Banks Lake Fishing Trip - Photos

I already posted a couple weeks back on how the camping/fishing trip went and am just now getting to posting the photos...ENJOY!

Jordan couldn't wait to go out and fish, so they just took the paddle boat out as soon as we got to the spot so Jordan could go out and fish...Philip, myself, and Justin are still on shore. This is Philip's co-workers husband, son, and his friend with Jordan.

This was back at the campsite dock that has access to the lake. We were waiting to go to the prime fishing spot by just hanging out here trying to catch something, which of course we didn't!

Justin didn't go out in the boat (yes, we had a motorboat and not just the paddle boat for all of you thinking about that:-))! He's hanging around onshore playing and climbing on the big jagged rock pile! I couldn't keep him off of it!

Jordan with one of his many fish that he caught this day!

Jordan & Daddy fishing together...daddy's doing all of the dirty work by taking the hook out of the fishes mouth and casting; Jordan was in charge of holding the fishing pole and reeling it in!!! It takes teamwork!!!

Camping - Banks Lake, WA

This past weekend we went to Banks Lake camping & fishing! We stayed at the Coulee Playland Resort. This was our first camping trip we didn't stay at a KOA campsite and you know what, we had a great time!

http://www.couleeplayland.com/

We met a co-worker of Philip's there, Marlena, and her husband and family. We got there Friday at around 3p in the afternoon and we left Sunday at 12:30p to head back home. It is about 250 miles or about a 4.5 hour drive. Philip went out fishing with the men on Friday night, and then the entire families went to this off the wall property that Marlena's dad own about 50 miles away towards Wilbur, WA and fished on this private lake. It was like serious dirt roads the last 15 miles to get there and then an old gate had to be unlocked and we 4-wheeled our way into another 5 miles I believe or so to actually get to the lake. It was low 90's, high 80's for the weekend so that was nice, and I got a lot of sun to show for it:-) This area on the east side of WA has many lakes (Soap, Blue, Sun, Banks, and Moses); it was very nice and warm and it was really great just doing stuff outdoors and 'really' camping, not just visiting museum's and aquarium's!

Jordan caught about 15 fish all by himself! Philip would cast his line for him and then Jordan would hold the pole and reel the fish into the boat, and then of course Philip would have to take the fish off the hook. (I'll get pictures posted once the camera is loaded). I think I caught somewhere around 30 or so fish; they were all crappies...it was the kind of fishing I liked where I didn't have to pay attention and really fish because the fish just got hooked on my line with very little effort; in fact once I was putting sunblock on when one fish bit:-) Philip got to learn how to clean & gut the fish since he had to do some of the work to be able to bring 2 bags of the fish home! We are going to have a fish dinner in a few weeks when my mom and dad come out since my mom knows recipes on how to cook this type of fish...

Justin just hung out with folks around the lake this time. I didn't put him in the boat because I actually wanted to fish and not just hold him, plus he was a little off (sick) which I think he still is and is why I'm taking him back to the doctor on Friday. I think he has pneumonia again:-(

On the way home coming back over Snoqualmie pass on I-90, a vehicle crashed directly next to us in the fast moving lane. We actually saw dirt fly and the truck roll...towing a camper trailer and trying to safely stop is a hard task that Philip handled very well!!! We were lucky that the middle lane we were in and the slow lane didn't have a lot of traffic in it that everyone was able to safely pull off to the shoulder or slow down and stop without being hit. As soon as we stopped, we were directly next to the rolled over truck. All of the contents of the vehicle were all over the freeway, so Philip and other folks kicked the stuff over to the side off the freeway whilst this one lady was on the phone with 911; I'm sure she was in shock and all, but she had no friggen' clue where she was at! She had to ask Philip and myself what freeway she was on...clueless I tell you. To make a very long story short, the truck ended up propped upside down on the jersey barrier and the fast lane of the freeway which was VERY good for one of the passengers since she apparently didn't have her seatbelt on and came falling out the sunroof and end up under the car in the opening that was under the car. Needless to say everything could have been way worse, but of the 3 passengers in the truck, none of them died which is really amazing to me since the truck was pretty mashed up.

On a side note, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my sister who turns 34 years-old today!

