and this is why we live in north idaho!

okay, so that kinda' crazy... kinda' fun part of our blog title has definitely been in effect the last few weeks. everything from camping and hiking to donnavan's birthday have taken place and kept me constantly checking my calendar, sure that i am missing something totally important. let's start with the camping portion.

almost every year we hike up to a gorgeous spot called moose lake. it's one of those places where in the middle of the night moose clomp by your tent causing your soundly sleeping husband to bolt upright chambering his shotgun in one very dramatic move. it's also a place where only hours later your head is sniffed (i know, numerous times i've been warned to not wear deoderant) by a very "friendly" grizzly bear who gratefully decides the smell is not quite what he was feeling like for breakfast that morning. all the while your husband is sleeping like a baby due to the very exciting moose episode a few hours before. yes, this is moose lake... and we love it. but now we have two kids in tow and even the short 2 mile hike seems like an everest climb when thinking of all the stuff we would have to pack in. so we decided on something that we could drive to while keeping away from the dreaded "campground". thanks to my husband's increasing technological inclinations, we found char falls on google earth.

here is char falls. this place is so perfectly picturesque it makes you want to cry. and there wasn't anyone camping anywhere near this place!

this was our campground. to the right you can see the river running past our camping spot.

this is a better view of the amazing little river next to our campground. we are camping directly to the left of this picture.

this is an incredibly hot man who allowed me to take a picture of him. he was so good with kai too. i love you donnavan!


so on saturday morning breakfast was to be delicious pancakes. now pancakes are good but pancakes with freshly picked huckleberries are amazing. yep, those were some dang good pancakes. hayden stood guard over his pancake until it was safely on his plate and into his tummy.




donnavan brought is gold pan along and he taught hayden some truly amazing, canadian gold panning skills. he even found some gold ("i found one! ohh, it blew off my finger. wait, wait i see it. no, it's just a fleck of dust.").

welcome to north idaho! this is our piece of heaven.