We made a nice trip to Silverwood our last adventure of the summer. We headed out on a Wednesday morning pulling the tent trailer bound for northern Idaho. We first headed for Pullman to stop at the hospital and see Grandpa Charlie at the hospital as he was there recovering from knee replacement surgery. We had a nice visit at the hospital and then headed toward Moscow and up Highway 95. Somewhere on the pass near Potlatch, I noticed the truck was working a bit harder than usual to pull the trailer up a hill, I glanced in the rear-view mirror to see blue smoke billowing out of the left trailer tire well! We pulled off to a logging road and quickly had a logging semi come barrelling by! Fortunately, we had a spare on the back of the trailer and it still had air in it. We got out the jack and started working. A nice logging maintenance guy (he called himself Elmo) stopped and offered to help, which we gladly accepted as he was a little dirtier than we were. I thought we were on NASCAR pit stop pace when we went to start the truck and it wouldn't cooperate. Vapor lock I thought in my novice mechanical mind "if we just wait awhile, it will start". Plenty of prayers were said by all. The battery seemed to be getting tired of cranking. Then, I walked over and asked Elmo if he would give us a jump. Voila! the T100 cranked back to life and we were on our way. We wandered our way to our campground and got all set up for a good nights sleep. We got up the next morning and went to play at Silverwood. We rode the rides. The video shows us on Panic Plunge. Denise, Nate and Justin braved the Super Round-up (you won't get me on that!) We also rode the hot new roller-coaster called Aftershock and many more rides. We enjoyed the magic show in the theater, then we headed for the waterpark in the afternoon. Of course, my favorite place was Polliwog Park kiddie area where I manned the sprayer hoses and soaked many unsuspecting people (I do have a devious side!).

---

---

After the waterpark area closed, we ventured back out to the rides. Nate and Justin rode Aftershock several more times (if you turn your head right, you can see them in the front seats in the picture below)

---

---

We finally called it quits when the park closed and we were plenty tired out.

---

We headed back for the trailer for a good night's sleep. We wandered our way home Saturday with plans to get back for the ward dutch oven potluck at Sacajawea Park. We were 10 minutes away when we all heard a loud explosion from behind us. The other tire on the trailer blew out (and our spare was already used)! We pulled off to a corn field along the road and unhitched the trailer. I knew we needed to find a tire and couldn't leave the trailer there or it might disappear. We left Nate and Denise with the trailer and Justin and I went on our search. We went into town, all the tire stores are closed an Saturday evening! I thought, truck stops are open 24-hours! I never knew how seedy truck stops are! Their tire stores are closed on Saturday night too! Then, I remembered a couple of trailer tire/wheel combos we had on the tire rack at Yamaha Country! I called Curt and went and checked, Wrong Size! Curt suggested I try Wal*Mart and we found one! Two hours later, we were back on the road, as we headed home, we were passed by a few ward members heading home from the potluck, oh well. Denise and Nate had a little scare while waiting. They were on the edge of a corn field with circle irrigation. The circle line came around and started heading for the trailer. They said some prayers and the line went by safely (the trailer got soaked) but all were okay. Just a few hiccups along the way but a great trip otherwise!

Surfing Moses Lake

Maybe you never knew you could hang ten in Moses Lake! Yes, there are waves to be caught in this desert town. We decided to take some free time before summer was over to go play at the waterpark in Moses Lake. There's a large pool with diving boards, some small water slides, a few other water attractions, a lazy river to relax in and the Flowrider!

---

Flowrider!

---

---

Flowrider is an artificial surfing machine. Justin spent most of his day on the Flowrider, trying to learn to stand up on a board. Paul tried to stand but quickly found that would likely have to be saved for another life and he stuck with the body boarding. Nate wowed everyone with his diving skills. Denise cheered everyone on while taking pictures, video and relaxing. The boys liked it so much, they talked Denise into taking them again the next week!

---

Oregon Butte

As if the Priest Lake summer trip wasn't enough, we decided to head for the mountains on a small backpacking trip when we got back. We headed out on August 3rd from the Teepee Trailhead in the Blue Mountains south of Dayton. We loaded our packs on our backs and started up the trail. We got to the primitive campsite within an hour and a half. (with a lesson learned by Justin to wear at least ankle socks, not foot socks so as to prevent blisters!) There is a spring just a quarter mile from the campsite for our water needs. There was another hiker at the trailhead so we tried to keep a steady pace to get to the campsite and stake our claim. We've been there twice before and it is a nice setup among the trees with a great view out our backdoor over the Blue Mountains.

