Monday, May 4, 2009

chelan vacation

Our good friends were kind enough to invite us to spend a few days east of the mountains with them. The drive over was beautiful, with this cloud foreshadowing the great weather we would enjoy.









We aren't strangers to long car trips. When it's more than a couple hours, we bust out the opiates, er... screens. While some of us have simpler needs that can be met by the comfortable and familiar odor of drool-soaked "nigh-night", it's nice to have a bright, engaging adventure lighting up ones countenance.









We spent the first morning getting reacquainted with our friends. There is commonality in caring for another, whether it's a fuzzy tigger, dingy baby doll, or a chicken. Who am I to judge the object of ones affections?








The water was still too cold for a swim, but not unlike the mystery of Stonehenge, some vacationing family or tribe or ? had fashioned a fort from driftwood.








Very soon the fort became the Millennium Falcon.



Also, Bob has a cool goatee.









There's plenty to do on the beach though. We pretty much had it all to ourselves.








This little guy didn't eat any sand. Picky eater I guess.









Or perhaps he secretly noted that you just never know where that sand had been. Or what's been in that sand.









We had a competitive round of mini-golf. Some took it seriously, some not so much.









Going off by yourself and vacationing with your family certainly is fun, but we all think doing this kinda thing with good friends who are at a similar stage in life is even better.



7 comments:

Rebecca M said...

I called Bob back to the computer from his bed so he could see this- and I'm still laughing.

You guys have some great shots of these kiddos of ours (and yours). I think my favorite has to be the one with Mercy clutching her Tigger and giving Ethan the eye.

Let's plan some hikes! I bet we could put a lot of weight on these boys...

KAMILLE said...

Great pictures and great writing of course. Glad you got some time away as a family with great friends, especially before baby #5 comes.

Stacy said...

Great pictures, Mike.
It's always fun to come over and spend the first sentence figuring out if it's Amy or Mike writing this.

Oh, and the "screens" thing, for a moment, made me think that you guys had little darkening shades you put up on the kids' windows so they'd think it was time to sleep. And then I was like, "OH! THAT kind of screen." A little slow on the uptake, I know.

Kristen said...

I'm so glad you guys had a fun get away! I always love Lake Chelan in Winter....so peaceful. What are you guys shooting with? Your pictures rock!

Lora Lynn @ Vitafamiliae said...

How cool that y'all have other families to vacation with who "get" what family vacations are like.

Mike Hollister said...

Kristin,

I'm shooting a Canon 5D on those shots. If you have an exif viewer you should be able to right-click and view the stats. The lenses I use are Canon 35 1.4, 85 1.2 and a 70-200 2.8 IS, although I mostly use the first two except for stuff like the soccer post a while back.

When it comes to hobbies, I'm all about the gear.

Anonymous said...

I love how your posts involve crafting the story around photos you took that showcase how fancy you can get with the focus features on your camera. Nice work.

And I think it may almost be time to talk about staging an intervention with Aidan about wearing his socks pulled up over his pants. I get the utility of it. Having two sets of boots to wear is great. But....

-Aunt Helen