Camping!!!

We LOVE camping! Especially with a trailer, so our noise and mess can be contained in one place.

This time we tried a new spot from our Camping Oregon book. It's called Daphne Grove, next to the river, over by Powers.

We got there late on Friday since we had the whole trauma with Kiersa's face right before we left, and we didn't even pack up or shop until after work. We had dinner on our way out of town, got to our camping spot, built a fire, and had snacks. Talea wanted ghost stories, so I dug through my memory looking for some, editing them to make them only slightly scary, which disappointed Talea. She LOVES scary stories, movies and places, even though they freak her out. She takes after me.

Hyatt on the other hand, was terrified. All we had to say was "Once upon a time, in the deep, dark wood, there was a clicking sound..." and Hyatt would immediately pull his hood over his head and then pull up the front of his jacket so only a slit of his face was showing, if that. If he wasn't wearing a hooded jacket at the time of the story, he'd race to the trailer for cover.

The next morning, we left the trailer at camp and drove into Powers for their annual city-wide garage sale. It was fun! We scored some cute kids clothes and a bike for Tilly since she's outgrown her Dora one. No training wheels either! I'm determined to make her learn to ride without them! We also found an aquarium for her so she can collect bugs and snakes and keep them in there.

On our way back to camp, we stopped at the marshmallow factory.


We've seen these giant marshmallows in the fields after the grass is cut, and we've been dying to drive to some in order to touch them...


and taste them.


The kids finally got their chance! They even got to try to roast one.


Next, we drove off into the hills exploring logging roads. We stopped at "Big Tree" for some pictures.




And we found some really cool waterfalls and rock formations.


Back at camp, we went down to the river and found all kinds of creatures. We took a container and made a river environment so we could collect our creatures.


Talea caught a pretty big frog all by herself...


and wasn't surprised to find that it didn't turn into a prince once kissed.


That night, chopping wood was the highlight, though with Kiersa's scabby face reminding me of the threat of injury, I was a little nervous about their wild swings. (We found out later that they provided free firewood at this campground, so we went through the sweat for nothing...but the exercise.)



Kiersa has learned to kiss things better, so here she is smacking Hyrum' s arm, then kissing it better. It's very endearing.




The next day, Hyrum thought he'd teach the kids how to hit a ball, so they played around for a bit. Hyrum was pitcher, Tilly and Hyatt were hitters, Paisli and I were the catcher, and Kiersa was short stop.




After that, we decided to explore more logging roads. We found a free campground by a lake that used to be called Squaw Lake, until the government decided it was rude to the Indians to call it that, so they renamed it Sru Lake. It's more of a pond really, but it has a trail around it and it was a perfect little hike for tiny legs to walk.



We found a MASSIVE slug...


Talea showed off her fearlessness by walking across a fallen log far above the ground...


And we had a race at the fork in the trail to see who was faster: the big kids or the little girls. The trails didn't come back together, so no winner was declared.


Kiersa didn't find the forest floor litter sticking to her hands when she'd fall a very amusing thing...


But her "Who" hair was pretty funny!


Even though it was a fairly easy stroll, Hyatt pulled out his handy dandy binoculars to keep us from getting lost.


Paisli kept an eye out too.


Daphne Grove was a fun place to camp, even with the mosquitos (Paisli is modeling her first bite...by her eyebrow),


and we can't wait to camp at Sru Lake next time.