Camping Trip!

In June, we went camping with several other families from church.  It's always a gamble going camping in June in the Pacific Northwest.  Last year when we went camping, it rained really hard during our trip.  This year, however, the weather forecast was perfect!

Time to load up!

Yes, we take two cars when we go camping.  This is partly because the kids like to ride their bikes while camping and really the only way to take 5 bicycles is with two cars.  (Emily doesn't take hers.)  Plus we bring plenty of firewood, and other things.

And we're off...here is the scene in the van.

And here is the scene in the Accord.  Burgerville supplied dinner.

This campsite was east of us, at a place called Beaver Campground.

When we got there, it was time to set up camp.  It's not easy to find a spot for our tent, given that it is ginormous.

And then it was also time to switch out one of the tires of the van.  What turned out to be a 6-inch wooden shard/spike punctured the tire and produced a slow leak.  Xiao Yu "helped" out.

And here he is standing proudly by his handy work.

We went off to play frisbee.

And after doing that, went bike riding just because.

We really liked this campsite because it was not very crowded and also very "foresty".  Some campsites we have stayed at is just an area with packed dirt and a couple of trees.

In this campground, you do feel like you are nestled in the trees.

At night, the roasting sticks came out for the marshmallows.

The next day, Xiao Yu woke up the earliest at around 6am.  This is because sunrise is so early.

In order to keep him from making noise that would wake up everyone else in the area, Elvin went out for a walk with him.

We found a trail that led to a river.

And Elvin and Xiao Yu walked up and down the river to scope out possible fishing spots.

Back at camp, the others were one by one waking up.

Here is Karina riding her bike in her pjs.

We all went out to do a mini-hike to a waterfall.  It was very picturesque.

Hiking down to the water, you can see more pretty scenery.

The girls enjoyed hiking on the slope, pretending to climb a mountain.

Later, we went down to the river to try our luck fishing.

There seemed to be no fish in there that were biting.  Some of the kids lost interest...Gabe found a little creek and started constructing a dam.

Lunch was very exciting....we roasted our hot dogs over the fire.

Gabe fell off his bike and scraped his forehead!  On goes a band-aid.

Eventually he recovered enough to roast a marshmallow.

The kids had fun exploring.  Xiao Yu found a little green caterpillar.  

The kids wanted to stay up late...to sit at the campfire with the adults.

But some of them had a hard time staying awake...

The next morning...guess who woke up early again?

After breakfast, it was time to head home.  But before that, we got all the kids together for a group picture.  Amazingly enough, almost all of them were very cooperative.  Gabe was the only one out of the whole group that wouldn't do what he was being told.  So Elvin grabbed him, held him in place amongst the kids, and then ducked down behind Gabe.  (You can see Elvin's hands holding Gabe...)

And here is a silly picture!