generally stay snow-capped year round and are sharp, rocky peaks, thus the name, "sawtooth."

This was our first view of them from a lookout about 50 miles from our destination.

The camping area was a remote campground at Stanley Lake. It is approximately 10 miles from the small dot of civilization of Stanley, Idaho. On it's north shore, McGown Peak rises above it for what can only be described as picture perfect!

We went with another family from church. They have 3 boys ages 11, 13 & 15, and a daughter who is 8. They brought their canoe, raft and kayak so everyone could have an opportunity to go out on the lake. It was a lot of fun for our boys to have other boys to be "boys" with!

All of us except Jackie and their daughter went on a bike ride to go see Bridqal Veil Falls. Unfortunately, the mosquitos got too bad for any of us (save John & Steve) to make the entire trip. It was mushy and gravelly, plus sandy, dirty and log covered on the trail. So, most all of the boys will tell you it was great. John & Steve made it to the falls overlook but were not all that impressed from their viewpoint. They said I was probably glad to have not trudged on through the mosquito swarms or through the thigh high creek that was super cold from snow runoff.



To view all of our pictures of the trip, you can go to this web page HERE!



We did go to the Redfish Lake on the other side of Stanley and Mcgown Peak. The views fromthere were just as good and you can very easily see the second tallest of the "teeth", Mount Heyburn at 10, 229 feet in elevation.


By the way, it has been reaching into the hundreds here for our daily temps, so don't be totally fooled into thinking we have it cooler out here just because our taller mountains are snow capped! But I will say I was impressed to see that our heat index is actually LOWER here! I dare to say it again- humidity does matter!

Well, enjoy the pics!

Steph

Off the Beaten Path

Over the past several weeks, the family has been enjoying exploration of the mountains and foothills surrounding us. Two weeks ago, we explored (three days in a row!) the foothills north of Boise. It is a lot of fun traversing the 4 wheel drive roads that other vehicles can't access.


Some of the views of the city were awesome. It is amazing how there can be such low humidity yet the city looks to be covered in a haze.

Of course John had to climb even higher on Lucky Peak to get an even better view!

The really spectacular views came from looking northward into the snowcapped mountains of the Boise Mountain range. It still amazes us that it is nearly June and the mountain tops still have, and even receive snow!


On Memorial day, we took off to Silver City, Idaho. It is nestled in the Owyhee Mountains just south of Boise. On the map it looked closer than it was! We thought we were going for a picnic that would take us about an hour to reach. However, it took us nearly two hours- but, oh, the fun! The main roads to get to the city were great. When you got off the main road onto the road that takes you to Silver City, it was even pretty good. A nicely paved park-type road. However, about 6 miles into it, it became a very obvious, high-clearance 4x4 dirt road! We bounced and weaved our way the next 6-8 miles to the city. It was great!

The views on the way were great. You can see Hayden Peak in a lot of the photos. It's the taller of the snowcapped mountains in the distance. It stands at 8400+ feet. Oddly enough, we ambled our way back to those snowy mountains- at least near the one on the right. It stands very close to Silver City.


We took a detour on the way by taking a 4x4 trail out to an overlook. It was about a 500 foot gorge to a small stream. Beautiful views, indeed!


Now, Silver City is what folks refer to as a "ghost town." It was booming during the gold rush and had both a silver and a gold mine operating. Nowadays, there are still a few people who live there, but most of it is just empty buildings and historical stuff. When the gold ran out, so did the people, leaving everything behind as their memorial. (I took several photos of the town that you can see here).

When we got there, we had our picnic lunch and explored a bit. The boys mostly loved the mountain stream. So did John!


On our way out, we took some side roads and did more "off roading" as we explored the nature around us. Generally speaking, it was a lot of the same types of scenery- mountains, streams, gorges, snow... But it is something you can never seem to tire of!

Now, if you notice, from this viewpoint you can see from the Owyhee Mountains we are taking the photo from straight over the valley to the Boise Mountain Range. Yep, that's snow on top!


