Vacation: Days 3 & 4 - Post Falls, Silverwood

We were originally going to do Silverwood on Thursday but there was a chance of rain and possible lightning storms expected, so we switched days. Our new plan was to drive to Post Falls and eat at a highly rated sandwich shop called The Big Bear Deli and then go check out a waterfall park and go disc golfing. We met Stillman's family over there. The food was pretty good, and I just had to get a picture of Garrett's sandwich because it was huge! I think it was called the Oinker.

By the time we finished eating and piled into our trucks, the rain started to fall. And it just got worse. While driving, we decided that we better cancel our park and disc golf plans and do something indoors. I suggested we go to a movie and most everyone wanted to see "Inside Out 2" that was recently released in theaters. I was a little nervous to watch a new Disney movie because of the things they have been putting in them lately, but there wasn't any of that in this movie and I loved the movie! Curtis said it was good but didn't like it as much as the rest of us. He would have preferred to see the new Garfield movie. We had actually drove to Coeur D'Alene to the theater there, but they didn't have any good seats left for the time we wanted. I had found a discount theater to go to in nearby Hayden and we had to race over there before the show started. We made it in time and with plenty of seating available. It was a blessing because it saved us a lot of money by going there.

After the movie, we stopped at Costco to do some food shopping and then all of us went back to the cabin to play games or watch a movie. The little kids watched "Air Bud" on VHS. Michelle read her book and I played The Oregon Trail card game with Curtis, Jack, Garrett, Jayden and Stillman. We had a lot of fun. Garrett was really getting into it because he has recently decided that he wants to be a voice actor, so he was talking funny and his character name in the first game was Sloppy Joe. Each person came up with their own names. It is a co-op game where everyone is working together to get to Oregon, but it's harder to beat than you would think. All of us died in the first round. And only two made it in the 2nd round. The card game had pictures from the original computer game that they had when I was a kid, so it was a little nostalgic. We all laughed a lot and enjoyed it.

The tombstones from our 2nd game of The Oregon Trail. I was Bessie in this game and a pie maker....and the first to die, from dysentery. 

The tombstones from our 1st game. My name was Laura and I had measles at the time I died, hence what is written on my tombstone. Ha ha

Here's the first puzzle that I started on the first night we arrived and then I finished it Friday morning. I did cheat a little though because there were a couple of chunks of the puzzle that were already put together inside the box. I decided to just finish where they left off instead of taking it apart and starting from the beginning. I wanted to make sure I had time to finish this puzzle and maybe even do another. There was a missing piece, but I found it in one of the other puzzle boxes. That was lucky!

That same morning, we packed up and headed out again for our 2nd and final day at Silverwood. This was a regular ride day for our family. Stillman's family did do Boulder Beach again in the late afternoon and our girls joined them. Our first ride was the train, and we all did that together. It's fun because they put on a show while you ride, and the scenery is beautiful also. The ride lasts about 30 minutes.

I hate taking selfies, especially when I have my first ever cold sore. (Thank you, Curtis...NOT) I didn't take many pictures with me in it because of that. (We both had cold sores that week.)

The train robber.

They caught a sasquatch!

The sheriff locking up the robbers.

After the train ride, we went to the front entrance for a family picture at the picture booth. The crazy thing is that there was someone we knew from our ward there getting pictures too! It was Nancy Otte and her two kids, Carter and London. London is one of the oldest girls in activity days. It was so fun to see them there on the same day as us! We didn't even know ahead of time. Then the big boys split off to go on big rides while Michelle and I took the younger kids on the carousel and other kid rides.

While the kids waited in line for bumper cars, Michelle and I took turns ordering a funnel cake. They were right next door and only $5 if you ordered before 5pm. That's about half the price! I got the huckleberry flavor. Yum!

Riding the bumper cars.

In line for the Butterflier ride.

On the Butterflier ride.

