Fire & Ice

We usually make one trek over to Chelan to enjoy the snow each winter, this year we decided to head over for Chelan's Fire & Ice festival. I can't believe it's been going on for 25 years and I've never experienced it. It will definitely be a repeat event in years to come. Our kids are just scratching the surface in terms of enjoying an event like this but we still had a great time. The whole town comes together to host different events like ice carvings, horse rides through town, a wine and chocolate walk through the shops and the grand event which is a parade followed by a polar bear swim in the lake and Christmas tree bonfire.

The kids love to visit Grandma and Grandpa C's house any time of year but this was extra fun with the snow outside to play in. Here's McKenzie and Ben laughing as they sled down the snow pile in the front yard. I can't wait until they are a bit bigger and we can take them up to the big sledding hill with the rope tow. That might finally be wild enough for these two dare devils.


Ben, Matt and McKenzie with a variety of expressions while riding on the horse drawn carriage through town.


McKenzie and Grandpa C saying "thank you" to the horses after the ride. These were some huge horses.


McKenzie dancing with a whole crowd of little girls to a singer named Janelly Bean, who's CD we now own and have listened to more times than I care to count. This was her first time seeing someone sing in person and then making the connection to hearing them on CD. McKenzie wanted to know if Janelly could come sing and dance at her house.


Ben while he did enjoy the music and will do some dancing in the car or at home did not want to dance with the girls. Instead he liked to watch what everyone was doing and just take it all in, then of course he did get up to try to rewire the entire sound system.


Here's a very cold, dark, rainy picture of the parade. McKenzie didn't let the weather get her spirits down until the candy that was being thrown in the parade got washed away in the small river of water running down the street. When we did snag some of the treats before they got wet she was so happy.

After the parade we headed down to the beach for the Christmas tree bonfire and polar bear swim. Matt, Uncle Eric and Grandpa C all did the swim.  I feel bad now that it was too cold and wet for me to even pull out the camera for a picture after they got out. This is a lake that I consider to be cold in the summer.  I was glad I wasn't doing the swim! The bonfire was huge and was accompanied by a firework show which the kids loved. Ben has never really seen fireworks and he just kept saying "whoa" and "wow" over and over while riding in the baby backpack.


Here's cousin Nathan in the snow fort that Aunt Kacey, the kids and I remodeled. There was a big snow bank that had three tunnels carved into it but it was melting so we built up the side and created an even bigger fort for everyone to enjoy. This thing will be sticking around for a while.