Catching up part 1

The Mike and Aaron Smith cousins

Now that we found our camera charger, I can catch up on my blog. We started our sabbatical driving up to Ellensburg to visit Mike's brother Aaron and his fam.  For those of you who don't know where this place is, it is in the middle of Washington.

I always remember stopping here and getting ice cream at the McDonald's on our way to Utah. I told Mike this in the car and his comment was, "you had to stop in Ellensburg?" Let me explain, Seattle is only about 2 hours from Ellensburg. When we went on road trips we stopped every two hours and took twice as long to get to our destinations. So, yes, we stopped in Ellensburg and fondly remember the smell of cows with our windows rolled down, oh wait, I guess that would be with our small windows pushed out an inch in our GM station wagon.

Our family makes this drive in 4 hours from Portland with no stops, (you have to go to the bathroom, you better hold it then kids!)

Coming in to Ellensburg from the south

All the kids loaded in

We stayed in the Burg' for one night and then drove up the next morning to Wenatchee where we rented a house for a couple of nights. Here is a pic of the house we stayed at..

The next day we went to Slidewaters up in Lake Chelan. This was the best water park for little kids. There were four water slides that emptied into a pool that was only about 2-3 feet deep. So kids that were Jake's age could go down all by themselves. There were also bigger water slides the kids were able to go down with us on.

Jake cruising down the slide on his lonesome

Sam in the little kiddo section

We just couldn't get enough at the water park so then we took a dip in this Lake and then headed back home for a good night's sleep.

Lake Chelan

 

We also went up to Leavenworth which is a cool little German town up in the Cascade foothills. It would be a great place to shop around had there not been young kids. It was also dang hot that day. So we got ice cream and some sausage and headed out of there pretty quick.

 Well, the next day  we checked out of the house and drove over the mountain and through the woods (litterally) to Seattle to visit Grandma and Grandpa Smith. That will be part two. Until then stay tuned for more...