Virts Family: Virts' Family Reunion

The end of July brought the Virts' family reunion at Coeur d'alene. We had never been to Coeur d'alene as a family or to Silverwood, so we were looking forward to both spending time with family and the amusement park. We left for Idaho on Thursday because we were pulling the camper and wanted to take our time. Thursday we stopped in Missoula at the KOA and had a great time swimming, playing miniature golf, and treating ourselves to frozen yogurt (a first for the girls). We stopped at the Target in Missoula for a few things and the girls begged for swimming caps...don't they look adorable in them.

Abbie is like a little fish. She would spend the entire day in the pool if we would let her.

Rylee likes to play in the pool but gets cold easily. We warmed up a few times and got back in the pool and then headed to the camper, took a shower, and played games while we waited for Jeremy and Abbie to be done in the pool.

On Friday morning we got up late and leisurely headed to Idaho. We arrived just as most of Jeremy's family was getting there and spent the afternoon just visiting and relaxing.

Saturday we rented a paddle boat and went out on lake Coeur d'alene. My sides hurt horribly from laughing so hard after this adventure. Paddling was hard on the big rough lake, but add Rylee and Abbie's weight in the back and it was quite a workout. Couple that with Jeremy's back injury and how much the sitting and leg movement hurt him so he was filled with sarcasm and comments for our 45 minute rental. Even though he was hurting, he was entertaining and I couldn't stop laughing. He mentioned that that was going to be his only paddle boat experience in his life (Well, not quite those words, but what he did say wasn't appropriate to post). The rest of Saturday I spent down by the pool while the girls swam and Jeremy visited with his family.

Sunday was my favorite. We headed to Silverwood for a day at the water park. We were there from the time the park opened until dinnertime and had a fabulous time. Rylee and Abbie loved the wave pool so that is where we spent a majority of our day. We also took several spins in the tubes on the lazy river and, because we had lots of family around, Jeremy and I had a great time on some of the bigger waterslides. Abbie and Jeremy went down Avalanche Mountain (a tube ride that seats about 6 and really gets going fast and high on the sides of the slide as it comes down) and as they come out at the bottom I could tell Abbie was less then impressed with that ride. Jeremy thought I would think it was fun so we went down with Uncle Ray, Dillon, and Randy. With the four larger adults, we had quite a bit of weight. Turns out the more weight you have the higher you go up on the sides..holy smokes it was fun! As I was hanging on to the handles, I was looking straight down at Ray across from me. Ray was looking terrified so Jeremy and Randy were laughing the whole way down the ride. It was so much fun we did it again with Rachel and Trent.

Monday was a relaxing day around the campground and then a trip into Cour de' lane to just walk around and look at the boats on the lake. That night we came back and took pictures both as families and as a whole group!