Summer Catchup Time

Our friends the Warners invited us and the Richters to go for a ride on their new boat. We had a lot of fun. The kids had a chance to go tubing and I went wake boarding briefly. The weather wasn't the warmest but it was a good time to be out on the water. The picture above has Nick Warner and myself on a train tressel near Rock Island just south of Wenatchee. We jumped off into the frigid water. It also shows Travis Richter climbing the rope.

Here are Dax and Dayna on a tube. Dax would tell us to go slower and Dayna wanted us to go faster. The Columbia River never really gets warm but it was extra cold on that day.

After climbing into the boat after my first jump Dax asked if he could jump off the bridge. I was a little surprised by the request, so we pulled up to the bridge and climbed up the rope again and jumped in. Dayna joined in for the fun. I think everybody was a little surprised that the two kids were up for the challenge.

When Nick and I get together we always seem to get into a little bit of trouble. We had a moment on the boating trip where one of the kids was playing with the tow rope and it got caught in the prop. Nick was going under the boat to untangle it from the prop, but it was so cold he was having a very tough time getting a deep breath to be able to go under and make some progress. You need to remember that we were on a river with current and flow. We were drifting down the river towards some very large rock islands. I thought, oh this will be the next chapter in the sagas of our adventure. We were sure to run into a big rock while Nick is under untangling the prop, and if we missed the rocks there was a large dam lingering downstream (it was quite a way downstream so we weren't too scared about that, but with Nick and I who knows) Anyway, I jumped in and Nick and I swam on one side of the boat to try and direct it, we couldn't start it up because it would only tangle the prop even more. We missed the rocks ( I think that the current would have swept us past the rocks anyway, but again, who knows) Nick saved the day and untangled the prop and we continued to have a lot of fun.

Webley Camping

We went up to visit some of our friends the Webleys during their family camping trip. They told us that they were four miles past where the pavement ends up the icicle river. I am fairly familiar with the road and thought that they must have meant four miles past where the county road ends going up the icicle. I was wrong, they were way up there. It was a cool campsite, unfortunately there are a lot of vicious mosquitos there this time of year but the scenery was great. 

After work water fight

I came home from work one day to read this sign of warning made by the kids. They had been preparing for a water fight and I was the target. They had stationed themselves around the back yard and I was given a few balloons to protect myself.

I held my own as you can see from the pictures. The kids were good sports and had pretty good aim.

I soon ran out of balloons and opted for the hose, the kids were pretty soaked.

Lani got a couple good shots on me, she didn't want to get quite as wet as her two older siblings.

Cousins Campout 2014

This is our rig all packed up for the cousins campout at Lake Wenatchee.

The first day at the lake it was perfect, no wind and the water was calm and glassy, but still very cold!

I caught Avery sticking her head in the water in the little pool that we had made. She was drinking the water. I told her Avery no! She said, "but mommy told me to." A little earlier in the day the kids had waded into the lake and we wanted them to dip their heads in the water, Avery saw this as the kids sticking their heads into the water for a drink.

The kids had a lot of fun playing soccer in camp. In the background you see the giant tent that Dave and April stayed in. It is Jer and Mirian's old retired tent.

Here's Lani using our tent to get changed. The kids loved the idea of sleeping in a tent, ours is pretty spacious too.

Everyone prepared a meal to share. We had some great food and s'mores by the campfire.

Some of the stories shared by the campfire were not limited to but included: Grandpa's smoky the bear story at yellowstone where he and his two younger brothers were saved from a blackbear by their family dog. Grandpa's story of chasing the boys through the house and playfully punching through the bathroom door. Uncle Dave's stories of getting scraped off his horse Taush's back under the apple tree, and how he was signing the theme song to transformers as he urged his horse to gallup at full speed when Taush started bucking and bucked him right off, he hopped up quickly yelling, "my horse, my horse!" With much concern that his trusty stead would run out of the field and run away from the property. Auntie April shared how one day her dad had thrown away her favorite toy and she went into the garbage can outside to look for it, in so doing she fell into the can because she was still pretty small and there she found a very angry opossum. I shared stories about a certain scoutmaster throwing my favorite Pittsburg Pirate fitted little league hat into the fire and a certain friend vomiting on my backpack   on our way up to start a fifty mile hike on Mt. Rainier. And how I was sleep walking on that first night after arriving at Devil's peak. There were many more shared and the kids joined in as well. We were all holding the real story in, one of a large hairy creature, but I think we valued what little sleep we hoped to get more than the looks of fear that we would enjoy in telling the story.

I was surprised by how much the kids played in the water. It was very cold and the weather was not hot. They made the most of it.

The lake has lots of logs and wood that has washed up on shore, the kids loved posing on this piece of lumber.

In the days leading up to the campout we sent out emails about possible activities. One was a short hike that I had heard about to Hidden Lake. It seemed relatively easy so that all the kids would be able to go. Mirian responded that she just likes to hang out when she goes camping. That was unacceptable in my mind so I arranged for this little hike. Well, Mirian and her boys were eaten alive by mosquitos, maybe not the best experience, it was a pretty lake but I think that the crew was too itchy to enjoy it. Below is a pic of another activity we did, we went to 59er diner. A small restaurant off of Hwy 2 (Stevens Pass), they are known for their milkshakes. The kids had a great time being tossed in the air by uncle Kyle.

Lani and Lincoln had a lot of fun playing pirates and whatever Lani was, probably a princess.

Jer and Grandpa had put together a movie night for the kids, I loaned my paddle board to the cause, they kids had a good time eating s'mores and watching the lego movie, all except Diego who was too cool for the movie, and they enjoyed it until uncle Jer's generator ran out of gas.

Here is a pretty good family pic, minus grandpa. Mirian thought it would be funny to grab Janelle's hand, don't ask me why.

Grandpa with the kiddos, they weren't too thrilled about it, especially Avery and Hank. They had a great time with their cousins, aunts, uncles and grandpa. They were pretty wiped out by the time this pic was taken.

The sound of music. Dayna has been working very hard on this play this summer. I am not going to narrate any of the pics, you'll have to come and see her to really understand whats going on. She has really enjoyed the theater and has done a great job. She is a very talented little girl and go do anything that she puts her mind to.