Seven for Sunday: The McCall Vacation edition

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This year we decided to keep our family vacation low key and a little closer to home, so we headed to McCall, a beautiful resort town about two hours from Boise. On our first day we visited Brundage Ski Resort to ride their chair lifts. Right now whenever you tell Owen to smile for the camera he does some weird pose--see above.

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We rode the chairs to the top and then hiked around for a little bit. This is where we decided to cancel the hike we planned to do on another day because our boys whined the ENTIRE time about how tired they were and how their legs hurt and they were thirsty and could we just go swimming already? Oh well.

They may not have liked hiking, but they LOVED the chair lifts. I had a death grip on Eli the entire way up and then on Owen the entire way down (Tim and I rode separate lifts and took turns with the boys). I loved the view, but it was a little difficult to relax when I was worried about a squirming 3-year-old boy who has no concept of heights.

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Eli likes to wear as little clothing as possible. But let's be honest, we all wanted to lay in front of this window, watching the boats and listening to the water, in our underwear.

The company Tim works for owns a condo right on the lake and they rent it out to their employees at a really good rate. We stayed for 2 nights and 3 days and I could have stayed so much longer. It was amazing. We really were mere feet from the water and the view was beautiful. There was an enclosed porch room that quickly became my favorite spot in the whole place. One day, Tim took the boys out for a couple of hours while Zachy took a nap. I sat in this room and listened to the water and read my book and had a true vacation. It was awesome.

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We ate at McCall's famous Pancake House one morning and you can bet we ordered their plate sized sweet rolls--2 of them!

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Tim took the boys out on a canoe ride. I think this was the highlight of the vacation for them because it is what they tell everyone who asks about their vacation.

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The condo had a pool and we made sure to spend lots of time in it. Owen is a little fish. We just put his swim belt on and he goes all around. I lost track of how many times he climbed out and jumped back in. Eli hates his swim belt so I told him to stay on the stairs which he did for the most part. One evening, though, he wandered away from the stairs. I was over in a chair chatting with Tim and I glanced over at the stairs and saw the top of Eli's head. I bet I could have won an Olympic gold medal with how fast I ran around that pool and jumped in in my clothes to fish him out. Now he doesn't get to choose--if he wants to get in a pool, he has to wear his swim belt.

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Eli preferred playing on the beach to swimming in the pool. I'd build the little castles and he would systematically smash them with his toy car.

The water was cold, but the boys still loved it.

More sand castles.

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On our way home we visited the fish hatchery. It was fun for the little ones to see all those fish, but Marcus was done. You'd think he was tired of spending time with us ;) Can you tell?

Hooray for vacations!