Well, hope you enjoyed! I know we did!

Steph

Weekend Getaway- City of Rocks, ID

This long overdue post is all about our grand adventure this weekend! It started out innocently enough- naive may be the right word though! We are still acclimating to this new environment. Who knew that with a forecast of 65 degrees for a high and 40 degrees for a low would ultimately mean snowdrifts and sunburns?

We left Friday afternoon around 3pm from Boise. The temp was a warm 77 and we had the top down on the Jeep. We amazingly packed all we needed to camp for two nights into the back of the Jeep and had all 5 bikes attached, too. We were also on a mission to find our 2nd rabbit, Jack, a new home. So he was in a box on the boy's lap. Jack was always meant to be a wild rabbit. He was only visiting us for a couple of weeks.



We stopped in Mountain Home for a late lunch and the jackets for the boys because they were a little chilly on the highway. (75mph with the top down can do that, ya know.) We then left by 4:30 and were on our way again. We figured to be able to be in and set up camp easily by dark. We didn't count on stopping in Burley for another fill up and to ask for the best way into the City of Rocks. We were told continuing down the road to Oakley and going in from there was the fastest. So we went to Oakley, where we realized the Visitor's Center would be closed and we should stop and get firewood. So we did. We stopped at Searle's where the owner was kind enough to run home and get us $5 worth of wood for the night.



Did I mention that before we got to Burley we saw these beautiful snow covered mountains in the distance? I teased John that that's where we were going. Funny how I was right!

We left Oakley to go the 15 miles further into the City of Rocks. As we were going, we left the paved road just outside Oakley and began heading into the snow-covered mountains! Did I mention we still had the top down? So as we continued to climb in elevation, we started to get cold. But the road was clear as far as we could tell and the snow was still higher than we were. Good enough for us! So, we gave no thought to it. We passed a sign that read "Road not maintained in winter." It's the end of April so it isn't winter anymore, right?



We finally came upon a sign that said "City of Rocks, 2 miles" with an arrow pointing left. We were now at 6200ft of elevation and the road continued up. We kinda figured we'd go down on the other side-- which we would've if we could've made it. Notice in the photo how the snow started to cover the road? It only got better.



We came to an area where the snow totally covered the road for about 100 feet. John said, "I've got a Jeep. We can make that, no problem." So he took off into it. Our fist clue should've been when we got stuck within the first 20 feet. But, no. John figured if he got a "running" start at it, we could make it through.

Umm, we didn't.




So, we got stuck in a snowdrift that was crossing the road at about 6300 feet as the sun was setting. We were still in our summer clothes and the top was down with everything packed in the back making it very difficult to get the top up. After assessing our situation, John changed into pants and a sweatshirt and began digging us out. My job was to get the top up on the Jeep so there could be warmth. The boys? They began praying!

After an hour of digging and trying to get out, John had me go scope out a place where we could spend the night. After all, we had all our camping gear and the tents and sleeping bags would be warmer than our present situation. I found a good place, but was not convinced we should give up. Neither were the kids. We all wanted to keep trying, but John's nerves were not wearing well. He kept digging with our pans and had us all start digging out with the pans and lids. After another half an hour, on this incredibly remote road (Did I say remote? I meant EXTREMELY remote!) we saw headlights!

A couple of guys who were on their way to the City of Rocks to go rock climbing "just so happened" to take the road we were stuck on. And wonder of wonders- they had a shovel! An answer to the boys’ prayers!



So, alas, John began really shoveling hard now. The Jeep was stuck up to the frame and was resting on its axles on the snow. The snow was eastern hard packed because of the warm weather during the days. After another hour of shoveling and no progress being made toward the wheels actually catching, a second miracle appeared. Another set of headlights approaching!

