San Juan Island

It's been about two and a half years but we finally managed to get all the cousins (on Daddy's side) on a camping trip again!  We headed to San Juan Island, it's Uncle Pat's favorite place to camp so we were excited to check it out.  Since they've been there so many times Uncle Pat worked up a whole list of things to see and do. 

The kids had a great time on the ferry, both ways.  Unfortunately we didn't see any whales or dolphins.

There first evening we headed to an old mausoleum.  They took us at sunset which the kids thought was a little spooky. 

It's a big structure the owner of the lime kiln had made. You can't see it in the pictures since it was so dark out.  We had a good time taking pictures with the flashlights.  You can barely see the column of the structure behind them.  They are all sitting at the table.  Each chair represented a family member (so they could be together again) and their ashes are in the chairs! 

This is one of the old lime kilns.

The highlight for us, since we're obsessed with all things water, was the beach.

Unfortunately we had to leave pretty quickly to get to the next scheduled activity.

Uncle Pat worked it out so that they could take down the flag at the American Camp.  They didn't have the kids fold it but it was still fun to watch. 

This is one of the cabins at the American camp.  When the island was first inhabited both America and Britain claimed it.  Each side claimed ownership even after the 49th parallel was established as the boundary.  They ended up having a German chancellor arbitrate and he decided that it should be part of the United States.  At one point while both countries were inhabiting it there was a disagreement about where a pig could graze.  The American man killed the British man's pig and almost started a war!

Another event was sunset at the lighthouse.  The kids all got to go up in the lighthouse, which is still in use. 

We got back to the beach! 

At this point you'd think I'd know better than to go to the beach without swimsuits.  I thought they'd barely go in since it's the Pacific Ocean and is never warm.  Carson was soaked within the first five minutes.  Then the girls both got drenched because they were competing for who could stay in longest.  Kayda eventually bowed out because "Ella's not coming out until after I do and we'll get hypothermia".

This particular beach had a ton of driftwood that the kids had a blast playing with. The boy cousins kept pushing pieces of of driftwood back in to the water.  We were watching a trail of driftwood be washed out to see.  Of course, it all headed straight for the boat crabbing off shore.

The girls were more interested in building things.  They were moving this particular log to be used as part of a teeter-totter.

We stopped by an air show.  Kayda and I headed back to the car early because it was windy and COLD. The boys made it to the hanger and got to get in the plane.

The kids all got to go out on the water.  Both the boys are pretty hung up on Chase.  In this particular scenario Chase and Dillon went out together and Kayda and Carson went out together.

Kayda and Carson started fighting so they got pulled in early.  While Kayda headed back out with Ella (Carson had caused the fight) Carson and I played giant jenga while he waited for the girls to be done.

They didn't use the full hour so Carson and I went out.  He wasn't interested for very long.  We headed back within a few minutes.

The last day we snagged a picture!  The only grandchild missing is Nathan, because he's on his mission.  At one point Jarrett, Dillon, Carson, Brett and Chase all had man buns.  It all started with Eliza's pig tails, I'm not sure how that developed into man buns but it did.  Dillon was too embarrassed to wear his for the picture. 

By the time our reservations ended we were definitely ready to go home.  It got cold and rainy, there was no way to really warm up because the day before we arrived a burn ban was put in place.  I told Daddy not to pack firewood, but he did (every time we pack firewood for a trip we end up with a burn ban). 

Hopefully, we'll get to do it again sooner than 2.5 years!

Out on the Lake

Spur of the moment Daddy decided we should take out Grandma and Papa H's boat.  It was the perfect temperature and we had a great time.  It was amazing, at first the kids were super reluctant to do anything and just wanted to drive around the lake.  

Dillon was the first one to decide to go on.  I'm not one for just driving around in a boat so I was relieved when they started playing!

Kayda got some good waves!  They bounced her all over!

She stuck the landing!!!  I have it on video but apparently the file is too large to post. 

Carson only really wanted to go if he could be with people. 

The three of them rode together for a long time.  We went around the lake multiple times before they decided it was time to move on. 

Daddy wanted to show the kids knee boarding. He did some tricks for them and the kids loved it. 

Kayda and Dillon both wanted to try.  Kayda successfully got up on the board but her arms got tired pretty quickly so she stopped after a short time.  Dillon tried but only gave it one shot before he decided he couldn't do it. 

After Carson and Daddy rode around Carson finally worked up the courage to go by himself.  But when we started he "submarined"  (the front of the tube was being pulled underwater) and then he was absolutely not going to try again!  He was scared and having trouble getting back on the tube afterwards, Kayda dove in the water to go help him.  It was really sweet!

Carson's Seven!

Carson's birthday!  I can't believe I've had seven years with this kid!  He is so high energy and is so goofy!  He loves to make people laugh!  He is also very opinionated so he and Kayda butt heads often since they both have different ideas of what should be happening. 

