My Own Private Idaho...

As Memorial Day approached we loaded up the car (to the hilt) and headed east for Idaho. Southern tip of Lake Coeur d' Alene to be exact...Plummer, Idaho to be exacter...Heyburn State Park to be exactest. My parents met us and we had a grand old time of camping, eating, bike riding, eating, sunning, and did I mention eating? I have instilled the new rule that it is OK to talk about the next meal as long as you are eating the current meal...but not before or you may sound like a little piggy!

The girls were ready to roll. They hopped in the car 20 minutes before we were scheduled to leave. Can you say excited?
Ymmm...road trip dinner. Please don't call CPS...

Making popcorn the old fashioned way. If by old fashioned I mean tin foil, fake butter, and tired arms...

Smoke follows beauty. Oh, wait, Beauty was a horse...

Oh how we love our Nana...

That Papa is not too shabby either...

Glow sticks make everything more fun...

Bedtime stories by flashlight...

Nature's balance beam...

Plummer, ID is the start of a paved biking/walking trail that stretches about 65 miles. They have taken the former rail road and made it into a 10 foot wide flat trail that is just wonderful. It meanders through little towns, marshes, along lakes, through trees, and across bridges. Jason and I took a few hours and rode 47.7 (yep gotta get that .7 in there) miles. It was flat and fast...my kind of riding.

This is the longest bridge that we encountered. Annika pedaled up to the be top of the bridge...those little legs were a pumpin' and Lena went all the way up, over to the other side of the lake and back. It was a wee bit scary, but they came, they saw, and they conquered.

We decided to take an extra day and come home via Walla Walla, WA. Very cool town that we plan to go back to...the lure of wineries and bike riding was just too much to ignore. As we meandered down Idaho towards Walla Walla the girls kept asking and asking and asking if we were at the hotel yet, more specifically the swimming pool. As we crossed over into Washington the temperature outside climbed to 85 degrees and the Snake River beside us beckoned. Jason spotted a swimming beach and pulled the car over for some fun in the sun.

One must always be prepared with the yellow rubber duckies...

Me next Daddy, me next...

On Tuesday we (when I say "we" I really mean "Jason" since he is pretty much the ruler of the map) decided to deviate from the freeway and travel to Poulsbo via Mount Rainier National Park. But before that we had to stop at a fruit stand for some goodies.

All aboard...

When we got dressed in Walla Walla it was 77 degrees. When we got to the top of Chinook Pass it was 46 degrees. There was still tons of snow as the road had just reopened for the season the previous Friday and as you can tell from our attire, we were not ready for the 31 degree swing. Needless to say we didn't stay outside for long.

Brrrr it's cold in here...

After 950 miles we finally arrived home to three very happy animals...5 if you count the fish (except that one that died while we were gone...RIP Daisy). What a great trip...I'm ready for our next one (which is good since it is in a month!)!!!