Monday, June 29, 2009

Camping @ Timothy Lake

After planning, lists, shopping, packing, repacking and much anticipation, we left for camping Friday June 26 at 5am.

The first stop was to meet up at Crystal and Mike’s house in Gresham, Oregon. From there we followed them up the highway on Mt Hood to Timothy Lake.

The view when we got there was ridiculously beautiful! I have been to Timothy Lake before but it was when I was small and didn’t remember much about it. We finally found a campsite after driving around in circles (only seeing reserved ones) and started unpacking [[the children]].



Tents got set up pretty quickly, while the kids were playing games and exploring. Some of the kids, both mine and Crystal’s, decided they were going to explore the Lake by themselves and took off [a few times]. While finding them, we all took in the amazing scenery and did a little exploring ourselves.


When we got back to camp the kids ate somewhat of a brunch and we all hung out for awhile. I don’t know who it was, but somebody noticed a giant beetle on our tent. I had never seen anything like it. He was huge!

Mike decided he needed to experiment. The beetle needed brain surgery. A good guess by Crystal, green stuff comes out when you stab it. LOL. And apparently beetles don’t care if you put a hole in their head, they keep fightin back. He was saved for later to have a proper fire burial.

After being spammed a million times since we pulled into the campsite, we took the kids swimming. The water was insanely cold, but it didn’t seem to bother the kids. [Mine would probably swim in a frozen lake if given the chance].


When they were done freezing to death, we headed back to camp to get changed and figure out our next adventure. Jason suggested a scavenger hunt, which the kids were excited about. Marrissa wrote the list while we all gave ideas for what to find.



I don’t remember all of the ideas suggested but some of them were really hilarious. [The things kids come up with] The scavenger hunt was somewhat a success and we found and saw some amazing things.



Back at camp it was dinner time [smores preferred by the children, but didn’t happen til later].When the little ones showed signs of being exhausted from the day, they put their layers of warmness on and headed to bed. Jason, Crystal, Mike and I hung out by the fire for awhile, drinking coffee and discussing “computer stuff”. The fire died down and the adults were exhausted, so we put a few layers on and headed to bed too.

Falsely assuming the blankets and clothing we wore would be enough to keep us warm, I spent most of the night tossing and turning and shivering; waking up constantly. In my sleepy, freezing daze even thought I wanted to go home because it was just so damn cold. But morning came and Mike made a fire; we started some coffee and all was right in the world. :)
After breakfast, we went on a walk. Along the way we found this log with a pile of sawdust in front of it. With a closer look we discovered there were little worker ants going in and coming out with a tiny piece of wood, dropping it to the ground; apparently making tunnels and a home for themselves. It was really interested and cool to watch.

We went on a small hike in search for wood, and then Crystal and her kids went to look for Mike [he was fishing with his brother].We found a good size piece of log and brought it back to camp then headed to the boat launch to meet up with our friends.

Mike being found, we headed back down the main trail to show him what we thought would be good crawdad hunting spots. Apparently they weren’t, but the kids had fun playing in the water and the dirt.

Sassy got tossed in and she was soooo pissed about it. Being the little princess she is, she doesn’t like going in the water. She then proceeded to roll in the dirt and get totally filthy trying to dry off.

Back at camp Crystal and I had a small nap while the kids played games. Later we had dinner and another round of smores.

After the kids were in their extra layering of jammies, they took turns telling their own versions of scary stories. [[More hilarious, then scary.]] The favorite being Marrissa’s story of the “one armed bear”.

The kids headed to bed and it was finally some quiet time for the adults. My favorite part of camping is the after dark, around the fire conversations. That night wasn’t as cold as the night before and we also put on extra layers, so I slept a little better that night.
The next day Mike’s parents and brother came up for fishing. After breakfast we sat and chatted with Mike’s mom by the boat launch while the kids swam and played. She is an awesome lady. It was so nice to just sit and chill for a few hours.
Anthony (Crystal’s boy) caught his first fish on the boat with the boys. (he actually caught 3). Mimi and Deven also got a ride in the boat.

It was then time to start packing up camp. We weren’t rushed though, just kind of hung out while getting stuff together. We were sad it was time to go, but showers and a real bed were in the future and definitely needed. The kids played a “cops and robbers” tag, running around being crazy. Marrissa and Anthony ran off and [[got married]] lol. Sun kissed, dirty, exhausted and all packed, we said our goodbyes to our awesome friends and headed out. The drive down the mountain was insanely beautiful, but the battery in my camera died, so I just had my phone to take pictures. [Doesn’t even begin to show the amazingness!]
In the end it was an absolutely amazing weekend and I couldn’t have asked for better people to share it with. Now, on to the planning of our next adventure! :)


(for more pictures of our weekend go to my art page here or
my myspace page here)