Seaside, OR (July 4th Weekend)

OK, not so bad for this trip seeing as it was only a month ago:-) Below is a slide show from our trip to Seaside, OR for the 4th of July weekend. Jordan got to ride bumper cars, jump on a huge inflatable 'pillow', and visit the Seaside Aquarium (I know another aquarium, but Jordan & Justin really like fish & stuff). At this aquarium, we got to get close up to the seals as other folks fed them...we didn't want to get to close and get wet, plus pay for food seemed to be a waste as well! Justin tried to do the jumper thing, but was just too small...We again went to the Tillamook Cheese Factory and we bought about $50 worth of merchandise; not the ice cream/cheese/etc. since we get that here in WA, but more of the items specific to only being at the cheese factory like the large cheddar curds and fudge. Justin got up real close and personal with a new best friend during the visit!!! There are like hundreds and hundreds of people visiting there and for the price of 'stuff', I can't imagine how much they make in a day; it kinds of seems astronomical when you think about it.

http://www.tillamookcheese.com/VisitorsCenter/

http://www.seasideaquarium.com/index.php

The weather was OR coast weather for this time of the year and not at all warm and actually started to rain the very last night we were there, so we did luck out in the rain department for the entire 4 days we were there. Justin ended up getting sick again on this trip as well as he did when we went to Lincoln City over Memorial weekend...I think the coast weather and not being warm plays a big part! We did a lot more sight-seeing this time around then we did when we were there two years ago (Jordan was 2 and we rented our RV for our first camping trip). I hope you all enjoy the pictures; we had a great time!!!

Leavenworth, WA - Camping Trip

OK, so this past weekend we went camping over to Leavenworth, WA (not the military base Ft. Leavenworth, KS) and we had a great time! We left Friday (7/31) and came home yesterday afternoon. The temperature over there on the east side of WA was high 90's - low 100's which is not unusual for this time of year...however, since the weather was cooling off here at home, it was kind of unnerving to know that we were going camping to somewhere where it was still really hot!!! Of course, the trailer has A/C...I couldn't imagine a trip like that without it:-) We are going to definitely make another trip over there since as we were 7 or so miles from the house, I asked Philip if he grabbed the camera, he said no thinking I grabbed it when in fact no one grabbed it! We didn't have anything really planned for this trip, so we kind of basically hung out at the campground, though we did make it into town to Leavenworth (it's a Bavarian town like Frankenmuth, MI for all my MI readers) and spent a couple of hours early morning after having breakfast at Sandy's waffle house. They were having a weekend music and art festival this past weekend so we got to enjoy that as well, but I'll have to say the BEST part of this trip was that the entire family went tubing down the Wenatchee River!!! Yes, the ENTIRE family to include Justin & Jordan!!!

It was a 2 mile stretch from the KOA campground down to where you got out of the river and the KOA van met and shuttled you back. Philip and Jordan were on one tube and Justin and I were in another tube...during most of the trip, Philip and I stayed connected by holding each others handles of the tubes; other parts of the river we were fending for ourselves since we had to protect our butts from the rocks in the river; actually more like boulders! Philip and I kept trying to dodge these rocks, but of course most of the time we didn't and our butts drug over and every once in awhile we got stuck on top of the rock with the tube and had to shimmy ourselves loose:-) At the very beginning of the ride, was the most rapid, choppy part of the river that threw water up onto us and right of way I was thinking what the hell have I gotten myself into with a 16-month old; I need to turn around somehow and get off and go back to camp, but of course after that was pretty much smooth sailing except for a few fast rapids (without the throwing up of water)...basically we had the boys in our laps between our legs. Justin basically sunned himself and enjoyed the entire ride, though when it was all over I asked him if he liked tubing down the river and he said 'no'! I'll tell you 'no' is his new favorite word which he basically says to everything you ask him, but it was cute...Jordan liked it, though I think he was unsure if he wanted to do it again either! Jordan was talking, laughing, and having a great time the entire ride...we saw a few animals along the river as well as fish in the river; all in all it was ANOTHER great adventure for our memory book!!!

