Camping Trip-Sawtooth National Forest

Last weekend we spent camping with some neighbors and their kids in the Sawtooth National Forest, just above the Anderson Dam area (near Featherville, ID-yes, I had no idea where that was either, but it's about 2 hours East from our house in Nampa). It was so beautiful. One of the Forks of the Boise River ran right next to camp. The water was very high and fast, so I was glad it was on the other side of the road! But the kids had fun throwing rocks in it. It was still pretty cool and definitely windy, so we stuck by the fire a good amount of time, which was nice. It was great to get away and just be with good friends. Kennedy and Jake had a good time with their friends. This was the "big rock" next to our camp that the kids played on most of the time we were there. It was their "secret" hiding place. Here is most of the gang around the campfire! Yes, the campfire was on the pavement, which was kind of weird, but practical I guess for wildfires. I guess that's what you get in a big camping area.

We went on a small hike just north of camp near the hot springs. They fill a pool with the hot spring water each morning. There was also a small play area at the hot springs and the kids had a great time on the log teeter-totter and swing! Jake liked climbing the rocks and digging in the dirt!

We got to test out our new "family size" tent this trip and it was great! It's huge, but somehow we still managed to fill it up with all our stuff! We'd like to go back to this area, but next time camp down the road a ways where there are fewer campsites and it's closer to the shallower part of the river.
The kids all piled into the back of our truck while we packed up camp-Jake sure felt like one of the big kids!

When it got real windy we put Jake in the truck, which happens to be his favorite place in the world right now. He is just sure that he's ready to drive!

On the drive out we stopped at a little outlet in the reservoir to see if the guys (and kids) could catch a fish. Well, Brian had just put his line in the water and said, "we probably won't catch anything right here, the water is too fast," when all of the sudden he got a tug on his line and voila! He caught a fish! Turns out that was the one and only fish caught, but the kids did find a big snake to look at (I missed that and only saw a picture on Heirani's camera). The drive home was beautiful too. Everything was so green, and there were a lot of blooming wildflowers along the road.
We even saw some wildlife on the ride home! (Okay, so it was an archery shoot gathering, but we can pretend, right?)

What a beautiful place and a fun trip! We are so grateful to have such good friends here in Idaho, and hope there will be many more camping trips this summer!