Into Fall now

How does time fly by so fast. It seems only yesterday that we were in the hot sun, swimming, hiking and around camp fires. Now the trailer is in it's winter spot, the trees are  wearing their fall leaves and our wood for the winter is tucked away into our wood shed. We have started to use our wood stove again. It was a sad day for me when we light our wood stove because that means that summer is truly over. 

Now to go back a few months. In July we were camping at a campground near us. We do this every year with a few families and have a great time. This year I brought some rocks from home, we are never short on those! Loaded paint brushes and acrylic paint into the trailer for some fun rock painting. I love the personalities of all the rocks! One of my friends Janet enjoyed it so much that she bought paint for her own creation for when ever she wanted to paint a rock or found one that was begging for a make over. 

Table is set for painting  ... rocks?

Bright and ready to be put into my flowerbeds or be taken home by the creators.

The one with the white flowers was painted by a woman that is a graphic designer. I am loving it.

This one is amazing. Seamstress had her husband come up and asked who painted this one? It was at her spot and she was dumb founded by this question.

Camping along a river makes for many beach days. Here they are once again enjoying splashing around. Buster the ever present rottweiler cross loves the water. I guess I should say the lab in him loves the water. Logs were tied together and he would pull them into shore and ground them. He is one strong dog! 

Lounging and enjoying the cooler water.

The pizza raft was another hit.

You can just see Buster in the water. He is tethered to the logs with his human child relaxing and enjoying the ride. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Joanne and I are early risers. We would wake up, I would join her at her site because it was just a wee bit warmer there. What did we do besides chat and making memories? Why crochet of course. Jaime was not able to knit any more because her hands hurt too much. She learned to crochet and was well on her to be becoming an expert hooker. Hooker= crocheter. 

Boris loves his momma as she was crocheting. Now this is the life!

Joanne and Joanne working on their project.

For one week we were home. I went to get our oldest granddaughter. A few days more at home and this it was off to Ephrata WA for a wonderful two weeks. I don't have a picture to show this but Joanne and I rode the men's bikes down while the towed the trailers. The families that gathered for this time were us, Craigs, Campbells and Tarasoffs. 

Here are a lot of our highlights.

Our oldest granddaughter Paige and Arianna at a very cold river near where we live.

Love this picture of the girls. It looks like they are sitting on the water.

Sunshine, water and children = great times.

After a dinner of butter chicken we celebrated Stephanie's 22nd birthday. How did she get that age without me noticing?

Paige and the lizard she found.

The above picture has a bit of a story. Paige rounded the corner and saw something moving on our railing by the kitchen. She investigated it more to see it was a tiny lizard. Can you see the joy she had in discovering this little guy. She even named him/her Lizzy. Later that evening she released Lizzy to the rocks and hopefully to find a safe place to spend the rest of the summer. 

The campground we stayed at in Ephrata. A golf course was our back yard for two weeks.

Gordon and Jaime making use of the golfing closeness. He so enjoyed the time spent on the course.

A beautiful sunrise. I loved to watch the sun saying good morning before we began to crochet.

These windmills were huge!!!

 Above you are seeing one of the many windmills we saw on one of our excursions. We were actually looking for the Petrified Forrest. This was such a fun place to see and explore. There is even a museum or information center there to explore and learn. This was the high lite of the day. Petrified Forrest was not as interesting. So glad we went on this journey.

 

Paige, myself and Arianna above the Dry Falls

Of course the Sun Lakes beach was a big hit with all the kids and adults alike.

Water slides, water surfing and just playing in water calls for an ice cream .

Meanwhile the adults got to relax in the shade or sun.

Muddied up from Soap Lake

 Soap Lake is amazing and very very stinky! But oh the mud does wonders for your skin. We all look like the creature from Black Lagoon. Did I mention how much we all stunk?

Gwen helping me wash off that mud. This had better be worth it.

Later that night Jim brought his guitar and sang for us. Loving it.

Another excursion: Grand Coulee Dam Tour.

Later at night we went to see the Grand Coulee Dam light show.

 If you have never been to the light show at the dam I highly suggest you do. It is educational, entertaining and beautiful. Also make time to go see the museum which tells you about the history of the area and the dam as it was being built.

Another excursion ... this one is at the Lenore Caves

In front of Starbucks in Leavenworth WA. Loved this little town.

That is a part of our summer. More to come tomorrow or maybe even today. I will have to see what time I have to post. Hope you enjoyed the trip with us. I would say a huge yes to visiting this area if you are able to. 

Till the next post. Take care.

Joanne