My Happy Place

Everyone has one...that place they imagine when someone asks you to imagine your favorite place in the world, or the place you think of when the going gets rough, and you wish more than anything they could escape to that one place where everything is wonderful.  Mine is Redfish Lake.

I've been going there for more summers than I can count.  My parent used to load us up in the van, pack us in, and we would go and camp for 7 to 10 days.  I still can't figure out how they got all of us there, our tent, sleeping stuff, clothes, coats (anyone who goes to Redfish know that even in August you bring your coat), our cooking supplies and our food!!  Amazing!  And we did it year after year, after year. 

And now I do it with my kids.  Granted, we've gone to every other year now(...there's lots of really awesome places to see in this world).  And we rent a trailer--it makes it so, so, so much easier camping with 5 kids.  But, we still cook outside over the camp chef, we have our campfire at night, and we bathe in the hot springs a couple miles down the road.  We spend our days living in our swimsuits on the beach, riding our bikes everywhere we go, visiting the lodge for our dessert, and putting our sweatshirt and pants on at the days end. 

This is my Grandpa.  He's the one who started it all--for us anyway, I guess the real credit can go to his parents.  When he was a boy, his parents would bring their whole family up to the Salmon River, where they would fish, and fish and fish.  And on the banks, his mother would be canning the fish for their winter storage.  They would spend weeks at a time.  And then they would go home.  So, I suppose some of the fishing stories might have some fact to them after all.  when my grandpa gets with his 3 brothers, they can sure tell them!  My grandpa taught his sons about all the best fishing holes, who in turn passed it down to their sons, and now my dad is passing it on to my sons.  

This is my Grandma.  She's the one who keeps us all coming.  Not that any of us need much convincing.  We all love the Salmon River and Redfish Lake as much as my grandparents do.

And the best part about is that I get to come to my "favorite place" with some of my favorite people.  This is only mine and Megan's families. Melissa and her family couldn't stay the whole time, and we missed Miranda and Sarah althogether, but guess what--we'll be back!

It is so hard to get a family picture with my kids.  I'm pouting a little bit to see if I can get them to behave!

If you pinch them hard enough...

I love these kayaks out at the docks...love, love love the colors.

I love that my kids get to strengthen relationships with all of our "favorite people". 

 I love Redfish Lake because it is simple.  This year I challenged my family to leave all of their electronic gadgets at home.  We didn't bring IPods, or IPads, and Jon only checked his cell phone twice a day.  What a relaxed pace we lived, and we were refreshed when we came home, every one of us. 

See next post for more photos...