Road Trip to Washington

 On Thursday, July 27th, Bentley and Deacon finished their last day of basketball camp. We picked them up and headed straight out of town on a big road trip! The destination was Washington - a little place close to Seattle where Jeff's Grandpa Heywood lived on an acreage. It was his 90th birthday that had turned into a family reunion. I hadn't met many people on the Heywood side, and there were a lot of people Jeff hadn't even met too. It meant a lot to Cindy that we come, so we decided to make a fun road trip out of it, and stop at a hotel half way. 

Scott and Kellie decided to join us and we called ourselves the "Honda Thule Crew," a pretty self explanatory nickname. We swapped kids along the way, and it made the trip a lot more bearable. Our first stop was Lundbreck Falls, which is about 1 hour and 45 minutes from Calgary. My friends had been to these and told me how pretty they are for being right off the highway. They definitely didn't disappoint! I had packed a lunch for us so we pulled out our cooler and ate near the Falls. Then we walked down to explore it a little more and Scott decided we should all go for a swim! Eventually Deacon and Bentley both jumped in wearing their clothes and I was really proud of them. Leo wanted to join in so he jumped where Scott could catch him. I didn't think I'd go in, but it was too tempting so I eventually ended up going for a swim too! It was a lot of fun, and definitely worth opening up the Thule to find dry clothes for. 

After that, we drove another 45 minutes to Sparwood to see the World's Largest Truck. We got out, took a bunch of pictures, and the kids climbed up on the tires. As we drove into Sparwood, it was also crazy to see forest fires so clearly up on the hill! We were surprised the town hadn't been evacuated yet.

Afterwards we drove another hour and a half to Cranbrook where we found an East Side Mario's to eat dinner. The patio was empty so we asked to eat out there so our kids could walk around and it was great! Then we headed to our destination for the night in Sandpoint. I had booked our family a hotel at the Best Western Plus Ponderay Mountain Lodge. Unfortunately Scott and Kellie decided to come last minute so they found what was available, and they said it wasn't great. They joined us in the morning though, for breakfast, which was really good! The kids always love these kinds of buffet breakfasts at hotels. They loved the waffles and sugary cereal, of course, but they also had a good amount of healthier options.

After breakfast on the Friday we headed to Silverwood theme park. We took our time that morning because it didn't open until 11am. We made sure we were there a little before it opened and got in right away. It was busy, and we waited in long lines some of the time, but the rides were always worth it! It was a blast. The kids tried some pretty big roller coasters and the log ride. We all did thunder canyon, the raft ride, and it was SO fun! We got absolutely soaked, so luckily we did that at the end of the day. Boston could even ride on it so we brought him, and poor guy kept getting sprayed in the face and cried most the time! There were also so many little kids rides that Leo and Boston loved. Leo was obsessed with all the small roller coasters. Scott won a couple of basketballs and gave one to Deacon, which was really nice, so now he has a souvenir. There was something for all, and it was such a great time!!

We stayed fairly late at the park and had to make it all the way to Grandpa's property afterwards, about 5.5 hours. We only stopped at Subway and for bathroom breaks, but having the cousins together made for much happier kids. When it started getting late, some of the kids slept a bit, and it wasn't until midnight that we arrived. It was a bit eerie driving in the dark in a place we didn't know, but we eventually made it! We had rented some trailers for 2 nights to put right on the property, and Don and Cindy had them set up for us. However, I didn't bring a playpen, so those nights were some of the worst. Sleeping on a bed with Boston on me made it really hard to sleep, but we pushed through. 

On Saturday we had breakfast with just the Ady's. Don and Cindy had bought some food and used a grill to cook it on in one of their random garages. It was a great breakfast! The kids had fun exploring the property and hanging out, except for when Deacon got a really big cut from a razor sharp leaf. It was super deep and bled for a long time. It was great to see Grandpa Heywood and his home. Randy and Jackie (Cindy's sister) have an acreage right next to them, and we hung out over there quite a bit. Everyone arrived for the luncheon where we ate, sung to Grandpa, and gave him a cake with 90 candles, lit by a blow torch. It was pretty hilarious! There were introductions and speeches, and then a slide show in the house afterwards. It was great to hear Grandpa talk about how grateful he was that we had all come. There were games, balloons, and marshmallow roasting by the fire as well. Afterwards, some of us went on a hike. I went with Deacon while Jeff stayed back with Boston (who had fallen asleep in his stroller), and the other kids. I felt a little weird on the hike with Scott and Kellie and others I didn't know. It was a good day, but I was definitely worn out from talking to so many strangers! They were all so kind, though, and it was great to meet them. That evening Cindy made some pulled pork for dinner, and then we said our goodbyes to some who were leaving. 

The next morning we packed up all our things and went to church with whoever was still there. We just did sacrament meeting and then started our drive. We had about a 6 hour drive to Coeur de lane, where we had another hotel booked. We were so glad that I had booked a room with 2 bedrooms, because after sharing a trailer with all of us and hardly sleeping, it was so welcome! We were also headed to Echo Lake where we, again, wouldn't be alone. So it was nice because Jeff and I had our own room and bathroom, the 3 older kids shared a room, and we made a little spot for Boston to sleep in the living room. It was perfect and felt like a breath of fresh air! We heard later that Scott and Kellie had driven all the way to the cabin, but came upon some road closures because of forest fires and had to reroute onto gravel roads and sketchy places. They got to the cabin very late. We felt bad for them but were also thankful for the heads up on which route to go!

In the morning, we had the breakfast buffet at the hotel again, and then we swam in the pool and hot tub before we packed up. Checkout was really late, so we thought we'd just take our time. We drove to St. Regis, where we stopped at Huck's Grill for some lunch. It was a really neat place! The milkshakes were awesome and we ordered some to share, but then they split them up for the kids to have their own cup and even added whipped cream and sprinkles for them. They were thrilled!! The food was pretty good. The restaurant was attached to a big shop and there were a bunch of tanks full of fish to see too. After that stop, we drove the rest of the way to the Echo Lake. We planned on staying another week and a half at the cabin!