The Perry Family: The Lake House

I always wanted to be able to refer to "our lake house." And while we don't have a lake *house,* we do have a tiny condo on Lake Chelan. And it is great. This summer, I decided (with the encouragement of Jedd) to take the plunge and spend much of the summer there with the kids, alone, without Jedd. 6 weeks, to be exact. We came home one weekend for some family events. Aside from that Jedd visited on the weekends and stayed home to work during the week.

It was... hot: I think in the 6 weeks we were there, we had maybe 2 days of cool or really overcast weather. Nothing so cold that it required long pants or sweatshirts during the day. Most days it was so warm that we didn't even need sweatshirts at night. Meanwhile, at home, I heard reports of rain and cool temps.

It was... challenging: 440 square feet of condo (one bedroom, one bath, kitchen/living space combo), on the second floor is not terribly conducive to active 3 & 5 year olds. This means there is very little space to move around and the kids cannot run outside without me leaving the condo with them. So we spent a lot of time outside, which is great. But it is also very tiring being out in the sun (one week+ was in the 100's) all day, day after day after day.

It was... fun!: Chelan is a big summer destination for Washingtonians, so we were able to meet up with several of our friends who were vacationing there. I signed the kids up for swim lessons in the lake. We went to the library a couple times and got to see the Reptile Man('s son) there. We rode bikes and went to the farmer's market. We went to the water slides. We had countless meals and outings with Nana and Poppy, who live just up the hill from the condo.

It was... a learning experience: I learned that if I had to, I could be a single parent. I truly hope I never have to. Although I did it (during the work weeks), I didn't do it nearly as well as I do with Jedd.

It was... a summer to remember: And one to repeat again next summer (with some adjustments). I love that the kids were able to spend so much time with their grandparents who live in Chelan. We don't see them as often as we do my parents and I love that they will have these memories to cherish. Next summer I think we will come home more often. We still had some renters this summer, so we were a bit limited on time and we had to clear out all our stuff for them. Next summer, we'll come and go as we please. At least that is the current plan.

Here is a very small glimpse of some of the fun times.

Packed up and ready to go! I was fairly impressed with myself that I was able to get the car packed, all by myself, by the time that I was shooting for, on the day we wanted to leave.

Our home away from home. This is pretty much it. The bedroom is at the far end of the hall. The bathroom is just beyond the kitchen on the right. This picture was taken from outside the sliding glass door, on the deck.

One of many visits to Nana and Poppy's winery. The Annual Falling Cow Festival, complete with cows (fitted with parachutes), falling out of a helicopter.

Bike riding on the Riverwalk.

Playing at the Orondo Ciderworks. Great cider and fresh donuts. Yum!

Lake time! It's kind of hard to see, but if you click for the larger picture, you can tell that it is quite hazy. There was a fire while we were there. It is about 1/3 of the way from the left side of the picture, behind the mountains.

Carter and Jedd, bringing the wave runner in for the day.

Maxx and Kyla shared the bedroom (so I didn't have to go to bed at 8, when they did). Maxx has a hard time going to sleep when someone is in the room/bed with him. When he wouldn't stop poking/talking/giggling, he would have to go to sleep in the bathroom. Hopefully being passed out, next to the toilet, on the floor of a bathroom is not a precursor to his college years...

The luau at the Lake Chelan Winery.

Jedd, carrying some tired kids back to the condo.

Storytime in the park. Maxx slept through it all.

Taking the hard route.

We spent many evenings at Nana & Poppy's house, having dinner, riding bikes and driving the remote control truck.

More beach time.

Grandma Kay and Papa visited for a few days and got to see the kids swim in the lake.

Piling on the slide at sunset, with the Johnson boys.

Story time. Maxx stayed awake for this one.

(The son of) the Reptile man. I was surprised how many reptiles he brought with him. It was a very popular presentation. Kyla loved it. Maxx could care less. He just wanted to eat his snack and play the iPhone, little turkey.