Family visit road trip

So, we got home late Monday from a family visit road trip. We started out last Wednesday and drove and drove. With stops, we were on the road about 15 hours and crashed for the night in McCall, Idaho. Thursday morning, we got up and on the road early again...stopped for a few things and continued the 2.5 hours(ish) to my baby brother's home. We spent the day there...

There were group photos...

The top left is my guys and my brother's eight kids...top right is my mom, us, Joe and his kids...bottom left is me, my mom, my baby sister (Cas) and my baby brother (Joe)...and bottom right is all of us: us, Cas and her two boys, and Joe, his wife Bridget and their eight kids. (It's not a full family photo as we're missing Cas's husband, my other brother, his wife and three kids, and my other sister and her three kids.)

There was a lot of playing...

• my eight year old nephew (Case) challenged Micah to basketball (and won...he also beat Nathan later)
• Micah negotiated with cousins in their capture the flag game (it was all the littles against my three bigs)...the game lasted a good while and involved lots of "jail" time
• the oldest little (Blaze) delighted the youngest two boy cousins with his "roller coaster," pulling them around in the wagon

• swings were swung
• Joe gave some of the kids rides on the tractor
• Blaze started out pulling the wagon with the bike but decided just walking/running worked better
• Asher, Noah and Case had deep conversations
• Asher was enlisted to climb a tall ladder to put a baby bird back in the nest (there was a lot of drama about trying to save the injured bird that had fallen from its nest...and debate about whether Cas would take the bird home (which she did NOT want to do)...and a decision to put the bird back...and then a funeral after the bird fell again and died)
• and sword play.

And then there were just lots of family moments...

• Micah holding Clare (the youngest...she's 4 months and adorable!)
• Tim (3) kissing Clare
• Nathan with Clare
• Nathan with Bobby (almost 2)
• Alice (10), Clare and Sam (7) with Bridget
• Blaze (10) with one of the cats
• Nana with Mary (almost 5)
• Nana with Tim 
• Nana with Clare
• Asher with Bobby

And there was a massive water fight...

Micah later regretted showing the littles that dumping buckets of water worked better than the water guns, lol. All three bigs suffered from that, lol. 

And the girls particularly delighted in climbing and riding Micah...

I also have pictures of whiffle ball and ice cream and more of the sweet littles. (The pictures are heavy with Micah interactions, but Asher and Noah were right in the thick of it also. Asher actually pulled his hamstring early on so wasn't as able to play as he'd have liked but still participated, and Noah got targeted in the water fight, lol.)

We had a fabulous time hanging out and getting to see Joe & Bridget's property for the first time and eating together and visiting aplenty. Yay!

After dinner and dessert, we said our goodbyes and headed out. We drove to Lake Coeur d'Alene and stayed at Cas & Charlie's cabin there. We ended up enjoying some time on the lake with Cas, Charlie and their boys...with Asher and Micah tackling the aqua obstacle course with Case & Blaze and tossing a football and such...and with time on their boat.

While the water near the obstacle course was chilly but warm enough, the water in the middle of the lake was too cold ultimately. Case and Asher both tried wake surfing but we ultimately called it on account of the temperature. (Apparently, it's not been as warm there recently and usually takes another couple weeks before the lake warms up to reasonable temperatures.) Case knows how but was just too cold. (He lacks pretty much any body fat, lol.) Asher had never tried before and got pretty close.

After our time on the lake, we headed about 4.5 hours into Montana and stayed with Nathan's parents. We chatted and ate and played pinochle. It was lovely but I only remembered to take this one photo as we were leaving Monday morning...

And then we were on the road for about 13 hours before finally making it home to Fort Collins. Whew.

That was a lot of pictures and such. I'll be back tomorrow with some wrap up. :)