A few weeks ago we went camping at Silver Falls. It is by far our favorite camping spot. It's also in high demand and in Oregon people make reservations 9 months out, so needless to say since we were unemployed 9 months ago we had no reservations. I had been hounding Zack to stalk the website and keep calling to see about cancellations... and we finally got lucky! We got a great cabin for 2 nights. Our friends David, Shelly, Asher and Amelia came with us with their pop-up tent. (I gotta get me one of those!)
The best thing about camping is just hanging out at camp and having NOTHING to be doing. I love that there is no computer and no phone. It was nice to just be away from everything. The driveway was really long and the boys had a great time riding their bikes up and down between our van and the trailer. It was nice that they could have a bit of freedom and yet we all felt safe letting them.
Asher and G had a great time roasting marshmallows, and by roasting I basically mean setting on fire and burning into oblivion. Now me personally, I like mine to be barely kissed with flame until they are golden brown. Then I like to pull the outside layers off one at a time after each toasting. Mmmm. The boys, not so much. Zack made them their smores with a marshmallow he toasted, so they could carry on their charred fireball making. (Gotta love the helmets...)
I tried to have some citronella candles burning in hopes of protecting us from the 6 legged critters. Unfortunately, they burned VERY quickly.
Luckily, though I did catch one of them!
Sadly, not long after this pic was shot Asher got pretty sick. :( They ended up dealing with vomit all night and packing up early the next morning.
On a lighter note, I love this walk to the restrooms. (The cabin's don't have any, it's one room with bunk beds and a futon) It's just gorgeous. The trees overhang the path and it's almost like walking into another world. When I was a kid I probably would have been a little scared to walk it alone. But alone is what I did when Shelly declined to go with me, instead staying with a vomiting child... the nerve. :)
And I may never walk through the tunnel after dark again. I had brought my flashlight and to be honest it wasn't quite pitch black yet but it gets much darker in the tunnel. So I was walking along with the flashlight in front of my face because it's one of those LED windup ones that isn't very bright, and out of NOWHERE comes this HUGE bat! It was kinda of flying in circles towards my head. I SCREAMED a profanity! (insert chuckling from the neighboring camp here) I start walking a little bit faster. As I am walking ANOTHER HUGE bat comes out of nowhere straight for my face! I screamed again. TWICE. Again eliciting much laughter from the neighbors. By now I am freaking out a little, and power walking when once again another
HUGE bat comes straight for me. Well not me, by now I have figured out that they like my light so it's no longer by my head! By now I was RUNNING! I finally got to the bathroom though by then I am not sure I needed it anymore!
I went the long way around on the way back.
We usually take our bikes and take full advantage of the trails and roads but since Jax is too young... something about shaking their little brains LOL... we decided to mostly walk. We drove over to the falls one day and hiked just enough to get the picture. I will admit I had no interest in doing the full hike down the hill and back up with Jax on me!
(yes, I know Jax is in his carrier wrong. Sometimes he just likes to look around and he still kinda fits cross legged)
We had a nice visit, though what you don't see is HOW CROWDED it was. 50 people walked by before the lady I asked to take these was able.
After one of the neighboring cabin's was vacated I showed G how they had a ramp for wheel chair access and how great it would be for his scooter. It's here that Zack interjected that this was a bad idea. LOL Usually it's completely the other way around! So G, the trooper that he is, drags his scooter up there and starts down the ramp.
And promptly lands flat on his @$$. He was fine, but he didn't want to do it again. So I did it myself. ahhh camping, it brings out the crazy in us all.
Speaking of crazy. On Sun the directly neighboring cabin got some new campers. We were sitting around our camp generally being nosy watching them set up and attempt to not lose one of their kids when I hear out of the "corner of my ear" some say "Just tie Tiny to the table"...um what?! No really WTF?! So I turn and look and the lady has tied the toddler with a rope around her waist to the picnic table. Okay cool, we are next to the most WT... turns out they are a nice lesbian couple and their 6 kiddos: 2 birthed, 2 foster/adopted, 2 foster and possible adoption. The one they tied to the table is a runner, not that I condone it but I get it. I tried to get a picture but they didn't do it again while we were there and asking "Hey can you do that again so I can post it on my blog" somehow seemed rude. :)
Here is G helping Tiny (named Destiny but since her bio-mom was/is a druggy they decided if they get to keep her that her Destiny is better than that so she will be Elizabeth or Tiny for now.)
