We headed off for Lake Chelan this past Monday and stayed with my parents and Stacy and Tom and their condo. It was craziness, but we wouldn't have it any other way. The kids always love going down the center part of town which is on the water and jumping off the dock with the big kids. I did go out there and jumped with them, but the day we went was really choppy, so I made Jonah wear his life jacket. He was mortified. I let him take it off a couple times, but not always. It was a fun day,
Jonah being creative with his life jacket swimming with it off, but in front of him.
Rebecca went down with them on the dock first and had to show them where not to go. There is a wall that you can't climb up, so the kids had to learn where to go.
Noah took the plunge. He stood around for awhile and finally decided to just do it.
There are the three amigos down there on the dock together.
The plan was to spend the week at the condo, and then go off and stay at Daroga State Park for two days and camp. When we arrived, we started setting up camp, and found that one of our tent poles was broken. That mixed with the 30 m.p.h. gusts of wind, made it nearly impossible to keep the tent up. Right then, sprinklers also came on that shot right into our tent, so Jacob thought quickly and put a cup over the sprinkler while we evacuated the tent.
Really doesn't show the wind very well, but trust us, it was bad. We had to move the tent off the foundation, which had pulled out the stakes anyway from the shear force of the wind.
This was one of the small moments that the tent was up and kind of functioning before another big gust came up.
Jonah was even blowing up air mattresses nicely and doing a good job. Within 15 minutes, we had to deflate all the air mattresses when we were fleeing the camp site.
Jacob was doing a great job setting up part of the tent before we had to stop and take it down.
Noah is great with a hammer.
I thought ahead and brought enough hammers for each child so they could pound away.
All to say that we had to take the tent down after 15 minutes because it was broken and the wind launched it across the street. So, instead of camping, we drove back into Chelan that afternoon, got a motel, played on the beach, had pizza for dinner and let the kids play video games. It cut our trip short, but like we told the kids, "You just have to roll with it guys." Seems to be our motto recently.
hanging out on the beach at Wapato Point. We always had to go down early and put out our chairs so we had some shade under the trees. It was in the 100's, so shade was a must.
The one moment that I went out in the water, not to swim, but to relax, all the kids were out within minutes. You can never hide from them. It's like they have a homing beacon.
Noah and Nolan got creative with a log and used it to float around the swim area. We brought all these blow up toys and they play with a log.
This is the position Jacob was in all day long. He swan around the whole swimming area making friends and talking to everyone. Once we looked over and he was giving two kids rides to the dock.
My parents took all of us to breakfast at Blueberry Hill. It is a restaurant overlooking a blueberry orchard. It was beautiful that morning and we had a great breakfast.
Blueberry Hills after breakfast.
You know getting this picture took about 15 minutes because everyone wouldn't cooperate. It did turn out good though
This is a perfect example of taking your eyes off these two for a minute and they get into mischief. Nolan almost got stuck in a blueberry bin. They were finding marbles in the bottom.
Sophia going with the flow.
Two monkeys
The more mature crowd, or so they would like you to think.
Grandma trying to get some quiet time on the water, which never did happen. The splashing began.
We also had my dad's boat so we had two flotation devices and a knee board. We had a blast out there even though we were going 5 m.p.h. some times.
It got so hot out in the boat sometimes, we all jumped in the water in the middle of the lake for a cool off. It was great.
Here is Noah, who got up on the knee board, doing some of his tricks. Boy does he get cocky fast.
Rebecca trying to shade Jacob and herself with her hat.
Isabelle also made it up on the knee board which was awesome.
Jonah said, "I think I could live in Chelan, it's my kind of town." The things he comes up with. He would love to have a job some day where he can play in the water all summer and get paid.
Our compound on the beach. We all had so much fun and the weather was great. Despite the camping mishap, it was a great trip. Thanks mom and dad for the use of the condo.
