sandpoint, idaho august 2013. family friends & a wedding.

my cousin elene got married last summer in beautiful sandpoint, idaho.  we also have good friends who were living in sandpoint at the time so we had the perfect excuse to go for a visit, see a beautiful area we had not yet discovered and spend wonderful time with family and friends.


the trip up to sandpoint was loooong.  about 9 hour drive in the middle of the night through fog.  i drove almost the whole way and avoided what i counted of 19 deer (4 fawns), 2 foxes and a coyote.  the kids did well, as we left at dinner time and they fell asleep around 9 p.m.  i believe we pulled in at our friends' nels and rachel's house at 4 a.m.

we had a short night's rest and then ventured out the next day after playing with our friends in the morning (they still had some family visiting from Utah that we overlapped a little).  rachel you are a champ for letting us come amongst the craziness!!!

we decided to take the day and tour coeur d' alene, which is a beautiful lake-side town that had an almost coastal feel.  after window shopping in downtown we decided to treat ourselves to a fancy lunch at the dockside restaurant.



we spent almost $100 on lunch but the view and the fun of doing something fancy and spontaneous was worth it.  chris and i enjoyed some calamari with delicious dipping sauces, sandwiches, burgers and fries.  the kids had their own special little burgers and sides and we decided to top it all off with some sundaes.  the kids shared one and chris and i ordered their specialty to share.  it was de-li-cious!!!

the kids enjoyed the fish tank on the way in

                          

when we got outside there were gorgeous red geraniums everywhere.  it reminded me of some of the coastal hotels in new england.

the docks went all around the marina so and there was an awesome bridge so we took a walk and enjoyed the scenery.

we were going to go swimming at this beach but decided to head back to sandpoint as we were pretty tired.

on the way home our van literally broke down just as we turned into our friends' driveway.  it literally just stopped.  luckily they had a friend in the ward who was a mechanic who came over and took a look.  we needed a new water pump, so off it was hauled to his shop and got fixed a day or two later.  again, rachel was a champ and chauffeured us around since we had family plans with the wedding to attend!!!

we spent the second day of our vaca boating and swimming at a lakehouse with the family.  morning started off with a delicious pot-luck breakfast.  zachary and olivia stayed behind with auntie donna



while the rest of us headed out to a shallow "sandbar" in the middle of lake pend oreille that allowed us to stand and swim around.  we enjoyed some ultimate frisbee and football in the water. my cousin snapped this pic of me and chris, which makes me look naked and feels slightly paparazzi-ish.

my cousins rad, arison and lorraine

we all got cleaned up later and enjoyed a BBQ lakeside with a bonfire.

my cousin lorraine and her husband, geoff and my cousin arison and her husband, rad

me and my girl cousins...

elene, lorraine and arison

my cousin elene (bride-to-be) with her mom, my aunt brenda and her older sister, lorraine

at the bonfire: my cousin alison and her auntie lorraine

chris and zach chillin' by the fireside 

the next day we went for a walk on a lovely nature trail.  the kids loved the boardwalk and exploring of course.  trying to get good pics of 8 kids...

brady, hazel (love her socks!), lilie, elsie, zach and clara in stroller, olivia and violet

the wedding.

the venue was beautiful.  elene's colors really popped and it was a nice time for everyone.  she was absolutely stunning.  i was so glad that we could make it to support her and brady in the beginning of their marriage.  it was special to be there with our family together.

mr. & mrs. brady steinke

the cakes

cutting the cake

                          

first dance

dancing with her "pa," step-father, mike

dancing with her father, roger

a fun "guest list." everyone signed on the place where they came from to attend the wedding

i love this picture.  i think my hubby looks *hot*

cousins: arison, isaac and me

lorraine and geoff

my aunt brenda and unlce mike

my aunt donna, uncle jim and cousin megan

my cousin alden and chris

with alden and ana

my auntie donn-donn

rachel took me blueberry picking! it was absolutely delightful, and i'm very glad that she thought so too since she'd already gone several times in the week before.  i was able to bring home enough blueberries to last me until next blueberry season!  we've enjoyed smoothies, muffins and blueberry pancakes.  oh that is something i miss so much from back home in maine.  we went blueberry picking every summer and ate so many blueberries that our bellies hurt.

later we went swimming at the beautiful sand point beach.  i wish i had taken more pictures here and i could have sworn i did, but we must have been having too much fun.

here's a cute one of rachels' little clara (same age as zach)

after swimming ice cream!

the little princesses: elsie, olivia and violet

we had so much fun with our friends even though the time was short and we had wedding activities going on.  zach and clara made me laugh with their hilarious get-ups.  all the kids got along quite well, and if you ask me you could {hardly} tell that there were 8 little children under the age of 9 running around!!!  thank you so much nels and rachel for being some of our bestest friends and for letting us stay with you!!!

brady and lilie are the same age as well.  they first met on her birthday and his blessing day when he was 5 weeks old!  they are so silly together...maybe a cute match someday?!

the only pictures i'm now missing are a group pic of all of the kids in a circle, a group of me, chris, nels and rachel in a circle and then a pic of the four of us all standing...i'll be happy with all the ones i recovered and we'll have to recreate the others the next time we're all together again!