After taking the kids on multiple rides, Stillman found us. He and I went to get the little kids some food while they waited in line for a small roller coaster ride. After they finished, we headed over to the BBQ place where the rest of us had BBQ, but we all ate our food together. The BBQ place is a bit spendy and we didn't want to waste money on food the kids won't eat. They got chicken strips or hot dogs with fries. I honestly wasn't that hungry when we had our late lunch/dinner because of the funnel cake I ate but I ate as much as I could.

After we ate, that's when Stillman's family went back to Boulder Beach along with Curtis and the girls. Curtis didn't bring his swimsuit, so he just rested in the shade while they played in the water. I went on a few rides with the boys and Jayden. The first roller coaster I rode with the boys was Tremors. Stillman was telling me about the sign they have posted in line for this ride, and I can't believe I didn't notice it before.

Maybe I saw this sign before, but I never noticed the guy losing his head until now. A little gruesome, but for a good reason, lol. 

Jayden only rode Tremors with us before deciding to go to Boulder Beach with his family. Then Garrett, Jack and I rode Stunt Pilot. After that, Jack took off to do his own thing and to find Curtis, so Garrett and I rode on The Cork Screw. His orthodontist had told us that this ride was originally in California at Knott's Berry Farm and told us to get a picture of it for him. He's from California and I guess his wife actually worked there and operated that ride. The coaster was brought to Silverwood in 1990. Garrett and I rode the ride and got pictures, but I did not like it because it was too jerky for my head, and it was a very short ride. That's the last time I ride that one.

After that ride, Garrett and I went to Boulder Beach to find Curtis and the girls. The girls were off with Stillman and Michelle, so we sat for a bit to rest. Then Curtis and Garrett went to do some souvenir shopping. I laid down on a towel and rested. It felt good to rest my tired feet. 

At this point, Garrett said he was done with rides. He just wanted to do some shopping and then leave. Of course, he had to wait for us to be finished and that wasn't until closing at 10 pm.

When we were eating our meal, I had gotten a message from Nancy Otte about wondering if any of our family wanted to ride the log ride with her daughter. Nancy gets sick REALLY easily and so she can't really ride anything with her kids, and her son Carter didn't want to ride the log ride. My girls were happy to do it with her! We met up with them after Boulder Beach closed.

Keaton rode with them too.

Jack was waiting to spray them at the end with a machine that you pay 25 cents for each spray. 

They went down a 2nd time.

Most of our family and Stillman's family decided to do the big raft ride again, but I opted out. I was going to stay dry that day. I was surprised that even Garrett went on it, just because he was bored and tired of waiting around. (He regretted it later because of how wet he got.) I think Jack and Jayden split off to do other rides. London rode with Curtis and our kids. The group was too big for all to fit on one raft, so Stillman, Michelle and two boys went on the next ride with a few strangers.

Stillman's group got sprayed!

When that ride was finished, the girls got dressed and then we met London at the Cork Screw so the girls could all ride it together. I did NOT want to ride again and neither did London's brother, so the three of them went on it by themselves! I was a little nervous, especially for Alice, but they loved it. Alice was finally tall enough to do most rides by herself. She's about 49 inches. Most rides you need to be 48 inches.

At that time, London was done with rides and so their family took off. We met up with Curtis and Garrett to ride Tremors with the girls, but it was getting close to closing time and we still needed to do some souvenir shopping, so we got out of line and walked back to the shops. On the way back, we saw Jack on a ride by himself. The girls and I went to the toy store while the boys went to a different shop. The girls took a while trying to decide what to spend their money on. I couldn't look for anything for myself until they were done because I didn't want any toys. I did have to make some quick decisions when we got to a shop I was interested in. I went with a Silverwood magnet and a bear figurine that had two bears rowing a canoe and it said Silverwood on it. It was about 10:30 by the time we left Silverwood. The kids were tuckered out. Curtis and I felt pretty good since we had the opportunity to rest at Boulder Beach for a while. Jack even drove us back to the cabin. He drove multiple times on this trip (gave us a few scares, but mostly he did really well.).

