Halloween and All Things Autumnal!!

Happy Halloween!! For the next 60 seconds!!

Our Weekend Getaway!!

Okay, the title of this post should really be considered "deceptive advertising".

Some friends of ours from church made us a job offer that we couldn't refuse: "Come with us up to Silver Mountain in beautiful Kellogg, Idaho and spend the weekend in a two bedroom suite at the resort! They have a beautiful location, plush accommodations, and a huge indoor water park!! We'll pay you too!!"

The job part of the equation was that we would be spending part of our time there watching kids for them and several other families. At one point we had 12 kids ranging in age from 1 year old to 10 years old. The kids were actually very well behaved, and we had a great time.

Our suite was huge - we really only ended up using half of it, but the other half was just as nice. We could have had "Lucy and Ricky beds" (I Love Lucy, anybody?) but we opted to stay in the same room this time around.

In any case, here are a few photos of the trip!

Here are some pics of our ginormous room - Seriously, this place was bigger (and much nicer) than our two bedroom apartment!! I guess for $300/night it should be!! We enjoyed cuddling up on the couch in front of the cozy fireplace and partaking of the splendors of free cable TV!

Jim and Amy at the top of Silver Mountain - they have a nice gondola that takes you up to see the view.

This is a picture of Jim trying out the artificial wave machine. Amy was kind enough to take this photo BEFORE he decided that it would be more fun to repeatedly surf on his FACE. It was painful and embarrassing, but he was just about the only person brave enough to try standing up(and failed miserably). Still it was loads of fun! And pain!

Since waterparks don't really lend themselves to photo opportunities (cameras just don't like water very much) we only have this one photo. However, we had lots of fun on the waterslides, tube rides, and the lazy river!!

Water Sports!!

This post really should have occurred several months ago (back when it was still warm outside), but we have been somewhat delinquent in posting as of late. So sue me.

In any case, several months back, while my Mom was visiting us, we spent a lovely day on the Spokane River. We put the boats in at a local spot called Black Bay Park. The park has a shallow, secluded bay off the river with many spots to swim and play in the water. There is also a great rope swing there, and we all managed to use it! We paid for it the next day in stiff muscles (gosh I feel old) but it was well worth it!

Amy in the yellow "Yak" with the beautiful Idaho wilderness in the background

Jim and Mom paddling around in the Kayaks

A litte Photoshop magic allowed us to show Mom swinging and splashing down in the water all in the same picture....... How cool is my Mom!!??

Jim and Amy getting air on the rope swing!! We are higher up than it looks!!