We did us some campin'.
First trip with Ralph.
The pole that held up our rain fly broke. So, Huzbend had to tie it to trees to get it to stay up.
It looked decidedly low rent.
Oh well.
Here is a picture of Mikey about one second before he trips over the tent flap and falls on his face.
Good times.
He gets credit for the first fall of the first camping trip of the season.
This is what happens to your feet when you wear Crocs camping.
Time for a hike!
"We're following the leader, the leader, the leader....."
We were at Fort Ebey State Park.
It was a coastal defense fort in WWII.
You can still go in the fort.
It's kinda dark....
At the end of June, Washington state banned all campfires because of the extreme heat and dry conditions in our state (and YOU think it rains here all the time.....)
We had to get creative with our marshmallows.
Camping without a camp fire is really not very much fun.
So, we packed it up and headed to the surf line to watch the sunset.
Katie climbed a big tree.
(Mikey also climbed said tree)
The sunset was totally worth it.
It was only a one night trip.
Before we left, we headed to the beach.
It was Ralph's first trip to a beach.
He was not impressed.
He didn't like the smelly seaweed, he didn't like all the rocks he had to walk on and he wasn't so sure how to even walk on sand.
"Pooey."
He's hiding in the shade next to the tree stump.
We hiked back to the car and headed home.
While at home, Mikey's other front tooth became really loose.
He could stick it straight out of his mouth.
A week and a half later it was.....
MIKEY'S BIRTHDAY!
He woke up, ate some brekkie and opened presents.
"I love Minecraft Spider. He's so squishy."
"YYYYYYEEEEEAAAAAAHHHHH!"
After present opening we, including Ralph, hopped in the truck and drove ourselves down to the Oregon coast for camping with the neighbors.
We got there in time to set up, have some taco dinner and dessert.
Mikey and two of our neighborhood dads all had birthdays that weekend.
We sang Happy Birthday to them all and Mikey got the honor of blowing out all the candles.
Mikey even got some presents.
He got some cool Star Wars card games and this gem.....
A fart gun.
He put it to use alllllllllllll weekend.
Movie night!!!
Katie chose to miss part of the movie to enjoy some marshmallows as Oregon had not put up a statewide ban on campfires.
We stayed at Nehalem Bay State Park.
Did I mention that Oregon's beaches are beautiful?
A lot less rotting seaweed (like none), no rocks - just sand, and big waves.
Especially at about 6:45 in the morning when there is virtually no one else on them except campers that just can't seem to sleep in tents no matter how cushy their crash pads are and their dogs.
When Ralph and I got back the kids were still asleep.
Not surprising.
It was about 7:45 or so.
After breakfast we all headed to the beach before it got windy.
The beach there tended to get VERY windy in the afternoon.
So windy that the sand stung you when it hit you.
It even broke our kite.
Mean wind.
Huzbend decided to let Ralph off leash for the first time.
He LOVED it.
Both being off leash and being on the beach.
He may look sad in this picture,
(actually he spends about 90% of the time with this look on his face)
but he's really not.
"Mommy. Beach water tastes bad. Yuck.
But miscellaneous stuff I find on the beach is super fun to eat!"
Ralph ate so much sand that he was pooping sand.
Really.
The kids busied themselves burying each other.
The rest of the day was spent bike/scooter riding and playing this cool Swedish game called Kubb. You can read about it here.
Our team could not beat the team that Katie was on.
She was their secret weapon pulling out seemingly impossible hits whenever they most needed them.
That night, during dinner, we had a visitor.
He was so tame that one of our party hand fed him hotdog roll.
Deer should not be that NOT afraid of people.....
After an awesome spaghetti dinner it was piñata time!
Notice the birthday crown.
Notice the helmet.
She wore it ALL day.
The next morning, Ralph and I were up early (as usual) and headed back to the beach.
This time, I let Ralph off leash.
He ran and ran and ran.......
.....and found an injured shore bird.
Ooops.
Pardon us.
Ralph went back on leash after that.
We headed back to camp to pack up.
All the neighbors kids were up, had breakfast and were breaking down camp.
Ours were still asleep.
We were the last ones to leave.
"Mommy? Where is everybody?"
