Council, Idaho

Sam's grandparents live in a small mountain town in Idaho near McCall called Council. It's one of Sam's favorite places. Most of his family vacations were to Council and it holds such a special place in his heart. We've been up three times this summer and it sure is beautiful. His grandparents have a small farm they run with cattle, an orchard, large garden and several acres.

On August 17, 2016 Sam's grandpa passed away somewhat unexpectedly. He had a stroke about a week before and was in the hospital. He was all set to come home that morning and they had quit monitoring. A nurse went in to check on him and he had passed away. Sam was devastated because he is close with his grandparents. Sam's grandparents have 26 grandchildren and 18 great-grandchildren. So when we all got together for the funeral it was a large crowd. Although funerals are always hard, it was so fun to get to see all the babies and spend time together as a family.

Sam's parents, siblings, nieces/nephews and a couple of girlfriends.

Almost all of great-grandma's kids, grand kids and great-grand kids.

All these babies were born within 13 months of each other! These are great-grand kids.

Sam and I went up over Labor Day to help his grandma around her house and property. She's been stressed about all the work that needs to get done that grandpa just usually does. There has been several family members going to help out when they can. We picked pears in the orchard, cleaned the house, Sam built a lattice for the deck, Abe came and built a platform for the trash cans, weeded the flower beds, picked produce in the garden, mowed and picked up the yard, and much more. We had a nice visit with grandma and hopefully we were able to ease some of her stress. It's so hard to lose someone and it's been heartbreaking to watch.

Grandpa's old truck. Sam loves driving it.

She loved picking pears.