Back to Back Vacations

We just got from two back to back vacations. First we went to Lake Wanicut in Orville WA for a few days. We stayed in a cabin at Sun Cove Resort and had a blast. The biggest hit of the trip was all of the turtles we caught. Just with a net over the dock. We ended up getting a total of 11 turtles and 4 of them were babies. 3 days after we got back from Wanicut, we were off to Michigan for a family reunion for my Dad's side of the family. We had a blast! We went to the Lake one day, Lake MI, and it was breathtakingly beautiful! I have been to the Bahamas before and I can seriously compare it to there. In MI!! No joke. The lake is HUGE and you can't see across it, there was a tide and waves, big ocean waves, so you felt like you were at the ocean. It sure puts our beaches to shame. No icky water, no seaweed and stuff growing off the bottom, crystal blue water with white sandy beaches. The water was pretty warm too. What a blast. The reunion was great! I got to see most everyone when I was in MI a year ago on business so it was great to see everyone again, but Dan and Natalie got to meet everyone for the first time. We took a red eye to get there because my sister convinced me that if you do that, you don't lose a day from the time change. Not really thinking it through, I booked it. Well once I thought about it....we had a midnight flight, an hour and a half layover in Chicago, a 2 hour drive to where we were staying and a 3 hour time difference. Yikes. I was very nervous about that, but Natalie was a trooper. I let her stay awake until we were up in the air which she thought flying up in the sky was just the coolest and then told her to go to sleep and she was out. The flight to MI from Chicago ended up only being a 25 minute flight (why bother huh?). I was thinking an hour and a half since that's what the itinerary said if you were comparing take off time to landing time, but I forgot there was a 1 hour time difference in there. Natalie also slept the whole 2 hour car ride to Thompsonville....Dan did too. I WISH I took a picture of at one point when I looked in the backseat behind me to see Dan asleep on Natalie's carseat and their heads were angled the exact same way, they both had the same hand pressed up on their chin. It was too precious, but the camera was in the trunk. :(

Here is the whole crew! I am in the back row second from the right, Dan is 2 to the left of me with the sunglasses on and I think that is Natalie in the front row next to the little girl (Olivia) with the green pants.

Jena on a dirtbike. Scary! She did really good though!
My Baby....
Natalie and her cousin Shayna
Dan is outlining my brother in law Brian. See the love handle Dan made him and the HUGE nose? Too funny
Natalie wanted to be outlined too, but I couldn't do it. She's too ticklish and wouldn't stop wiggling and laughing when I was trying to outline her armpit and sides.

Here is the beach I was talking about. Natalie wasn't so sure of the sand at first because she hates getting dirty, but soon had a blast and loved burying my foot.
Jena and Mak swimming in the lake
This is the hayride my aunt co-ordinated for the reunion. It was fun. The lady took everyone around for miles for about an hour. Saw lots of deer and the haunted house. Believe it or not, I, yes I, big old chicken Becky, went in the haunted house. Not the barn though. No way! There was something growling and hissing in there. My cousin eventually went in there (with a gun) and it was 2 turkey vultures.
Here is the core of the reunion. My Dad on the left, his sister Jean, Brother Roger and sister Linda. There were about 50-60 people there.
Here is Jena and Beth jumping off the raft at lake wanicut.

Here is the rattle snake we saw! We didn't realize what it was until we drove past it, so we backed up. I have been going to Lake Wanicut all my life and have never seen one (heard them, but never saw them). I give Dan and Jena props for getting out of the car to look.
This was sooo cool. There is a ghost town in Molson WA (pop. 35!) from the gold rush days. Once it was over everyone just left. There is a lot to look at, 3 houses, a bank, tons of farming equipment, etc. This is an old oven.
Here is jena and Natalie at the ghost town and Dan in the background. If you are ever up in the Okanogan area you should check it out.
Here is my honey fishing. The fishing sucked this year. I guess they had snow until June....in Eastern WA! So the lake temp is really cold and the trout are deep down. All we caught were teeny trout they just put in the lake to stock it for next year.
Here is Natalie and I goofing around in the pool.

Isn't he cute!? This is one of the baby turtles we caught. We caught an even smaller one. The littlest one was only about an inch long. I wanted to take him home.
Natalie and I walking around the grounds.
Natalie loved the turtles. She had no problem holding them. Here is here holding the pot with 3 baby turtles. Oh, and you are probably wondering what the red stuff is on them. The girls named the turtles and wrote their names on their shell with neon orange nailpolish. A few people were telling us they would see the "branded" turtles swimming around in the lake.