Camping

This post was almost titled: "Never Ride Your Bike Holding the Leash of a Sixteen Month Old Lab!" But, I thought "Camping" summed up more of the entirety of our trip. We left Sunday for our 5 day camping trip to Fort Stevens. The weather was beautiful and we had a blast. A few MINOR things set us back...one being the "second" title of this post. We set out on bikes...Micah and Amelia in the bike trailer, Elijah on bike, Hooper tied to the back of the trailer...it wasn't working. Hooper was going NUTS to say the least. So, the next "bike" outing (which was planned to be quite a bit longer) went like this...Elijah AND Amelia in the bike trailer, Micah ON Tony's back in the pack, me on bike...with Hooper. May as well just end the post there as I'm sure you can imagine how well that went. Hooper saw a squirrel or some critter, ran in front of my bike...I accidently squeezed the FRONT wheel brake so I wouldn't run him over and I went FLYING OVER MY BIKE!! My dismount was a perfect 10! It was in slow motion, and all I thought mid-flight, was LAND IN THE SOFT, LAND IN THE SOFT! So, I aimed for the grassy bush to my right, and believe it or not, I made it! QUITE A SIGHT! So, the rest of the ride looked like this...

I swear if we had it on video I would've won the $10,000 on AFV. So, things went better after this set up. Tony had ALL the kiddos, AND the dog...I had the camera. The looks from passerby's was astounding...some laughed, LOTS glared at the sight of us "BREEDERS." "Oh, wow, you have three kids under 5. (Said in more of a question of shock in awe.) What is it with people and this question/statement? We get more people that are "annoyed" that we have three young ones. Some gave smiles of "compassion." Those are the ones I assume also have little ones...I like those people. To which I said to all of them "Yea, this is hard, gosh, it's tough holding this camera! I have the hard job!"

The rest of the trip was a blast. The kids did great in the tent...even Micah. We all fit! The campfires were great. The kids experienced camping life (Amelia had to make a few emergency "pit" stops in the bush! Elijah too!) The kids and Tony got to see a "movie" in the camp amphitheater...this impressed Elijah. Movies in the forest!? Quiet voices were unheard of as the kids couldn't figure out why everyone else wasn't up at 6am! (They were sure excited to see other people getting out of their tents..."look mama, they're awake now!"...to which I gave a guilty "I'm so sorry" look to them! We went on lots of bike rides to explore the "batteries" of Fort Stevens. Those are amazing and so fun. My kids are FEARLESS! They walked right into the pitch black caves to explore the "rooms" with nothing but their Cars/Princess flashlights as I was clutching Tony to not let me go. (Ever seen I Am Legend? You know where I'm going there.....)

Micah eating his first Cheeto:

Verdict: YUMMY!

The weather was beautiful...until yesterday afternoon at about 3:00pm! We had a MONSOON. Amelia looked like a drowned rat. She was soaked and shivering. Tony made the call to move our gear together and try to create a tunnel with our tarp. In the end, that made things worse, so, we decided to pack up. It was not letting up and had been spurting rain off and on all day. We thought we'd escape some of it and went shopping INSIDE the Seaside Outlets that morning, but, by 3pm, everything was drenched. Three wet kiddos, and one smelly wet dog was enough for us. We packed up while the kids sat in the car and watched a movie. It was horrible, Tony and I were soaked, freezing, and SOOOO dirty/muddy. Even our undies were soaking! We were supposed to stay two more nights, and come back on Thursday. We were bummed to end our trip short, but we may go to the zoo tomorrow instead! Here's a few more "good" pictures before the flood. (Notice "Mommy Amelia")

We stopped in Astoria for dinner on the way home at the Wet Dog Cafe...they have AMAZING food and the name was fitting! The kids stayed awake the entire trip home...and we drove into the drive about 10:30pm, tumbled out of the car and into our warm beds. What a day! But, we had a blast...the kids want to go camping again... "tomorrow!"