Annual St. Maries, ID, family vacation

Almost every year my family joins our longtime friends, the Maxteds, in a journey to the St. Joe River in St. Maries, ID. We've been going there as long as I can remember and the place holds a very special spot in my heart. I have fond memories and sad memories of this spot. We try to be there every year to celebrate my sister, Sarah's, birthday and this year was no different. We stay at Wendy Maxted's brothers place that is several acres along the St. Joe River. Bud & Sonya have a house/shop on the upper part of the property and the lower part has docks, river beach, river access, boat tie ups, a gazebo to hang out in and a large grassy area to park our campers and pitch our tents. The weather was hot this year - 90's on average and so the river felt fantastic! We arrived on Thursday, July 30th, and got to spend the evening setting up our campsite, swimming in the river and relaxing after our 6 hour drive from Seattle. This year it was so much fun to have our friends, Tim & Lindsay, join us for the craziness. On Friday, the activities started. We did some swimming; Tim, Lindsay, Sarah & I did some inner tubing; Tim wakeboarded, as did Sarah and Lance (one of the Maxted's); and we spent so much time in the river I think I had permanent prune fingers. Friday evening my mom arrived from spending 2 weeks in Canada taking a massage speciality class and we celebrated Sarah's birthday (24!!). On Saturday we completed our annual trip of boating up the St. Joe River until it essentially "ends" or at least the water becomes so shallow we can't go any farther. It was freezing up there compared to the water down by our campsite! We braved the temperature though and floated down the river as a group with a few people following in the boat. The river was freezing, but so clear you could see the bottom - although not touch it. We ended our trek with lunch at a pullout spot and then some of us traded spots by going back in the cars versus the boat. Saturday evening we played games, read, sang to the strumming of Glen's guitar and were terrified by the biggest bug ever!! It looked like a giant cockroach, but I think it was just a big cicada. Very disgusting as us girls went running off screaming. Sunday we had to load up the Jeep and get ready to head back to Seattle. We did get to spend some time swimming and taking people out on the innertubes before we left though and that was a lot of fun. On our way home we stopped and met with our friends, Aaron & Connie, for a burger in Spokane. Tim & Nick shared the driving home and we got back to Seattle at about 9 p.m. Sunday evening.

We're home - sunburned, exhausted, sore and filled with another year of memories. Each time we go to St. Maries, it makes me wish more and more that I had the ability to just live on a river somewhere and bask in the beauty without the worries of work and life. Maybe someday...