Lake Easton

The lake was so clear and serene.......
The Iron Horse trail bridge - runs parallel to I-90 bridges. We paddled under all of them to the Yakima River!

Julius Prosper Westwood, age 5. Cutest kid! This was his third camping trip.

Arlie wading in her jammies!

Hayley eating a s'more.......must be scary!

A log at the edge of the lake......

Arlie and Charlie kicking back!

Arlie and Harrison hanging out by the fire.....

Hannah spent the whole day watching movies on the laptop and playing her Nintendo DSi! Nothing like getting back to nature!

While Hayley exerted as little energy as possible by sleeping the entire day away on Saturday!

Hannah did enjoy the sun, though!

And Hayley also got some Vitamin D....

Georgie loved swimming!!!!

Arlie paddled the canoe all by herself!

Harrison, Amy and Julius having a noodle water fight!

Harrison and Arlie paddling around the lake.......

Hayley and Julius playing in the lake........

Iron Horse Trail railroad bridge........

The beach at Lake Easton

Jeff paddling around the lake......

We spent this past weekend camping at Lake Easton. It was a nice state park, although close to I-90 so there was traffic noise. But our site was nice. At the last minute, our friends Amy and Julius came with us so it was a fun weekend for them as well. Julius is 5 and about the funniest, cutest little kid you ever saw! He always says "excuse me" before he talks to you and says the funniest things. For example, we hit a huge traffic jam going there. The cars were barely moving. Julius said "excuse me, Jeff, the sign says 60 miles per hour!" He was such a cutie pie and it was fun to camp with a little one again.

Hayley and Hannah, in true teenage fashion, spent a lot of their time inside the camper, watching movies on the laptop, sleeping, texting, and just hanging out. But they did make it down to the lake for a while at least. Harrison and Arlie did a lot of swimming and canoeing - they are getting good at their canoeing skills. Arlie went out by herself and was totally comfortable. We also took the bikes, so those two biked all over the campground. Harrison entertained himself by taking this toy "Dr. Fart" into the bathroom with him and pushing the buttons to make fart sounds. Adding his own grunts and sighs, he listened for any reaction in the stalls next to him! We cracked up at his prank. Jeff took us on a wild goose chase of a geocache. We found the first one, and then tried for the second one, but as we were strolling down a forest service road, we flushed a grouse which scared the crap out of everyone! Then, we drove down that same road, in my van (a far cry from a 4 wheel drive!) and the road narrowed and narrowed until Jeff looked as though he was going to drive us off a cliff! I wish I had taken a picture - the road just ended at the top of a cliff and on three sides there was nothing but sheer rock walls. Nice. Needless to say we decided he was a little TOO into this geocache and called it a day. But, no, Jeff was not to be deterred. He immediately got Harrison and Arlie into the canoe and paddled to an island on the lake to find another geocache at the top of a 400 foot "mountain". That guy is insane!

Sunday Jeff took me on a nice long canoe ride under the bridges of I-90 to where the Yakima river feeds into Lake Easton. He paddled against the current and was exhausted by the end of the weekend after many trips around the lake and river. I got some nice photos and it was very peaceful - hardly anyone on the lake. You could see the bottom everywhere, it was so clear. We saw some big fish and trolled for them but no luck. All in all, it was a nice weekend trip and fun to just hang around the fire and chat with Amy and Julius and the kids. Bonus - the weather was beautiful, 85 degrees and sunny all weekend! A nice "end" to summer.