Trout Lake 2009

Last weekend we crammed the kids and dogs into our minivan like sardines and took off for Cathy’s house in Trout Lake, WA. The kids pitched a tent in her front yard so it was like camping for them.

I’ve missed my Cathy-friend so it was awesome to see her. And the scenery. OMG the scenery. I took 439 pictures. I’ve uploaded 39 of them here: Cathy’s House, Trout Lake, WA Most of the mountains, grass, and animal pictures I took were views from Cathy’s back porch.

Here’s a small sample:

We discovered on this trip that we have really really outgrown our minivan. I haven’t mentioned it on here yet but we’re moving from fostering to adopting my niece. So our family has “officially” grown by one. (She’s legally free to be adopted now, we’re just awaiting the finalization … which could take a long time.)

Whenever we travel to family or a friend’s house, we try to bring food. At the very least some snacks and drinks so we’re not putting anyone out. We couldn’t even fit one small cooler in our van with the two dogs all the seats taken. In the past whenever we took *all* the kids, we’d rent a passenger van. We figured we were saving a lot of money by doing that. But we realized that it limits us way too much to depend on renting whenever we want to take the whole, or even just most, of our tribe anywhere.

R&D recently got a big SUV and that was also part of our inspiration to actually look into this. We’d love to be able to toss the kids, the dogs, and some gear and take off on a weekend here or there and not be limited by the miles, time, money, etc. that comes with renting a vehicle.

And I really want to be able to steal away to Cathy’s house any time it’s possible and not have to worry about which kids get to go with us.