A Camping We Will Go

My sister, Emily, organized a campout with us siblings and our families. It's the first time we've done this. Emily and her family, Elizabeth and hubby, me and my fam, Lori, Brian and his fam, and Darin...the baby of us all, but anything but. (He's so grown up now living on his own and working at his fancy, shmancy job. lol) 

 With the school year coming to a close it wasn't the best timing for Jaime to pick up and leave with evaluations and interviews and such. He's been so busy but he managed to escape and get home around 4 p.m. on Friday. (Ideally he'd take the day off if he didn't have so much going on. He had to go in to work on Monday, Memorial Day, just to get stuff done.) We hit the road at 4:39! Stopped in Grandview to drop the boys off. Yeah I know, a camping trip without having to chase Tyler around and make sure Aidan remembers his bathroom breaks sounds kind of nice, doesn't it. 

Well, here's the deal. Jaime's folks go camping for Memorial Day weekend every year. They had planned on taking all four of our kids with them. Then Emily planned this camping trip and Jaime told his parents we would be camping the same weekend as them. They were bummed and asked if they could at least take two with them. The girls volunteered but after we reminded them that their cousins Jacob and Emma would be there the girls were ok camping in a tent with us and not trailering it with grandparents. However, they ended up not camping because of projects they wanted to get done before the following weekend for Marcus' graduation celebration. Aidan was torn between hanging out with Grandpa Morales and camping in a tent with us but when push came to shove, when we took the boys to their grandparents Aidan was ecstatic to see Grandpa. It's always weird for me to drive away leaving my kids behind knowing it'll be over night but we all made it through alive. :)

We got to Ohanapecosh campground in Mt. Rainier National Park at 9 p.m. My brothers were kind enough to take our tent up early with them and set it up so all we did was make our beds. Getting there so late kind of takes out the fun of the day. We did get to do some visiting and have s'mores. But a few hours later we were ready for bed.

Olivia was the cold one. Usually I'm shivering while we are camping but I didn't feel cold at all that evening. We were warm and slept well even if it was in a tent. 

(I'm not a camping enthusiast can you tell? Well, if it's warm I like it better. Like I've said before, I'm a warm-weather-loving kinda person. I hate being cold.)

Saturday morning we headed out for a hike of just over 2 1/2 miles to see Silver Falls.

I tried getting a photo of everyone off on the start but it didn't turn out so well.

I loved how everyone just chats along the way and laughs here and there.

Things like that are good memories I have of my family.

Olivia and Jaime

Lori, Jaime, Olivia, Lindsey, Emma, Jacob

We saw lots of small streams and water falls.

Jacob, Emma, Lindsey, Lori, Olivia

The Covington Crew

William, Jeremiah, Wescott, Jacob, Emily, Emma

Darin's carrying Wescott in a pack. If you look between Jeremiah and Jacob's legs

you can see Darin's knee. What an awesome Uncle.

The Naylors

Jaime and Lisa....DARIN! Yeah he's being his silly self.

And that's Wescott on Darin's back.

Silver Falls

Beautiful. I love the sound of the falls and rushing river.

Lindsey, Olivia, Lisa

Elizabeth and Lisa

Jaime, Emma, Lindsey, Olivia, Lisa

The Morales'

We got wet from the spray of the falls. It was actually quite nice.

Just a misty rain. I turned and got this pic of the mist in the morning sun.

Love it.

Jaime, Olivia, Lindsey at the top of the falls.

Olivia, Lindsey, Jacob

Jacob, Lindsey, Olivia

We got one picture with everyone there.

After lunch everyone kind of went on their own ways. We went with Elizabeth, Jon, and Lori to the Grove of the Patriarchs to see the old giant trees.

Lindsey and Lori, so strong!

The infamous picture of holding up a falling tree.

The suspension bridge was probably our favorite part!

We'd shake it and bounce it while others ran across.

It's an interesting feeling to think you will be putting your foot down on the bridge and realize it's not there because of the movement of it. Or when you think your foot has longer to go before it hits the bridge is another weird feeling when you hit it sooner!

Look at their faces! Priceless. Definitely having fun.

Lindsey and Olivia made Lori get inside the tree first...

just in case there was something else in there!

Lori, Lindsey, Lisa, Olivia, Jaime, Jon

around the biggest tree

Elizabeth, Lindsey, Lisa, Olivia, Jaime, Jon

 I wonder how many of us it would take to go all the way around if everyone was there.

Aahhh the beauty of this world we live. 

I had a great time. It would have been fun to spend a bit more time and actually hang out and visit but for a short notice, quick trip...it was good. :)