Our Palmer Lake Trip

We went for a week-long family reunion to Uncle Dennis' house on Lake Palmer last week and had an absolute BLAST! Those of us who came were my parents, the kids & I, Amber, Steve & the kids, Rob & Rachel, and a few close family friends. For those of you who don't know, Lake Palmer is about 10 miles from the Canadian border about 2 hrs north of Wenachee. Our Uncle Dennis has two houses up there on the lake, and it's a great vacation spot where we have family reunions and fishing trips. We stayed in the big house (6 bedrooms) this time, and it was so nice to spend quality time with the family! Here are some of our highlights that we did together: We went on the fishing boat and caught LOTS of salmon, we BBQed some of it, and smoked most of it (homemade smoked salmon, to DIE for!). We swam off the dock to the floating trampoline and played around in the water with the kids. We paddled the kids around the edge of the lake with the paddle boat. One of us went out in the Kayak and got stranded treading water when it flipped (thank goodness that wasn't me!). We went out on the speedboat with the tube and wakeboard (no, the wakeboard wasn't me either. They wouldn't have let me anyways and it would have been a hilarious sight!) We hit balls in the tennis court & the kids rode bikes and roller skated. We went on walks and saw LOTS of deer. We picked fresh peaches and then when it rained we played board games and Wii. We had a family home evening night where we talked about how we can make our family stronger, more of a unit. And Dad told some of his Alaska hunting/wilderness stories that we love so much! It was an such a wonderful experience, thank you Uncle Dennis for providing all the facilities to make it so much fun!!

Here are some of our fishing pictures:














And here are some of our boating/tubing pics:













Swimming off the dock, boat & floating trampoline:








The wildlife was amazing! If you wanted to see the eagles or hawks, all you had to do was toss out a carp off the boat & wait! I once saw 5 deer at the same time, and Amber & her kids almost had a run-in with a bear. Last time we were there, the kids saw moose.







The view off the deck is so panoramic, (here's Janai playing on the deck) you can see almost the entire lake & the mountains are so HUGE! We also watched a meteor shower one night & the stars felt like you could reach out and touch them.






And of course, pancake breakfasts, games, and down time to relax & visit with eachother:












I'm still waiting on more pictures, when I get them I'll update my blog. Nothing like a family reunion to rekindle relationships and make you feel more of a close knit family. We missed you Cory, Minnie, Scott, Diana, Dan & Kimmie, it was SO well worth the trip up, and we hope you're able to join us next year!!