We also took full advantage of the hammock we bought specifically for camping. Here is Jax napping in it. It didn't last long but it was cute either way.
Thanks for reading what may be the longest most photo loaded post I have ever written... does this make up for that last few months of slacking?
The best thing about camping is just hanging out at camp and having NOTHING to be doing. I love that there is no computer and no phone. It was nice to just be away from everything. The driveway was really long and the boys had a great time riding their bikes up and down between our van and the trailer. It was nice that they could have a bit of freedom and yet we all felt safe letting them.
Asher and G had a great time roasting marshmallows, and by roasting I basically mean setting on fire and burning into oblivion. Now me personally, I like mine to be barely kissed with flame until they are golden brown. Then I like to pull the outside layers off one at a time after each toasting. Mmmm. The boys, not so much. Zack made them their smores with a marshmallow he toasted, so they could carry on their charred fireball making. (Gotta love the helmets...)
I tried to have some citronella candles burning in hopes of protecting us from the 6 legged critters. Unfortunately, they burned VERY quickly.
Luckily, though I did catch one of them!
Sadly, not long after this pic was shot Asher got pretty sick. :( They ended up dealing with vomit all night and packing up early the next morning.
On a lighter note, I love this walk to the restrooms. (The cabin's don't have any, it's one room with bunk beds and a futon) It's just gorgeous. The trees overhang the path and it's almost like walking into another world. When I was a kid I probably would have been a little scared to walk it alone. But alone is what I did when Shelly declined to go with me, instead staying with a vomiting child... the nerve. :)
And I may never walk through the tunnel after dark again. I had brought my flashlight and to be honest it wasn't quite pitch black yet but it gets much darker in the tunnel. So I was walking along with the flashlight in front of my face because it's one of those LED windup ones that isn't very bright, and out of NOWHERE comes this HUGE bat! It was kinda of flying in circles towards my head. I SCREAMED a profanity! (insert chuckling from the neighboring camp here) I start walking a little bit faster. As I am walking ANOTHER HUGE bat comes out of nowhere straight for my face! I screamed again. TWICE. Again eliciting much laughter from the neighbors. By now I am freaking out a little, and power walking when once again anotherHUGE bat comes straight for me. Well not me, by now I have figured out that they like my light so it's no longer by my head! By now I was RUNNING! I finally got to the bathroom though by then I am not sure I needed it anymore!
I went the long way around on the way back.
We usually take our bikes and take full advantage of the trails and roads but since Jax is too young... something about shaking their little brains LOL... we decided to mostly walk. We drove over to the falls one day and hiked just enough to get the picture. I will admit I had no interest in doing the full hike down the hill and back up with Jax on me!
(yes, I know Jax is in his carrier wrong. Sometimes he just likes to look around and he still kinda fits cross legged)
We had a nice visit, though what you don't see is HOW CROWDED it was. 50 people walked by before the lady I asked to take these was able.
After one of the neighboring cabin's was vacated I showed G how they had a ramp for wheel chair access and how great it would be for his scooter. It's here that Zack interjected that this was a bad idea. LOL Usually it's completely the other way around! So G, the trooper that he is, drags his scooter up there and starts down the ramp.
And promptly lands flat on his @$$. He was fine, but he didn't want to do it again. So I did it myself. ahhh camping, it brings out the crazy in us all.
Speaking of crazy. On Sun the directly neighboring cabin got some new campers. We were sitting around our camp generally being nosy watching them set up and attempt to not lose one of their kids when I hear out of the "corner of my ear" some say "Just tie Tiny to the table"...um what?! No really WTF?! So I turn and look and the lady has tied the toddler with a rope around her waist to the picnic table. Okay cool, we are next to the most WT... turns out they are a nice lesbian couple and their 6 kiddos: 2 birthed, 2 foster/adopted, 2 foster and possible adoption. The one they tied to the table is a runner, not that I condone it but I get it. I tried to get a picture but they didn't do it again while we were there and asking "Hey can you do that again so I can post it on my blog" somehow seemed rude. :)
Here is G helping Tiny (named Destiny but since her bio-mom was/is a druggy they decided if they get to keep her that her Destiny is better than that so she will be Elizabeth or Tiny for now.)
We also took full advantage of the hammock we bought specifically for camping. Here is Jax napping in it. It didn't last long but it was cute either way.
Thanks for reading what may be the longest most photo loaded post I have ever written... does this make up for that last few months of slacking?