 Daddy had planned to take the day off thinking we were still traveling but kept it once he realized otherwise.  So Carson truly got to celebrate all day.

 He opened a gift, built it, played and then opened his next gift.  It was a day of legos.  He got SO many legos since it's all he wanted (with the exception of the rc car Grandma and Papa G gave him).  He worked on legos until we went to dinner with Grandma and Papa H.

 Where he happily got more legos.

We were doing legos until 10pm ...  He still had the set from Grandma and Papa H to do!  (There was a crazy sale so we were able to get him two big sets instead of one that's how we ended up with legos all day).  He is really good at legos already.  He only wanted help in the form of finding the pieces he needed out of the pile. He loved his birthday and was quite adamant we do NOT do anything work related all day, no shopping trips, no working around the house, no unloading the trailer... nothing.  Since we were all exhausted from just getting back I was 100% on board with that!

Lake Chelan with our "Summer friends"

We got home from South Dakota, had a week and a half, then it was time for our annual trip with Jen, Rene, Ryan and Ethan.  We arranged for Ella to come so Kayda had a buddy there.  We took off and not even an hour from home there were huge amounts of steam rolling out from under the hood and the exhaust.  We found a place to pull over and discovered this beautiful "t" was leaking coolant.  Luckily we weren't too far away so Aunt Sarah was able to bring us some coolant. Some friendly rv-ers had some electrical tape we wrapped it with (duct tape was melting off) and we pushed onward to the next town with an auto parts store.  Apparently this is just our summer to have cars break down, this is the third thing we've had to fix.  Right after getting back from South Dakota a spark plug went out on my car.  So I fixed that, checked the levels of everything and then this happens on the road.  

 We spent a couple of hours in North Bend poking around at it and tried several different things to stop the leak.  We finally found some rubber epoxy that we wrapped with this crazy tape that shrinks on when you get it wet, then hardens.  We still had a leak but it was negligible so we just pulled over frequently to add coolant as needed.  Once we got to Chelan we checked with their auto parts store, and of course they couldn't get the part.  So we had to drive home the same way.

 It took us much longer to get there than it should have but we got there! Kayda was so happy to have Ella along.

 First day we headed to slidewaters!  The kids had a blast, and so did the parents.  The boys were expected to stick together, the girls were expected to stick together, and the parents ran around and did as we pleased (meeting up with the kids fairly regularly).  Keep in mind, this is a small water park and they have a good set up with lifeguards and no deep pools or wave pools.  Otherwise I wouldn't have been as willing to have them go unchaperoned.

 We ate WAY too much ice cream on this trip!!!

 There is a great skate park there, right next to the campground, the boys had a great time there!  They worked their way up to where they did most of the ramps. 

One evening Ella and Kayda decided they were going to do it too.  Only they chose one of the steepest ramps for their FIRST TIME!  I didn't process that it was their first time.  Ella, being competitive, went first.  At the bottom the scooter shot off to the side and tripped her up.  She ended up with a cracked tooth.  She spent the evening face-timing with her mom.  We called dentists and nothing was available.  Her parents finally got a hold of their dentist and were told it wasn't a big hurry.  So Ella opted to stay.  She wouldn't give me a full smile the rest of the trip but she made it!

 I offered the adventure of night swimming to the kids.  They were all for it.  There was no one else there and the lake was perfectly still!  Cold, but beautiful.  So we all swam out to the floating dock together and I floated around keeping an eye on everyone.  I didn't let them swim for long since I needed them to be able to swim back without being too cold.

 It was a successful venture.  Kayda wasn't fond of not being able to see.  The following days both Carson and Ella started jumping off the floating dock, which neither were willing to do before then.

 Since we did it last year, and the kids loved it, we did the aqua jump again.  Kayda asked multiple times, every day, until we did it.  Once we got Ella to go down once she had no issue repeating it.

 The crew on the trampoline, minus me of course since I was snapping pictures.

 Ella was really nervous of the lake when we first got there.  Next thing we know she was jumping off the float!  It was fun to watch her open up over the course of the trip.  Kayda did great staying with Ella and not pushing her too far out of her comfort zone.

"My two dads"

 The last evening the girls and I went to walk along the river.  Kayda convinced Ella to get pokemon go.  So we were puttering along playing the game.  There have been wildfires nearby.  You can see the smoke in the pictures.  It came and went in thickness based on which direction the wind was going.  Fortunately after the first night it wasn't too bad.

 As soon as they saw us the ducks started following us.  There were thirteen by the time the trail went away from the water's edge. Kayda kept taunting them, acting like she had something and then laughing as she walked away.

It was another great trip, despite all the frustration with the car.  Definitely looking forward to next year!