Camping at Green Bay - Part II

The weekend after the 4th we headed out to go camping. I posted a couple of early morning pics from my phone last month, but I took a ton more.

Like anything I do in life, I turned our camping trip into an adventure that (I'm pretty sure) left Nels rolling his eyes, but we had a good time regardless. :)

For starters, we didn't get out of town as early as we'd planned and I didn't really know where we were going. We made a couple of detours along the way (because I just HAD to check out other campsites as well) and instead of choosing somewhere simple up in the mountains, I decided we should camp by the beach --- which had added an extra element of fun to not only pack camping gear, but also beach gear as well. :) When we finally made it to our camp it took forever to actually find the camp spots and then we got to pack everything in - because they are "no vehicle access" sites.

Oh well! It was fun! And if, after 10 years, Nels is still surprised by my lack of planning, indecisiveness, and talent for making things "exciting" then he needs to have is head checked. :) Which he may have been thinking about after walking back and forth numerous times to haul 7 people's worth of gear from the van to our camp.

Once we'd unloaded, we were in a mad rush to get the tent up and a fire built before dark. Good thing Nels is an expert fire starter and I am quite an amazing tent-setter-upper. By the time we were eating hot dogs, it was fully dark. :)

As we started cooking marshmallows, our camp neighbor, Hippie Luke, wandered over for a visit. I got the girls all tucked in and the three of us had a great time sitting around the fire chatting. Luke grew up the area, is probably about 32, and is in between jobs right now. I have a feeling he'd been camping in his spot for a couple of weeks. :) After a bit, his "friend" Andrea showed up. Andrea teaches violin here in town at the Music Conservatory.

We talked for an hour or two and as the fire was starting to die down, she pulled out her fiddle and played for us. It was magical to lean back, look up through the pines at the stars, and listen to that beautiful music echo across the lake. Seriously, it is an experience that I will never forget. Later, Nels and I walked down to the beach to sit and watch the moon rise. It was gorgeous. And worth every bit of my hair-brainedness that made it possible.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next morning was . . . thrilling as well. Violet woke up crying at about 3:45 or so. I think she was not fully awake. It took about 5 minutes, but once she had her sippy she calmed right down and fell back to sleep. Unfortunately, her crazies woke up Clara . . . who did not fall back to sleep. Nels and I wrestled with her in the sleeping bag for about two hours, occasionally she or we would doze for about 2 minutes, but in the end I just got up with her at about 5:30 and let Nels rest.

She's cute, isn't she? 

It's a good thing, too. Because I was not a happy camper about 

only getting 2 1/2 hours of sleep.

And not cute about it, either. :)

The trail from the bathroom to our camp.

My most prevalent thought while walking this trail?

"This is definitely not the same as camping in Utah . . . " 

So green and lush and humid. I love it. 

I love not having everything covered in dust by the time you get home.

Apparently all Clara really needed was to suck on some cold rocks in the morning to make her happy. :) ~ And all things considered, it WAS an incredibly lovely morning. Surrounded by the lake and the mountains, watching the osprey fishing, and watching my own little Chickie crawl around and babble to me.

One by one, my other Chicks emerged all feeling happy and refreshed.

My "little girl" is growing up all too fast . . .

I love Violet's "camping hair"!

And around the time that everyone else was awake, Clara decided she was tired. :)

We spent a wonderful day together swimming,

rowing around in the raft,

Eating Jelly Bellies

and playing in the hot rocks.

Our rock tower.

Lilie's "Sail Boat"

Green Bay

Camping at Green Bay on Lake Pend Oreille.

This Beautiful Morning - brought to you by the kid that just wanted to eat rocks instead.

Friday's Fabulous Five . . . or more

Yay for Friday!!!

1.  I'm not dead and, in fact, we're living well. :) We've been having a boat load of fun --- literally. On the Santa Chickita. We're going camping this weekend with our chickies and our raft. I've got three hours to be all packed up and I haven't really started. :) I'm so excited to go camping! (It's not dry, hot, or on fire here in the Inland Northwest. You should all come visit!)

2. There's nothing but blue skies in the forecast! Even a couple of 90* days. First this year. From what I hear, from here on out ---- probably through the end of September ---- everything about living in Sandpoint is perfect. Everyone says that they live for this time of year and I'm starting to understand why.

3. We've enjoyed sisters and cousins coming to visit and next Tuesday, my parents are coming! I'm beyond excited. We have hiking, rafting, kayaking, eating, beaching, eating, playing, and talking planned. I can't wait to see my mom and dad!

4. I'm starting to get a glimpse of my waistline again!!! Nels and I have been exercising together. It's been excellent. So far I've lost 7 pounds. Hooray!

5. Elsie finally let me cut her hair! It's still long, but we cut about 6 inches off. It was almost down to her bummy.

6. The 4th of July was wonderful! We enjoyed the small town parade (with NO candy! what?!) and later enjoyed our evening at the beach watching the fireworks over the lake. It was fun. We almost lost Violet (scary mom moment) and Clara hated the booming (with whimpering and hiding), but I actually followed through on a promise I'd made to the girls to make them some fun patriotic skirts out of my scrap fabric (more on that later), and the weather and evening were beautiful.

