Idaho....Where the waters are still

Well, I forgot to accommodate for the lack of Internet connection when your hopping from National Park to National Park.  It took us til Day 25 to get to a real city, Spokane, with Sprint Network, so it took me a while to upload the Yellowstone and Glacier blogs.  

Day 16-Day 30 - We arrived to our precious float house in Hidden Bay on Lake Coeur d'Alene just before Happy Hour on the 4th of July.

We relaxed with the cousins, swam, ate dinner, then loaded up the boat to ride up  to Harrison for the fireworks.  The kids were completely exhausted once the fireworks went off at 9:30 pm, but we celebrated anyhow.  After the fireworks, we hiked up the mountain to our site 115 in Chatcolet Campground where our wonderful "Home Away From Home" Casita was sitting.  It's amazing how well all four of us are sleeping in the 13" Casita.  I don't know if it's because of our busy days, cozy beds, of sheer exhaustion, but when we hit the hay, all four of us crash.  This is the first time in my whole life that I'm not sleeping at the float house.  I miss it, but it's been good to get the cousins away from each other for a bit.  Also, I really enjoy the 1/2 mile hike into and out of the float house, and the campground is right where the beautiful rails-to-trails "Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes" 70 paved trail across the panhandle of Idaho and the Hidden Lake trail meet.  Curtis and I have been able to ride our bikes or run almost every morning.

Our amazing two weeks at the float house has been a lot of this....

And this....

And this.....

And this....

Oh, and don't forget this....

These boys made some good money scooping accumulated seaweed from the shore.

And there was ALOT of seaweed to scoop!

Our first week at the float house, we  were with Grandma, Grandpa, and all 4 Stobaughs!  We had so much fun!!!

Every year we have a project and summer 2015 our project was "rebuild the front dock". The first step was unhitching and swimming around to the shore.  See Mommy Swim....

The next step was DEMOLITION!  Curtis, Joe, Sarah, and I were having so much fun with the crowbar I forgot to get a picture.  

After demolition, The Hudecs arrived and the four Schettlers took a day to Ride the Hiawatha!

Two summers ago, we rode the Hiawatha with a Tag-a-long on Curtis's bike and a trailer on my bike.  This time, Carson had graduated to the Tag-a-long and Cole rode his own bike!  This is no little jaunt up the park.  He rode 17 miles on an unpaved Rocky road through 10 tunnels, over 7 trestle bridges, and the famous 1.7 mile Taft Tunnel in the total darkness!  I'm so proud of them!!!!

We got back to the float house just in time for Happy Hour, of course!

Yes, this is fun times at the float house!!!

After the Hiawatha it was time to rebuild the dock, and Dick Adams saved the day!!!!  He worked and worked for hours with Dad on the front dock.

While they worked, we entertained the kids.

We had two big celebrations while in Idaho.  July 8th, Curtis celebrated 1 year cancer FREE!!!!  Hallelujah!  We also had a joint birthday celebration for Sam and J.D.  

It was so fun to have all the cousins together! 

Two weeks later, we were all sunburned and the dock was built!  Cole even helped Mommy swim the dock around the float house.

We got it all staked in, then it was time for celebration!

Our final days were spent playing with J.D. and Ausin and playing on

The paddle boat at Conkling Marina.

We are so thankful for our amazing time at the float house....where the waters are still.