August 13th-15th, 2020
Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Since we were still having a lot of covid cases this was one of the only trips the kids and I went on this year. We weren't going to go with the rest of the Arnold extended family.
August 13th:
It's amazing how much stuff for JUST 3 days of camping I still had to bring up. Filled the entire van! Made a homemade quinoa cake for Shay (its gluten-free), and homemade peanut butter bars.
I drove up separately from my parents, so they were already at the camp site when I got their. We started setting up. After getting some stuff for the kids to play with, Dad and I proceeded to put up a tarp over top of the campsite table to protect us from the sun and rain.
Found a bird nest. thought it was really cool.
William loves Sienna. And Shay and I are glad she has someone to play with, because for some weird reason Uki refuses to play with her. In fact he mostly ignores her. So it's really funny to hear William laugh hysterically as he plays with Sienna.
Dear Aunt Shayla is always prepared to do crafts with the kids. And my girls love her for it.
So we were playing fetch with Uki for probably 5 to 10 minutes (which he totally loved. I learned that if I carried a tennis ball with me, I could have Uki off leash because he would immediately come when I showed him the ball.) when I noticed he was limping. So I checked his foot and it was covered in blood. I totally started freaking out. Thank goodness my parents were gone (only for a few minutes, left to go check in). I couldn't call anyone cause their is no cell phone service at camp. Turns out he tore up his pad running on this rough asphalt road. So I totally babied him the rest of our trip. Good thing it was short.
My kids love these Walkie Talkies. Fight over them so much.
Shayla and Sydney had gone on a walk with Sienna. So eventually we all drove to the lake to meet up with them. And I was appreciative of the fact that Uki could still swim, even if his paw was torn up.
The kids also love playing in the water.
When we were done playing at the Lake, Mom and Me and the kids walked the dogs back to camp. Dad drove back. But came looking for us after ten minutes. We were at the spot where you turn to head to our loop and campsite. I was glad he came back because Uki was starting to limp and I really worried about him. Wanted to get him back to camp so he could lay down and sleep. I knew he would be tired after swimming in the lake. I learned he was not nearly as good in the lake water as Banjo had been when he was younger.
My speed devil. I tried to always make sure he had his helmet on. When my little brother Andrew was alive and younger he ended up breaking his collarbone on this road. So I knew that my kids, especially this boy, needed to at least have their heads protected.
He could live in the dirt 100% of the time. This is his best life.
Going down to the dock. The kids always have fun exploring and climbing around. Throwing rocks into the lake is right up their too.
Sydney took these couple of pics with Shay and I.
We love relaxing around the camp fire in the evening.
Grandpa came back from fly fishing. Sydney had to go see what he caught. She loves seeing (and eating) the fish.
Sarah and her kids finally got their. Good thing it wasn't too dark yet.
Cell phone pics:
This is the shot of what the van looked like on our trip up.
Sydney had a super (I mean super) loose tooth. She just kept playing with it. But at this point she could basically lay it flat with her tongue. So mom and Sarah (because she is a dental assistant) were trying to convince Sydney to just let them pull it out. So Mom held her down and Sarah pulled the tooth. I got a video of it. Sydney's screams!!! Oh my goodness. Less than 3 seconds Sarah had the tooth out. It was so loose all she did was touch it and out it came. Sydney was relieved to have it out. We put the tooth in a baggie to bring home for the Tooth Fairy. Just look at her face in this picture. Her eyes are so red and her face so puffy-she screamed hard.
August 14th:
Uki slept inside the tent with me. I laid down a blanket at the end of my blow up mattress and had him sleep their. It was a pretty tight fit with two queen sized blow up mattresses and all of our stuff in the tent. Uki was really excited that Copper was their to play with. To bad he really hurt his paw the day before. We got up, got dressed, and helped mom make breakfast. After we ate breakfast and cleaned it up we lounged around for a little bit. The kids played in the dirt. Mom loves to go for walks. So she took all the kids on their scooters on a walk down the road and back. Lizzy and Sydney came back to camp, and so I headed off to make sure mom was ok with William and Oaklee. As we headed up the other side of the loop (which is fairly steep) the kids were thirsty. So I taught them how to drink from the spigot. They were loving it. Oaklee would laugh while William did it, and then He would laugh at her while she did it.
