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!