Camping Trip

A few weeks ago, we went camping for one night at Battle Ground Lake State Park.  This park is only about 40 minutes away from home so it seemed like a good first foray into camping.  If we needed to go home at night for some reason, then we could.

Also, this campsite has heated cabins with beds.  It seemed a lot easier to camp there with a baby instead of in a tent.

So off we went on a Saturday.  We went with some other friends who met us at the park.  The kids really liked the park because there is a lake that they all enjoyed playing in.  Gabriel loves digging in the dirt with a shovel and spent his time doing that.

The girls enjoyed playing in the water.  Since this lake is not fed by runoff from snowmelt and only by rain, the water was not cold at all.

They enjoyed wandering around, looking at the rocks in the water.

Eliana, our little amphibian, really enjoyed playing in the water.

She started chasing after a pair of ducks and didn't understand why they didn't want to play with her.

And meanwhile, Gabe kept digging in the dirt.

After a while, Karina got tired of playing in the water and wanted to get out and dry off.  Eliana, on the other hand, stayed in the water as long as she could.

We borrowed a kayak from Emily's brother.  The girls enjoyed riding in the kayak with Daddy.

After changing and drying off, it was time for dinner and the kids were ravenous.  Mac and cheese to the rescue.

Gabriel also enjoyed the pasta.  And watermelon.  And crackers.  And chips and other things.  He ate for about 45 minutes straight and our friends were astounded by his endless appetite.

In the evening, we roasted marshmallows for s'mores.  Eliana enjoyed doing this.

The cabin was pretty roomy, clean, and can sleep up to 5.  It had electricity, too!

When it was time to go to bed, Karina, for some reason, did NOT want to sleep in the cabin.  We were not totally surprised, because Elvin and the girls camped out in a tent a few weeks before, and Karina ended up waking up crying after a couple of hours in the tent and we brought her inside to sleep in her own bed.  So Emily ended up driving home with Karina and she took Gabriel too.  We figured Gabriel would end up sleeping better at home too.

Eliana, on the other hand, really enjoyed sleeping in the cabin in her sleeping bag.

It rained overnight but cleared up by morning.  Both Elvin and Eliana slept well that night.  The sounds of the raindrops drumming on the roof must've helped them sleep.  

As we wandered around in the morning, we saw huge banana slugs out and about.

Emily and the two younger kids joined us at the campsite again in the morning.  As we were packing up to leave, Gabriel the Scavenger, got a hold of a bag of Cheetos and really did a number on them.

After we were all packed up, we split up again.  Gabriel headed home so he could take a nap.

Meanwhile, Elvin and the girls headed off to the lake again.  The girls found puddles to stomp through.

They hiked for a little bit through the woods.

We were hiking around the perimeter of the lake looking for a spot to go fishing from.

We finally situated ourselves and settled in.  After casting and waiting for 3 minutes, Eliana declared that this fishing thing takes "forever!"

She asked if she could walk around the shore of the lake. Elvin said yes, but told her to be careful that she doesn't fall in.  Next thing that happens is that Eliana somehow had wandered too far into the lake and now needed to empty her boots which were full of water.

We never did catch anything but sure had a fun time.  We wrapped things up by heading into town for lunch at Burgerville.

Karina was really tired and on our drive home, drifted off to sleep...