Camp Smokey

There are times when you know you just have it good.  There are times when you just stop and say, "Can it get any better than this?"  There are times when you know that you are surrounded by the best kind of people.  There are times you look around at them and say, "How did I get so lucky?!"

Our annual trip to the beautiful Idaho Sawtooth Mountains this summer was just such a time.  We were joined by my parents and siblings, Greg's whole family and our friends, Katri and Kurt and kids.  All of us just had a blast together.  It really was an incredible, almost surreal experience.  One of those times that you just sigh and say, "Life is good!"

It's not just a t-shirt slogan...

On our way to camp, we stopped at Shoshone Falls, outside of Twin Falls. I hadn't been there since I was about 10 or 12.  It was beautiful and the kids loved it.

We met my parents and brother's family on Galena Summit on our way into camp and enjoyed the incredible views.  Ketchum and the surrounding area was settled by my dad's family, so it is always immensely satisfying to visit again.  Like going home.

Once at Camp Smokey, we had so many fun activities together.  The first major event was the big raft building contest and race.  Each family designed, built and raced their respective rafts.  No rules.  Jane designed hers on graph paper and then built it out of cardboard and duct tape with Grace.  It was amazing.  I was really proud.

It was all fun and games, until someone had to actually work together:

Check out Grace sobbing.  You could hear here screaming clear across the lake.  She was supposed to be in charge of yelling, "Stroke, Stroke!" but, of course, her older sister sort of took that over.  And because she is smaller, she couldn't row as strongly as Jane, so there was a bit of drama with that whole thing.  The same thing happened to my two nephews.  Grace and Tommy both got off their respective rafts in full tantrum mode. It was actually pretty hilarious.

They all received awards for their awesomeness.

After dinner that night, we all had a big movie-watching party sponsored by my mom.  Snowball Express was the film we screened and the kids loved it.  Actually, so did the adults.  Everyone laughed through the whole thing.

Other fun activities included fishing:

Greg and his dad discovered the BEST fishing hole on the Salmon.  We had SO much fun! My brother, Dustin, caught 3 German Browns over 20 inches!  It was a blast.  Unfortunately, no pictures, but we do have some awesome video that I'll post when I have it.

The kids really enjoyed being pulled by my dad's boat.

Lucky for me, there are no pictures of when my brother and I went on the tube.  Gone are the days when I felt like a dare-devil.  We were pretty much crying and laughing all at the same time.  It was crazy-scary, but also hilariously fun!!

Four-wheeling was gorgeous and a blast!

Some of us also drove up the road to the hot springs that flow into the Salmon River.  There is an old ore mining cart that sits beside the river and you can fill a bucket with cold water from the river on one side and hot water flowing from the mountain and pour it into the cart.  It is an AWESOME hot tub.

SUPER fun!

The other highlight of the week was our annual Camp Smokey's Got Talent Show. What a BLAST!  We laughed so hard and were so impressed with everyone's amazing skills.

 

Other fun moments captured at Camp Smokey:

Paradise!

And that's all I have to say about that.