Banks Lake '14

We have been going to Steamboat Rock State Park at Banks Lake since I was about four.  It is usually our favorite vacation every year.  It is funny to see how popular it has become (you have to call in first thing the day the reservations open for the week you want or you don't get a spot.)  I have even seen people I know there.  We have taken different friends over the years, but what hasn't really changed is Rob and Shaina.  Rob was my mom's neighbor growing up, so they're kind of like family.  This year, Rob's lady friend (I don't think they're married? Maybe?) Kim, Shaina and her husband Kyle, my mom and dad, and me Andy and the kids went.  Unfortunately Piper doesn't do well in the car so Erik and Destiny had to sit this one out, as well as Rob's son Ryan who had to work.

We had Sounders games Sunday (Portland) and the next Saturday (Tottenham) both games we did NOT want to miss, so we went Monday-Friday.  The drive there seemed like nothing.  It was about 4 hours even, but with our normal commute, that isn't such a big deal anymore.  We hit a drive-thru first thing (Sawyer was so happy to get a happy meal), and we didn't even need to stop at a rest area.  The kids were great the whole time, and Kellan even took a nap for a long time.

We spent the week on the lake: swimming, boating, waterskiing, wakeboarding, tubing, cliff jumping...the usual activities camping on a lake brings.  Unfortunately there are bad wildfires in eastern WA so Thursday night and Friday were very smoky.  Ash was falling everywhere.  We left a little earlier than expected Friday because it was just hard to breathe in all that smoke, but it ended up being nice getting home before dark.

We had so much fun and were so proud of Sawyer spending most of his time swimming in the lake where he couldn't reach, when he used to be terrified of back yard pools.

We told him he gets a happy meal

Soccer with grandpa

farmers tan (there was a pink ring at the top that got a little burned on each arm)

Kyle jumping a cliff

Andy jumping

Me jumping

sunset boat ride with their glowsticks

Sawyer decided to go swimming off the boat

I made Kellan an extended leash so he wouldn't take off.  He hated it.

The sun looked kind of cool with all the smoke

Windmills on the drive home

I'm pretty sure this is my mom waterskiing 

Me waterskiing on the slalom 

Me and Sawyer on his first tube ride.  We were excited we didn't have to go slow for him

Our beach spot from above

Sawyer climbed the sand hill

Little flagger

Nap time

The ash that fell overnight on the boat

So smoky, you can barely see the cliffs in the background

The beach from the ash

Andy and Sawyer tubing

Ocean 4th

We snagged a camping spot at Ocean Shores for the Wed-Sat to spend the 4th there.

We were very lucky to find a family with 4 kids across from us, and one of them was turning 4 this month, so the same age as Sawyer.  He had SO much fun with his new friend Sean (Shaun? Shawn?)  The problem was that we still had a 1 year old that doesn't know boundaries. I so wish I had a leash for him because all he would do is take off running. :(

We spent a lot of time at the beach though, and both the kids loved it.  Sawyer suddenly became a water baby this last year, and Kellan just kept eating the sand.  Like, he wouldn't stop.  It was filled in his diaper and it wasn't coming in from the sides, if you know what I mean.

We got back to camp to find crows had eaten our chips...they hadn't even been opened yet!

Sawyer ate so well the whole trip!  Here he is eating salmon, which surprised me.

We had s'mores each night of course.

...and you can't go to the ocean without jumping pictures

Sawyer got a new transformers kite since his other ones were dollar store and broke right away.

We were so lucky to have my parents come on the morning of the 4th.  The kids love them and they helped out with the kids.

I got a new kite that day :)

On the night of the 4th we all hiked out to the dunes and set up chairs.  The weather was awesome and we were able to see non-stop fireworks up and down the beach, includeing the Quinnault casino's professional show.  It was awesome!

We were definitely ready to leave Saturday morning, and by the sound of it, we really beat bad traffic!

Here are a couple more fun photos that got a lot of love on facebook.  These are photoshopped obviously, haha.