Labor Day Weekend Camping

We were so excited for our annual Labor Day camping trip in Eastern Washington.  The same families go camping every year and it’s guaranteed to be a fun-filled weekend.

We were one of the first families to arrive on Thursday evening after eating dinner at Café Rio in Wenatchee.

The group campsite at Daroga State Park is located right on the Columbia River and has tons of grass, a pavilion, electricity, flushy toilets and showers – it’s a sweet setup.  

The mountains on both sides however create quite the wind tunnel in the evenings so it was a little challenging to set up our tent.  We thought we picked a perfect spot between trees so that the tent would be nice a cool for Drew to nap in.  We couldn’t have been more wrong.

His bed was on the right side of the tent in full sun.  Thankfully, I had a few battery operated fans I was able to point at him.  I didn’t try to fit in two naps a day, but he took one every day we were there.  Such a good boy!

Katie and Drew were the two youngest kiddos of all the families.  When Drew was awake he was perfectly content running around with all the big kids.  

I took very few photos during the weekend, but imagine pictures of the kids playing at the lake, enjoying the massive floating raft we had anchored just off shore.

Justin and Justin carrying it down to the lake on day one

Imagine kids circling the pavilion on scooters over, and over, and over again. 

Imagine long days on the boat wakeboarding and tubing.

Imagine smores by the campfire and dutch oven cobbler.

Don’t forget the all the crazy, fun and hilarious adult-only game nights after all the kiddos were tucked in their sleeping bags.

Imagine yummy meals and gobs of junk food.  This year only eight of the ten families were able to come so instead of pairing up on group meals each family provided one meal during the weekend for the whole group.  I love just packing up and preparing one meal.  We cooked ‘walking tacos’ on Friday for lunch and then enjoyed being fed yummy food the rest of the weekend.

The camp host delivered ice every day for our coolers.  The kids had fun cooling each other off.

Carly’s scores with having most of her closest friends included on the camping trip

The wind does result in some pretty decent kite flying conditions

Justin found the cutest caterpillar crawling up someone’s tent.  So cool!

I suppose I was enjoying myself so much that I hardly picked up my camera.  Thankfully someone did think to ask me to snap a quick picture before we started heading home.  We’re missing the Mather family who were at a wedding for part of the weekend.

Great group of kids and such fun families!   Can’t wait for next year!!

Camping at the Beach

August 22nd we headed to the Washington coast to spend the weekend camping with friends from Auburn at Twin Harbors State Park.

We got there late afternoon on Friday and quickly set up camp.  We finally bought a new tent this year after ‘borrowing’ Justin’s Mom’s tent for the last umm, 9-10 years.  We’d long since outgrown it so Justin bought a tent at Costco this summer.  This was our first time putting it to use.  It’s a “10-man” tent, but with seven people and all our gear it was still quite cozy.  My favorite feature of the tent is the swinging “D” door – no zipping and unzipping every time you need to get in or out of the tent – brilliant idea!  Another great feature is the additional side door. Technically it leads to the ‘screened room’ but it was super handy since the big kids slept on that side of the tent and they could get in and out without disturbing Drew who was sleeping on the other side.

When camping there must be some whittling going on, right?

The Thomas’ came up on Saturday to spend the day with us.  First item of business was to check out the beach.  It was a little bit of a walk to get there.

I think I see it!  

This is Abigail thinking she was pulling aside to get out of the picture.

Check out those clear blue skies!

Katie went right to work collecting shells

Susi was so sweet to help Katie find shells and then carry all her treasures back to camp

Justin and Drew had a sweet moment

Then Justin and DJ had a moment 

The moment our feet hit the sand Jason wished for his Crocs instead of tennis shoes and when we didn’t agree to walk all the way back to camp for him to change his shoes he decided he wasn’t going to budge.  So we left him at the top of the hill.  He stayed there waiting for a good 20 minutes before he decided it looked more fun down on the beach than standing alone.

After having lunch back at camp everyone went back to the beach to play while I stayed to let Drew nap.  Apparently the sun came out at the beach that afternoon but I didn’t witness it ;)

The last time we camped with Auburn friends, Chad Carman did all the cooking – sure we helped a bit and reimbursed him for the supplies, but he prepared gourmet meals all weekend.  It was amazing!  There were too many families this year to do the same and I’m sure it was a tad bit too much for one guy take on anyhow.  So we were on our own this time and I must admit we did quite well.  We experimented quite a bit with our dutch oven and ate some great food – cobblers, breakfast potatoes, BBQ chicken sandwiches, dutch oven southwest chicken – Yum!  Everything always tastes better camping.

Can’t forget smores!

