Annual pilgrimage to Priest Lake

This is either the 5th or 6th time I've made the annual pilgrimage to Priest Lake. I started coming with my sister, Rebecca and her family and my parents in either 2005 or 2007. We come out here for a week in late June and get a great deal because the weather is truly variable. This week, for example, we are expecting everything from 55 and rainy to 80 and sunny. We'll see how it actually turns out because we can never really trust the weather report.

We started out yesterday and went as far as Moses Lake, which is halfway here and has a great water park. We had such a good time and then a bit of a tough night (Thomas refused to go to sleep until 10:30 - which was a lot of crying and asking for Mommy or Daddy, whoever wasn't holding him). Both of the kids were up around 5:30, so we were on the road by 8:30. There is only so much you can do with small children in a motel room.

The travel went well today and we got here at 2. It was unbelievably beautiful - the lake was like glass and it was about 80. Josh took Thomas swimming in the pool (I know, a pool at a lake resort, but the water in the lake is cold and the water in the pool is warm - which makes it great for kids). Charlotte and I enjoyed the view from inside the condo. She was happy crawling around on the floor (not really crawling quite yet, she kind of gets places by wiggling and scooting) and I was happy getting everything unpacked and set up.

We got both the boat and one of the jet skis in the water about 4:30 and took off for some adventure. Thomas went out in the boat with us and Charlotte hung out with her grandma back here. It was amazing. For the past couple of trips here, I have been pregnant, so even though I rode the jet ski, I didn't really take it out there and jump or turn fast or do anything crazy. Of course I don't do anything as crazy as Josh or Mike and I sat in the boat with Thomas laughing at their crazy antics.

Beth prepared a great dinner (meatloaf!) and the kids absolutely crashed. Thomas was so tired that he went to sleep after only one reading of Goodnight, Moon.

My parents and Robb and Rebecca and the kids are joining us tomorrow and if I get my act together, there will be pictures at some point. For the time being, I will say that after my last post, I was way more conscious of my stress points throughout the trip and made an effort to take a deep breath and just enjoy my kids and enjoy the moment and my stress level was really low for the whole trip.

Tired now (all that sun, wind and fun is making me sleepy), so I am off to bed.