Mendel Family: Lake Pearrygin

Our little family went camping for 6 days at Lake Pearrygin, Winthrop with my parents and Zach, Cheri, and their 4 boys. It was a blast despite a few sleepless nights and chasing Miles around. I prepared myself for camping by lowering my expectations about the boys sleeping as well as at home and assuming that Miles would try to run off or get into everything. I'm so glad I prepared myself and had that frame of mind because it made the trip much more enjoyable.

Patrick and I decided to leave Friday night so the boys would sleep the most of the 5 hour drive over (my parents, Zach, and Cheri got there earlier that day). We pulled in at midnight on the dot, put the boys straight to bed which worked out really well, and crawled in to bed ourselves. The next day was spent at the beach, taking walks, spending time at the trailer while babies napped, celebrating Cheri's birthday, and indulging in junk food. I'm still detoxing from all the junk food after 3 days of being home. My favorite part of the junk food is what the boys call "candy school." All it is is a giant Costco bag of candy but the boys sure love it (as do I) and is known to be used to bribe the boys to do something such as fall asleep first or be quiet so they don't wake up sleeping babies. They'll call it double candy school meaning they get two pieces of candy if they're good.

The weather wasn't the best a couple of the days we were there which made it less desirable to hang out at the beach, although we still did a little bit, especially when the sun did come out. The boys took boat rides on my dad's new boat, were towed on the inner tube, went fishing a couple times and caught 6 fish. Uncle Don, Aunt Linda, Monica, Luke, and Luke's two buddies came out to see us. It was fun catching up with everyone. Dad, Zach, and Pat went golfing while us girls hung out at the campsite and relaxed a bit.

Another day we took a drive up to Sun Mountain Lodge. There is a gorgeous view of the Methow valley. The hotel is very unique. It's a rustic cabin lodge with really awesome game displayed down the hallways, in the lobby, and a giant buffalo when you first walk in. They have a cooled wine room that houses from 3000 to 5000 wine bottles and a table fit for a king that seats about 12 to 14 and an enormous Polar Bear. On our way back we stopped in Winthrop and had ice cream outside.

One of the struggles was getting Grant to sleep well at night. Half the nights Grant slept amazing and the other half were spent sleeping in two hour intervals and waking up for the day at 5:30. But he made up for that by napping 3 1/2 hours a couple times so I guess it turned out OK. Miles slept great! He was so worn out by end of the day that he was practically begging to go to bed. The first couple of days were a bit of a challenge keeping him within our campsite area but by the end of the trip he was obeying us when we told him not to wander too far. My mom brought a corral gate that Miles played in which was so helpful!

Between 3 cameras we took 429 pictures. It's fun seeing what everyone captured.

Camping was like a mini wildlife adventure. This squirrel would not leave our campsite alone! He kept trying to steal food. We'd chase him away and he'd come right back. Another pesky critter that wouldn't leave us alone either was a mole. There were holes everywhere and he'd crawl out, walk across our site, and go in another hole. He was super tame and didn't mind being pushed aside or picked up with swimming flippers to be transported to some bushes. One night a deer wandered on the outskirts of our site. It watched us at the campfire for a moment and then moseyed on to find food.