Carly was really into taking care of the fire this year.  She had a great fire stick she used all weekend to move wood and keep the fire burning.  Abigail continues to be quite the opposite around flames.

Just crackers for this boy!  Keeping him clean was hard enough.  So. Much. Dirt.

Drew was fantastic all weekend.  He napped.  He slept well in the tent at night.  I was so worried going into the weekend.  I think camping with a one year old is the hardest age because they are so unpredictable.  There’s no using logic or bribery at 2am with a one-year-old.  It could have been miserable, but he did so good.  Such a great little guy! 

A highlight for the kids was playing with the Carman’s giant rubberband.

Our campsite wasn’t really close to any of our friends which meant that one of us had to be at camp if we had kiddos sleeping in the tent (the folks that camp these days are a bit sketchy).  As a result, besides the Thomas’ I didn’t feel like I hung out much with any other families all weekend.  We still had a great time, but it wasn’t quite what I expected.

Sunday morning Justin and the kids went to church (again, while Drew napped).  When they got back we ate, packed up, and headed home.  We had reserved our campsite through Monday, but we had another campout planned for the following weekend so we decided we head back home on Sunday to get ready for the next adventure. 

On the way out of town we drove by Washington’s tallest lighthouse.  The kids had already started a movie so it was just Justin and me that gave it a moments notice.

Drew @ 15 months

Drew flew by his 15 month mark in late August. 

At his well-child he came in at:

Weight:  25 pounds (78.86%)

Height:  32 inches (75.90%)

I’ve got several random pictures that I’ve taken the last month or so, so I thought I’d do a quick Drew post.

Nicknames include:  Drewbee, Jube {like jew-b, I’m phonically-clueless}, Jubes, Juibee or Juibers

As I mentioned Drew still takes two naps a day.  The other day I figured out that he’s really only awake maybe 7-8 hours in a day.

Terrible picture of me, but such a rare instance of getting to hold Drew while he’s sleeping that it had to be documented.  Typically he just wants to be laid down in bed and fall asleep on his own. 

It’s not very often I get to see Drew sleeping.  It seems when I do get a little peek he usually has his bum stuck in the air like this.  

So cute!  Drew napped in my room on occasion during the summer.  It was usually quieter in there when we had kids going up and down the stairs, playing in the bonus room, or opening and closing the garage.  I also wanted him to get used to sleeping in the play-n-pack so it wouldn’t be a big deal during our August camping trips.

When Drew wakes up the kids love to be the first one in his room to say hello.

The picture above of Drew retreating to the corner of his crib reminds me of something Drew has been doing lately is unfamiliar situations.  When the pediatrician talked directly to Drew, Drew was so shy that he kept scooting himself between the chair I was sitting in and the cabinet next to it.  There was only 5-6 inches there so he ended up getting stuck.

Then again at Carly’s soccer game someone tried to talk to him and he tried to disappear by sticking his head under a chair.  I wish I had a picture cause I’m probably not describing it well, but the point is that when someone unfamiliar tries to have contact with him Drew retreats and hides in any way possible.  It’s kind of funny, but I suppose it’s not really socially acceptable behavior.

Here’s another strange incident.  

Drew did not want Abigail going anywhere without him and he held on long enough for me to grab my camera and take a picture of his determination.

Last I posted Drew was just beginning to walk.  The kid is cruising now and doing awesome.  He still doesn’t wear shoes much so he’ll fall more when we strap them on.  We’ve tried to hold his hand to help him along, but Drew likes to get around on his own.

Having done this a few times before I wasn’t surprised to hear our pediatrician tell me that Drew is behind on his speech development.  He doesn’t have any words, but he does make a few sounds {m, b, d}, which is more than Jason was doing at this age.  Looks like we’re likely heading down the same road we did with Jason and may start some speech therapy soon.

I have taught him how to sign “more” and he uses if often, but it seems he uses it when he’s hungry or thirsty – not necessarily just when he wants more of something.

Who knew Tupperware would be so entertaining?

Drew doesn’t talk but he does scream.  This is a new thing that we’re not at all fond of.  If I remember correctly Jason went through a similar phase – without words they are left with pointing, grunting, and screaming.  Good times.

Church this past Sunday was pretty much the worst yet.  I’m used to not getting to sit through an entire class with Drew, but even out in the halls Drew was impossible to please.  I even took him outside, but the boy just wanted to be home in bed.  Ten weeks until nursery though his social anxieties may not make for the smoothest transition.

It took both Katie and Drew some time to get used to not having the big kids home during the days.  It breaks Drew’s heart when they walk out the door in the mornings.  Thankfully he gets over it quickly and always looks forward them coming home.

He’s pretty fond of his Mom too