William put one of our eggs in that nest we found and was carrying it around acting like a baby bird was going to come out of that egg at any time. It was funny. Eventually we got him to put the egg back.
Wasps fighting over the raw sausage left over on the knife.
A couple of weeks ago mom had had the kids over for Grandma Camp. While the kids were there they made these tied dyed shirts. Mom wanted to do group pictures with the kids in them so we brought them along.
We brought buckets and stuff and walked around the lake closer to the damn so the kids could play in the water. It didn't really work. It was so rocky, and I didn't want their shoes wet, so they had to wear their shoes in the lake to protect their feet. And it was really slippery because of all the green moss.
We did the group shot with all the kids and their tye dyed shirts. We collected a lot of rocks for the kids to paint later.
After our hike around the lake, the kids really wanted to play in the water so we went back to camp and let them change into their swimsuits. We headed back to the lake. All 3 dogs came, and Copper and Uki had some races in the water chasing balls, while we tried to coax Sienna into the water. I know there is a sign up on the end of the boat dock that says no swimming here (because its where boats park), but I know we got lucky that the new forest ranger/campground people didn't come down and see us and fine us. This was our first year "swimming" their. It's the perfect spot though, because there is hardly any moss or seaweed. There aren't any rocks for the kids to hurt themselves on. And they can jump off the dock into deeper water. We always have to check for leaches after the kids play in this lake. (We have experienced this in previous years.)
Sarah came down a little bit later. Kash was napping. Oaklee didn't have a swimsuit or life jacket. So she borrowed Lizzys when she was done playing on the dock and just wanted to be in the shallow water.
In this picture below: Sarah was "dipping" Oaklee in the lake, because Oaklee didn't want to swim. She was crying to not be in the cold water.
So after the kids were done playing in the lake, we went back to camp and geared up to go fishing. Sydney got a new fishing pole she wanted to try. Dad set it up for her. William and Lizzy had their fishing poles with fake fish on the end. And of course Oaklee had her little pole, but it was set up to actually catch fish. Because Oaklee knows how to do that.
It was super funny. The kids kept getting their poles tangled up. To the point where Lizzy, William, and Oaklee had all 3 of their poles mixed together. It was a huge mess. Mom, Sarah, and I just laughed so hard. Sydney just stayed on her tablet by her fishing pole. No one caught anything. I brought William and Lizzy's tablets to, so the three little kids sat close (of course Oaklee had to be in the middle to keep both of my kids happy) and shared tablets.
Shayla and Dad went Fly fishing. And like 5 minutes after dad got Shay out on the water her line snagged and she couldn't fix it. So dad had to rush and help the kids, get his stuff on, get in his own tube, and get out to her to help her. I don't know what ended up happening with her line.
This day was our only chance to fish.
After we were done fishing we came back to camp to make dinner. Of course the kids were hungry. While dinner was cooking, the kids painted the rocks we collected earlier.
August 15th:
We woke up and got ready for the day. I started packing. Getting all the clothes repacked. Got out and helped get the kids breakfast. While the kids played, I packed up the tent. Pulled everything out and put it all back in the van. When we go camping I am quite anal about where my stuff is. So a lot of the toys and crafts and things stay in the van and we get them out as needed and then put them back. So I had to rearrange the van as I started pulling stuff from the tent. The kids running around and playing actually makes the whole process easier.
Sarahs cell phone pics she sent me.
She took the 3 girls to the lake in her car to go fishing. William was so sad that he didn't get to go with them.
Night time is the best time to play with flashlights and the kids LOVE it.
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