Maya's first Camping Trip

Hello all,
Maya and I went on a Father/Daughter adventure this past weekend and took a drive north to camp in the woods near mt st helens....



As you can see from the above pics - it was a long drive and wore us both out...

Maya wanted to put on her camping jammies (a gift from Gramma Elaine!) for the drive
and wore them for the whole weekend - wait until you see how they looked on Sunday...

We met up with some friends of mine from days of yore - three dudes i used to run with in high school and college most of whom i haven't seen for nearly a decade!
Now we are all married and have two kids - very close in age - so we decided to get together talk about old times and make some new memories with our oldest kids...

Maya took some pics in the car...

When we got to the camp site Mike C, his son Eli and Keith and his daughter Mathilda were already there setting up and unpacking - we had introductions and dove right into tent set up...
we had discussed the order about 75 times in the car:
1. tent set up
2. unpack
3. dinner
4. bike ride
as it happened i acquiesced and we had a short bike ride before/during/after dinner...

After dinner we (the dads) sat at the fire and chatted a little while Maya, Eli and Mathilda pushed dirt, rode bikes, and ran in the woods...

Soon it was time for bed - well past our usual bed time but a perfect bed time for camping
so after a nice cup of cocoa we wrapped things up and curled up in the tents...

(the dad's all snuck out for some more campfire time...)

In the morning we woke up - to a toasty fire and the smell of breakfast on the grill thanks to Mike C. we all had a tasty breakfast and powered up for the busy day!




mid-morning the kiddo's occupied themselves with the well-known camping youth activities of log walking, bike riding and dirt pushing, there may have been some rock throwing and stick swinging as well..






Mathilda held on to this piece of bark for quite a while - i can see why - it's pretty cool...
you can see her dad, Keith in the background on the left - splitting the piece of wood that the bark came from - for our fire - good work Keith!


that's Ricky - a neighbor - i think he was interested in Mathilda's bark...

We stayed at the Lake Takhlakh campground.
This is the lake - it is small and lovely and framed
by an amazing view of Mt. Adams...

We hiked the trail - about a mile - around the lake both mornings - it was a nice and interesting trail busy with other campers and loads of anglers, and Huckleberry Pickers. We learned from a very friendly and informative Huckleberry Picker that blueberries are essentially domesticated Huckleberries...
(that's for you Gramma Sandy - that's what we saw out at Yachats too!)

Maya and Eli warmed up to each other very quickly




A few pics from our saturday hike...

I was beguiled by the specs of dew on all the leaves big and ripe and jewel-like - this lichen caught my eye too - and the pic to the left is one of Maya's nature shots...
























Maya was beguiled by rocks and sticks, bikeriding (especially the other kids bikes with training wheels), and the camera - here are a few more pics Maya took...



that last one is a very artistic shot of a cup of cocoa - Maya's other main fascination on this trip...

after our saturday morning hike it was time for some lunch and a lay down...
when we woke up off to some swimming in the lake - it was perfect timing one of our very few sun breaks



it was a quick swim as the sun didnt last and the water was on the cooler side...


on our way back to the campsite we found Mike Y. and Juniper!

We were all very excited as we had been looking foreword to their arrival but, because it was getting late had started to fear that they wouldn't make it...

We all went back to the campsite and started getting ready for dinner...
Mike and Juniper unpacked and set up gear and we had all had a nice visit - while the young'uns
did more running, biking, jumping, barking and climbing - it was nice to be able to elt them go wild a little!

After dinner we walked back down to the lake to look at Mt. Adams...
the kiddo's were on bike of course...

the kids pause for a pose

a wee bit of mt adams poking out here


















and after our trip to the lake
it was back the the site for a campfire
and some marshmallows and
hot cocoa, of course...

Maya roasting a marshmallow for the first time ever...

after marshmallows and hot cocoas and all of that stuff
we all took our kids to snooz and some of us had little naps ourselves!

then back up to stoke the fire and laugh and tell stories and drink and kick dirt...

the next morning was bittersweet - our last morning...
chef mike prepared campstyle breakfast sandwiches - delishus again mike!
and there was more biking (of course) and lots of love and hugs...

we went for one last hike to wear the kids out before plunking them in their respective card for the long journey home -

we ran across this boat and the floating fish next to it - it's kinda hard to explain catch and release to a 3 year old - let alone that it sometimes doesn't work...





























check out this shirt!

and finally...
Maya took a few more pics on the drive home

I would say overall the trip was a success! we both got a little homesick... a little frusterated with each other at times, struggled with the campground lavatories and got our fair dare of filthy...
but Maya did fantastic on the car rides - enjoyed meeting new freinds, being in the woods and riding bikes, drinking hot cocoa, wearing her camp jammies, and having an ADVENTURE!