Wenatchee: Mosquitoes, Wind, and Fun

I made reservations in January for our July camping trip at Lake Wenatchee.  In January it was pretty much impossible to know that come July we would be under a burn ban at the state parks. Our recent heat wave did nothing to help drought conditions and so we found ourselves at the park without the ability to have a campfire. 

Ben was questioning our parenting decisions at this point.

Even without a campfire we managed to have fun though. We'd been told that our campground had a trail that led to beach only accessible from the campground. Translation: never crowded. And it was supposed to be my kind of beach: rocks and logs to climb over and around.  We had extra time on our first night (ok, mostly because we didn't have to make a fire) so we took a walk down to do a preliminary inspection.

However, we didn't find it the first night. We found the river and lots and LOTS of MOSQUITOES.  

That is a thing. We heard and read that it was going to be a thing. And that was all true. We actually bought a device at REI in the hopes that it would help, which it did! But once you got about 20 feet away it, they attacked. We learned our lesson the first night and spent the rest of the time either near the Thermacell or covered in picaridin. 

Thursday morning we explored the campground and found a playground.  I should probably mention now that we only had two minions with us on this trip. Josh and Michael are attending summer school (nothing academic! but they had to be out of the house for some of the summer) so couldn't come. This definitely changed the dynamic some. Packing the car was definitely easier. In any case, we probably spent more time at the playground than we would have seeing as how it was interesting to 50% rather than 25% of the kids.

Covered in picaridin, we ventured out to find the beach. We were successful and not disappointed.

As we stood on the beach, however, we could see across the water to another beach. We just had to go check that one out as well. 

The other campground has a beach that can be a day use beach. It looked sandy. But, it was not. More gravelly. So the big bag of sand toys wasn't all that useful, but Jason and the boys had a great time in the water with the innertubes. 

We were also warned that it was windy at Wenatchee. And that was also true. After a while, the boys felt quite chilly from being wet in the wind, so we went to the camp store to get some ice cream. That seemed to help...their spirits, if nothing else.

Ben and I visited the first beach again in the evening to see if we still liked it better. We did.

Isaac is perfecting the monster Oreo and works on this on camping trips - usually the only time he gets to eat a lot of Oreos at once.

Two beaches, one hike, four Oreos - this kid was OUT

Funny story. It turns out that if you spray yourself with bug spray, sunblock, and then again with bug spray your skin will get very sticky. We don't normally shower when we camp (sorry TMI) but Jason and I were just too sticky at the end of this day to get in our sleeping bags. We scavenged around the van and my bags to find enough quarters to work the camp showers. Having not planned to shower, we ended up using dish soap since we had no soap with us. We had 4 1/2 minutes for both us to shower and when we got back to the tent, Isaac was out cold. 

Friday we drove to Leavenworth. We had a rafting trip scheduled for the afternoon, so we wandered around Waterfront Park, the Wenatchee River, and downtown in the morning. 

Leavenworth is lovely and I would definitely enjoy a return visit. But now it was time to head out on the water. The river trip was gorgeous. Water levels on the Icicle River were low (one of the boats got stuck), but the scenery was amazing.

This was the family rafting trip, so the water was calm enough that we could hop out of the raft at several points of the trip. I was shocked when Isaac piped up and begged to get and in the water. He told us it was cold, but got out several times during the trip.

Our awesome guide Ruth was equal parts knowledgeable, encouraging, and fun. 

I don't think the boys fully bought into the idea that this would be fun when I told them about it, but they had a blast and now Ben really wants to know when we can go back so he can try white water rafting.

No camping trip is complete without Ben foraging. This campsite had huckleberries, but sadly they weren't fully ripened. That didn't stop Ben from trying a few, of course.

Saturday morning came bright and sunny which meant that we could pack up our tent and gear without having to dry everything off. It's been OVER A YEAR. Last year everything was sopping wet every time. Packing up dry camping gear is a breeze by comparison. With the car loaded, we hiked down to the beach again.

Then we had to bid a fond farewell to Lake Wenatchee. I'm pretty sure we'll be back.

Memorial Day Morning

Breakfast on the lake? Early morning wake up call for the teens? What better way to spend a holiday? Well, don't ask the older boys, because I can imagine they have a different answer than their parents do.

 

Black Friday

The phrase you are looking for is "cacophony of colors".  I told the boys to get dressed for a short hike with Nana this morning (OptOutside) and this is what Isaac came up with.

A fun age!

Ben, on the other hand, went the other way - I call this Seattle camouflage. It's almost like the people here don't want you to be able to see them in the dark, rainy season.  

Michael has found a new use for his hoodie - tie it tight and he figures I won't/can't take pictures of him.

I did sneak in a couple of pics of Nana (heh, heh). Isaac found a painted rock that had glitter on it and he wanted to show it to her - the perfect distraction for me to swoop in and take a pic.

I was having a difficult time getting Michael to show his face so I yelled "Look! There's PewDiePie!" and that did the trick.

We have a budding dabber.

After forcing them against their will to expose their bodies to fresh air and sunlight, I did return my children to their comfortable rooms with their relaxing electronic devices. After they played video games for a little bit (to take off the edge), we hauled the Christmas gear into the house so I could torture them with more family time.

The teen years are such a special time.

Getting the Christmas decorations out is, for Isaac at least, about as much fun as Christmas morning. We have to keep him from unpacking all the bins at once and creating chaos in all of his excitement.  It is pretty fun as all the Christmas-themed toys, books, and movies are packed in with the decorations.

But this hard work has to be done by somebody, so we all pushed on.

Despite the general lack of interest the older boys showed in participating in the setting up the tree etc, they did all fight over who would get to put the top on the tree. I came up with what I thought was a pretty sneaky plan - I sent them all to the den and told them we would call them down one by one to let them know who would get to put it on. So we called them down one at a time and told each of them they could put the top on but not to brag to their brothers. Then we'd take it off and do the same routine with the next child.

It worked pretty well until Isaac spilled the beans that he had put it on. Honestly, I didn't think it would take very long for them to figure it out, but it was entertaining for Jason and I while it lasted.

Let the Christmas season begin!

Sherri Visit

We had a visit this last week from Jason's sister, Sherri. She is in the States for a time until she can head back to Russia and came to spend some time with us while she is relatively close by. There weren't a lot of fun adventures to be had at the start of the rainy season while the kids go to school at home during the covid19 pandemic, but we played games and hiked in the rain and introduced her to Mario Kart 8. 

Isaac and Sherri became buds pretty quickly. He enjoyed sharing his school work with her having her read to him. His schedule allowed us to go on little walks around the neighborhood and even go a very, very, VERY wet hike to McClane Creek to check out the salmon.

After a very rainy week, we got a break in the weather so the boys and I took Sherri to the Nisqually Wildlife Refuge as she told us she enjoys watching birds.  It was a bit cold for a lot of the wildlife and even for the wild life we brought with us. To pass some of the time, Josh and Michael tried to figure out who was taller (it's getting pretty close these days).

Either way, they are at least taller than Aunt Sherri,

Still taller than these two though.

Group pic!