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.

A Few More from Fort Worst........I mean, Worth!

Here are some more photos of my day in Fort Worth. Yippee. First, our hotel - The Omni. It just opened last weekend so it's very new and nice. And huge! The next photo is of me and Jeff at the Ft. Worth Water Gardens (we were trying to find a geocache, but were unsuccessful). Then, the courthouse. Notice Texas flag. The plaque tells the story of this photograph of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid, taken at a photo studio on Houston Street. The photographer didn't know the well-dressed gentlemen he was photographing were infamous criminals. A sherriff noticed the photo hanging in the photographer's window, but by the time it was investigated, the gang had left town!

Fort Worth on Saturday

Today Jeff attended meetings for his conference all day and I set out in the morning, coffee in hand, eagerly awaiting the treasures that Fort Worth has to offer. Well, I believe I was duped! There is NOTHING to do in Fort Worth, unless you're hungry. In all fairness, we are in downtown so maybe it's not the best part of town for shopping (but all other metropolitan downtowns I've been to have been shopping meccas). But I found only a small handful of stores, a lot of closed restaurants and shops, and a ton of construction. No gift shops, novelty stores, shopping malls, nothing. The best place I found all day was Barnes and Noble. I spent about $11 on books from the 75% off table, and $8 for chocolate at a chocolate shop I found. So, I guess Jeff's joke about me spending only $20 on this trip was pretty accurate! Man, what a boring town. And to top it off, it was 32 degrees when I set out this a.m. and didn't get much warmer. The wind blew hard all day so my face was frozen and even my legs were numb in my jeans! I did manage to find two geocaches, so at least I can say we found a couple in Texas. I was back at the hotel in the early afternoon after spending over four hours walking all over town. I took a nap, then a bath to warm up (I was still freezing) and finally went out to dinner with Jeff, who was gracious enough to skip tonight's conference dinner to spend some time with me. Next time he takes a trip, I'm going to make sure it's somewhere fun! But I did manage to snag a few photos. The first is Bass Performance Hall. The angels blowing brass trumpets reminded me of the angel Moroni on top of the Mormon Temple! HAHA! The next photo is St. Patrick's Cathedral, which was very old and beautiful and I would have loved taking photos of the stained glass windows, but there were four people praying in the dark church and ominous warning signs to "BE SILENT! JESUS IS PRESENT IN THE TABERNACLE!" I didn't want to piss Jesus off, so I only snuck one quick photo of the stained glass, not using the flash and took some outside shots. The next photo is a statue that was the site of my first geocache and the fourth a mural in town that was the site of my second geocache. Enjoy!