Jordan also got to go swimming for the first time in the big pool at the campground...he floated (not too far out:-)) on his own and didn't seem at all too afraid of the water; I think I'm going to put him into swimming classes starting this fall, but first I've got to look around and get the logistics...I don't want them to be afraid of water, and I definitely want them to be able to swim on their own if the need should ever arise! Right now they wouldn't be able to save themselves out of a wet paper bag:-)

For all those of you keeping track, our next camping adventure is in a couple weeks back over to eastern WA towards Moses Lake for some fishing. We've got our poles (Jordan included) and can't wait to see who can catch the biggest one!

Lincoln City, OR - Camping Slideshow (Memorial Weekend 2009)

OK, so I've finally posted quite a few pictures (hence the slide show) below from our camping trip to Lincoln City, OR over the Memorial Day weekend. We had a great time...If you take the time to read the captions, you'll see what and where we are. We went to the OR coast aquarium, the beach/ocean, and then hung out at the campsite. Enjoy!!!

Updates...weekend!

Jordan got to see his 2nd movie ever at a movie theater this past Saturday with Daddy (his 1st one was Disney's Pixar UP with Mary Kay & Claudia). They went to see Transformers II; Jordan is still young enough not to catch onto anything, but loves Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, and all of the transformers. It was a 2 hour, 40 minute long movie and Philip said he did just excellent. They went to the first showing at 0900 on Saturday and all in total there were about 40 people in the theater including kids. Justin & I stayed home, in fact, I got some reading done since Justin napped for an hour of that time...it was kind of relaxing; who knew:-)

Saturday afternoon, Philip replaced our 1 ash tree out in the back yard with a birch tree and added 2 more maple trees as well. Now we've got 5 trees out back that we've just got to wait for them to get bigger to give us shade and block the view of the main street! That evening we headed over to Mary Kay's for an excellent meatloaf dinner...the weather was great so we got to eat outside and enjoy everyone's company!

This Friday we are heading down to Astoria, OR for the long weekend and coming back on Monday. I'm excited since this was the same place we went to on our very first camping trip exactly 2 years ago (July 4th weekend as well) when we rented the camping trailer. Who would've thought we'd be toting 2 boys along a couple years later...I think we're going to try to ride the train again, go to the fort they have there, as well as the Tillamook cheese factory. The weather is supposed to be nice, and with Justin being sick that we didn't get to go camping in June it actually seems like a long time since we've last went out. Well we are actually making up for it and going this weekend, 7/31 weekend, and again in August.

Poor little guy...:-(

Justin has pneumonia so we won't be going on our camping trip to Leavenworth, WA tomorrow! He got a fever yesterday at daycare of 101.5 and then has just been sick ever since; I took him to his pediatrician this morning and he diagnosed it! He's on antibiotics; I'm hoping it's just bacterial and not viral since bacterial gets cleared up with antibiotics...viral could mean a hospital stay:-( We go back in 7 days for a re-check where hopefully things have cleared up...keep your fingers crossed! I feel bad for him since he is so sick! I kind of remember, but I think Jordan had pneumonia as well once when he was Justin's age or younger...I'm sorry, but raising kids would be so much easier if we were all in our own little germ free bubbles!!!

Philip rescheduled the camping trip to the weekend of July 31st instead. This way he doesn't lose his deposit; I think it was a good thing all around because Philip just came back late last night from an overnight trip to KY and came home this evening with a migraine and went straight to bed at 7p. I guess it's someones way of telling us to stay our butts at home;-)

Camping Trip - Lincoln City, OR

Well our camping trip last weekend over the extended holiday vacation was very fun. We went to the Oregon Coast Aquarium, the beach where Jordan got to fly his own kite all by himself, we even did a little shopping at the tanger outlets, and then of course fun at the KOA campsite. The aquarium was basically outside whereas the Seattle aquarium is inside a building...Philip and I agreed they basically way OVERcharged for what they had there, but I guess you go once, say you've been there, and be done. The boys definitely had fun...Justin was watching and pointing at all of the animals he could and Jordan, well he was asking so many questions...I thought I was the tour guide for the park:-) So inquisitive they are at this age! The campsite was great and we were in a cool spot; though we did have to back in to the spot and being newbies at this was cause for concern but we were lucky in that the trailer across the way hadn't showed up yet so we were basically able to use his spot to pull through and then back into are spot; we had no idea how we would've done that if the trailer had been there! The ladies next to us had said, that's why we refuse that spot for that purpose of the angle in having to back into it...oh well, if we go back, we've got our numbered spot (#21) we would want:-) Lessons learned...again! Both of the boys got to play in the sand at the beach (mind you with fleeces and hoods on); they were building sandcastles, digging holes, and plain just having fun; IT WAS GREAT to see them playing together!!!

