July 4th at Stanley

This year our family spent 4th of July weekend camping near Stanley, Idaho. The area holds a special place in our hearts. Carter's family spent every summer in Stanley running a family business, called Sunbeam Village. In addition to working with the family, he worked for the Fish and Game and as a white water river guide. After we were married we spent our first couple summers living and working there as well(Oh...the stories I could tell! Ask me sometime about living in the toolshed), but I inherited a love for those incredible mountains. It was fun introducing our children to our favorite spots.


Up the Yankee Fork we explored Custer, the spooooky ghost town. It took some explaining to convince some of the kids that there aren't really any ghosts. We also checked out the giant gold dredge, which is another fascinating piece of history.




We spent most of one day soaking up the sun and the breathtaking scenery at Redfish Lake. That has to be one of my favorite places in this world. We rented a paddleboat for a while and had a blast. I took an unexpected dunk in the icy water when I tried to gracefully hop off. The kids got a kick out of that. They chased minnows with a little fish net and built sand castles.





The inevitable family group shot...



After the freezing water of Redfish Lake, we stopped for a quick dip in Sunbeam Hot Springs. (Actually we were hoping to soak off a bit of dirt, grime, and campfire smoke before we attended church in the Stanley Branch the next morning). It felt so nice, and we had good entertainment watching Carter and Jayden climb around the rocks above us, trying to redirect the hot water flow to get the temperature 'just right'.

But my favorite memories of the trip are the times we had just hanging out at our campsite. We were excited to find a terrific camping spot near Puzzler Gulch (love the name!) which sat beside the river, surrounded by a gorgeous view of the mountains and trees. It even had a homemade outhouse which had to be a hundred years old. Of course I took a picture.


So here are a few shots of the family roasting marshmallows, playing in the fire (yikes!), and just being cute.




And lastly, the trip home was memorable for a couple reasons... The gear we tied to the roof of our minivan sprang loose and bounced all over the highway behind us. After we collected our bedding and our underwear from the bushes, my hero-husband pulled out his shoelaces and used them to secure our stuff for the rest of the ride home. And then there was the little matter of the speeding ticket... We hoped the cop was pulling us over to warn us that shoelaces were not legally approved for binding overhead loads, but no such luck.