Chelan Vacation

We took our first-ever-all-by-ourselves-without-family-vacation to Lake Chelan this summer.

How is it that neither Jacob nor I had ever been to Lake Chelan before!?

It's gorgeous and the drive wasn't bad either.

We left our house just after lunch so that the kids could take their afternoon nap in the car on the way.

By the time they woke up, we had just hit Leavenworth, so we made a pit stop for some ice cream.

 

 Our little impromptu 'picnic' was very pleasant with a steel drum band playing in the background, lots of people passing by to watch, and very warm weather.

Getting the kids back into the car, however, was not so pleasant. 

It was HOT, the kids needed diaper changes, and our car was packed to the gills with all of our stuff for our trip. So I stood on the back bumper and laid one child at a time on a pile of suitcases and pillows in the back of the car and changed diapers. As I finished each child, Jacob wrestled them into their car seats. 

Not one of them was cooperative. They kicked and screamed while they rolled around flailing, protesting both getting their diapers changed and getting back into their car seats. We were both dripping sweat and couldn't help but laugh hysterically because the situation was so completely awful. 

As we finished up the 'chore' I turned around and realized that we had had an audience throughout the entire fiasco. Great.

However, a woman ran over to us as we were about to get ourselves back in to the car and commended us on how terrific we had handled our kids. I was shocked. Us? Seriously?

But it felt really good to hear that.

Back on the road, we got held up in some construction traffic, so we took the opportunity to get out, stretch out legs, and enjoy the beautiful river.

Thankfully, getting them back into the car this time went a whole lot better :)

Once in Chelan, we quickly unloaded all of our junk into the condo. Our friends had graciously loaned us their condo and while it was small, it was absolutely perfect (Thanks, Kim and Jedd!). 

As fast as we could get out our swimsuits and throw them on, we went running to the pool. The kids hadn't been swimming since their swim lessons last summer, but they were soon reminded of how much they love the water!

After our pool party and some dinner on the grill, we all cuddled up on the hide-a-bed and had a good ol' movie night.

Unfortunately, the next morning we woke up to rain, rain, rain.

So we took the kids into town for a little shopping and let them each pick out a small toy from the Variety Store. Reece chose a Hot Wheels big rig, Chase chose a construction loader, and miss Kate chose some sparkly bracelets.

Back at the condo, though, it quickly turned into a constant battle over Reece's big rig, so we ended up having to head back to the store and bought 3 more big rigs :)

As everyone napped, the sun decided to reappear, so we spent the afternoon back at the pool.

For dinner that evening, we went to the Lake Chelan Winery to celebrate our 8th anniversary.

The food was awesome and the atmosphere was super laid-back and kid-friendly. 

I know...how romantic :)

The next day the hot weather returned and we spent nearly the entire day outside.

We played at the beach...

And we played at the park...

After dinner, we all just enjoyed relaxing and hanging around the condo.

The kids had an absolute blast sleeping in the same room together, which they aren't accustomed to. We let them stay up a little later than normal each night, hoping they would be extra tired and fall asleep quickly. 

That was not the case. Bed time was party time.

They jumped up and down in their pack-n-plays, they talked, they sang, they played and finally fell asleep  after several hours of shenanigans.

On our final morning, we took the opportunity to lounge around and be lazy before packing up and heading out.

 

Then we hit the beach one last time...

 Then it was back to life, back to reality.

We will definitely be frequent Lake Chelan goers from now on!