Summer Wrap-Up

It pains me to just now be sitting down to share our wonderful summer with you, but as it turns out, life moves pretty quick and before I knew it fall was almost over and all the summer blog posts I planned were still sitting quietly in my to-do pile. In an effort to at least get some memories and photos down on paper (or rather, uploaded to the internet) here’s the highlight reel of summer 2018 - hang in there, it’s a biggie.

May

While May is still technically spring, I like to think of it more as pre-summer, especially this year because of the beautifully warm temperatures. This year Kyle’s brother graduated with honors from the University of Idaho in Moscow with his bachelor’s degree. Not long after, we welcomed our second niece to the world. I must say, Kyle’s sister makes some pretty cute kiddos.

May is also the kick-off for our local farmers markets (one downtown on Wednesday evenings and one up on Prairie Ave. in Hayden on Saturday mornings). This year I made a conscious effort to go down as many times as possible. There’s live music, local coffee and kombucha, and some of the best food in town (I highly recommend the tamales). I took a break from trying to grow anything this year, but some of our friends loaded up on tomatoes, herbs, peppers, and other locally grown veggie plants.

This year Kyle joined the board of the Lake City Trail Alliance - a local non-profit dedicated to trail development and maintenance. They worked on Canfield Mountain in preparation for the CDA Enduro in July, and covered areas as far as the Coeur d’Alene River. They started fundraising efforts and recruiting volunteers - it’s really cool to see how much work they’ve put into our local trail systems.

The last week of May we went with a group of friends to Round Lake State Park for a camping trip (read the post: Camping at Round Lake State Park). It was fun to have some down time together, play cards and eat some great camp food. The following morning we headed over to hike to Evan’s Landing, just outside Farragut State Park (read the post: Take a Hike | Evan’s Landing).

June

We started June off with an awesome day trip to Kootenai Falls in Montana (read the post: A Day Trip to Kootenai Falls). This was a suggestion by our friend Heather, who accompanied us on the trip along with her daughter, Maddie, and their pup, Finn.

June also brings what I lovingly call Birthday Week. In the span of June 12-20 we celebrate seven birthdays and Father’s day. It’s absolutely insane every year, but we always walk away with great memories and plenty of time celebrating with friends and family alike. Kyle and our friend Tom took a couple days to celebrate their birthdays with a short moto-trip to the St. Joe river area. I took this time to have a sleepover with our niece, Gabbi. We went to Car d’Alene, watched movies, and gave each other metallic stick-on ankle tattoos.

In general, this summer I tried to spend as much time out on a paddleboard as possible. I ordered one way back in spring and due to a series of very unfortunate events, I didn’t get it until the end of August. Luckily we have some very generous friends (*cough* Kate *cough*) and because of that I had plenty of opportunities to get out on the water.

July

One highlight of July was the CDA Enduro, a downhill mountain bike race that I’m pretty sure made all of Kyle’s wildest bike dreams come true. I volunteered by helping with packets and taking photos around camp. I was also shooting a wedding that weekend, so to say it was a busy weekend is a gross understatement. Both events were fantastic and I know Chris and Alex (Enduro organizers and CDA Bike Co. owners) are very proud of the turnout for their first race.

Later in July, Kyle bought a new toy, a scrambler-style motorcycle to be exact (follow his ADV instagram account: inland_adv). We headed over to western Washington to pick it up and used the time to visit some good friends and travel buddies Doug, Wendy, and Annabelle (re: Leavenworth with Drew and Kate). They took us on a couple great hikes that are definitely worthy of their own posts but alas, these will have to live only in my memory for now.

August

Each year our other good friends, who you probably see around here often, Drew and Kate, get season tickets to the Festival at Sandpoint. We went to two shows with them and camped out in their AirBnB each weekend. Kate and I went huckleberry picking on Schweitzer Mountain while Kyle and Drew mountain biked. We ate great food, and got to see some awesome shows.

Side Note: In mentioning so many friends in this post, can I just say, gosh, we have some wonderful people in our life. LOVE YOU, ALL!

Finally, like all good things, summer had to come to an end. Or so it seemed once fire season hit. For several weeks we were bound to the indoors, with just short walks for the dog as our only outside activity. When cabin fever became too much, we went for a hike in Liberty Lake which I’d like to do again at a time when I don’t feel my lungs shriveling up due to smoke inhalation.

We actually ended the summer with a trip to McCall for a wedding. Again this deserves its own post but that will have to wait for now. We had a great Labor Day weekend celebrating our friends Blaine and Cody, and spending some time with Greg and Kelsey, enjoying the beautiful views of Payette Lake and  - of course - eating plenty of great food (I’m starting to see a trend in our travel itineraries). This trip also marked my first real outing on my VERY OWN paddleboard and Juneau’s first of three paddleboard excursions with me. I was so proud, and so excited to get her on the board with me. Next summer can’t come soon enough.

I know it seems silly, but it’s important to me to continue documenting our life and recapping our adventures - even just briefly. I have a terrible memory so taking time to go back and remember all the wonderful things that fill our life brings me tremendous joy.

There’s certainly more to come from our fall outings, but I hope this helps bring us all up to speed a bit. If there’s anything here you’d like more details on, or even a full blog post about, please leave a comment, message me on Facebook or Instagram, or shoot me an email at stuckinnorthidaho@gmail.com.

If you’re still reading this, you’re a total diehard and I appreciate it! Hope you all had a great summer as well.