our journeys: Ponderosa State Park

At the end of June, we loaded the car with three people, one large dog, and more stuff than should have been able to squeeze into a Santa Fe and drove north to Ponderosa State Park, located outside McCall, ID. We'd been looking forward to doing some camping since the middle of spring and couldn't wait to get out of town for a long weekend. Morgan was especially excited since we'd gotten her all wound up about tents, camping, and s'mores. Darwin, of course, was just happy to be included in the activities. Much to her dismay, Cleo spent the weeekend at Chadwick's clinic hiding in her condo and yowling at anyone who came into the room. At the time, I was about 28-29 weeks pregnant and fighting a head cold...not a good combo. Turns out, the weather was perfect, the mosquitoes horrendous, and our air mattress leaked (shocking, right?). We had a blast!
Just for a little history, McCall is the area we spent several days on our honeymoon and one of the reasons we chose to head back was because the weekend was near our anniversary. Plus, it would be the last big trip before we had two children and would be forced to re-think our packing strategy. =)

Friday morning of our trip, we ate at the Pancake House, stuffed ourselves and put a dent in the world's largest cinnamon roll. I think it's gotten larger since 6 years ago!? We spent the rest of the morning with a vet school classmate who lives and works in the McCall area and her son. Friday afternoon was back at the campsite, trying to nap in the heat and relaxing.

Both Thursday and Friday night Chadwick had to blow up the air mattress at least twice, I swallowed my pride and used Morgan's froggy training toilet for my twice-a-night bathroom "break-" the restrooms were too far for a 2 am excursion! - and my family was able to sleep pretty well through my coughing. I don't know if sleeping in a tent was everything Morgan hoped for, but she slept well enough and talked about it for a week after.

Saturday, Chadwick wanted to spend the day hiking around the lakes we hiked on our honeymoon, Boulder Lake and Boulder Reservoir. The lower lake was completely packed with people when we arrived, so we chose Plan B and decided to hike up to Lake Louie, a place neither of us had been. With the GPS guiding the way and Morgan riding on Chadwick's back in her pack, we set off. Unfortunately, the GPS didn't have the most current trail on board so we spent a good deal of time bush-wacking through an old trail, losing the dog once, and eventually finding the super nice new trail. Once we hit the old road that led to the lake, Morgan and I sent Chadwick and Darwin ahead for some fishing and we lolly-gagged behind. It took forever. At one point, I wasn't even sure we were on the right trail, but several people hiking down were able to reassure me that a lake did, in fact, exist at the top of the trail. Yes, the top. The last part of the trail was super steep and rocky....Morgan was a rock star and when she got tired, I played rock star by carrying her on my shoulders. We were somewhat well-known by the time we got to the lake as Chadwick has passed several people on the way who made comments about his empty child-pack. "My wife and daughter are coming behind me," he would laugh in reply. When we finally arrived to the lake, those same people said, "You must be the wife....and you're pregnant!" The fishing wasn't great, but we ate lunch, threw rocks into the water, and made some new friends. The hike home was uneventful and I didn't walk right for the next three days due to the soreness of my out-of-shape calves.

Sunday we packed up and drove home - stinky, tired, and glad for the adventure.