Ask us how much we love our careers. || Lake Wenatchee and Leavenworth

If you ask your average career holding adult how much they love what they do, they might say "oh, it's great!", but then they leave the office at 5 on a Friday, and go home to do whatever they really love to do. Maybe they'll say something about how they're doing it because its good money. Or good benefits. Or it allows them to travel.

However, I don't think there are many other careers in the world, besides photography, that allows us to do our jobs 24/7, and be genuinely happy, every second of it. 

Me, Taylor, Jasmina, Clare, and Colton, love photography so much, that we drove 3 and a half hours away to go shoot for fun. We risked winter weather and slick roads, lost sleep, dumped gas money into my Corolla, and then, in an extremely unfortunate turnout, crashed that Corolla on our way back to Spokane. We love it so much, that we took a risk to go to a insanely beautiful place, and had to deal with a car accident and being stranded in a city that none of us were familiar with overnight. And then had to find a way home the next day.

Can you say you love your job that much?

Well, it was almost entirely worth the stress we all had to go through. Almost.

Colton shot me a text one day that said; "hey, you guys should meet me in Leavenworth on the 28th, I'm doing an engagement shoot the next day and it would be awesome!" Immediately I thought; "I couldn't. I have work." But then after looking at the calendar, the 28th was conveniently a Monday, and also my day off. Weird. It was also everyone else's day off! It was meant to be. We had to go! None of us had seen Colton in like 6 months, and the most beautiful photos of Lake Wenatchee had been showing up in my Instagram feed lately that I needed to see for myself. Our parents warned us about the roads and conditions. We decided to tempt fate anyways.

We set off at 7 AM, with our stomachs full of McDonald's breakfast, and the stereo blasting 21 Pilots. The drive there was smooth, and the last hour or so of it, driving into the valley, was so pretty. Mountain peaks stuck out of clouds, gleaming in pockets of sunshine, and in those moments, I wished that my eyeballs were cameras so I could keep those views and hold on to them forever. I swear, every time I travel somewhere new in Washington, I fall even more in love with living here. I have to say that we live in the most visually diverse state in the country! Mountains, fields, oceans, lakes, big cities, small towns, woods; you name it. It's here.

Our reunion with Colton was bittersweet. We knew we only had a limited amount of time to see him and so we had to make the most of it. We started our day by making a pitstop out of Leavenworth, on the way to Lake Wenatchee, at a little covered bridge over the river. Already, everyone was giddy. We were surrounded by tall mountains, the river, and lots of snow. I imagine that this is what it feels like to be inside of a snowglobe. We adventured around this small area for around an hour, and then continued on. 

Finding Lake Wenatchee proved to be a bit of a struggle. We ended up driving about halfway up Steven's Pass before realizing that we definitely missed the turn. (Not that this was a problem, because the sun was shining, the sky was blue, we were in the mountains, and everything was glittering.) We turned around and quickly tracked down our destination. Getting there was a bit disappointing, because of all the extra fees we had to pay, just to park. And of course, the pass machine was broken, so the state park trooper would only accept cash. Annoying. We sold our souls to park in the lot, and boy, was it worth it.

We walked out on to the shores of the lake, to be presented with what I would presume to be the worlds largest mirror. The water was completely calm, flat, and glassy. The lake is cushioned by large, descending hills on each side, and, like perfect symmetry, a small, evergreen filled island in the middle. It's one of those incredible hidden gems, and I don't think there's anything else like it in the world. It was a beautiful sunny day, and I couldn't have asked for a better coincidence of timing and scenery. We were all like giddy 5 year olds with birthday cake, except the birthday cake was sunshine, amazing people, and the most stunning backdrop. I don't think I stopped smiling for like 2 hours. Everyone took turns taking photos of each other, and that day we all became models, as well as photographers. Gah. What an amazing experience. 

We explored the trails around the snow park for a while, until the blue skies faded to grey, and both our stomachs and fingertips protested. We finished our trip off by taking a quick stroll around Leavenworth, which was actually kind of awful because there were so many people everywhere, and we were so darn cold. The exact words that came out of Clare's mouth as we wandered around the cutest little German town with coffee in hand were, "Guys... I'm miserable." So we all left Leavenworth, and headed to Wenatchee to get dinner at Red Robin. It was a perfect end to our day. We said our goodbyes with Colton, got in the car, gassed up, and-

that's when the fun ended.

You know, despite all the awful parts of getting in a car accident (the most awful of them all being the fact that I work almost full time, and I don't have a car), we had the most memorable day. This is a day I will never forget, and has been one of my favorite adventures of all time. I can't wait to return in the summer, and then see even more of the Northern Cascades! If you guys haven't adventured around Washington yet, what are you doing?! You're missing out on some of the most beautiful scenery in the whole world. 

Below is photographic proof of everything listed above. In. Cred. I. Ble. Check them out, and let me know what you think in the comments!