McCormick

Each year for the last 20+ years, my family has gone camping at McCormick Park on the Snake River at Hell's Canyon, starting the weekend after the 4th of July weekend. My brother Bill and his friends from Oregon started it and the rest of my brothers and sister and families have built on it. There have been years when we have had close to 60 people there all together. Two years ago, all of our kids and their families, except Jill's husband were there. This is the same park where Terry and I were camp hosts for two months last summer. This year, almost everyone pooped out on us. Only us, our daughter Jill and her family and some friends of theirs, and my sister Lorrie showed up on the usual date. I think my brother Bill will be there in August after his 40th !!! class reunion in Emmett. I think that maybe some of us will make a trip down while he is there. Bill forgot to tell us he changed the date! I am not sure he knows that he is the main draw for the get together. I hope someone tells him so that next year we will have more of our family and friends there again! I know that he reads our blog, so this is giving him due notice!

We still had a lot of fun, even with the few that came. Of course, it seems like there is usually a rattlesnake sighting! Jill's husband, Dan, did the honors of cutting it's head off. We found it slithering across the lawn down by the river.

Not all of the kids were brave enough to touch it. But, we can always count on Jill's son, Boe. He seems to never be afraid of things like that.

The fishing was great! Even 4-year-old Kamber could reel those crappie in one after another. We had a big fishfry one night and still took fish home. The pontoon boat is always a great hit on the Snake River. You just have to remember to "duck your head" as we go under the bridge going up to Brownlee Dam. We haven't lost anyone yet going under it, but there is always a first time. As the grandkids get older, they kind of test Grandpa's theory that there just may not be enough room to go under it unless everyone ducks their head!

One hot day we took the boat out and found a nice calm spot. Almost everyone jumped in and got cooled off. Dan and Jill took the plunge together.

Typical of Boe, he did a fancy sumersault into the water!

Kamber was a little more skeptical about getting in. She did eventually get talked into it, though.

They told me the water "wasn't too bad after you got into it." Don't ever believe anyone when they tell you that! It was VERY cold, but refreshing. We couldn't talk Terry into getting in. I think the climb back up into the boat worried him. Thank goodness he was still on the boat to pull the rest of us up!

This is a typical picture of my sister Lorrie and Terry and the main activity of the day, besides eating. We are looking forward to going back in August when Bill gets there, and hope to have a lot more there next year.