Bear Camping

This year we were able to make the trip up to Bear, Idaho to go camping.  Some friends of ours bought some property up there a few years ago and we have gone up almost yearly to help them get their 'camp' set up and just to simply enjoy the beauty of this area of Idaho. Well, last year, another piece of property came up for sale and my dad jumped on it!!  So, now we made the trip to help him get things set up-his eventual goal to have the place livable almost year round but in the mean time, we'll make trips for a week or 2 at a time.  Its beautiful up here.

   On our way up, we stopped in Rome, Oregon for lunch by the river and to let everyone stretch their legs. The total trip takes about 8 hours so its good to break it up, especially with little ones.  I think its actually good for the 'big' ones too!!

  Nathan and Melody are each others shadows and were almost the entire time we were gone.  This age is so much fun, watching them explore and learn and discover new things-things that we usually take for granted.  A good reminder not to take anything for granted but to always be thankful!

  Here is the camper that my parents put up here and the snow roof that he's constructing.  The roof was the main task at hand to get done on this trip as winter will come earlier up here then it does in other places and hopefully there will be a snow load to put the roof to the test.  Last year there was only a couple feet-not good.

 Since obviously, we were not going to all fit in the camper, we had the tent area for 8 of us among 3 tents.

 Nathan out exploring.

 Grandpa working hard-as usual  :)  Eventually, he is planning on building a cabin up here but that is down the road a bit. There used to be a cabin on the place from back in the 20's-there is a little bit of it left but not much.

  Becky and Dan having..................a toothbrush/water battle

 Time to play 'inside' for a bit while the rest of us get ready for the day

 Sara the 'flap jack' maker!

 She's a messy 'flap-jack' maker too.

 Grandma relaxing enjoying the mountain air and no yellow jackets for the moment.

  Marisa-paused long enough to get the photo

 Jessie-having to 'pause' for a moment too.  The trip up there was very relaxing despite the work that we all worked on. Lots of progress was made in cleaning up dead brush and trees and the roof was finished.  My parents stay up a few days longer then the rest of us and got the joy of having to deal with a bear that helped himself to the coolers one night. He enjoyed the berries and coffee creamer-can't say that I blame him.  We're looking forward to having a place to be able to 'get away' for  a while in the future-the out door activities are endless-hunting, hiking, trail riding-yes, I plan on taking horses up one of these years-, etc......