Nicole discovered just how tricky eye liner can be.
Morgan takes his "goodbyes" very seriously. Not only a hug for Sam, but an I-can-pick-you-up kinda hug.
And, much to Ellea's delight, Andie finally warmed up to her. That girl is a tough nut to crack!
Ellea and her favorite thing--small children. Ellea expended a lot of energy trying to get Andie to like her. Unfortunately, it's difficult to get Andie to like much, but Ellea didn't let that deter her. 
Phil and his brother, Jeff, impressed us with their diving skills. This is Jeff mid-somersault.
Our little cowboy and his trusty sidekick. Really, Zip is my sidekick, but I was busy unloading the hay.
It's hard to find a good hay hand. I got me one.
The hay bus. How funny is this? Our friends who we got the hay from (Glenn only does big round bales now), have these two old school buses that were converted as hay haulers years ago. Nice, eh? Only in redneck America will you see a yellow school bus hauling hay. Perhaps only in Keuterville, Idaho. Redneck America. Keuterville, Idaho. Same, same.
After the parade and a yummy burger from the Lion's Club stand (we had one every day--we love those burgers!), it was time for the sale. The prices were up from last year. Ellea got $2.90/lb and Nicole got $3.10/lb. At 250-280 pounds, that's some pretty good money! Too bad the real pig farmers don't make that much--we'd all be in the pig business! The beef and sheep kids make similar money. It's a good deal. The buyers are all very supportive. Our girls' money goes into savings and a small portion goes into their pocket to reward their hard work.
Ellea had a hard time saying goodbye to her pig which struck me as odd since she was a tad scared of and not all that fond of her pig. She said it was because her pig trusted her and she was sending it away to be killed. That girl has such a big heart. It's hard to be soft-hearted and raise animals for meat.
It was a good day. We were all exhausted from a busy week, but did we go home? Of course not! It was time for the after-party!! We hung out with some other crazies who had their campers there (and lived within a 10 mile radius). We had burgers together and chatted the night away. We considered going home to sleep in our own comfy beds, but the evening got away from us and so we slept in not-so-comfy, but close-by beds.
More pigs.
More Bottle calves. she wasn't a fan of the bath.
And a visit from some of the Kaufman's. Glenn's sister Dori came up from Lewiston with their foreign exchange student from Belgium, her daughter-in-law, Jen and Jen's two kiddos, Sam and Andie. Andie sat with me approximately 2.2 minutes. She looks happy in this picture, don't you think?
And, day three was Glenn's and my 16th wedding anniversary. No pictures of us, sorry. We were too busy being romantic. A kiss in the cattle pen. A burger at lunch. Chinese for dinner. I swoon at the memory..... Luckily I enjoy the fair *almost* as much as Glenn does, so it's all good. He claims we'll do something special soon. We'll see. (The clock is ticking, dear.)
Showing pigs is like herding cats. It's just organized chaos!
Ellea trying to keep her pig off the fence. Glenn is in the background. He spends all day being a "board man." He helps move the animals from their pens to the show ring and back again and uses a handy-dandy board to to push the pigs where they need to go and to break up fights. Ellea likes having him in the ring with her.
And, another miracle! Nicole's bottle calf actually followed her around the show ring without being dragged against her will!! A week before this, she could hardly get her to walk more than two steps! She got to the fair and was a different animal! She earned herself a blue ribbon. I liked the beef judge just fine!
Here they are doing the Three Minute Down (third to the right). He did great, except he saw me at one point and got up. I felt bad. I need to hide better next time.
The end of the day. These girls are smiling because not only did they have fun, they're also grateful that it's over! This is Nicole's friend, Chaye, who talked her into taking dog 4-H with her (Nicole took a two year break from it). I think they may do it again next year.
Morgan had a great day also. He was especially tickled that his Godmother, Donna (Glenn's sis), came to watch.
He and Zoey did very well together. Here he is with the Judge getting ready to do the "Figure 8." He's leaning over to give Zoey a kiss first. He kissed her every chance he got. I asked him why and said because he was so happy with her! Alrighty then. I'd say she deserves a few more kisses!
There are hay bales in this picture, but mostly I wanted to share the beauty of where we call home. Purty, isn't it?
In short, she's just a fabulous dog. Sadly, our Schnauzer, Zip, rarely gets invited on camping trips because he barks at everything. Other than that, he's great too. Oh, and he has been known to nip at people he doesn't know. Other than that he's terrific. Really.
Zoey was such a trooper on the beach. She'd find a sliver of shade and sleep the day away with no complaining. Sometimes the shade was in short supply, so Ellea fashioned this shelter for her by draping her beach towel between a chair and a small shovel. Zoey must've appreciated the gesture, because she stayed put for a couple hours! What a great dog! She might look a little funny, but we sure like her!
It got a little crazy for a minute.
But the resultant shish-ka-bobs were pretty yummy, so it was all good!
We spend a lot of time in these tubes. There's a couple mile stretch of river that we float down. It has one bigger rapid (nothing too crazy) and a bunch of very small ones. It's a good time.
A couple years ago a couple people bought these pontoon rafts and tried them out on the river. Now there are several in the group that have them. I tried one out for the first time. It was fun, but not as easy as it looks to make it go where I wanted it to! I was exhausted. I'm sure I could get better with practice, but floating in a tube is still more relaxing!
They're mostly inseparable when we're camping. Playing on the beach, playing at camp, watching movies, eating other people's food. It's a great set up. It's a good thing that Morgan has two older sisters who've indoctrinated him in the finer points of Barbies and dolls. He can play alongside a girl quite happily.
Morgan's in the front row between his two favorite girls. Nicole is on the far left and Ellea is two to the right from her. (Photo courtesy Mike Uhling.)
This is Nicole and Chaye's method of avoiding the bugs! I'd rather just sit close to the fire.
The first night we were there just happened to be hors d'oevre night. Lots of yummy, high fat foods to graze on. They also got out the blender (a VitaMix to be exact!) and spread the cheer with yummy alcoholic drinks for the adults and smoothies for the kids. It's all about roughing it.
Morgan has a soft spot for Elise. A couple years ago on this Selway trip, he announced out the blue that he was going to marry her someday. That was a tad shocking. Don't know where he got that idea, but he's stuck with it ever since. Poor boy, only gets to see his fiancee a couple times a year since Elise lives in Richland, Washington, but that doesn't seem deter him.
The final reunion event was a picnic at the beach and kids were invited. Nicole was especially excited to see this floating dock. You can't see her very well, but that's her jumping off the dock in the picture.
This is new. There was not a statue of liberty in Sandpoint when I was a kid. Not sure why there is now. It was placed at the end of a long concrete dock in memory of someone. She must've had a soft spot for old lady liberty. It was good because the odds of us taking our kids to see the real deal are pretty slim. At least they've seen the Sandpoint replica. So, if you ever make it to Sandpoint, don't miss out on the beach. Visiting the lady in green is optional.
Two stories. Two decks. Too nice.
The view from the upper-story deck.
