Camping with Daddy!

Usually it's Stephanie who is blogging, but this entry is all Greg! Enjoy!

It had been 7 years since our family had gone camping -- Erica was 3 months old and we only went for 24 hours as we were concerned about how she (and her new parents) would do in the mountains surrounding Lake Wenatchee.

The impetus of our return to camping was a Father-Child Camp Out put on by our church last weekend. This was the seventh year that they have had this event but we have not been able to participate until this year. Luckily, the preparation was made much easier by being invited to share space in the Minami's tent trailer. That meant not having to find time between Kyle's birthday party and the following weekend to find and clean out the 4-person tent we have had but have not used since that weekend in 2001.

The other thing that made it so easy was the location of the campground. It was only 4 miles from our house! I was able to drive back Saturday morning after breakfast and bring Caroline back to the campground for the day. I brought her back home around 8:30pm.

Erica and Kyle standing in front of the tent trailer after we arrived on Friday night. They are holding the walkie-talkies that I brought to keep us in contact in the group campsite. Other Dads had brought nicer two-way radios and they were the hit of the weekend. While the 7 to 10 year old boys were running around with their Star Wars light sabers, the girls were running around with the two-way radios. ("Rachel, this is Erica...where are you? Over.")

S'mores were a hit with everyone!

Rich and his son slept on the short side (Kyle was just over there for the picture) and Erica slept on a couch along with their daughter.

Here they are enjoying breakfast on Saturday morning. Eggs and sausages, yummy!

One of the dads brought a Bingo set along with a crate of prizes.

They had fun playing Bingo -- and you can see Erica was not far from her two-way radio!

Caroline was excited to be a part of the action -- she loved pushing her baby doll around the campsite in the doll stroller. Baby Christina stayed at home so she didn't get dirty. :)

Lunch time was outside -- we enjoyed Mac-n-Cheese.

Play time at the beach -- the boys were digging to China to get to the Olympics.

Caroline was content to sit by herself and dig a small hole in the sand.

Erica enjoyed digging with her friends by the water --- there was a ton of seaweed (green sea lettuce) all over the beach and made getting into the water very uninviting. It was high tide so the beach was very narrow as well. After only about 30-45 minutes at the beach, the skies opened up and let out the kind of rainstorm that does not happen much in Washington state and especially not much in the summertime. We got up the long steep hill quickly (Caroline in my arm and Kyle in Richard's arm). Luckily, the Dad who had set up for Bingo in the morning had left the shelter up after lunch and it was a haven for the those seeking a dry spot while waiting out the storm.

The older boys were having fun getting extra wet when the Dads would punch out the water collecting on the roof of the shelter. Kyle was wanting to be a part of the fun, but was startled when the water came out with a lot of force onto his entire body. You can see the joy was taken from him for a short time. But he was a back to his jovial self very quickly.

Caroline was adopted by the older girls. They asked about her before she arrived (wondering if and when she was going to join the camp out) and had fun playing with her.
After getting changed into dry clothes, we had some hot chocolate in the trailer.

Dinner in the trailer -- cheeseburgers, baked beans and corn on the cob. Eating well!
Here we are Saturday evening before Caroline said her "goodbyes" and we started to prepare for bedtimes for everyone. We had a great time!