i've been heading to mccall for the mccall winter carnival for yeeeearrrrrs...since i was a little girl. there have always been ice sculptures, a parade...and a ton of people.

this year some dear friends said they wouldn't be using their cabin so we jumped on that opportunity, packed up our giant rig and headed up the mountain. but truly...why on earth should a family of five need not only an SUV, but then also a thule on top to put more crap in? in our defense we were bringing skis for four people and all our ski clothing...that took up a bit of space. anyway...

the plan was to look at sculptures, go skiing, go tubing, hit the hot springs, sit in front of the fireplace, and drink adult beverages...we almost managed to do it all.

firstly - let me introduce our partners in crime for the weekend - this summer at school orientation there was a gal there holding a one year old baby girl and she looked super nice. i was ridiculously pregnant with elli and we immediately struck up a conversation and found out her older daughter is right in between sawyer and kaye. long story longer - our families have hung out several times and the girls get along wonderfully (even though kaye tends to be the wildest and is probably a bad influence...sorry kath!).

in total we have five little girls, two moms, a farmer and an air force man. (i guess that's what we'll call him...air force man...or steven?)

we hit the tubing hill and the boys took the first shift with the littlest girls while the big girls did some super extreme tubing. i was pretty positive sawyer was going to cry and whine the entire time, but as it turns out, that gal has a need for speed. she had her sweetest little underbite smile on and couldn't get enough.

please note - either i'm getting super soft in my old age or the tubing was a little extreme, because on one of the runs i'm pretty sure we caught air. also read - badass.

on one of the runs kath and i decided it was a good idea to let the big girls (scarlet and kaye) go down by themselves...because a four and a five year old should be left alone at the top of a tubing hill. but, the adrenaline was pumping and we threw caution to the wind. we're the cool moms. the girls made a successful run down and had the very best time screaming the entire way.

after a bit of tubing and appropriate amount of picture taking we headed into town to see the sculptures and eat some lunch. now...i have to say - it's ben so so warm here the sculptures weren't up to their usual glory. it was a shame...but fun nonetheless.
during our walk we popped into stacey cakes which has delicious sweets. it was at this point we realized two dads walking around with five little girls gets a lot of looks from passers by. like...a lot. apparently mr. air force and my farmer are something to be looked at and so - a hashtag was born...
kath and i decided these good looking dads should get some notoriety on instagram! i started the hashtag #hotIGdads and the account hotIGdads. basically...all you have to do i tag your images of your fella being a wonderful dad and / or husband with the hashtag and follow hotIGdads and your picture will be featured on the account! and while you're following hotIGdads, go ahead and follow me too over at karlibellmeier! oooookay, back to the weekend...

i can't get over how cute these two gals are together. 
we even managed a quasi-family picture and sawyer is slightly happy. kaye wishes she didn't have to be around her mom and dad. (i thought that phase hit around age 13?)
but she'll take any opportunity to get close to baby elli.
truly - the weekend was a blur. the girls had the very very best time and on the way back to boise we stopped in at a hot springs...a hot springs that is typically not busy. but on this particular weekend it was insane. please note - winter carnival weekend is not the weekend to go to gold fork hot springs.

the girls had a great time splashing around in the hot pools...but to me it felt a little like...soaking in a bathtub with a buuuunch of people. so fun, right?!

but look at these cuties...
even though we didn't make it to the ski hill we hope to get up to mccall a few more times and get kaye and sawyer signed up for some ski lessons...we'll see if the snow lasts!

happiest weekend!