Annual Camping Trip

Shawn had a week break between clinical rotations, so we took a vacation. We all needed one!

We went camping at Silver Falls State Park... again. You’d think we would mix it up a little and go somewhere else this time. But we have this obsession with getting the best campsite, and we were scared to go somewhere new and have an awful spot. Yes, it is possible to have the worlds most awful campsite, we’ve had it!
I’m happy to say that this year we got the very best. I’m not kidding! If you ever go to Silver Falls, get campsite #37, it’s the best. It is the biggest and has the most privacy.

I told you we are obsessed, I could write a whole blog post about campsites. You’re yawning aren’t you? That’s my que to move on.....

Here we are... hands nicely folded in our laps and big smiles on our faces. I had to bribe my kids (and Shawn) to sit so still.

This is what we did the entire time... 

 We sat around the fire so much, we lost touch with reality and had a silly face contest. Jefferson needs some serious creative help. And we decided that Grant can cross his eyes the furthest.

 Shawn insisted on cutting his own firewood and chopped many a branch with this tiny ax. It was quite entertaining. It was easy to make fun of him. But I thanked him later when we had a blazing fire.

 Instead of packing meals, we just brought supplies for smores.

I’m kidding.

But I probably could have.... that’s all my kids wanted to eat. We brought enough stuff for 6 smores each, per night. We sure had our fill of ‘em.

yum, burnt marshmallow, that’s the best kind!

 We didn’t hike the entire trail this year, like we usually do. We decided to just see a couple of the waterfalls (there are 10 total). We ended up stopping a lot and exploring off the trail more than actually hiking it... which was more fun really.

Us at South Falls

 

 We had fun exploring some caves. The boys were pretty brave, climbing into areas that were pitch dark, Shawn too.

 We stopped to have lunch by a stream.The kids had fun exploring. Reagan took off all her clothes and went swimming.

 The next day we hiked down to Upper North Falls, my favorite.

 We tried to get a picture with the falls... this is the best we got

 The boys crossed the stream and spent time on the other side playing Nephites and Lamanites. I really think my boys should have been born during the Book of Mormon ages!

It was fun. Camping always is. I'm hoping we can squeeze one more camping trip in before we leave Oregon. It really is the most beautiful place.