Labor Day Weekend

Way back in April we had some friends in Auburn invite us to go camping with them over Labor Day weekend.   As fun as it sounded, Justin already had plans to attend the Cougars (BYU) vs. Cougars (WA State) football game with his Dad (a WA State Cougar Fan) and brother-in-law in Provo.  As Labor Day neared we heard that one of the families had backed out and there was an extra site for the taking.  I decided, very last minute, to take the kids myself and have Justin meet up with us Saturday night when he got back in town.

Camping is a big job – thankfully our friend Chad is an amazing cook and was preparing most of the meals so I didn’t have to stress too much about preparing a bunch of food for the 4 days we’d be there.  But packing up the van, four kids, all the camping gear… lots of work.  The other four families hadn’t started school yet so they planned to leave first thing Friday morning – I thought it best to caravan with them so the girls skipped out on school that day.  Yep, pulled them out on only their third day of school.

We camped in Kalaloch – an extremely popular, and difficult to reserve, campground right on the Washington coast.  We arrived in the early afternoon and had plenty of time to set up camp and get settled before everyone else arrived.

A little human rubber-banding

My handsome guy – the man of the family for two days

That evening we went down to the beach and walked around the tide pools

Katie wanted nothing to do with the sand and insisted on being carried 90% of the time

The next morning we ate a delicious breakfast – seriously, we ate the most amazing meals all weekend – then headed to the beach for the day.  The men built a cabin on the beach (and at DJ’s request I needed to take step-by-step pictures of the process…)

Finding and cutting down the perfect supports 

Creating the entrance

Supporting structure and roof

Adding the roof

Some walls for privacy (I changed into my swimsuit later in the day)

The perfect little beach house – Katie even laid down on a towel and took a nap in here later in the day

The kids loved, loved, loved playing and digging in the sand.

And my girls, they could not get enough of the waves, who cares if the water is freezing cold!

As I was editing this not-so-fabulous picture I noticed a sea lion popping his head out of the water in the distance – how cool is that?!?

One of the families brought a bunch of wet suits for everyone to use.  Carly was the only one that didn’t get any sort of protection for the freezing cold water.  She didn’t mind the cold, but without a wet suit she also didn’t get any protection from the sun.  Her back burned so badly that it blistered and peeled in the days/week that followed.  I felt terrible that I didn’t think to put sunscreen on her.

Jason also enjoyed playing in the waves, but spent most of the day on shore.  Mainly due to his overly protective mother.

It didn’t take Katie long to kick off her shoes and get down and dirty.

Justin arrived late Saturday night just in time to help get kids to bed.  We went to the Olympic National Park the following day and did the same hike we’d been on three year ago.

Instead of Jason in a kid-pack there was this cutie.

One of my favorite things about camping is sitting around the campfire and eating smores.  The kids also enjoyed telling jokes and singing songs around the campfire (of course my kids only listen and encourage others).

I did a terrible job taking pictures around camp, but it was impressive.  Our friends know how to do it right!  Their site was the place to be – hand washing station, kitchen that could feed the masses (and again, with an impressive menu), private shower in the woods – so much fun!