First "Real" Camping Trip

For years growing up, my family would camp at Lake Easton State Park.  The last time I was there was when Joe and I were newly engaged and we slept in a tent.  This year, after trying to plan to go for the past couple of years and never having it work out, we finally were able to go again.  My parents, grandparents, aunt and mom's cousins go every year around the same time.

Since we purchased out tent trailer about two years ago, we have only used it twice to go over to a friend's cabin for Memorial Day weekend.  We had never taken it to a real camp ground.  We left home Friday a little after 1pm, picked up my Dad and drove the hour and a half just over the mountains to Easton, WA.

My mom and aunt had arrived Thursday and were all set up.  Dylan was so excited to go camping (even though he really had never been) and was instantly busy exploring the trees and woods on the back side of my parent's campsite.

Joe and I popped up the trailer and settled our "home" for the next few days.  It was great having hook-ups, we had hot water and electricity.  A lot of the amenities of the trailer we had never used or hadn't tried to figure out since we hadn't needed them, other than the toilet.  So my Mom showed me how to hook up the propane and light the pilot to get hot water and turn on the fridge.  It was amazing to be able to put food in the fridge and not have it sitting in the melted ice in our cooler.

The first evening, we BBQ-ed hamburgers over the campfire and then Joe, Dylan, my Dad and I decided to head to the bridge to go fishing.  Dylan was so adamant that he was going to catch a fish, clean it and eat it!  I'm not quite sure he understood what all that meant.  Unfortunately, after casting and reeling for just a short while, we heard that the park ranger had said there weren't any fish in the lake.  Joe was really bummed, he was looking forward to spending the weekend fishing.

Got my Batman fishing pole, ready to go!

Happy little fisherman

Good Father/Son activity

The lake was so calm and peaceful

Dylan spent the majority of the evening playing hide-and-go seek out in the woods with various family members, as well as being the live-in entertainment.  He would alternate between break dancing, racing around the chairs and up into the woods and hiding in his own little tent that Grandma brought. It was great having so many other family members there to play with him and tend to his every need.  I basically felt like I didn't have a kid the entire weekend because there was always Grandma, Grandpa, Auntie Laura, Uncle Jason or another relative to get him what he needed.

Playing in the woods with Laura

The next morning, after pancakes and sausage for breakfast, we all trekked down to the beach to test out the lake.  It was very warm and sunny, however, the lake was seriously about 35 degrees!  It's literally melted snow pack and catches your breath to even stand in it. Dylan would barely dip his toes in and if he stood in the water for more than a few minutes, would come running out crying saying that his feet hurt.  It was so cold, you'd go numb after just a short period of time.  He did lounge on a raft at the water's edge, just as long as the raft wasn't actually IN the water.

This lasted for about a minute

My mom's cousins brought their kayak and they let us all takes turns going out in it.  Dylan surprisingly agreed to go out with us, but became very uncertain the second we started paddling since the boat would rock back and forth with each stroke.  I had to stop paddling so I could hold on to him tightly and he would gasp every time we'd tilt either way.  He was so concerned that he would fall in the water and, "the fishies would eat him".

We had great weather, in spite of the fact that the forecast predicted thunder storms and showers.  It maybe sprinkled on and off just two times the entire weekend.  I really like our tent trailer, it's the perfect size for us and I love that it has a potty and a shower which was great for rinsing off the filthiest feet at the end of the day.  

Favorite play area, the woods

Don't look at this one too closely, I enjoyed  not wearing make-up all weekend....