August Priest Lake Trip

We just returned late last night after a grueling 9.5 hour drive home from our August trip to Priest Lake.  We drove up on Monday, August 14th, after the girls completed their 3-week run with Matilda at NWTL and stayed until Sunday, August 20th, due to Lia needing to be home in time to run the "Midnight Mile" with her XC team to kick off their fall season.  After we arrived last week, we spent the next two days at the cabin with my parents and Eric and Rebecca.  It was actually really nice to be at the cabin with such a small and quiet group and we all thoroughly enjoyed playing in the water in glorious, 100 degree weather both days.  After Chris and Natalee and their entire family arrived late Wednesday evening, we unfortunately woke up to forest fire smoke every single day after that.  Luckily, the winds were able to blow off the smoke by the afternoon on both Thursday and Friday, but the smoke was so bad from the Spokane fire by Saturday morning, that we never saw the other side of the lake all day long.  It was like we were stuck in a smelly, grey soup all day which made it so that no one even wanted to go swimming.  As a result, we were all ready to pack up and head home on Sunday morning.  The only problem was that the Spokane fire had closed a section of I-90 which seriously impacted our drive home.  So between a massive detour through Eastern Washington and traffic before Snoqualmie pass and also while trying to get onto Highway 18, it took me 9.5 hours to drive home by myself with four kids in the car.  Needless to say, I was very grateful to pull up into our driveway that evening in one piece!

As always, the younger children thoroughly enjoyed creating figures out of the clay that they can always find beneath the sand on the beach.  Here is Logan sculpting away.

Sweet Emmett running down the dock towards me.

Emmett swimming in the beautiful, clear water.

Lia floating around in the yellow tube that we sadly lost to a crazy wind storm later in the week.

Unlike last month, I was able to get Lia to agree to waterski two times this past week.  Hooray!

Emmett and grandma cheering on Lia from the boat.

Lia in the water after finishing her ski.

Emmett was a great helper and loved holding up the flag for skiers while in the boat.

Last month while we were at Priest Lake, the kids came up with a new and improved way of making food for their "beach restaurant" by using clay.  Here are Logan and Ella showing off their amazing food that they made including a giant, hoagie sandwich.

All four kids playing in the water.

Emmett loved riding in the boat several times this week while watching his cousins ski and tube.  Here is a picture of him with Garrett in the front of the boat and Chris behind the wheel.  All of the pictures from this point on were taken after the forest fire smoke rolled in and created a very bleak and grey background in all of the lake pictures.

Logan and Trenton on the paddleboard.

Riley and Lia cruising around together.

Chris was able to convince Ella to go waterskiing one time with the help of Callie in the water.  I was actually able to ride in the boat and watch her which was so fun.

The older cousins and Chris playing a wild, wrestling game on the water mat.

Ella trying to soak up some rays and get warm while relaxing in the boat.

Lia eating dinner out on the deck one evening with Chris' kids and Aunt Rebecca.

The younger kids all enjoyed playing around the edge of the tennis court more than once while some of the older kids and adults played pickle ball.

Grandma put on her annual, treasure hunt for the grandkids on the last day that everyone was there.  Here are the girls reading their first clue.

The boys running up the stairs from the beach below.

The girls walking back to the driveway after finding another clue.

Logan reading another clue to the rest of the boys.

All of the grandkids posing for the camera after the treasure hunt was complete!