Road Trip Across Washington in Search of SUN! (July 2012)

I am going to warn you ahead of time - this is a whole lot of pictures. . . and this is just a fraction of them! Also I have not even downloaded any pictures from Mark's iPhone which has all the great wake boarding, skiing, knee boarding and tubing pictures on it! So round two will come soon!

On July 20th this year, we flew from Juneau to Seattle where we met my Mom and she drove us up to Lynden. We spent one day/night there before heading across the State of Washington to Lake Roosevelt. Andrew found the tractor in Papa's shed - he LOVES tractors!

And the motorcycle of course!!

Mom, Grandma Scholten, Shannon and Joie~

My Aunt Karen and Guela (pictured above) made us a delicious dinner and we also enjoyed Caitlin's berries with ice cream!

Caitlin did a little bit of raspberry picking!

Papa and Joie checking us out!

My Grandma Scholten drove herself out to my parents to see and visit with us too! So we took pictures of all the kids/grand kids while we were there :)

Mom, Grandma Scholten, Tasha, Brock and Bryce

Grandma and I~

And early Saturday morning we (Papa, Grandma, Brock, Mark, Andrew, Caitlin and I) were off on the open road! We stopped for lunch at a place called Rusty's Drive in in Cashmere for the kids to stretch their legs and burn some energy. . .  this is there crazy faces!

Of course Andrew wanted in on the fun! I mean look at that sun in the background - woot woot!!

Wide Open Spaces! So beings the wheat fields. . .  For some reason, there are no pictures of the mountains or passes.

I just had too. . . the shirt came off in the non-A/C truck and he was totally okay with it! Such a happy guy towing a trailer and driving many, many miles. I think it took us 8 hours to get to Lake Roosevelt.

It's amazing how far it goes - on and on and on. . .

The next 70 pictures will give you a what's up or who it is but they are out of order - sorry, there are so many! These were my favorites off of three cameras.  Above - Andrew found the beach and was a digger!

Mark and the kids swam out to the floating dock and jumped off! This was the day we arrived -  we were a little hot!

Swimming!

The beach here even had a play excavator - Andrew was watching Brock intently because Brock's legs were just long enough to operate it without Mom's help.

At the play ground!

The days after that we hit a more private beach - Andrew and Caitlin found the knee boards!

Brock playing on the beach.

Practicing! Mark has more pictures from action on the boat - those will be coming soon. Caitlin was the very first this year to be pulled behind the boat!! We are so proud of her!!

Playing back at the campground!

Beach babe!

We met up with a lot of my parents friends and my relatives here at Lake Roosevelt - there was a huge group of us! The kids had a blast playing together and making new friends~

Brock and Caitlin swimming!

Trucks on the beach!

Here is one of the few pictures I got - Mark cruising behind the boat on the wake board!

Caitlin was so proud of her daddy!

Mommy up on skis! I also got up on the wake board but will have to scan those pictures in :)

Mark knee boarding!

Water gun fights = a blast!

Andrew took a nap every day on the beach - we made him a little bed in the shade :)

Me and my honey!

Little fisherman!

My Aunt Marcia and cousin Jayleen's son Talon~

Later in the week my sisters and rest of the family arrived - this was all of us! Chelsea, Tasha, Trevor, Bryce, Shannon, Dave and Joie~ Chelsea, Brock and Caitlin playing with legos in the comfort of A/C!

Andrew found the trucks back at the campground~

Joie!!

Bryce getting ready for a knee boarding ride with Mom (Tasha) Auntie Chelsea~

Chelsea and Shannon!

Andrew helping take Joie for a walk.

Cruising around the campground~

LOL! Look at his expression - priceless!!

This was the fishing boat the boys took out to catch a whopper!

My parents camp site~

Our campsite (Tasha & Trevor's in the background)

Bryce and Andrew playing trucks in the dirt!

The beach by camp also had a playground. One morning the guys went golfing nearby so we headed down to the park and beach!

Just cruising along!

One cool dude!

Auntie Chelsea, Auntie Tasha, Brock and Bryce joined us later for a swim~

Her little followers ready to swim!

LOVE this picture!! Jumping in!

My Uncle Brent - Caitlin's favorite buddy on this trip. She still talks about him~ I love this picture :)

Hamming it up!

Rest time on the beach!

Checking things out (my Dad's ski boat is the one behind them)

View of Lake Roosevelt from our camp site.

We had a whole bunch of camp fires - these included smore's, games and getting to stay up late!

The fresh water salmon, all grilled up for dinner!

Bryce, Papa, Andrew and Brock on the tube!

Auntie Chelsea and Caitlin

Dinner time with the Aunties~

Auntie Shannon did Caitlin's hair so many times - we love the french braids!

Little love bug!

This boy is beach ready!

Chelsea, Shannon and Dave! (no pictures of Trevor were found on these cameras!! Where were you Trevor!?!?)

Caitlin grew to enjoy the tube rides A LOT. She loved to go over the wakes and even learned the sign for faster, slower, head in and all done!

Two peas in a pod!

Such a big boy - all grown up!

Checking out something really interesting in the water with Uncle Dave.

Sanders Family Tube Ride!!

My Mom and Dad!

The Sisters!

Little Ballerina!

This was the other tube - Mark and I went on quite a few rides on this one! I just get laughing on this thing and can't stop - then one or both of us fly off!

Learning the ropes of flagging on the boat!

The boys were ready to go!

Caitlin busy working on the castle!

After 8 days of fun in the sun we packed up and headed back to Lynden. We took a different route back which brought us to a real train. The kids were able to ring the bell and climb up on it!

My cute kids~

The night before we headed home, my sister's boyfriend Ryan brought us EdAieen Dairy ice cream!! YUMM-O! It totally hit the spot after our 8 hour drive back to Lynden and the mad dash to empty, clean, wash and return the trucks and trailer!

Auntie Chelsea and Caitlin - all crashed out the morning we headed home. I think they were tired!

Somehow I managed to get really happy kids on the flights home!!

The big boy gets his own seat too!

We loved the sunshine, road trip, camping vacation, family, new friends and had a blast playing on the beach and in the water! As I mentioned above, there are more action pictures and wildlife on Mark's iPhone. I will be back with a Part 2 soon!!