Camping Trip #1 - Cultus Lake

Two weeks ago we went camping at Cultus Lake for five days.  It was great.  It was EXHAUSTING, but it was great.  Non-stop swimming in the pool (one day we went three times!), walking to the creek, and biking around the campground, really tired me out.  The kids slept great each night, but by the fifth day I could tell that they were exhausted, too.  Matthew and Kayla slept beside each other on the double bed in our tent trailer, Nathan slept in his playpen on the (collapsed) table, and I had the queen bed all to myself.  That was great :)  

Our tent trailer.  I love it.  

It's not fancy by any means, but it keeps us dry 

and gives me a spot to put all of our gear.

Our trip home was quite eventful...one of the springs on the axle of our tent trailer completely snapped as we were driving out of Yarrow, so we pulled over in a large parking lot (which conveniently was a parking lot for an ice cream stand..."Lucky us!" as Matthew would say).  My parents were about an hour behind us so we waited for them to come to get my Dad's opinion, which ended up being that it was definitely not tow-able by us.  We left the tent trailer in the parking lot and drove home.  An hour after getting home my Dad and Jon left to return to Yarrow with the greenhouse's flatbed trailer to load the tent trailer onto and tow home.  That day was a long day for me!  I was originally looking forward to attending a baby shower kid-less, but ended up not being able to go and had to stay home with the kids while Jon was gone.  I was tired, they were tired, and it was hot out so we were all on edge with each other.  Anyways, our tent trailer is fixed now, and hopefully that's the only issue we have with it!

(I LOVE my vest.  I bought it 7 years ago and wear it all the time...pregnant or not ha!)

Best friends.  They would be lost without each other.

The 'big kids' and 'little boys'.  

Nathan is quite the cyclist!  He definitely has learned how to ride a balance bike quicker than Matthew and Kayla, largely due to his size.  He sits on the seat and takes nice strides.  It will be interesting to see when he learns how to lift his feet up and balance when he has speed.

No, he's not naked...just wearing swim trunks, though!

Enjoying a campfire before there is a campfire ban!

T-ball practice with Auntie Candice.

What's a camping trip without some sort of teaching moment from Auntie Melissa?  This time it was about 'Wishing Rocks' (rocks with a line that goes around the entire exterior).

I didn't schedule a nap time in for Nathan on the Saturday, so while we were at the beach I thought he was acting tired and he nicely fell asleep in the stroller when I laid him in there.  That's the nice thing about always making your kids go-with-the-flow...they get good at adapting.

Nathan LOVED the pool.  He was completely content to float on his own in his puddle jumpers, but he loved jumping in (even though we let him go completely under the water!) or being thrown in the air.

Matthew finely got over his newly acquired fear of jumping in on his own (he used to do it just fine, but then lost his confidence somehow.  We had a 30 minute battle one afternoon where I wouldn't let him come into the pool until he jumped in on his own.  He didn't come in that afternoon.  We tried again later in the afternoon and he finally jumped in...after which he wouldn't stop!  Silly child!)

Kayla is a fish.  During her last private swimming lesson just before camping she realized that she can actually swim in the water if she kicks while on her tummy.  She loved to jump in and then right away swim to her destination.

P.S.  The downside to a great vacation is the hundreds of photos to weed through!