McCall Updates and Parties

**Long post warning**

Oct 17-18

Jonathan and I headed up on Saturday with a big load of stuff. We were packed down with lots of wood, tools, and of course...a pool table. We had a nice drive up and got right to work. I started staining the front and back rails while Jonathan got to work on the stairs. We got a lot accomplished, but it got dark, so we met up with Cam and Joan for dinner and to catch the rest of the BSU game. This was the beginning of their week long stay in McCall. On Sunday Cam and Jonathan worked on the stairs while Joan and I finished up the staining. Before we left for the week, Cam and Jonathan put together the pool table while I read the instructions. It went up amazingly quick and it looks great! Hopefully, next time we will have more time to play!

Oct 22-24-

Jonathan and Chief came up on Tuesday so that he could finish the stairs. Joan and Cam came over to help and they did a great job. It is going to be so much easier to let the boys out now! It is kind of a disaster to get them outside in the morning because we have to go all the way downstairs and I can't make it fast enough without Barney sneezing.

I got up Friday evening with Barney and Tucker. Just in time to celebrate Jonathan's 32nd birthday. Joan, Cam, Emily, Monica, Brylee, and Zayden came over with soup and cake. Jonathan had two great helpers to blow out the candles and luckily Brylee remembered the party hats!!

Later that evening, Kelly and Nick joined us along with some of Jonathan's McCall friends. Us girls sat around talking while the boys tried out the new pool table!

Saturday morning, Emily, Kelly, Nick, Jonathan, and I had a late breakfast and then played "Ticket to Ride." (although, Emily's ride got there just in time and she got out of the game). We had fun and I ended up ahead at the end. Nick lost....and not by just a couple. In Jonathan's words "that is the most I've ever seen anybody lose by!" But we still had fun and everyone was a good sport. After that Nick and Kelly headed back to Boise and Jonathan got to work on the stair gates. I cleaned up the dishes and did laundry and made some food for later that night.

Around 4:00 we cleaned up and headed to Joan and Cam's place for a re-acquainting party. The place looked so great with all the furniture and we had lots of great appetizers and soup. It was fun to get to meet some of Jonathan's elementary teachers and get to know some McCall people. However, I did spend a part of the night in "Brylee's House." (which was a cardboard box). Eventually, Emily came in to check on us and she got suckered into playing too. We were fine until Jonathan came and encouraged Brylee to put all of her thing in the house with us! Believe it or not even Brylee was in their, too!! It was a full house, but we all had fun!

Sunday morning we woke up to rain! It ended up raining the entire day. Luckily most of Jonathan's gate work was on the covered porch, but it was still wet. The gates turned out amazing and I'm so excited to come up again and get to really use them! Another awesome job, Jonathan!!

I had driven myself up so we had two cars and plenty of room. Lucky for the dogs because they got to ride home in a warm dry car, instead of the back of the truck. I drew the short straw and had to take Chief (he is a whiner and nothing you do makes him stop...not treats, or petting, nothing!!) Barney also came with me and Tucker rode with Jonathan (which sounded like a pretty cush ride since he got Cheetos and pretzels!) But Barney and I managed just fine with Chief. He whined non-stop until Cascade and then finally fell asleep before we reached the canyon. It rained the entire way home, but it was a quite drive!

And, when we were packing the cars to leave, we saw 5 deer cross the rode to the empty lot by our house. It is fun to see wildlife up there!