McCall with Char Char

A few months ago (am I really that far behind on the blog?) my mom came to visit us.  It was such a fun visit, and we were all so excited to have her come stay.  In fact, Jim was so excited that he decided to plan a little mini-vacation for when Grammy Char Char was in town.  We took Tralee out of school for a day, and drove up to McCall.  

Jim's biggest catch of the day

Hunter with no shoes. . . we might have forgot them and had to buy a new pair in McCall.

Stinks

Jim in his element

Exploring on the rocks

On the drive up we stopped and explored a little spot along the river.  Jim caught a trout.  My mom wanted to have it for dinner, so luckily Jim brought his fillet knife, and we cleaned the fish right there on the river bed.  Once done with that, we drove the rest of the way to McCall, and bought a cooler and some ice for our fish, Hunter some shoes (yeah, we forgot them), and then went to our hotel.

We stayed in a nice hotel with a pool, hot tub, and sauna.  That night we all went swimming, spent some time in the sauna, ate yummy snack food, and then called it a day and went to sleep.

The next morning we got ready, and went out to do some more exploring.  We drove Char Char all around the lake, stopped at some spots to go fishing, and then drove up to our new favorite hiking spot.  We hiked to Blue Lake, spent some time exploring around there, fished a bit more, and then started our drive home.  On the drive, we stopped by the river again, and Jim caught another trout for dinner.

Grammy Char Char and her grand-munchkins

Just my mom and me in McCall

After the first part of our hike to Blue Lake

Hunter trying to catch something

After a while, Hunter started to feel sick, so he snoozed on my sweatshirt, and I kept watch while the rest of the group hiked around the lake a bit.  I also fed a curious chipmunk some nuts while sitting here.  Silly chipmunk!

You can't really see him, but here's Jim fishing around the lake.

We have a  favorite pie/fruit stand, that we always stop at when we drive home from McCall.  We bought some pumpkins, squash, apples, a pie, and other yummy organic delectables to go with our trout dinner.  

Once home, Jim prepared and cooked the trout, and Mom and I made some other sides.  Dinner was delish, and the memories that go with it were equally wonderful.

Jim preparing the HUGE fish he caught 

Jim COOKING!  This doesn't happen all that often, so I made sure to document this miraculous event with a picture!  P.S. his fish were delish!

The next night (or maybe it was the night after) we carved the pumpkins we bought at the fruit stand.  Then The Great Pumpkin Chaser turned out all the lights, and chased the rest of us around with the pumpkins.  Every year that guy comes and chases us with our jack-out-lanterns, and every year we have to run for our lives and hide around the house.  Exciting stuff.

The rest of my mom's visit was spent visiting, shopping, shopping, and visiting.  We had a great time, and we were all a little sad to see her go.

Hopefully she's be back soon!