Camping Family Adventure

On May 5th through the 7th, Gary and I went camping with my brother Ben, my sister Sarah, and her two children Jeilyn (5) and Kinton (2). We went to Riverside State Park, which is right on the outskirts of Spokane. It was a great weekend, and we accomplished everything we set out to do, with lots of time to spare! The best part was that even though the weather forecast said there would be intermittent showers throughout the days we were there, It actually only rained on our last night. The rest of the time we enjoyed beautiful (if a little chilly) weather!

On our first night we set up camp and then made dinner, which consisted of roasted hotdogs on buns. We had a good time showing the kids how to roast a good hotdog over the fire. For dessert we continued the roasting theme and made s'mores! Jeilyn had a lot of fun with them, but Kinton seems to prefer his marshmallows cold with graham crackers and chocolate on the side. Perhaps when he's older he'll understand the awesomeness of a good hot s'more.

After dinner we played around a little bit, then retired to the tent where we sang camp songs and Gary entertained us with "scary" stories (they weren't that scary). Afterward we all laid down and listened to Sarah read a chapter of the Book of Mormon to her kids as they fell asleep.

Cooking and eating. Pleas excuse Ben's weird face!

The next morning, I woke everyone up early (it's hard to sleep on the ground when one is 29 weeks pregnant) and we got ready to make Breakfast Burritos! Gary made the filling in his dutch oven and then warmed up the tortillas on the lid. It was so good!

Uncle Gary carried Kinton the whole time!

After cleaning up we decided to go hiking.  There were some really nice trails, which were easy enough for Jeilyn and me to go on.

Jeilyn and Ben overlooking the Spokane River rapids.

Along one of the trails, we heard a baby hawk calling for it's parents. You could just barely see him in his nest at the top of the tree.

While on the trails, we found a walking stick for Jeilyn, and later one for Kinton as well, even though he wasn't walking. When we got back to camp, Gary whittled the bark off and wrapped the tops with leather cord so the kids could take them home.

 After our return from hiking and a nice lunch of sandwiches, Ben and Gary decided to do some biking on the other side of the river. While they were gone, the children, Sarah, and I made peanut butter bird feeders. Kinton was more interested in eating the peanut butter, and was constantly getting seeds in his mouth because he couldn't wait for Mom to put some on a clean plate for him. In a bid for some attention for herself, Jeilyn tried it too.

The peanut butter was cold and sticky.

Jeilyn and Kinton next to Jeilyn's birdfeeder. This picture was taken just before she pushed Kinton out of the picture. Yay for sisterly love.

It was a pretty steep hill.

 When the boys got back, we had a lot of time to kill before it was time for bed, so Gary decided to teach Kinton and Jeilyn how to climb steep hills. Uncle Ben ended up going too because Gary climbed up first and only then realized that might not be a good idea, lest one of the little ones should fall backwards. What a good uncle!


 After eating our foil dinners, it started to rain, so we packed everything into Sarah's van and turned in for the night. It rained really hard the whole night, so in the morning we decided to skip breakfast at the campsite and made our weary way home. All in all, it was a great weekend, and hopefully we can go camping together again sometime!

Upon our return to Pullman, Gary put the birdseed out on our porch and we got a visitor! He came back the next day for more too!