*That's my middle name*: Chatter Creek

The first weekend of August, the majority of Doug's side of the family went camping at Chatter Creek campground, 16 miles outside of Leavenworth. The last time we did this was 14 years ago, Sara would have been 7, Patrick 4. It's hard to believe it was so long ago! We did this for about 3 or 4 summers (no one is sure exactly which) and the kids (nieces and nephews) wanted to reinstate this tradition. We were able to get a reservation for the group site, and plans were made.

All in all, there were 21 of us, 8 adults and 13 kids. These "kids" aren't really kids anymore -except for two of them -2 year old Amanda and almost 5 year old Kayla. The others ranged in age from 18 to 30 (her birthday is next week). Our nephew Robert (Rob) was even able to join us - he currently lives in Colorado.

It was just a short, 3 day trip, but fun nevertheless. It was fun playing games around the campfire and just hanging out and chatting. Two of my sister-in-laws and I went into Cashmere to check out an antique mall. On the way, we saw a mama deer and 3 (3!) babies. I'm not sure if she "adopted" one, or if it's possible to for deer to have triplets. Unfortunately, I was only able to get a picture of two of them crossing the road.

Whenever the Gowey boys get together, much silliness ensues. They are all adults, with adult jobs, but get the four of them together and they are silly boys. Christmas, they make the stuffed animals "talk" and throw candy across the room. Easter, the kids might find olives or carrots in their plastic easter eggs during the family easter egg hunt. There are 6 kids in their family, 2 girls, 4 boys. (girl, boy, boy, girl, boy, boy) The girls didn't come on this trip (oldest sister's 2 daughters came with their husbands)but all four of the boys were there with their families.

There is always some type of a friendly competition going on, which included this time, among other activities, frisbee golf. But the end of our trip was the best. Doug(my husband, 5th child), Patrick and Mike (3rd child) made boats to float down the creek. Doug had the Bud boat (modified beer can), Mike had a juice bottle boat, and Patrick had a wood boat he had been carving part of the weekend. The passengers were some army guys some previous camper-child had left strewn around the campsite. Everyone got all packed up, and then it was time for the race. This is pure silliness, but I was able to get a portion of this excitement preserved as a video clip. (Hmmm... I just spent 5 hours trying to get it to download - it's taking much too long, I think I'll skip the video!)