Jack riding without any of us. He was doing his own thing at the end of the day.

Garrett got himself a sweatshirt.

The girls were lucky that we had our wagon. Curtis pulled them at the end of the day when they were too tired to walk anymore.

I didn't ride as many rides as I used to, but I guess that's what happens when you get older. You don't care as much about getting to ride. You just want to watch your kids have a good time, even if you're not riding with them. It was a fun day!

Vacation: Days 1 & 2 - Cabin and Boulder Beach

Our big vacation for this year was spent in Northern Idaho where we stayed at a small cabin in Worley, just south of Coeur D'Alene, that was rented through VRBO. I don't know why but I never got a picture of the outside of the cabin. It was on 120 acres of property, and we were surrounded by beautiful scenery, including two ponds. The owners actually live just up the street. They were out of town when we came to stay but they had a friend watching their property and helping with the cabin. We arrived on Tuesday the 25th of June and the first day was just getting groceries and relaxing and exploring the cabin and property. We even made some pizza balls for dinner at the cabin that night but unfortunately their oven was hotter than we thought, and they got a wee bit too dark but, they were edible. It was still fun to have the girls help me make them. The boys did the dishes that night. We coordinated our vacation with my brother's family, Stillman and Michelle and kids. They took their camper and stayed at an RV campground near Silverwood, which is almost an hour away from our cabin, so we didn't see them on the first day.

We piled into the truck so we could have more cargo space.

One of the ponds.

This little critter was swimming. We're not certain but we think it's a beaver.

The girls were happy to see the horses and feed them grass.

They also got to pet them.

Making our pizza balls.

The cabin had two smaller bedrooms downstairs. The girls stayed in one and shared a bed. The boys were in the other, but their room was slightly bigger and had a twin size hide-a-bed couch, so Garrett got the bed and Jack took the couch. Upstairs was loft style and that's where the master was. I kept bumping my head on the slanted ceiling though when reaching for stuff in my bag by the wall. There was no bedroom door, so if we needed to, we would change in the bathroom. It was really warm up there, but I found the remote for the A/C unit and got it going. It was nice and cool by bedtime. The staircase was super skinny, maybe 2 - 2 1/2 feet wide. And there was no dish washer, so we washed everything by hand. 

There was only one TV in the living room downstairs, which was next to a fireplace stove. They had some dvds and a bunch of VHS films. One of the VHS that we tried to watch, the tracking was so bad that we had to turn it off and Curtis just rented it through Amazon prime on our Roku. It was Babe the pig. They also had some old games and puzzles. I was able to do two puzzles while there. One of them had a missing piece though. They also had an assortment of books to read. There were a bunch of Louie L'Amour books, so Curtis read one while there.

Wednesday was our first day at Silverwood Theme Park (out of two) and looking at the forecast showed us that this would be the warmest day and best time to go to Boulder Beach, which is the water park at Silverwood. It was in the upper 70's, around 80 degrees that day. We got to go on the new water slide, which was fun. It was called Eagle Hunt. There were parts of this slide that push you uphill with water. There was one person that got stuck on the ride while we waited in line so that made it take longer. After Boulder Beach closed, we decided to go on the wet rides in the main part of Silverwood while we still had swimsuits on. I finally did the big water raft ride. I had never done that one before because you get pretty wet on that ride, and I never wanted to get wet in my regular clothes. We also did the log ride a couple of times and bumper boats. The line for bumper boats took about an hour and in my opinion not worth the wait, but Michelle wanted to do it. I think by the time we finally got changed there was only time for the kids to ride a couple of regular rides before the park closed. I just watched the girls go on a couple of rides. My stomach can't handle them like they used to. 

They have the coolest water playground at Boulder Beach.

Cousins

Riding the Tilt-A-Whirl at the end of the day.

It was a great start to a great week!