Road Trip!

We have had such an amazing summer.  Not only has the weather at home been fantastic, but we took an almost 2 week road trip.

Our first stop was to Panorama Mountain Resort just out of Invermere, BC.  We rented an awesome 2 bedroom condo with room for up to 6 people so we had tons of space to hang out in, cook meals, watch the Olympics, etc.  The weather was just right and we had lots of fun enjoying the heat of the pool during the heat of the afternoon, and going running or for long walks.

On our way to the pool...something we did every day.

It's so nice now that the kids can take pictures...we actually make it in some shots for a change.  :-)  We were fortunate enough to find chairs around the pool each day.  The kids sat out and read sometimes, but mostly played in the pool.  Arvid was a great dad and swam with them a lot...and I was happy to sit on the lounge chairs and soak up some sun!

The extra time that Arvid was around really made a difference in his relationship with Mebira.  She is good with him, but not overly affectionate.  On this trip, however, she started to really be more affectionate with him and it was so cute to see them bond.  That's me working in the background...I had to work a bit on our trip...I didn't totally mind it because I was able to just do a bit every day and I conveniently did it when it was time to cook supper.  :-)

Panorama has a gondola you can ride on for free to get from the lower to upper village.  We were already in the upper village and didn't need to ride it, but E&M had so much fun riding it that we would go up and down at least once a day.  It was like a free Disneyworld ride!  :-)

On one of our evening walks.  This was one of my favourite memories of the whole trip.  We went for a super long walk and the kids didn't complain once.  E&M talked and walked the whole time together, and Arvid and I had a nice long conversation with G.  She has matured so much this summer...it's like having another mini adult around.

Mmmmmm....there's nothing like BC fruit.  We stopped at a fruit stand and loaded up.

On a "cooler" day we went shopping in Invermere.  Of course we stopped at the candy store and found some treasures.    We also had to stop at the German bakery and enjoy some whole wheat cinnamon buns and freshly baked pretzels.  YUM!

This was another highlight for me.  I didn't start drinking coffee until a few years ago, but I'm into it with a vengeance now...into lattes, that is.  I am quite particular, though, and nothing beats a Second Cup skinny vanilla bean latte in my opinion.  However, this vanilla latte from Kicking Horse cafe tasted sooooo good.  Mmmmm...I crave another one!

G started a new hobby - cross stitch!  She did such a great job and worked so hard on this.

Our next stop was to drive down to Sandpoint, Idaho.  It's only another 3 or 4 hours south of Panorama, and it was so beautiful.  It's like a mini Kelowna - super hot...and it had a WALMART!  :-)  We came to the beach on the first day at about 9:30 in the morning because it was so hot by the afternoon.  The beach was almost deserted that early.

Is this the life or what??

We walked to town one day and nearly melted in the heat so we stopped for ice cream on the way back.  Yikes those American sized portions are HUGE!

We did a bit of shopping...OK a lot of shopping.  We managed to convince Arvid to go to WalMart 3 of the 4 days we were there.  Seriously, Walmart in the states is so fun - so many different flavours of chips and candy, and everything is so cheap!  The day we didn't go to WalMart we went to Spokane and spent a whole day shopping - TJ Maxx, Ross, Burlington Coat Factory, Payless, Sally Beauty, Target (which carries Mebira's Kinky Curly Hair produts...yah!), and a mall.  The girls had their own money to spend and were totally into it...poor Arvid wasn't so into it, though but he was a good trooper.

Ahhh...one of my favourite stops in Sandpoint.  Starbucks!

My beautiful GEMs

Wow...do they look like sisters or what?

G, who is NOT a lover of dogs, was thrilled to find this sign at the park we went to.

The evenings there were so warm...still 28 or 29 at 9 at night.  We played bocce a few evenings - such a fun game to play with the kids.

Good thing it was evening...I could imagine that slide getting quite hot during the day!

We spelled something....can you read what it is?

no comment...

Arvid payed us back for all that shopping and made us go on a hike.  Normally I like hiking, but when it's nearing 30 and we took our life in our hands to make it down the road to the trailhead (seriously, the road was worse than any I had seen in Ethiopia) it wasn't quite as fun.  The girls were great sports, though.

The pictures don't quite do it justice...that's the lake in the background below with mountains surrounding the lake.  Truly beautiful!

I LOVE my girls!  I am truly blessed to be able to be a mother to my three amazing girls!

Mmmmm....post hike reward.  I could have stayed there all afternoon!  On the deck of Starbucks, overlooking the lake, in +33 degree weather, sipping an icy frappucino.  Mmmmm...

The city beach has a beautiful park as well.  On our last day we came to play bocce and frisbee.

Another use for bocce balls...hmmm...maybe I should have thought of that!  :-)

Beautiful Sandpoint beach...our last night.

Married for 12 years and still so in love.  I'm blessed to have such an amazing husband!

Well, that sums up our trip.  We had a wonderful time and were a bit sad to come home, but very thankful to come home to a great house, good jobs, amazing family, friends and church.  And now the countdown is on until we can do it again!  :-)