Lake Chelan Adventure

Welcome to the Lake Chelan Adventure Blog Post! Starring Bonnie Stohel and Dieuwke Schott
--costarring Lance Schott, Ethan Schott, and Isabelle Schott--

Well yesterday was my day off, Dieuwke's day off, and Lance's day off- we decided that THAT sounded like a party! So, because I hadn't been to Chelan in forever and I REALLY wanted to go, Dieuwke and I decided to pack up the cooler, pack up the kids, pack up the car, and book it to Chelan!!

*Warning: There will be many pictures in this post-- there would be many more but I love you all too much to put you through the agony of 134 pictures- plus I don't have the patience to upload them all :-) Still this post is VERY long (add about 300 VERY's to that- I just don't want to type them all) so go grab your popcorn, grab the hot chocolate. I'll wait. Get settled down with the comfy blanket and enjoy the ride *

The journey to Chelan began the same as just about any journey does with me and my camera-- a car photo op! :-)

However as time went by it progressed in a very
unconventional manner. Apparently as car rides
with Lance tend to do...

Welcome to Chelan!!!!

Lance and Dieuwke do it so much better than I do....

I just look silly diving into the lake :-)

Ethan climbing the ladder

        

Isabelle climbing the ladder-- you like how self-explanatory my captions are don't ya? 

 It was around this time that Lance spied a piece of driftwood that was floating out a ways away from us. Dieuwke, being that adventurous gal that she is, swam away- found it, and rode it back to the dock.

Me, Dieuwke, and Isabelle in Lake Chelan

 Then Lance told me that he had a survival course for me-- it involved me riding our piece of driftwood (whom we had noticed looked fairly accurately like an Alligator. We very creatively named it The Alligator) to the shore and back.

They say it's easier to ride with a flotation device-- maybe they mean something that isn't circular and doesn't continually try and flip you over....

However, just as I was making it back and passing my survival course Lance decided to see how well I would pass the "Attack of the Killer Lance Course"

Naturally a retaliation battle ensued.....he won....

And I discovered sheer bliss!

And then Lance decided to try and tame The Alligator (it was a very exciting time for all of us!)

It took him a couple tries (being that it's so circular) and I'll spare you those pictures of The Alligator popping up over the water and almost hitting him in the head (largely because of threats on my life...) but he got it!

 And once he got it tamed he invited Dieuwke down to join him

Tender!!!

A more focused and different angle of tender :-P

Isabelle had decided that she wanted to go down and join her parents. Of course once she got into the water she really wanted to get out-- but we weren't letting her out of it. And once she got on The Alligator and found out that she was pretty steady (with Dieuwke and Lance holding it of course) she realized how fun it was and she enjoyed it

 I would just like to mention a very impressive fact about this picture. Dieuwke took it- but that isn't the impressive part. The impressive part is that she was swimming as she did it! And she actually took 2 while she was floating and swimming! And they were focused and good, and the camera didn't even get wet! Kudos to her!

The Boys (and of course, The Alligator-- he was one of the boys by the time the trip was over- we grew attached to him)

And the gals (we wanted to have Isabelle in the photo too, but it was during one of her 15 minute stints of being terrified of water....)

However, even though she was afraid of the water and standing in it she decided that she could dabble her feet in it. (I love her daintily pointing toe here- so cute!)

And of course once she realized she looked cute dabbling her feet in there she had me take a few more pictures

Sheer and utter bliss (and of course complete exposure to sunburn)

Catchin' some readin' on the beach and soakin' up the sun!

 I was taking some pictures of the scenery and Ethan tapped me on the leg. As I turned around he scampered back to his chair and said "You need to take a picture of this" and posed for me. As I was snapping away I asked him what exactly this pose was. He answered me in a 'well-this-should-be-completely-obvious' tone of voice "Auntie- this is my gangsta pose!"

And Isabelle turned out to be quite a little architect. She built numerous little sand castles, birthday cakes, and other various buildings. Of course the fact that they all looked the same didn't matter at all- she's still a great architect

I asked Dieuwke to put some sunblock on my arm-- fully expecting her to dot it as she had on hers. Nope, I got the full schpiel- streak and all! Of course it was too little and too late, I was completely cooked!

Chillin' on the beach!

I'm not gonna lie- I totally thought that either Isabelle or Ethan was going to fall over the side into the little swimming area. They were constantly leaning over to get some water and they kept leaning farther and farther and farther....

Pretty sexy picture of Dieuwke's legs isn't it? She was using some serious muscle here-- a full cooler and a hefty Isabelle!

What can I say? Lance dared me too...

Let me just say that those swings, while they may be comfortable enough for a child are definitely not made for an adult. As Isabelle noticed when she looked at me and when, all nice and polite, "Um, Auntie Bonnie- I think your butt is too big for that swing."

This would  be the picture that was taken right before he got water dumped on him (coincidentally enough it was also the picture taken right RIGHT before I got water dumped all over me...)

Ethan decided to show his dad how to do a push-up, because as you know- the family that pushes up together, stays together

Pretty impressive! (Seriously though Ethan has incredible muscles considering he's 6 years old!)

Swinging is one of the finest pleasures in life. I was contemplating this fact as I swung higher and higher yesterday and I've decided that they should make it an Olympic sport...

Dieuwke, getting ready to conquer the monkey...triangles...

That's right- she's cool!

Bonnie, fearlessly getting ready to show up her sister

Now, I can't lie to you my faithful blog readers. I didn't actually swing on the monkey bars- I don't have enough upper body strength for that. What I do have is height and the ability to fake swinging on the monkey bars! :-D My feet are totally touching the ground...

This was actually one of my favorite pictures ever-- I thought it was just so adorable! And also Isabelle has decided that she can have a future as a trapeze artist now.

And then Lance decided to mock my lack of strength with his super-awesome strength...yeah he mocked me but good. It was sad- impressive to watch though!

And finally the end of our trip. Our car ride back home. Isabelle adequately expressed what pretty much all of us were feeling. It was great, so much fun, so much sun, laughter and memories- and boy were we bushed at the end of it!!!








Well readers- you stuck through with me to the end (I almost feel like I should have some sort of prize available to you or something...) congratulations! I hope you enjoyed it! Some of the pictures were hilarious, most of the captions were self-explanatory, but I had such a good time I had to relive it this way! Isn't it great what blogging lets you do? Ah, good, good days!