A Day at the Property with Family

One of my favorite things about having family in town is getting to share the places that have become special to us.

After graduation, the birthday celebrations, and the graduation party, we still had a little time together before everyone headed home. We decided to spend the day out at our property.

Greg’s parents had only seen it once before, and that visit was in the middle of winter when everything was covered in snow. It looked completely different this time around. The trees were green, the grass had filled in, and it was fun seeing it through fresh eyes.

Jaelee and Kieran drove out separately, and Jayse and Emma joined us a little later. Before heading up the mountain, we stopped at the grocery store and Subway to grab something for lunch to eat out there.

After lunch, Greg took his parents on a four-wheeler ride to explore more of the surrounding trails. He rode with Kieran while Steve and LaRee were on the other four-wheeler.

The rest of us decided we’d hop in the side-by-side and follow them for a little while. We knew we didn’t have much gas, so we weren’t planning to go very far anyway.

A couple of miles from the property, the side-by-side suddenly quit.

We checked the gas and could still see some in the tank, so we weren’t convinced that was the problem. Since we were stuck on the road, we all climbed out and manually wrestled it around until it was pointed backwards down the hill. Once we had it turned around, we gave it a push, jumped back in, and let gravity do most of the work as we coasted back towards the property.

Thankfully after we coasted to a stop a bit from our property, I was able to get it started again, and we made it almost halfway up our driveway before…it died again.

That’s when Jayse decided to check under the seat and see if he could figure out what was going on.

He lifted the seat and realized we were missing a spark plug.

Without missing a beat, he jumped on our mini bike, rode back down the road looking for it, and somehow actually found the spark plug lying in the middle of the road! He brought it back, put it back where it belonged, and before long the side-by-side was running again.

We still couldn’t venture too far because we were running low on gas, but this time we made it much farther down the trail. Just as we reached one of the trails, we met up with Greg and everyone else as they were coming back from their ride.

I had to laugh. Sometimes things don’t go exactly according to plan, but those little unexpected adventures usually end up being the stories everyone remembers.

Later that afternoon, we headed back home, but the day wasn’t over yet.

That evening, we had another special visit when Scott and his new wife, Jen, stopped by on their way home. They had been visiting Jen’s family in Wyoming and the Dakotas and happened to be passing through town.

We had dinner out on our back deck, enjoyed catching up with them, and soaked up a few more hours together before they continued on their way.

Looking back, it wasn’t a day filled with grand plans or scheduled activities. It was simply a day spent with family—sharing a place that means so much to us, enjoying lunch in the mountains, laughing through a minor mechanical mishap, and ending the evening around the dinner table.

Those are the moments I hope we’ll always remember. Not because everything went perfectly, but because we were together.

As I watched everyone explore the property, I couldn’t help but think about all the memories we’ve already made there—and all the ones that are still to come. Someday there will be a cabin tucked among those trees, but until then, these simple days are already making this little piece of Idaho feel like home.