This time it was a pickup truck. Robert, Monica and Crystal were just out joyriding on this Friday night and were more than happy to help us out. Robert "just so happened" to get new tires on the truck recently and he had his towing chain with him. What a miracle! Now, the first attempt to reach us ended Robert up stuck in the snow also. But with the 2 first guys and John pushing, he was unstuck quickly. So, the guys used the shovel to dig out the center of the tracks from where he got stuck to where we got stuck. Then with running in and out to make sure his wheels had good traction, he was able to get close enough to us to attach the chain. One good tug, and we were FREE!



We waved goodbye to our new friends in the Sunfire, expressing much gratitude for their help. The trio in the truck offered to show us a short-cut to Albion, which would take us to the road that went into the City of Rocks on the west side. Basically, we had to backtrack 50+ miles when we were literally only 2 miles from our campsite. Ick!

So, we followed Robert, Monica & Crystal to Albion taking some back roads. Once there, they wanted to go ahead and follow us on to the City of Rocks. What the heck! After all, it was only 1:00am. Evidently, there isn't a lot else to do on a Friday night ;o Still, we welcomed the traveling companions.

We got to our campsite around 2am, bid our new friends goodbye and started setting up camp. John got the boys set up, then us. Around 3am, we were finally able to sleep. (And, unfortunately, that's probably when the campers next to us were finally able to get back to sleep too.) Our site was on a pretty decent incline, so I kept sliding to the foot of my bag and the tent! I was also very cold. The mattress under me was allowing too much cold to seep through. Poor John didn't have any pad under him and was even colder! They boys were comfy though, so that's what matters!

Next morning, our neighboring campers (that we woke up at 2am) were getting ready to leave. John went over to apologize for waking them and it "just so happened" to be the Bruce from Boise who trained us in our YMCA belay course. He remembered us and was kind enough to offer John his mattress for the next night. John gratefully accepted. Another act of God! Now we all had insulation under our sleeping bags!

We took over their much more level campsite and proceeded to enjoy our day. After brunch, we loaded up the bikes and went exploring. We stopped and took in all the interesting sights. You can see many of the things we saw on the web page if you click this link.

City of Rocks - Page loads slow - lots of pics

That evening when we returned, we decided to try to climb Bath Rock. We were told it was an easy climb on the backside. After getting there, David, Zach and I decided it was NOT for us. Alex made it a third of the way up, but then decided it was too much for him, too. John, debated about half way up, but then he did it! He free-climbed Bath Rock! He said it was the most scared he's ever been, but he did it!



After he got down, we had re-hydrated freeze dried dinners. Then we built a campfire and enjoyed some hot cocoa before bed. We hit the sack around 10pm. It was a better night of sleep because we had learned a few tricks. First, we warmed up with warm drinks to warm our core. Then, John boiled water and placed it in a Nalgene and put it in the bottom of my bag. We also, all used earplugs. Much better sleep!

We got up and left by 11:30am. We stopped at Shoshone Falls (near Twin Falls) on the way home. Since this was a great year for snowfall in the mountains, the falls had massive volumes of water. It is higher than Niagara Falls at 212 feet. And with the volume of water, it resembled Niagara as well, just set in a gorge! It was pretty neat.



We also stopped off and saw Malad Gorge. We were able to cross the gorge right over what is nicknamed Devil's Washbowl, a 270-foot vertical drop-off. We were able to get some neat pics of it for y'all to see.



At about 6:30pm, we finally arrived home. We unloaded, washed the Jeep and the bikes from all the dirt and mud, and then enjoyed some much-needed baths. After we got all cleaned up, the boys were out playing with the neighbor's dog and Alex got knocked into the corner of the brick of our house. He had a good-sized gash on the back of his head. We all loaded up to take him to the emergency room for stitches, but it stopped bleeding before we were seen and I was able to determine I could take care of it myself. We brought him home and I proceed to cut his hair around it, clean it and bandage it up. He is fine today.

So that's it. Our fun April adventure. I still need to fill in a hole in there from a hot spring adventure we took in March. However, that will have to wait for another day! Hope all is well on your end!

Steph