http://www.aquarium.org/

http://www.koa.com/where/or/37108/

We've got lots of pictures to share, but are in the process of restoring our computer back to factory settings and getting significantly faster dsl for our Internet. As you can see things are progressing (at least the Internet is back up and running & for sure faster), but the Obama camera has yet to be reloaded and installed for the pictures. I'll post as soon as that happens; hopefully not before both boys are in kindergarten:-) I kept Justin outside at the campsite on Saturday night with his blue birthday fleece/hooded jacket on since it was windy and cold, but he still got a very runny nose and was sick with a cold up until just a couple of days ago...he seems to be doing quite fine now but I've learned he can't be out at night unless it's warmer! Hopefully I'll get the pictures posted tomorrow...

Jordan got to stay up way past his bedtime every night and we are still reliving that nightmare to this night...It's 8:13p right now and his bedtime is at 8p; he'll give all kinds of excuses at bed...I need water, I gotta go potty, I need to be covered up, where's my cow?, where's my lamb?, etc...I'm sure you mom's know how that goes:-) He is SO sleepy right now!!! He definitely had a lot of fun camping; In fact, he met a couple of kids that he was able to play with at camp at the play yard.

Philip and I were able to have a little while to ourselves when both boys went to bed and we huddled around the campfire chatting (until the wood burned out)! I think we are going to buy a trailer of wood to have stored at our house so that we can just throw it in the trailer and go; it seems to be the cheaper way then buying bundles at the campsites, plus the bundles you buy don't last long enough that obviously you end up buying more! We kept busy the entire time, but also Philip was able to make us all breakfast every morning and dinners in the evening...it was great (and tasted good too)!

What was funny was that we had wanted to leave the house at 10a and we did, but then once we got the 3 miles away to pick up the boys at daycare and continue heading down the road, I had actually forgot a couple of things that we had to turn around...Philip said "I had wanted to be on the road at 10a" (our first trip, we had wanted to be on the road at noon and ended up on the road at 2:30); I said "hey, look at it like this we are getting 2 hours better each trip, so by time we get to our next camping trip (2 weeks to Leavenworth, WA), we actually might get ahead of ourselves:-) and leave 1 1/2 hours earlier then we planned"! I guess stay tuned....

Found On Road Dead?

Sound familiar...it might to anyone who has ever owned a FORD (myself included):-)

If you didn't notice or guess it already in the pictures on the posting directly below this one with a big greenish truck and no plates in a few of the picture...Philip got a new truck! And when I say new, I mean new and fully loaded. It is a 2008 F-350 4x4 Super Duty; I almost think it should be out on the farm in MI helping Grandma & Papa on the farm. It is SO huge, so huge in fact that when I stand next to the hood of the truck you can only see my head peering out over the top. The hood of the truck is literally as high as my shoulders. If you look at a 2009 model loaded to the 'gills', you'll pretty much be looking at Philip's truck. He got somewhere between an $8K-$9K rebate on the 2008 because as you can imagine, 2010 trucks will be coming out this year. The truck only had 200 miles on it. Below are a couple of pictures from last Sunday when we came back from camping to park the trailer; one of just the truck and one of the truck and trailer. I swear, the trucks now as big/long as the trailer:-) It is significantly a more smoother ride then the other truck was in towing the trailer; so it was all worth it in the end as long as Philip doesn't come to me saying we now need a bigger travel trailer!

Camping Slideshow - Burlington, WA

1st Camping Trip...(check) !

