Skateboarding & Camping

Brennan attended a skate camp for the first week of Summer and he had a blast.  He rode home in a daze of happiness each afternoon.  He got some exercise, made some friends, and learned some new skills. 

We also had a visit from GG and Aunt Dara that week, which we really enjoyed.  Kellan snuggled with GG while he ate his snack.

Aunt Dara ran everyone around the backyard and played multiple sports at once.  We had a short soccer match before relaxing with some popsicles.

Some special reading time with GG.

By the end of the week we were getting ready for our camping trip.  Headlamps were definitely in order.

Isla even wore hers to pick Brennan up on his last day of camp.  We got there early to picnic and watch him skate.

We loaded up the car and headed out to Skyline Drive to camp at Mathews Arm.

We saw a bear!!  Three actually, since the mother had cubs!  They were just heading off the road into the woods as we drove by and I couldn't get my phone in time to get a picture.  Patrick stopped me from chasing after them for a shot.  So I have a picture of this sign at our campground instead.

Everything was pretty wet, and it poured the first night.  We really lucked out with the timing though and it didn't start until we were already in for the night.  Kellan skipped the marshmallows this trip, but still had a ton of trouble settling down to sleep.  He was like a drunk gnome in a bounce house.

We took a 2.5 mile hike in the morning, driving through extremely dense fog to get there.  It was very humid and felt like we were in a cloud, but we didn't actually get rained on at all.  The kids did great and no one complained!

We took a break for trail mix before the steepest section.  I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that the kids liked the M&Ms the best.  Somehow they kept "dropping" the raisins...

We made it down some very steep and slippery rocks to see what we'd come for: columnar basalt.  It was pretty amazing!

Our foggy path back to the car... Isla is refusing to be a willing participant in this photo.

Change of heart.

 

  Kellan was exhausted.

As was Rocky.

Curly Sues.

We stopped by one of the visitor centers.

Then enjoyed a picnic lunch.  The kids had definitely earned it!  It was very buggy, and while I may or may not have forgotten knives, I did remember a citronella candle.

Isla got ahold of my sunglasses, hair clip, and phone, and took these beauties while she was hanging out in the tent.

Roasted hotdogs for dinner.

The dining car.

Cozy family time.

We came home and picked our first blueberries.

Isla is very pleased with this cup; she and Brennan have completed 100 points worth of chores and redeemed them for treats.  I am very happy with all of the dish clearing, bed making, laundry putting away and toy cleanup that's been happening around here.

We got to have a nice visit with cousin Eli and meet Rachel when they came through town.  There were some great photo ops with them playing with the kids and I just wasn't on the ball.

When is this happening??  Apparently the last one is a self portrait of Isla clucking her tongue.