7. The most beautiful things grow here. I've mentioned the lupine that was in bloom everywhere you look, but now the wild roses, wild daisies, foxglove, phlox, tiger lilies, buttercups, syringa are in bloom. I love it!

Clara is growing up too fast. She reminds me so much of baby Elsie and a little of baby Lilie.
And she still has no teeth. :)

Sand Monster

Foxglove. Another of my favorite flowers that just grows spontaneously here. :)

At Farragut State Park with Kendall and her girls. Hazel takes her salutations :) very seriously. :)

She gets freckles across her nose in the sun, just like I did as a kid. 

Camping in Grand Teton National Park

Last week, in an attempt to distract ourselves from other stresses, Nels and I took the girls camping for a couple of nights at the Grand Teton National Park.

We headed up through Jackson Thursday afternoon. It was a lovely day. We'd hoped to get out of town a little sooner, but things being as they are, four kids and camping just require a lot.

By the time we got into the Park, most camp spots were full. I had no idea that it was such a busy place on a Thursday evening! We finally found a great spot and got all set up. Normally camping within a campground isn't quite our cup o' tea, but seeing as how we have four girls and a VERY pregnant mom that often have to use the toilet during the night, it just worked out best this time around. :)

Friday morning we got up and decided to drive down to Jenny Lake and take the ferry across to a short trail leading up to a waterfall at the base of the Grand Teton. The girls had a great time playing around the campsite as we cleaned up breakfast. They imagined several of the trees into animals for riding and pretended all sorts of He-man stories. (He-man is their new favorite cartoon. :) As they were running to and fro, suddenly Elsie was crying. Hazel came running back to camp saying that Elsie had fallen on a stump. Not too big a deal, but as she was coming back up the trail, she was walking funny and kind of hysterical. Hazel then revealed that as they'd been playing by the stump, Elsie's foot had gone into it and bugs came out. AHHhh! We ran to Elsie to see bees all over. We immediately pulled off her pants, swatted them away, and ran all the kids either back to the tent or to the van - to wait for the bees to disperse.

Amazingly, she'd only been bitten twice. Once on the bummy and once on the hand. She was pretty scared and it hurt for a bit, but she was just fine. Thankfully.

We finally made it down to Jenny Lake and had a wonderful little hike!

The hike was absolutely gorgeous! What a beautiful area. 

No pictures can actually do these mountains justice!

Vi tried, but just couldn't hold onto consciousness. :)

Up, up, up. That was the nature of this 1 mile hike. 

Violet doesn't look thrilled, but that's just because she'd only just woke up and 

was feeling a little disoriented. :)

"Okay, Nels. Smile!"

 "Nels, you're not even looking at the camera! Okay, again."

 "Nels! Are you kidding me!? You're as bad as the kids!"

"NELS!!!"

Sometimes dad's should be more patient with their children. No?

Hooray! Even at 8 1/2 months pregnant, I made it. :) 

Can I just tell you that I hate when people make a big deal about me doing 

things that they, personally, would not do? 

"Oh my gosh! I can't believe you're doing this pregnant!"

Elsie won the award for being the best hiker of the day. She was fabulous. 

Stayed up the whole time and didn't complain even once. Sweet little bug.

Love this picture of Lilie. What a ham!

Hazel was SO tired! Half a mile up just did her in.

"Poor Hazel. Poor, poor Hazel. She'll never smile again. 

She's. Just. Too. Tired!"

"Don't smile, Hazel!"

"What's that?! I SAID, Don't SMILE!!"

I love annoying smiles out of my family. :)

As we were packing the day before, Nels found some old, unused shoelaces. And used them as a bribe to get Lilie to help with some of the work. (Lilie loves to tie up anything and everything, so shoelaces are very appealing.) Once in the van, Lilie also found an old hook that I believe broke off of one of our suitcases. She tied the two together and spent all weekend carting around her awesome tool everywhere. Hooking branches, sticks, rocks, sisters, shoes, etc. It was great entertainment. 

At the lake, she was determined that she'd be able to catch a fish with it and had lots of fun dipping it off the dock while waiting for the return ferry after the hike. Eventually, she allowed Hazel in on the fun --- who promptly threw it out into the lake BY ACCIDENT. 

Lilie was devastated. And WAILing.

And everyone waiting there with us was staring.

As I tried to calm her down, Nels (being the awesome dad that he is) quickly stripped of his shoes and socks and waded out to retrieve the priceless toy.

A shoelace. With a hook tied to it.

Hooray!

And then Violet took a nosedive off the bench onto her head on the dock and started wailing.

And everyone waiting there with us was staring.

Again.

Awesome parenting moment #57,156.

We finally made it back onto the ferry with our little circus. 

As everyone else was having a great time enjoying the boat and watching over the side, 

true to form, Elsie almost immediately made friends with a stranger from Australia 

and asked her if she could sit on her lap.

What a funny little social girl we have!

Tired and hot, we headed back to our campground, changed into our swim gear 

and headed down to Jackson Lake to cool off.

We all had a wonderful time together.

Camping with little children is a LOT of work. But it is always SO worth it. For our children. For the memories that we make. For the friendships that we build. 

I love my little family!