Sunday, September 4, 2011

Climber’s Bivouac

We just got back from a super fun camping trip with the Horrocks family! Aaron and Josh have been working together at PPS for almost two years now and since becoming carpool buddies, our families have grown super close! Neither of us wanted to drive super far away and since both of our families are last minute and easy-going planners, we headed up to climber’s bivouac on Mt St. Helens in the hopes for a $5 campsite (the day use fee) and a beautiful view. It really could not have worked out more perfectly!

This is has now been our 5th camping trip of the year, and with each trip Allie has grown progressively more and more difficult! This trip was the worst: she wouldn’t sleep! We almost turned into camping ‘car-sleepers’. It was lame. The crying… the screaming… the tantrums… OH MAN! It’s gotta be the age and the fact that she is teething. Who knows, we just can’t wait till next year! Anyways, since she still doesn’t walk (by choice mind you) Aaron and I had hopes that she would use her little baby walker/stroller thing to get herself around.

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Allie is not a day-use pacifier baby, but we plugged her up with the binkie in the hopes that she wouldn’t stuff her mouth full of rocks and dirt. It really didn’t help much.

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You could say we chose our battles on this one. Happy parents come from a happy baby… a happy baby is one who gets to crawl around on the filthy ground.

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The view from our tent was AMAZING! It brought back so many fun memories from when Aaron and I climbed Mt. St. Helens four years ago. Never again, I say… Never again.

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Hadley and Malia helping set up the tent!

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The kids had a lot of fun roaming our campsite by wagon, looking for treasures, and playing in the sandbox (other tent platforms).

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Collin, Hadley, Allie and Malia.

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The views were spectacular!

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On Saturday morning we headed out for a hike to June Lake.

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We hiked along this little stream before heading up in elevation.

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The girls picking flowers!

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The trail sporadically opened up to pretty views of the mountain.

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Collin being silly.

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The hike ended in this open sandy/ashy area with lava rocks all around.

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A short walk further through some tall shrubs led us to June Lake!

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The lake was pretty and peaceful… well, if you ignored the crazy hippies and their naked children who were bathing in the mosquito (maybe even giardia) infested lake after camping there for 4 days… weird.

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It even had a waterfall.

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Despite the occasional and expected whining, these kids did a pretty good job hiking!

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Josh, Hadley, Katie and Sadie.

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After hiking it was lunch time, nap time for the girls, read a book time for the moms, and fishing time for the boys. It was a pretty great and relaxing afternoon for all of us! But… the kids sure got dirty. Here’s Malia with her ‘tough’ face.

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And here’s Allie’s crazy open-mouthed face!

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Camping is never complete without an awesome fire!

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So… here’s where you can tell that we just totally and completely gave up on even trying to keep this baby clean. And no… she’s NOT (for once) eating dirt in this picture… she was eating food, I just never bothered cleaning her up before breakfast.

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You just have to let some things go if you expect to have any fun camping with a three and one year old…

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First on the agenda when we get home? Bath-time!!!

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And here we are packed up and all ready to go home!

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We had so much fun with the Horrocks and can’t wait for our next camping adventure!

1 comment:

Katie said...

You got some great pictures! I guess I forgot to get my camera out as much as you did. Thanks for inviting us! We had a great time. It was so nice and great views of the Mt. And thanks Aaron for sacrificing and camping where there is a toilet.