We had such a great weekend away in Eastern Washington with friends and sunshine and it was really hard to come back to work. Especially knowing that we have only five work days before our next trip. A part of me just felt like we had entered summer break. But back to that magical weekend.
The girls were fantastic on our drive out east on Friday. We had an easy morning finishing getting ready and packing the car and hit the road around 10:30 am. It was drizzly and gray and although I think Bryan was wondering what the rush was I was just ready to hit the road and get out of dodge. We drove the first 1.5 hours without any fuss from the girls who each napped and arrived in Roslyn to get a bite to eat at the Red Dog Cafe. I got the pastrami hash, Bryan the monte cristo sandwich, and Reese the French toast and although I think we all second guessed our ordering decisions we all enjoyed our meal and the girls were great while we waited a good while for our food to come. We were back in the car with still gray skies and cool air and the next 1.5 hours went equally as smooth as both girls took another nap. We pulled into our Airbnb in Chelan just around 3 pm and were greeted by our host in person who gave us the lay of the land before we settled in. The rental was great with plenty of bedrooms and a wonderful fenced in and sunny wrap around yard with great grass, a grill and a fire pit. The other family arrived right around 4:15 pm and we all immediately settled into play time.
Friday night was spent at a place a short 2 miles down the road called Even Keel Roadhouse and it was the perfect place for our first night. Although they didn’t have the live music that was promised (due to a mix up with the restaurant and band) we got two ridiculously large delicious pizzas to share and the girls had a lawn to run around and get their wiggles out. Brooke did great as well and after we had our fill we headed back to the house (with tons of leftovers) to play some more before bed. Bedtime was epic each night with the two girls who are both night owls and keep each other’s energy up but we managed each night. I don’t think the girls went to bed on night one until 10 pm but they finally did. All of the adults crashed shortly after that (I actually fell asleep in Reese’s bed).
Saturday was a free day with nothing really planned out. We started the morning with Bryan’s waffles and bacon and then got dressed and set out across the street to the park, beach and playground that was only a short walk from our rental. The girls rode their balance bikes and each girl had their own agenda for the time spent at the park. Reese didn’t like the goose poop (Rosalie didn’t seem to notice) and was timid to get her feet wet as well. Reese spent some time at the playground, finally played some in the sand and the water throwing rocks, but mostly ate popcorn on the beach blanket (very unlike her). Reese finally made the executive decision to go back to the house so we all walked back and there the girls played with each other in the splash pad and with the bubble guns and water guns. I went for a short and hot run while Brooke took a quick nap and then came back to get wet myself. Bryan was playing a good monster with the girls. Anne and Phillip were on dinner duty and we decided to have a late lunch of grilled fajitas and do without a nap for the girls so that we could hit a winery before closing.
“Linner” was super delicious and we got ready and headed across the lake to Manson (10-15 minutes) to a winery called Succession Wines. We opted for a bottle of the red blend and rose instead of the rather pricy tasting fee and enjoyed playing on the grass with the views of the lake, mountains and vineyards. The girls played some corn hole and did some sidewalk chalk that the winery had out to play with and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves here. We could see some storms rolling in as we were finishing up so we headed back to the house to get a quick slice of pizza and then walked the three minutes over to another place called Sigillio Cellars that did have live music indoors (thankfully since now it was raining hard) and the two girls and their dads were just about the cutest thing every dancing at the front of the room. There was a bachelorette party there (that we had also run into at the previous winery) who were all so enthralled with the girls dancing as most of them were pediatric nurses away from their own young kids. We all headed back to the house as the music was finishing up at 9 pm and had another round of bedtime that tuckered us all out.
Sunday was Father’s Day as well as our water park day we had planned. We woke up and both of the boys went for a run into town and back and then we got an easy breakfast in before all getting ready for the water park and packing some snacks and sandwiches in our cooler. We got to Slidewaters just after 10 am when they opened and didn’t realize that dad’s got in free which was the first nice surprise. We got a nice shaded table off to the side of the park near the lazy river and Reese was extra eager to hit the water. We started off with the lazy river before moving to the little kids slide area to start. This is where we knew that we had struck gold because in this one area alone there were four slides that were all doable for Reese to do by herself and the smallest one was about the same size as the one in Hawaii and San Diego. Reese was surprisingly timid to start but soon got going and was going down all of these slides. Moving on…
There were two of the big slides that Reese could do from the very top of the park that she could sit in our lap for. Bryan and I each got to ride down these two with Reese multiple times and it was so fun. Bryan also took Reese down one of the tube slides that he said was wild and maybe not even allowed for Reese but the staff gave him permission to go and Reese later proclaimed this one her favorite slide. There were about five other slides that Reese cannot go on until she is over 48″ but there was more than enough for her to ride and she had a blast the whole day through. There was also an extra large hot tub at the bottom of the park that we frequented often throughout the day whenever we needed a warm up. We breaked for sandwiches and snacks at one point and took a few more trips on the lazy river. Bryan got about 30 minutes free to go ride all of the rides he couldn’t ride with Reese and reported back that the Purple Haze slide (an enclosed slide) was crazy and I will never be riding that one. We got scoops of ice cream around 4 pm after the other family had had enough of their fill for the day and left and finally got Reese (kicking and screaming) into the car around 5:30 pm to head back to the house. Reese was not happy to leave, although the park only would have been open for another hour, so it goes without saying that we will be back, maybe even making this an annual trip.
Once back to the house Bryan and I were on dinner duty and grilled up some burgers and brats along with corn on the cob and cole slaw. After dinner we played outside some more, got the girls their first bath of the trip, and then managed to get them down for the night by about 9 pm. Us adults finally got some time to ourselves and enjoyed conversation and drinks around the campfire until past 11 pm when we called it a night ourselves.
Monday morning was mostly spent packing up and cleaning the house although the girls got one last morning to play together. We used up the leftovers making breakfast tacos and hit the road just before 11 am. We decided to detour and stop in Leavenworth for some time and arrived there around noon. We immediately stopped into a candy store advertising salt water taffy (which I love) and picked out a good selection, got an iced coffee next door, and then walked through the waterfront park to a cute little hidden playground that we spend some time at. We headed back into town to get a smoothie and sandwich to share in the shade before getting the girls back in the car for another two hours back to Seattle. Reese never napped during this stretch and Brooke did for the first hour and then was done with the car for the last hour making that super fun. We arrived at home just before 5 pm and unloaded the car, got the girls out and happy, and made a quick dinner for the night.
It was such a wonderful weekend and truly felt like the start to summer. I think Bryan had a great Father’s Day, having so much fun with his oldest girl and also getting to share some time and drinks with friends. We have just five workdays before our next trip and some hot weather in store this weekend so I think our flight on Tuesday will get here quicker than we even know it.
Chelsea
Evolving in the Emerald City 