June Camping

With a rare midweek day off, Zach and I thought it would be a good idea to escape to a nearby state park to do some camping. The park, Kanaskat-Palmer, is a mere twenty minute drive from the house, nestled in the cascade foothills on the upper end of the green river gorge. Washington weather in June can be a bit hit or miss, and Wednesday was a near miss, cloudy, 52 degrees, but not raining. I would not let weather on my day off stymie a camping trip.

This time of year the sun stays up late, and when the sky is a dull gray, 3:00 P.M. looks and feels a lot like 8:00, or 9:00. Shannon dubbed the campground, "Camp Stay-Awake" after our temporary neighbors played dance music from their car for the entire campground until 10:00pm, then at 7:00am the next morning we were greeted by a large tractor brush hogging adjacent campsites. Really, it couldn't wait till 8:00?

Back to the fun, this is Zach telling me how much faster he is than Mom or Tyler. I think they are back there somewhere. (Actually, by time I got Zach to stop jumping around enough to snap the photo, Ty and Mom had caught up, they have been photo shopped out to add to the dramatic effect. )





Tyler was happy to be camping, but then again when isn't Tyler happy? We got pretty lucky with this guy, a good sport as long as you have food nearby when he gets hungry. Shannon is also a good sport, as you can tell from the pictures below, she is still a little swollen after having her wisdom teeth removed. While she should have been resting, the boys and I enjoyed her company.

Camping was a good time for all, we cooked hot dogs, had some smores (Zach had a single marshmallow). We spent most of the time trying to keep Tyler out of the fire.

The real fun of the night was playtime in the tent, the tent was at one point a cave, a wrestling mat, a swimming pool, and countless other things. Here is Tyler enjoying the festivities.

Due to the typical Washington wetness, we wanted to limit the number of times we got in and out of the tent (to keep water and mud out, plus, crawling out of a tent is really hard.) After packing away the entire campground, throwing out all our trash, putting all of our stuff back into the car except for the tent and sleeping bags of course. We climb into the tent, make our beds, put on the PJ's, say a prayer, read some books, and are finally ready to go to sleep. Zach says, Daddy, I am still hungry.

Zach, we put everything away, we got in the tent, put on our PJ's.....
But Daddy, I am really Hungry.
OK, What would you like?
Daddy, I would like a grape.

I would like to say that the trip to the car to get "a" grape was the last trip of the night. But several trips were made, including a hike along the banks of the Green river. Like I said though, really, no difference in lighting between 4:00 and 9:00.