Thursday, August 07, 2014

Blue Lake Camping with Friends

In case you were unaware, we've had one crazy summer! Last week we were supposed to go camping with friends up near Winthrop... however with the wildfires still sadly raging in that area we changed plans and went to Blue Lake instead.

It was HOT.  And this campground was not nearly as nice as the one we'd originally planned to go to.  Which, considering we spent most of our time in the water I suppose didn't really matter that much!


Did I mention it was hot?  Like over 100 degrees.  Our friends have some sweet water toys though.  All the kids are out on the inflatable island thing with my friend Holly standing watch.


The water was pretty shallow though and we mostly had the swimming area to ourselves as it was midweek.  I learned that my Hope is pretty fearless.  Here she's paddling herself out to the island and no, she can't touch!


She discovered the flippers, but can't walk in them AT. ALL.


Next she decided that the little camp chairs would be much more useful sitting in the cool water!


Noah got himself into a bit of a pickle when the wind pushed his little boat out farther than he wanted.


Never fear, Carter to the rescue!  Carter was so great with all the little ones, helping them and making sure they were safe!


Then we tried to go to sleep at roughly bed time.  After taking "showers" in the sauna of a bath house and it still being 98 degrees out.  I believe the kids all finally went to sleep after 11pm and then when we finally cooled off enough to get to sleep... were rudely awakened by our tent being blown in over us!  The temperature differential between the air and the land made some serious wind and this tent was so tall it wasn't super sturdy.  So at 1am Brian was staking it down and then of course everything was flapping so much it was hard to sleep.  Cory and Hope both woke up, the latter crawling over next to me to sleep (I don't mind the snuggles, but it was still too hot for that!)


The next day we just lived in our swimsuits.  This time everyone got a ride on the big pull behind the boat toy, even the girls!  Holly and I each had one in our lap and they did okay.  We went as slow as possible and pretty soon they were saying "all done", but they didn't freak out!  Brian went by himself and completely launched since he told Brad to go as fast as he wanted... some boys never grow up!


Carter and Hope on the island after Hope swam herself out again and Carter helped her in.


Lunch in the shade of the camper!  Poor Rory was having a reaction to the sunscreen and possibly the hundred and one mosquito bites so she was inside.


After dinner and showers here's Rory reading to the girls!  We packed it in, deciding it was worth the hour and a half drive home rather than get no sleep in the wind again! 


But first a trip up to Grand Coulee Dam to watch the laser light show.  It didn't start until 10pm and the younger three were passed out 10 minutes from the campground, but Cory stayed awake until we got there and really enjoyed it!

Home at 1am, just in time to pack for our annual trek to Oregon!  Next year I hope we can go back to the other campground and that it's not quite so hot!

1 comment:

  1. Holly Hesselgrave10:22 PM

    Glad you guys came, even if it was just for one windy night :)
    The kids had a lot of fun together. We hope to back to Winthrop next year too! But hope that camping together becomes a yearly tradition :)

    ReplyDelete

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