Camping Trip

We have not been camping in two years. I will be honest camping with little kids is not fun for me. The dirt, the amount of work, not sleeping well. All of this totals up to not a lot of fun. Combine this with the fact that our camping trips revolve around Ken's desire to fish as much as possible and you understand why I refused to camp when I had a newborn baby and a 1 year old. 

Jump forward to this year and I knew that we would have a couple of camping trips on the schedule for this summer. I had a few requirements. I wanted a place that had showers, flushable toilets, and I wanted a facial when we got back. Ken selected Diamond Lake as our first camping trip for the year.

We selected a spot right on the lake with a great view. The spot was sloped down to the lake and I worried about Huck ending up in the lake. Ken assured me that we would still be coming home with 4 children and that he would help out whenever I was preparing meals. 

Huck was in heaven 6 nights in the great outdoors. 

We had a family of ducks that would come by our campsite. 

Huck went around the first night and picked a bunch of flowers so I put them in an arrangement. At least here I didn't care as much that he was picking the flowers. 

This was a great night. We had gotten into the campsite and set everything up. The weather was perfect and the kids were happy exploring everything. 

The kids got a hold of my camera and took the following photos.

The next day we took the kids to Crater Lake. They all thought it was beautiful, but our two younger kids were worn out. Little Miss kept saying this is boring. Her little legs were tired and staring at a lake was not interesting to her. 

The next day was Ken's big day to fish so I took the kids to the resort to play on the beach. Mount Bailey was in the background and the one you could see from our campsite. 

We found these inner tubes at a garage sale for $3 and they have been awesome for the kids. 

All over the resort are ground squirrels. The kids had a great time watching them and feeding them.

It was such a nice relaxing day. Unfortunately Ken was having a miserable time fishing. He wasn't catching anything and was sitting back at camp waiting for us to return. 

Inspired by Mount Mazama from the day before the kids had fun making their own volcano. 

Later that night the kids were so excited to have their Mimi and Papa arrive with the RV. Right from the beginning Papa had a little shadow in the form of Huck. 

Anytime Papa needed something Huck was there to give a helping hand. 

The kids loved the RV and they each took a night taking turns sleeping in the RV with them. 

The next day we took Mimi and Papa to the resort to relax and of course have a little ice cream.

Later that night we took the kids back to the resort. They were having a square dance competition and it was so much fun to sit and watch all of the dancers. 

The next morning we joined my parents at the Winnie for a great breakfast of cornflake french toast and roasted potatoes and onions from Papa's garden. 

We then sent Mimi and Papa off to Crater Lake to relax and Midge and Ken took a bike ride around the entire lake (11 miles). Leo and Papa did a shorter bike ride in the morning. It was beautiful and they were able to see Mt. Thielsen. It has a distinctive horn like peak. 

They also discovered a beautiful meadow. 

On the last night we let the kids have s'mores. Huck was covered in marshmallows, chocolate, dirt and ash. He was filthy but he was also in heaven. The poor little guy had a cough during our entire trip that I noticed was getting progressively worse. When we got back from our trip I made a doctor's appointment for him and on a whim the doctor did a whooping cough test. Two days later it came back positive. You wouldn't have known from this picture that he had such a serious sickness. Luckily he has been vaccinated against it and his sickness is mild compared to what it could be. The doctor put him on antibiotics and he is already doing better.