But it did take me pretty much all of summer to come to this conclusion, so as you may have noticed I've been going back to a few summer events to make sure all the important stuff is documented and our final summer trip was one of them. And it was also the biggest. So here we go.
We spent the first two weeks of August spending time with Phil's extended family at a reunion in Albion, Idaho. Afterwhich, we drove up to Seattle, where we spent a week with Phil's parents and then spent the last few days of our trip waterskiing at Lake Chelan. So let's break the photo overload up into parts:
Part I: Pugmire Family Reunion, Albion, ID
I really, really enjoyed our time here. Phil's mom is one of ten siblings and they're so great to plan reunions so a family of that size has the opporunity to spend quality time together. Obviously, not everyone can make each one, in fact, his has been the first one we've been able to attend since I was pregnant with Ryder, so it was great to hang out and get to know better some pretty wonderful people.
Albion, Idaho is a quiet, well-maintained town, that I found rather charming. We stayed in an old dorm building from what was once a college campus. The family that owns it, renovated the building for the purpose of hosting family runions and other large gatherings. Ironically, they turned the rest of the buildings on the small campus into the Albion Haunted Mansions that they run for two months out of the year. They were getting it ready while we were there and they even gave us our own haunted tour...yeah, it was creepy. We also took a day outing to the City of Rocks National Park where we explored really large, crazy-shaped rocks. The rest of our time was spent playing games, riding banana bikes and running back and forth between the pool and the hot tub. Oh, and of course, what sort of family reunion is complete without a bouncy slide?
Also, because I like food--as you can imagine feeding a group this size was no small feet, but Phil's mom and aunts have this down to a fine art and every meal was plentiful and delicious. I just wish I got a picture of the fruit bowl (think: the size of an exercise ball cut in half).
(All of the really good pictures below were taken by Phil's uncle, Jon Pugmire--who generously let me use them on my blog. :)
Part II: Seattle
Seattle is always a good time. Phil and I actually spent our anniversary of nine years in a car all day with three small children to get there. That's how much we like Seattle. We spent our time here mostly chilling with Phil's parents, sneaking in a trip to go swimming, meeting up with good friends, going to the beach or hiking when the menfolk weren't busy working. A highlight for sure, was our anniversary date night where Phil and I attempted to be slightly more adventerous than usual and went canoing on Lake Union and ate dinner at a little hole-in-the-wall Thai restaurant in U Village. So fun! Knowing lillies are my favorite flower, Phil even (perhaps illegally) picked one for me on the lake. He's so romantic.
Part III: Lake Chelan
Before heading back to Utah, we took a detour to beautiful Lake Chelan. Truth be told, we boated on the Columbia next to Lake Chelan, which left the river to ourselves for most of the time. Skiing, wakeboarding was had by the adults and the tubing was for the kiddos...and myself. It was a beautiful area to see and a great way to end not only our vacation but our summer vacation!
