Ence Family Reunion

Ence Family Trip Year 2: McCall, Idaho

One highlight of each year is the annual trip we take with my parents, siblings and their children. We are now LONELY in Seattle and honestly soaked up every second we had with them. We randomly chose McCall due to the location - 461 miles from SLC and 463 from Maple Valley. After having been, we can't wait to go back again. My children said they had as much fun in McCall as they did at Disneyland :()!

We left a day early to meet my brother Dylan for a night at Best Western and a day of swimming. My kids woke up at 6:30. They were the first to eat breakfast and the first in the pool .They swam for 4 hours straight. While they swam, I took a run around the quaint little town - no better way to get to know a place!

For dinner we ate at the highly recommended "My Father's Place". Prices were high but the food was truly out of this world. I ate a bite of Eliza's hamburger and couldn't put it down - first one I've had in 4 years. Their secret recipe? Dave says crack.

Off to check out Payette Lake and check into our cabin/house. The drive around the lake is 18 miles and absolutely gorgeous. Our cabin was located about 1 mile up the road from a public beach.

Day2 we spent at David Beach, the public swimming area located 1 mile from the cabin. It was actually very secluded and ended up being ideal day location for us to park. We spent 7 hours playing in the water and sand.

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Let's just call this paybacks

Dave got the heads up this morning that we were going to have a couple of "special" talks on reverence today as the Stake Presidency was a little concerned about how loud our sacrament meetings have become. I thought ~ great, let's prep the kids ~ I told them that they were to be on their best behavior, no snacks, no toys, no talking, you get the idea... The meeting went pretty smooth until the Bishop got up. He very tenderly started talking about how important it is that we teach our children about the sacrament...it was at that moment that my family fell a part. Eden and Luke started fighting and Liza and Tucker started screaming---did I mention we were on the second row? I grabbed Luke and put him in a body hold and motioned for Dave to get Tuck and Liza out. Dave left with Liza and Tuck (so I thought...) and next thing you know, Tucker is up on the stand running back and forth behind the Bishop. My sweet friend sitting next to me jumped up to get Tuck, but he of cours...

Child Rearing Race

My visiting brother from Utah and I were left without spouses for 4 days. This wouldn't have been such a big deal, but our kids had already been together 24/7 for 6 days and our boys couldn't think of anything better to do than fight. I don't know about you, but 1 entire day of fighting is enough to drive one mad--now times that by 4. Near the end of the week(and our rope) my brother and I had a heart to heart and posed the question~what in life could be more mentally difficult than this? The only thing I could think of (now remember, we'd just run the Ragnar) was running a marathon. Someone once told me that if you could mentally get through a marathon, you could get through anything. So, I put it to the test...I ran a... OK , not a marathon, but a 1/2. Raising children and running difficult races are so much the same. They both require so much of you emotionally, physically and mentally and yet the end reward is so gratifying. I can't express the joy I felt yester...

Facelift

It is time this blog gets a facelift! I know it is not "in season" but I don't think I want to update my widgets for at least another year. Dave and I just got back from a weekend cruise with some friends on the NCL. We got a small taste of what a real cruise was like and that was all it took. We are already planning the next, much longer one. It might be 10 years before we do it, but it is fun to plan nontheless.

The Collings Family

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