Two summers ago we had the opportunity to go up to McCall with Charlie's family and stay in our Brother in Law's family cabin. We had so much fun and kept hoping for another opportunity to go. Last summer we were just never able to match up schedules to make it happen again, plus I was newly pregnant and not feeling well so it just didn't happen. This summer we were determined to make it happen! It took many many texts back and forth trying to figure out schedules. But we finally found something that worked and started planning away. We divided up the meals and groceries so that each girl was in charge of a breakfast, lunch and dinner. Then Debra was in charge of sodas, juices, and coffee etc. We all of course over planned and over packed so we ended up with enough food to last us more than our three days there. He he.
Sunday morning, bright and early, we loaded up. We all met up here and John helped Charlie attach Debra's bike rack to our car so we could load up our bikes.
Then we were on the road. The kiddos did amazing! The girls colored and watched movies. Quinton slept most of the way thankfully, only fussing at the very end when we stopped at the grocery store in McCall to grab a few forgotten items before heading to the cabin. It was a mad dash to unload the cars and get lunch going for a bunch of starving people once we arrived. We got to claim the big bedroom above the garage again. Last visit we figured out the second night there to push all the beds together and the girls did much better that way than when we tried to do pack and plays. So this year I went straight up there and rearranged the beds (a full and two twins) to make one huge bed. Quinton just snuggled up in bed with me each night (heaven) and the girls were in between Charlie and myself. I tried to not worry about naps and sleep schedules because doing so ruined our first day of McCall our last time. So Lydia skipped her nap each day, if Quinton got tired we'd lay him down but he usually only slept 45min at most (and we had no swing to put him in ha ha). We did a beach visit that afternoon and just had fun playing at the cabin.
At one point the kids had found all these nerf guns and kept shooting out the nerf/foam dart things. So they were scattered all over the house. The living room is huge and has big vaulted ceilings and above that is an open balcony off of a bedroom (it used to be open to the outside before they remolded the cabin) Anyway, the three little girls were playing up there and then all the sudden disappeared. Before we knew it it was almost as if they had gone to conspire together because they ran back to the railing and threw down a bunch of the darts onto us. It was pretty funny. The kids loved riding in the little ATV they keep up there. We took the kids on a trail to pick huckleberries and they were loving it. It was more of a one for my mouth one for my cup type of thing but it was adorable. We managed to pick quite a lot in the end though and used them for pancakes the next morning.
Monday we loaded everyone up for a trip into town to hit up the thrift shops and get some ice cream. The scoops at this place were GIGANTIC. Quinton was roasting at this point despite my best efforts to keep him cool (I had a little hand held fan I was blowing on him) so Charlie pulled the car up to the ice cream place for me. Quinton and I hung out in the air conditioning while I attempted to eat my enormous scoop and the family hung out in the shade.
Then we went to the main little beach area in town so the kiddos could swim. It was really rocky there so they didn't like it as much as the private beach area around the cabins. Charlie ended up taking Quinton and I back to the cabin early so I could lay him down in the cool breeze the fans created. When everyone got back we decided to do an early dinner so we could make a trip out to some hot springs. Charlie was pooped and we weren't sure how Quinton would do at the hot springs so he decided to stay back with him. I really wish we would have tried though. This place was awesome! They had multiple levels of pools so each pool was gradually cooler than the last one. We stayed in the shallow/kiddie pool mostly and I think Quinton would have liked it because it was about the same temp as bath water. Plus Lydia was a FISH and was going crazy trying to swim around and Charlie missed out on seeing her. Everyone was so surprised to see our little mellow girl just break out of her shell and be so animated it was seriously so cute. The kids had so much fun swimming and splashing around. Finally at 9pm they were closing down so we had to head out. We stopped at a place in town that makes excellent shakes and picked some up to take back to the cabin. Everyone was beat from our day of fun and we all crashed that night. Lydia did end up waking up a bit that night from a stuffed up nose. I thought the water had just irritated her because she would try to swim under water so much, but later realized she had managed to catch a cold. Poor baby. I ended up giving her a dose of tylenol and she was finally able to relax and get some sleep. That night it actually cooled down a lot during the night and I woke up cold at one point so I had to close the windows and turn down the fans! Quinton had me up early that morning but thankfully the girls stayed asleep with Charlie and got some much needed rest.
Our plan was to leave Tuesday night after dinner so that Charlie could get back to work Wednesday. So throughout the day I would start to gather our stuff up and just get things cleaned up and packed. We did another trip down to the little beach area with the kiddos.
I noticed there was a fire pit and luckily I had packed on a whim the ingredients for smores. So Steph rode back to the cabin and grabbed them and we had fun roasting marshmallows. I ate 3 of them and almost made myself sick ha ha ha. Natalia only ate half of one and then gave up and Lydia wouldn't even try it crazy kid! Quinton started to get fussy so I rode my bike back to the cabin a little early while everyone else hung out a bit longer. We had originally planned a meal for that days lunch but decided to try to attack some of the leftover food instead. We set up a blanket in the tv room for the kids and just fixed a bunch of plates full of cheese/rolled up sandwich meat/ fruit/veggies and told them it was a picnic and to eat up ha ha ha. We also had a finger and toe painting session with all the little girls. I bought a thing of nail polish while in town because my pedicure from that weekend was super lame and all came off!! At some point during the day the rest of the family decided to leave that night as well instead of their original plan of leaving the next morning after breakfast. So once dinner was done it was a mad dash to get the cars loaded back up and the cabin clean... all while keeping the kiddos happy. We put jammies on all of them before heading out hoping they would sleep in the car. Lydia was on the verge of sleep but I made Charlie stop at a gas station so I could get some ice cold water (I need my water ice cold, so high maintenance!! ha ha ha) Anyway, I grabbed some cute juices for the girls while I was in there and that perked her right up. So she watched a movie and colored on the way down. Natalia colored for a bit but ended up falling asleep of course.
Quinton slept the whole way again, and even slept through the unloading the car and getting the girls to bed once we got home.
We were soo exhausted and happy to be home in the air conditioning and our beds. but it was such a fun quick trip. Even if it was a bit chaotic at times, I loved that the kids were all together and just having so much fun together. It seriously makes me want to own a cabin someday. Probably will never happen but a girl can dream right ha ha ha.
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