Family's business is serving community

For 82 years and four generations, there's been a member of the Capaul family in fire service. George Capaul started with Kootenai Rural Fire in 1932 and his son Ray joined the Coeur d'Alene Fire Department in 1956.

Ray's sons followed the family calling ... Ken is a battalion chief with Spokane Valley Fire and Bob is retired from Kootenai County Fire and Rescue. Brother-in-law Scott Guild (Diana Capaul) is retired from the Burien, Wash., fire department. The fourth generation includes Jake Capaul, retired from Timberlake Fire, and Lt. Justin Capaul and Firefighter Mitchell Copstead, who serve with Kootenai County Fire. Just this month Alex Capaul joined Kootenai County Fire and I'm sure three cousins under the same firehouse family "roof" must be a first for KCFR.

Sleep well, the Capauls are on the job for the community.

When Heather and Tracy VanCleave married nearly a decade ago, their blended family included Heather's daughter Taylor Zuk, now 22, Tracy's son Brandon VanCleave, now 21, and daughter Shayla VanCleave, currently a 17-year-old high school senior.

Life is about to get even more interesting for the VanCleaves, with a brand new baby girl due 22 years since Heather's last pregnancy. Friends and family are hosting a co-ed baby shower for the couple this weekend since there are no baby hand-me-downs to hand down to the new baby.

The couple, both 43, are taking this unexpected bundle of joy in stride. Their new daughter is due on Christmas Day, the day after Heather's Christmas Eve birthday. It's a safe bet that this unexpected but happily awaited baby will have no shortage of spoiling ... or babysitters!

Our Sunday afternoon drive to enjoy the beautiful fall colors took us north to Twin Lakes and Spirit Lake. On Twin Lakes Road the scenery included some of the most unique and clever inflatable/animated/spooky figures of the season in the yard of the Shove family. Friends tell me that the Shoves do incredible decorating for every holiday.

We went off the beaten path in Spirit Lake and down a side street came across the most amazing and creative fence on a home between Vermont and Massachusetts on Fourth. It's a real fence that features storefronts, glass window panes, a jail with bars and a wooden "sidewalk." Knick-knacks and antiques are staged in each vignette.

During dinner at the historic (circa 1907) White Horse Saloon & Hotel on Maine Street we struck up a conversation with Dolli Gibson. At one point she referred to herself as the Tea Pot Lady, which prompted me to ask if she was the one responsible for Spirit Lake's charming water tower in the shape of a teapot that I've always enjoyed. One and the same. Seems Dolli's mother, Mrytle, who passed away in 1998, loved teapots. In her memory Dolli funded the water tower transformation in 2004.

I love small towns and the little joys of taking the road less traveled in our own backyard.

Things to do highlights: Thursday at 5:30 p.m., the "See Your City Bike Ride" meets at Coeur d'Alene City Hall. On Friday the Vikings travel to Post Falls, where they'll play the last football game of the regular season on Trojan Field - a matchup that's always worth the price of admission, kickoff 7 p.m.

Start Saturday with the semi-annual Cowboy Breakfast at the Old Pleasantview School on west Riverview. They serve homemade biscuits and gravy and scrambled eggs, with extra biscuits for enjoying homemade jams and honey butter, from 8-11 a.m. Saturday night plan to attend the Halloween Extravaganza at the Greyhound Park to benefit the Sophie's Sluggers Foundation from 5:30 p.m. to midnight. Love their promo, "ghosts and goblins don't scare me, I'm fighting childhood cancer!"

Happy birthday today to Sara Fetters, Kristin Childers, Thomas Henderson, Chastin Jaeger, Whitney Brown and Jazmine Brown. On Thursday Sholeh Patrick, Greg Helbling, LeRoy Pope, Debbie Bales, Natan Tull, Amy Hewel, Tim Snyder (60!), Christopher Adamson and my grandson Connor Huft will dance the birthday jig.

Come Friday Rocky Banks, Jeff Turk, Melissa Hjeltness, Adam Slobodow and David Ingalls celebrate the anniversary of their birth. Saturday birthdays belong to Mary Foeller, who's turning 85 years young and Airman First Class Kyley Greer celebrating his 21st birthday while home on leave from Spangdahlen AFB in Germany. They share the date with Kathryn Arrand, Jack Price and Damon Darakjy.

Sunday celebrants include Gail McGaughey (60!), Scott Peterson, Wanda Brust, Linda Jones and Brock Prince. And another trip around the sun will be marked on Monday by Barb Smalley, Cade Coffey, David Cole, Deirdre Eldredge, Deeann Zahn and Aidyn Dugger.

Tuesday is the birthday of Terri Gervais, Laura McNeil, Jenni Gibson, Jill Swoboda, Jonathan Mueller, Tracie Olin Smith, Kathleen Clancy, Heather Montee, Dale Fitch, Jamie Oliver and Ashley Gerzina.

Welcome to the newest member of the Main Street Birthday Club, Braxton Daniel Kurtz who arrived at Kootenai Health on Oct. 15. Congrats to his parents Chelsie and Zach and big sister Brooke.

Kerri Rankin Thoreson is a member of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and the former publisher of the Post Falls Tribune. She was voted Best Local Writer for 2013 by the readers of the North Idaho Business Journal. Main Street appears every Wednesday in The Press and Kerri can be contacted on Facebook or via email [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @kerrithoreson.