Camping!!

One of our goals this summer was to go camping at least once and we finally did it!

We bought this awesome tent at a yard sale for $20.  I thought I was getting a fantastic deal on it, but we went to set it up in our yard the night before we left and there was a broken pole and a few of the other poles were missing the elastic ropes that keep the poles together.  It ended up being totally fine - very sturdy,  and I love how roomy it is, but I am glad that I didn't spend any more then $20 on it.

Next, we needed to figure out where we were going to camp.  Bo's boss told him about Meadow Lake. He said that it was one of Idaho's best kept secrets.  I looked it up online and it was only an hour and forty minutes away and it looked nice, so we had a destination!  Friday after Bo got home from work we loaded up into the truck and headed to Meadow Lake.  The drive there was horribly ugly.  Nothing but sage brush and desert looking conditions.  We finally reached the turn off that headed into the mountains and were so happy to see trees and smell that fresh mountain air.  Once we got to the campground - horrible news.  The camp was completely full!  I guess it's not that much of a secret after all.  The camp host said that you have to get there before noon on a Friday or you could rough it on the outskirts of camp (which we saw quite a few people doing on our way up), so we headed back down the road to see if we could find a spot.  We ended up finding a really great spot.  It was off the road, completely private - the kids could make as much noise as they wanted without bothering anyone, the dogs could run around freely, it was awesome.  Yes, it sort of sucked to not be near a bathroom and have to squat.  Boys are so lucky in that department.  But we saved ourselves $20 and were close enough to the campground so that we could fill our jugs with water and we were very comfortable....

.... Well, comfortable until I realized that I forgot our stupid air pump in my car which was at home!  By the time we figured it out it was 9:45.  We asked one group of campers who were near by to see if they had one we could borrow, but they didn't.  I should have been more persistent in making Bo go back to the campground to ask every single person for an air pump until he found one, but somehow he talked me into sleeping on the ground.  It was awful.  At one point I seriously thought about kicking Ryker out of his pack and play and trying to curl up in it myself.  It was very cold too!  I was so happy when it started to get light outside so we could get up for the day.  On the other hand, the boys slept great.  How can little kids literally sleep anywhere and in any position?  The next morning we found someone with an air pump and filled those suckers up!

We also went back to the lake and went on a really nice little hike.  It was an easy trail and there were wild flowers everywhere.  It was very nice.  Then we picnicked at the lake.  The boys went swimming and it was a little chilly...

They had a blast though and stayed in for quite awhile.

There were a lot of people fishing at the lake and it looked like fish were being caught all day.  It would be a great spot to take a canoe or kayak.  The boys decided that they wanted to fish too so Brodie found himself a very large stick to use as a fishing pole.  Ryker wanted one too, but I didn't want to get up from my spot, so I handed him a twig.  He was very happy with it.

Here Ryker is feeding me a fish he just caught.

Brodie caught a really big fish that was this big:

Then he caught another one that was this big:

My adorable little Ryker

Brodie with his fishing pole and the view from the lake shore.

Back at camp.  Thank goodness for the truck.  We wouldn't have had a place to cook or a table without it.

We made hobo packs for dinner and then made smores!  (Yes, that is also peach cobbler in the dutch oven, but we didn't have time for smores the night before, and my kids must have a smore on a campout.)  Here's Brodie roasting his first marshmallow by himself.

Yum!

Poor Ryker had just bumped his head, but smores make everything better. 

Ryker was happy to go to bed early that night.  Brodie on the other hand wanted to stay up and stoke the fire.

He kept bringing me flowers too... although I think these ones were for the fire.  While we were sitting around the campfire a mama deer walked through our camp while nibbling on grass.

Then we tried to stay up late enough to watch the meteor shower.  We did not make it.  We slept a little better the second night... it was definitely more comfortable, but it was even colder.  The boys had to sleep with us and there is not a lot of room on a queen sized mattress for 4 people, even if two of those people are small.

It really was a great camp spot.  If we go back again, I don't think we'd stay in the campground.  Other then being right next to the lake and having toilets, it was not private at all.