Lon's First Camping Trip!

On Friday afternoon, with a car full of camp gear we picked up Daddy from work and headed to the Wenatchee National Forest, and the Tieton River! Mark was going rafting with BEWET and I was going to play with Lon!

Mt. Rainer on the way to our camp spot.

Setting up our nice big tent! We stayed at Hause Creek Camp. Highway 12, milepost 168.5. Our first camp site was right next to the river. Mark and I both had serious second thoughts on that spot. When Janet, the nice lady in charge of the campsite came by in her golf cart, Mark went with her to inspect sites we could change to. It was a nice site. In the trees. Lon is unpacking his Lightening McQueen sleeping bag he got for his birthday. It came in its own backpack!

After Mommy made a nice breakfast of bacon and pancakes, over an open fire! We went to the drop in site to watch Daddy help set up the rafts and go off on his adventure.

Lon and Daddy discuss the dangers of the river. Lon knew rule #1 was to stay with Mommy and Daddy!

Wow, they got those rafts blown up alot faster than Mommy got the air mattresses blown up! To be fair to Mommy, I was using a foot bellows and the guys used a generator. (I got my stair master work out in on Friday afternoon!)

I was standing watching Lon play with dirt and rocks, and one of the rafters told me I was the coolest Mom cause I let Lon get dirty and play. Lon got really dirty! He had lots of fun!

Playing with Daddy's helmet.

Getting the last tips on before putting in!

Daddy's off! Lon and I needed to fill the car up, find some fun things and pick Daddy up in an hour and a half.

Here they come!

After Daddy helped put the rafts away, we went back to camp to get Daddy out of his wet suit. Then we went into Yakima. We had dinner and Mel's diner. It was okay food, the only good thing about it, was it did not have any dirt. The best thing is Lon is starting to get the whole idea of using the toilet. He asked if he could do to the bathroom. I took him in and he actually used the toilet. WHOOOHOO. I know when he is 15 reading about his childhood he is going to hate this whole passage. However, Mommy and Daddy think it was a big red letter day! After we finished eating our dinner we went to Sarge Hubbard Park. Which is behind the wal*mart. (we got some camping gear we needed, like a little saw for wood, and toy for Lon). The park was fun, with the exception of the very loud music by some unseen band. It was not remotely good, just bass. It became annoying very fast. We did not stay long.

Even though we did not stay long, Lon had fun.

Oh! Someone in the parking lot of wal*mart was giving away free kittens. We did not get one, but we thought about it!

I was getting Lon ready for bed, getting him out of his dirty clothes into less dirty clothes to sleep in (it got COLD at night), but he wanted to stay naked in front of the fire. It was pretty funny. Yes, my darling son, I will show these pictures to your future girlfriends and most definitely your children!

The next morning. Daddy was not feeling well enough to go rafting again and Lon was just cold! Mommy got the fire going (cheating, using match light charcoal and kindling, but it worked and worked fast!)

We got camp broken down and the car loaded in less than an hour. Excellent.

Chocolate in the car!

Chinook Pass, a good place to stretch our legs.

Reading about the highway, and Mt. Rainer National Park.

Mt. Rainer and Tipsoo Lake. It looked like it would be a nice place to hike around, bring a picnic, lunch, let Lon play outside. If we have nice weather I think we will do that this weekend. We had a really good time camping. We are definitely going camping more next summer. We have a list of things that will make our next trip easier. We will work on that list over the winter. The reason we did not stop at Tipsoo Lake on the way home was that we all smelled like goats, and were really really dirty. Our campsite was dirt. Lon had fun digging in the dirt. I am glad I brought his shovels and buckets.