The RANCH

 We were spoiled this year and had the unique opportunity to join my brother and his wife's family at their ranch in Atlanta, Idaho!  It never happens that they get to invite others to join them because everyone can't wait for their week at the Ranch, but for some reason this year there were openings, and we were lucky enough to be invited.  Now, we know why everyone can't wait for the trip to the Ranch!  I have lots of pictures, but its one of those things you really can't explain.  It is beyond description in beauty and so much fun being there!  The "Main House" is beautiful, has 20 + rooms, a large kitchen, and lounge area for games and eating.

 The Lake.  It is stocked with fish.  There is a canoe, paddle boats, and float tubes.

 The pool.  It is fed by a natural hot spring so it is like a huge wonderful bath tub!

There is a tennis court, basketball and volleyball.

 Even golf.

 Our first day there started with Phil on the lake with the kids, for a chance to explore.

 Then an ATV Ride to see the sights of Atlanta.  We rode the ATV's every day.  The kids loved every minute of it!

 How Phil spent much of his free time.  He loved hunting for treasure.  He even found some...

a whole quarter!

 Mindy's sister set up a slack line.The kids loved to see how many steps they could take before falling. 

 We spent one morning fishing, and each of the kids caught a fish.

 There are usually some horses on the property but they were both off having babies, so we improvised!

 We took advantage and swam every day.

 In one of the shed's on the property was this stuffed bear. Mindy and Paxton recreating a "what if" scenario.   

 A trip to the hot spring to see where the hot water for the Ranch and the Pool comes from.

 On our tour of Atlanta, we stopped by the local jail, the cemetary, jumping rock, the town swimming pool, library, and local hang out.  Just slightly different than what we're use to ;)

 There was a four square competition for all ages!

 One morning a friend of Mindy's dad flew in and took a couple of them over to McCall, Id.  It was neat to see the plane land and take off from the little air strip on the property.

 Starting the morning off with a little tennis.

 All of us on a canoe ride.  The lake is absolutely beautiful, I could have spent all day there...especially as Phil was our motor for the ride!

 Remi, Mindy, and Paxton enjoying the float tubes.

 Atlanta, is about 2.5-3 hours north of Mountain Home, on some very bumpy dirt roads. On our way home, not 5 minutes from the Ranch we got a flat tire (our second one of the trip--we got one on the way there only an hour into the 8 hour drive ;)  We unpacked the car we just packed, got the spare out and prayed it would last until we surfaced in Mountain home.  The roads are very narrow and there are lots of switch backs.  The trip to Mountain home included the flat tire, and 6 throw up bags left in various spots on the side of the road. The three oldest each lost it twice on the drive.  Mountain Home couldn't come soon enough!

 Unfortunately, Mountain Home didn't have a good place for us to replace the tire (it had a nice big slit in it ;) so we drove 60 miles on the spare at 55mph. to Twin Falls.  Since, we knew we were going to need new tires by winter, we bought a new set of 4 tires.  Here we are at Costco chillin' while the tires are installed!

As we were already going to be home much later than planned we decided to do dinner, and the sites while in Twin Falls.  That way the kids would crash and we could have a nice quiet drive home.  We were lucky enough to catch some base jumpers, jumping off the bridge into Twin Falls.
 (if you look closely in the middle of the picture you can see a pink, yellow, and purple parachute)

We had such a wonderful time at the Ranch.  It was beyond all our expectations.  It was heaven to wake up each morning and have so many options of what we wanted to do without going anywhere or spending a lot of money to be entertained.  The outdoors were all the entertainment we needed for the best vacation ever!! Thank you Moss Family & Remi and Mindy for the invite!