OK, so we can now check off complete our first camping trip! This past weekend we went up to the Burlington KOA campground which is only 110 miles from the house; made sense since we started out later then we had wanted to and got mixed up in the Friday afternoon commute but didn't really have all that far to go & the boys did great in the car. We went to Mount Vernon to the yearly tulip festival that happens every April, went to an Alpaca farm, roasted marshmallows, and TRIED to make our way to a children's museum...I say tried, because we used the navigation system in Philip's truck that took us to downtown Mt. Vernon with our destination on the left/route over and there was no Children's museum anywhere around. We ended up finding out it was somewhere else, but too late and a dollar short we went to dinner instead! All in all everyone had a great time, even Jordan who fell out of the (lower) bunk bed and Justin who had to sleep in his playard (all you mom's out there know what that's like trying to keep a 1-year old happy and content in a playard)! As I've been doing, below are the links to the places we went:

http://www.countrytimealpacas.com/

http://www.tulipfestival.org/

If I had to give the trip a negative comment, I would have to say it would be the unpreparedness we had going on in the trailer:-) Why this is funny is because I've been giving Philip such a hard time in his preparation of things we needed in the trailer way back when we bought it saying we've got plenty of time to get it ready, and of course what the hell happens...I'm not prepared! I don't know where stuff is (pots, glasses, coffee pot, etc.); that first morning made Philip and I laugh so hard that I created a list as the morning/days progressed on what we definitely need. My thought is that maybe by the end of this camping season, we'll be pros. Philip is definitely a pro at hooking/unhooking up the trailer to the truck and readying the trailer at the campsites when we arrive and leave:-) He's had a manual and CD to watch for review...I've got nothing!!!

We had a great time and are really looking forward to the Oregon trip over Memorial Weekend to Lincoln City for 4 days/3 nights.

When it rains, it pours!

Well, where do I begin...it's only Wednesday but I really just wish it was summertime!

My last post on Friday night had us going to Cabela's on Saturday, well first off in trying to get there Philip's truck somewhat broke down on Hwy 512...he was able to spot that the radiator hose blew, so we were able to slowly drive 30-40mph back 1 mile or so to a Chevy dealer to get it fixed. Of course they had to get the dodge part from somewhere else and fix it, but all told that ended up taking a total of 1 1/2 hours. Whilst waiting, I said 'hey, we haven't eaten, let's go across the street to McDonald's'...It was like winter out pushing a stroller in headwinds down to the crosswalk and then back up the other side, but eventually we made it and got some food. The final brilliant plan of mine was to let Philip go back across the street to wait for them to finish up his truck and Jordan, Justin, and I would wait in the McDonald's play area; BAD IDEA (all you mom's out there probably know where this is going)!

To make a long story short, we made it to Cabela's & Camping World, however, Justin had other plans, threw up all over the cart and the floor, then passed it on Sunday to Jordan, Monday to Mommy, and Tuesday to Daddy who of course had to travel Monday through Wednesday so he spent his sick time away from the house whilst I was sick taking care of sick kids! Needless to say, I can't wait for summertime! Everyone is back to at least 90% w/the exception of Justin who still has something wrong with him...He's only drinking 1/2 the amount of bottles he's used to and once he swallows actual food, he throws it right back up. I'm taking him to the doctor on Friday since I called the doctor yesterday and he said if he wasn't back to normal by the end of the week to bring him in for a check up.

If I've learned anything from this fiasco it's to NOT EVER let your kids play at the McDonald's play area unless they are fully sanitized/scrubbed and disinfected before and after since I've never let Jordan play in there before until Saturday when all of a sudden we all get the rotovirus or something very close to it!!!

Camp Jamison?

We went looking at travel trailers this weekend and ended up purchasing one:) We had been looking for the last 2-3 years but postponed it last year when we found out baby Justin was coming...over the weekend, there was a RV show at the Tacoma dome and we found one that we just fell in love with! We are taking delivery of it this coming Saturday. It is 26' and is able to be towed by Philip's current vehicle (which is paid for:)) which was are driving and determining factor on which trailer we wanted or could get! It is a 2009 model so the theory is that we'll have it for a REALLY long time.

Since we are now going into the winter season, we will be storing it up the street from our house at a storage facility that has what looks to be like a 100 or so RV's and THEN working to start booking vacations at campsites for every long holiday starting in the spring...we are now going to be that family that is never home on a holiday or long weekend during the spring or summer! I will post out some actual photos next weekend once we get it.

Jordan was really excited and actually remembered sleeping on a bunk bed in July 2007 when we rented a travel trailer to go down to Seaside, OR. Since he'll be 4 years old next April, it will be so much more fun for him!

FYI - I didn't forget to post pictures from our MI trip; I just didn't get around to it this weekend. I will definitely do so during this week before classes start again on next Monday!