Idaho is McCalling you!
Last weekend I made the very wise choice to go to McCall Idaho to visit old and very wonderful friends, and see the Ice Carving contest! McCall, you have it going on! On a lake, in the mountains, kinda rustic and woodsy- it's as close to perfection as the lower 48 can offer in my humble option (the true humility of which is debatable).
So Friday night 5 of us packed into Michael's car and went careening for 9 hours down icy roads of death! Actually the roads were generally dry and there were only a few moments I would have classified as "careening" :) Thanks to Travis we were equipped for most emergencies with a 5 pound bag of gummy bears!
We arrived at the "cabin" in Donnelly late late that night, and pretty much went straight to bed so that we wouldn't be monsters the next day. Luckily that worked out for us well, and there were no monster outbreaks the whole trip!
Then it was the day we had all been waiting for! We were all so excited that we jumped out of bed at sunup and were fed, dressed, and ready to go by 8 am! Hahaha just kidding, I think we finally left the house around noon :) Not for lack of excitement though.
Becky, Heidi, and me in the car on the way to McCall
The Ice Sculpture theme was something about adventure, which mostly meant that they had really cool slides and things to play on! We showed those little kids how to properly use an ice slide, someone had to do it!
Travis (who we calle J Travis for this trip, since there were two Travis's), Emily, and Kristin cruising McCall town
Who did I find up there in the frozen north? Who else but Liz Embick! It was so much fun to see her and catch up!
Kime and Heidi with the rest of the crew in the background
That's T-Rav (the other Travis) in the black jacket sledding down a little hill. We may or may not have commandeered a sled from a kid in order to take turns having a sledding experience ourselves. We couldn't help it, it was just toooo tempting! (and the kid let us borrow it, don't worry)
Don't eat the pictures, NO NO NO!
See following link for background to this obscure reference
Me and Heidi and T-Rav, that sneaker
Best look on T-Rav's face. This is one of my favorites just for that look
There were these awesome deer also wandering the streets of McCall and eating fruit off the trees
Most awesome slide. Behind it is a tent made out of ice, complete with ice wood-stove inside (not for real use, of course)! This one was made by the Forest Service
Doesn't Liz look like a speed racer? She don't do nothin' half way (in the colloquial sense, of she does everything all the way, not the literal sense of everything she does she only does half way. Ok that's enough clarification now, Sarah)
After spending most of the day outside looking around at all the sculptures, we went to the traditional pizza place for lunch/dinner/. While there we started a new tradition by convincing the new people that we had an old tradition of the new people singing a song for everyone else! They chose the classic piece, 'Once there was a snow man'. And here are J Travis, Liz, Sam, and T-Rav doing the tall tall tall part!
In the sun he melted, small, small, small.
It was a very memorable rendition, complete with some pretty fabulous elaboration of the movements taught in primary (SAM!). I wish I had the video to post here!
We were so excited just to get warm plates before out pizza
Some of the folks at the table- we demolished 5 large pizzas! No mercy for pizza with the Hatch family!
Michael practicing his 'smolder'. Actually I think I caught him chewing gum :) Looks like a pretty good smolder to me though.
Originally we weren't planning on staying up at the cabin for church, so about half of us had to improvise for church clothes. The lovely Elizabeth loaned out some of her lovely clothes, and the day was saved!
This is Emily, she just turned 16 and she is so cute! I've known her for almost as long as I have known Heidi (like 6 years?) so I've kind of watched her grow up. You know, even when she was 10 she was wise and kind beyond her years. Now that she is 16, I think she is about ready to be president of the United States.
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The whole crew outside of church on Sunday. There are a few people who couldn't make it this year and we dearly missed them, but maybe next year, right?
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