Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Good times in McCall! :)

When you tell someone you are going on vacation, the obvious question that follows is, "where to?" Responding with an enthusiastic, "McCall Idaho!" tends to get the response of a puzzled and somewhat confused, "ohhh," first of all because many people have never heard of McCall and second because most people envision sandy ocean beaches, private islands, and hott scuba instructors (okay maybe that's just me;) ) when they hear the word vacation, none of which come to mind when hearing your destination is Idaho. However, McCall Idaho blows all those stereotypes and assumptions to pieces, it is a BLAST!! What could be better than having a cabin right on a beautiful lake with your entire family, boating/wake boarding/tubing/and just relaxing in the sun for a week straight, eating great food, and riding your bike in one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen! Its hard to really explain how much fun it is, so I'll use pictures! :) (Sorry this is gonna be a bit of a long post...what am I saying all my post are long!:)

The Cabin! :) We stayed at a different cabin this year than we have in the past (this was our 4th or 5th family McCall trip :) ) and it was good times! :)

Our compound...justtttt kiddding these were the GIANT cabins next to us!

This was our super cute cabin!:) Slept all 20 or so of us!

Payette Lake!:)




The McCall Family Olympics 2009! :)

Category #1 the high jump!

Category #2 The Dive! (My Mom got extra points for her graceful preparatory pose!:) )

But who needs extra points with a dive like that!! WINNER!! :)

Category #3 Chair diving!! A McCall Classic!! :)

Cody's technique was more of a tip-over than a dive!

Category #4 Tricky Tricks! Ernie won with this beautiful cartwheel into the water!

Category #5 Cannonball contest!

He may way a lot less then his Dad but DANG that boy can make a huge splash!!

Father-Son synchronized front flips!!

Wake Boarding!! :) On none other than the pink force!!

Yep...the water was pretty dang cold!!

Ernie's got his game face on!

Cody has a pretty dang fast learning curve, passed me up in just a matter of days...and on my pink board!! ;)

Ouch!! We both had our fair share of whip-outs...I may have hit the water so hard one time that I revisited breakfast!

Tubin it up!! :)


Cody showin off his skilllz!!

These two are the dare devils of the family! ;)

Ouch, Rylee looks a bit dazed and confused!;)



Believe it or not that is my Mom and Steve out there on that tube...I was so proud!!!! My Mom NEVER gets in the water but she was livin it up this trip!! :)

Steve got dumped after getting a little over confidant with a "no hands look at me" maneuver!

Yep just like that!! Easily done when the boat isn't moving!;)

I love this picture, My Mom is just lovin it...Steve looks a bit nervous!

Kayak time!!


Ernie and Cody back from their ride

Me and Mom showing the boys how it is really done! :)

Yep, we are just that good!

Game time! :)

Every other year I have been the poker champ...this year not so much! ;)

Pictionary with the fam was hilarious!

Grandma: "I'm going to draw a little...rock."
My cute little granny had trouble not talking about what she was drawing, when she said she was going to draw a little rock, she literally meant that her card said LITTLE ROCK on it! I can't remember the last time I laughed that hard! In this picture she is drawing a UFO, something she was very nervous about drawing, and as you can see, she couldn't help but tell us about it!:) Haha I love her!

Girlies a Golfin!! :) The guys were there too but we made sure to steer clear of men in golf mode! Since the men in my family tend to like golfing, and like men of all families get a little bit too into it, us girlies knew that going in our own silly/goofy/playing just for the laughs of it group would be the best idea!:)

Mel and Sue in the cart...my Mom turned out to be a much more aggressive driver than Mel! ;)

My Mom Teeing off...wow what form! :)

Sports involving hand-eye coordination always make it shockingly clear why I stick to pedaling a bike!

Nice drive Mel!

Sue showing us how it is done! :)

"Where'd it go, did you see where it went....Found it!" Not a common theme at all, we're pro!

Here is where the aggressive driver part comes in! My Mom loved to drive the cart full speed (a whopping ten miles an hour if you're lucky!) up to the next tees and slam on the breaks! Haha it made a fabulous sound and even left some skid marks!! The aggression got a little out of hand on the last hole when we were driving around picking up our stray golf balls (we played Best Ball so we used the best shot and picked up the others) I was leaning out of the cart grabbing the balls off the ground, but I missed the very last one. Without consultation of any kind my Mom cranked the wheel of the cart throwing me out of the cart and into a very defensive tuck and role!! I have the grass stain on my shorts to prove it!! This just so happened to be on the hole right next to the club house where people sit out side and eat...we were spreading the laughter I'm sure. Most people probably thought we were intoxicated, I mean golfing is a serious sport right, who intentionally throws their own daughter out of a moving golf cart during such a solemn event...Sher Swensen sure does!! We laughed so hard I thought I was going to pee my pants!!

Bike Rides!! :) The thing I love almost the very most about this vacation is the fact that I get to bring my bike along with me! There is no such thing as a bad route anywhere around there, I went on a few different routes, even ended up on dirt once, and still every ride was amazingly beautiful!! I was loving it!

How could you not love riding right next to a beautiful lake!!

Yeah so I'm not so good at the whole self portrait slash get the pretty background in technique of picture taking, this was my best effort! haha

Miscellaneous Family fun!:)

My Grampy's signature pose! Illustrates why we call him Big Dan!:)

Ernie Face!! :)

Camstar the fish!! :)

Camstar was the first one in the lake the night we got there, I was loving it!! He made the trip ten times more fun!

The famous McCall ice cream spot, it was delicious!! :)

Heck yeah we invited John Lennon!

Sue, Mom, and my silly sister!:)

Uncle Steve never goes anywhere without his "first aid kit" Natty Light in a zip lock is the cure all, haven't you heard?

My proudest Mommy daughter moment EVER!! This was the first time in my 20 years of life that I had ever seen my Mom JUMP into cold water!! I was in shock, and very proud!! :)

Family Photo-shoot Gehrke style!! ;) Our family is not big on formal group shots, so we mix it up a bit! No make up necessary, wear whatever you want, and pose however you want! Although we did attempt to do one good one for Granny...attempt being the key word!

The Attempt! Don't we look happy! ;)

My Fam Damily! Yep posing normal and smiling normal was not an option! :)

My Cute Mom and Cute Aunties!

Granny and Grampy! Love them!

Our final Hoorah on the 4th of July!

How sweet is that...BBQ right to you on the lake!

Cruising around on the pontoon!

Watching my grampy dance to the oldies on the radio! He gets a little nervous on our regular boats (I think Ernie scared the you-know-what right out of him last time we were up in McCall by cranking it up to a whopping 30 or 35 mph!;) Tee hehe) so cruising around on a pontoon that creeps along at about the speed Big Dan drives is a highlight for him!!

This was one of my favorite parts of the trip, riding out on the boat at night to watch the fireworks go off over the lake!! So much fun!:)

Good times at McCall always come to an end WAY too fast! I'm crossing my fingers that we get to go again!:)

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