In case you've missed out on some of our previous camping weekend blogs, you can read '08 Part One and Two and '09 in advance. Andy and I are proud to say that since we've been together, we've gone camping at least once every summer. While we might favor gear-laden car camping experiences to hardcore backpacking, we have a great time and figure that camping is a skill to practice just like any other. If you don't use it, you lose it; skip a few summers and suddenly Alton will be nine years old, glued to a Gameboy (Hey, do kids still use those? Speak up, Grandma can't hear you.) and soooo not interested in watching us try to remember how to construct our moldy tent after a decade of disuse. We'll keep our camping muscles flexed by doing a little weekend trip each year, loading up Andy's truck with firewood, sleeping bags and way too much food, eating s'mores and arriving home 48 hours later with 10 loads of laundry to do to get the campfire smoke smell out of everything we brought.
Toward the beginning of the summer, our friend Charlie and her husband suggested a camping trip with all the old camping gang--it's been a few years since we were all together. The only problem is that we are up in NW Oregon, while everyone else lives in Bay Area California! It took very little convincing and our wonderful friends easily agreed to meet us in the "middle" in Southern Oregon. I contacted my college friend Jenn, a So. Oregon native, for her campground recommendations and we found one that fit the bill on the Rogue River just outside the city of Grants Pass. Emails flew as we coordinated meals, gear, and arrival times, and a couple weeks ago we got the aforementioned truck all loaded up with our stuff and Minerva, of course. Andy and Alton sat in the backseat (bench seat, not jump seats), and Little Miss Sad Face was in the front passenger seat with the airbag turned off.
Minerva acted very put-upon that her seat was pushed so far forward to accommodate Alton's carseat behind her, so she deigned to set her chin on the armrest with my sweatshirt for a pillow.
This was the first year that Alton would be camping and actually remember it! We talked about camping for weeks ahead of time, he was so excited to go, and he took to it like a duck to water. Our two adjoining sites were actually RV-enabled sites, so we had a water spigot and electrical outlet of our very own. Alton went and performed frequent drip checks on the faucet.
After awhile, we took off that adorable floppy sun hat of his and found sweaty punk hair underneath!
But really Alton, what's not to love about camping? You get to hang outside all day, get dirty, you hardly ever have to wash your hands, and crackers on tap 24/7. He plopped down on Mac's dog bed, figuring that he might as well use it if she wasn't!
Mmm, more crackers. You'll notice that we caved this year and bought him a little fold-up camp chair of his very own! Cross your fingers that it fits until age 6, like the tag said.
The adults don't mind camping, either. We decided this was a great weekend for all of us to sit back, relax, and just be. The water in the river was so cold that you would have only wanted to swim in it if it was scorching hot, which it wasn't, so we basked in low-80s temps underneath a heavy tree cover and moving cloud layer.
In addition to our friend Charlie (below right) and her husband Jesse, we were joined by sisters Peg and Bobbie, the camping experts, and our friend Josie (below left), who has nieces and nephews in the double digits and therefore arrived with a Lightning McQueen car as a gift for Alton!
Josie, how did you know?! He was of course in love with it.
Since we Rhynes expected to be the first ones to arrive at the campsite (we didn't count on those early-rising Solveson sisters, though), we signed up to cook Friday night's dinner.
Along with some delicious (and low-fat) turkey burgers, we prepared a big batch of delicious fresh green beans from our CSA. Farm-fresh green beans are one of Alton's new favorite foods. At dinnertime, I have actually said the words, "Alton, you have to finish your pasta before you can have your green beans." We like to sauté them with a little olive oil and sea salt, but for camping I opted to blanch them in a big pot on the stove at home and put them in a ziploc baggie to serve cold at the campsite. I'd planned to toss them with a little salad dressing, but everyone insisted that they were tasty naked, just the way they were!
After dinner, Alton received a delicious melty mini Kit-Kat bar while the rest of us did the dishes. Charlie taught him how to lick chocolate off his fingers.
Soon we were into the kicking-back-with-a-glass-of-wine-around-the-campfire stage. Below, the gang cozies up to our colorful picnic table.
Alton and Jesse survey the campfire from their chairs. How cute is Alton's little chair?
An eventful first day and the little guy was happy to conk out in the tent. We still brought along his travel crib for this trip--we'll wait until next year to put him in a sleeping bag of his own! Mornings dawn a little chilly underneath all those trees, so Alton and I snuggle up in the a.m. with coffee (mine) and Lightning McQueen (his).
In addition to the red race car, we had brought along some campground-friendly toys to keep Alton entertained. On past trips, we'd noticed the plethora of kids biking, skateboarding, and scootering around the sites, since the winding paved loops with 5mph speed limits in the state parks usually mean you don't have to worry about too much car traffic. We thought that perhaps Alton would like a cruising vessel of his own, so the day before we departed we snapped up a cheap used Radio Flyer tricycle on craigslist.
He was definitely interested in his "bike," as he called it, although when he realized that he could go much faster when someone pushed him instead of him slooowly turning the pedals, he requested that most often! He also LOVED the little bell on the handlebars.
All that cycling makes me hungry! We've learned from past camping trips that we do best with a hearty breakfast, snacking throughout the day, and hot dinner 'n dessert around the campfire, so with the sisters on duty for breakfast Alton was in top form eating eggs and canadian bacon.
After some more loafing, we were ready to explore the river with our sea otters, I mean dogs, in tow. Alton acclimated to the icy water by dipping his toes in with Jesse...
...and doing some splashing with Charlie!
The dogs pretended to never get tired, swimming and leaping for sticks that we'd throw into the water. Below is evidence that Minerva fetched. Sort of.
Another fun activity that we invented was a camera lesson for Alton! We found an old instant-use camera at home and, assuming that it was probably too old to take reliable pictures, decided that it would make a perfect practice piece for our littlest camper.
He's had so much practice in front of the lens, he relished the opportunity to get behind it!
Hydration is also important while you are taking pictures.
His collection of photos depicted his wide variety of interests. You had categories like People...
Tractors and Trucks...
His Feet...
and a couple that just turned out incredibly awesome, like this riverscape below.
Whew! All that camping fun is enough to wear anyone out. We loaded the truck back up on Sunday after a great breakfast and some more time around the campfire, then promptly conked out with Pooh Bear for several hours on the drive home. Until next year!
1 comment:
Wow! It looks like you had a lot of fun.I hadn't ever thought of camping as something to practice every year. Maybe that's why I'm not so good at it. Glad to see Alton's great photos, too.
Post a Comment