---

Fire Lookout

---

Oregon Butte is the highest point in the Blues. At the top is a fire lookout that is staffed during the summer. We went to the lookout and met the lady who lives there for 3 months, alone, during fire season. I think it takes a different personality to live in that kind of situation. She was very nice to have us inside to see the firewatch equipment and the boys even helped with some meteorological measurements. The sunset from the lookout was beautiful. We also went on a day hike on Tuesday. We had tried to find another spring on a previous trip but were unsuccessful. We got better directions from the lookout lady. We headed out, through some thick brush that was fed by springs. We even found huckleberries along the trail (Nate spotted those). The boys favorite pasttime on the trip was rolling rocks down the hill. They would really gather a lot of speed! We hiked along the trail and got to an area where the skeleton of an elk camp was located.
On our way back from the day hike, we heard some loud rustling just down the hill from the trail. I figured the boys had just rolled another rock but, when I turned and looked, I saw a large bear high-tailing it away from us. It was a big, golden-brown colored bear. Nate saw it too but Justin and Cade had to take our word for it. We decided to take a bit tougher route on the way back to camp. It took us up this jagged, rocky ridgetop that put us back at the fire lookout. From there, it was about a half mile back to camp. We had a good time enjoying the great outdoors. On our drive out of the mountains, a large deer bounded across the road in front of us. It was about a 5 point with velvet antlers! Hope you enjoy the pictures and video!

---

Video

---

Untitled from Paul Shoemaker on Vimeo.

Priest Lake Summer Vacation

Time for another late posting but better late than never! We enjoyed our summer family vacation at Priest Lake in northern Idaho. We had the wonderful opportunity to stay there from July 25-August 1. We stayed at a friend's cabin and had a glorious time.

---

On Priest RiverThe cabin is on Priest River, only about 100 feet from the outlet from Priest Lake so you can hardly tell the river is moving. It is more of a reservoir as it is backed up from a dam and there are several homes along the river. There is grass off the cabin porch and then, the water. It is really magical as you can walk right out into the water that is so clear and beautiful. We all spent hours each day in the water swimming with the fish with our swim goggles and snorkels. Nate and Justin really enjoyed the water too!

---

Huckleberries!
We took the opportunity for a family outing to the huckleberry patch as we heard it was a good year for picking! We found an abundant supply and spent an hour and ended up with about a gallon of the luscious fruit! We also had purple hands but the it was all worth it for the yummy treat. We enjoyed some as we picked, when we got back to the cabin and then we froze most of them. We're still enjoying them more than a month later in our morning cereal and in huckleberry milkshakes
!

---

Enjoying the Lake!The friend who owns the cabin was gracious enough to let us borrow her Waverunners too! We took them out to Four-Mile Island and dropped anchor for lunch on the beach. We had fun exploring the island a just swimming around. We also went to Papoose Island and ran into a large school of fish to swim with. It really is neat how clear the water is. You can see over 20 feet down! We also got to use a kayak to enjoy the water. One morning, I was paddling around, waiting for sunrise when I noticed a little critter in the kayak. I looked down and there was a mouse! He wandered around the kayak and finally jumped up on the forward seat and jumped into the water and swam ashore (more than 50 feet away!) I was surprised at how well he swam!


We also had fun on the lake thanks to some other friends. When we went to church on Sunday, we saw my boss from the hospital and his family come in to sacrament meeting. We came to find out they have a cabin in the same development as the place we were staying! He invited us to come out on their boat and do some wakeboarding. Well, the boys (including dad) were all over that idea. We caught up with them one day and had a blast on the board. We also did some knee boarding. Another neat experience was running into an old friend from the Sunnyside area at church. We were just getting done with sacrament meeting and I told Denise that Brother Bailey was sitting right in front of us. I spoke his name and there was no response. I was sure it was him so I went up to him and said hello again and introduced myself whereupon I was greeted with a big bear hug! We renewed acquaintances and had a nice visit.

---

Celebrating Twenty-Five Years!

What a wonderful place to celebrate and anniversary! Denise and I are blessed to have spent 25 years together. We went to dinner July 28 at Hill's Resort. I don't usually get to fancy with eating out but I think this was an occasion worth celebrating so I enjoyed a filet mignon wrapped in bacon and Denise had the stuffed top sirloin. We had a great table looking out on the lake and we sat there and made googley eyes at each other.

---

stormy weatherWe had a couple of thunderstorms that blew through during our week at the lake. One was at night and gave us a nice lightning show (see the video). The other was during the day and actually resulted in a tornado warning for our area! There was no tornado actually spotted but lots of downed trees including this one that came down on a cabin at Hill's resort. We saw it when we were at dinner.

---

The Great OutdoorsNo trip to Priest Lake would be complete without some more enjoyment of the great outdoors on the trails. I brought my bike and took several trips. One trail goes right along the bank of the lake for several miles north from the cabin. Another trail goes through lush forest areas and up on a mountain with wonderful views of the lake and surrounding forest.