Crawdads, knives, and Joe's Donuts!

We had an awesome camping trip this weekend at Timothy Lake, Hoodview Campground. Our campsite was amazing (#26) and was right on the lake. 

Lots of water time, looking for salamanders (no luck!), catching crawdads, swimming, and just enjoying the sunny and warm weekend.  We sure lucked out with the perfect weather!

 Dan and the boys went out in the lake for some swimming.  Dan taught them about skinny-dipping.   They call it "SDC" (skinny dipping club).  The boys thought that it was so racy and fun, even though they never fully took their drawers off, they pulled them down far enough to qualify. 

Fishing at dusk off of the dock.  Mt. Hood in the background. 

This trip was officially the beginning of a new camping tradition for trips that are in Mt. Hood National Forest.  As we approached Sandy, one of the boys remembered  Joe's Donuts from a trip last year.  We had to stop and get a dozen to take into the woods.  They ate a lot of donuts!!  We will never again be able to cruise past Joe's Donuts without stopping.

Big excitement this camping trip as the boys each earned their own real pocket knife and flint fire starter.  Overall, they did great with this new responsibility.  Chris earned his the first night, Nate had to wait until the 2nd day.   A rite of passage, for sure.  No blood or cuts, either.  Just a bunch of whittled sticks.  

 

 

 

 On Saturday, our friends the Wileys came and joined us at the campsite.  Mike brought a generator to run the blender, and Mary made special cocktails with spicy vodka and pureed watermelon.  They were tasty!

 On Saturday night, we had a craw fish boil from all of the little fellas that fell victim to our trap. 

We had quite the bounty!

Lots of fishing, but not a single catch. 

The Wiley's dog, Max, kept us safe and was lots of fun on the trip.  Oh, Max!

Their summertime job....bat boys!

Remember how much Chris and Nate loved the Concordia Cavaliers baseball team in the spring?  Well, like all good things, that season came to and end.  But several of their favorite players (I can even tell you who they are since they talk about them all the time..... I have heard these names over and over and over.....Sheldon Austria, Jared Young, Jordan Keeker)  moved on to a summer league that plays many of their games at Hilkin Stadium. After Chris and Nate showed up to cheer on the new team, the Toros, Dan got a phone call asking if two very dedicated fans would like to be the bat boys for the season.  You can only imagine their excitement over this summer job.   

Today was their first game.  Job well done!

Here goes Chris to pick up a bat.

 Nate's turn.  They took turns running out onto the field.

Lots of hustle!

 They sat at their post for all 11 innings of this game.  Nate in the red helmet, Chris in blue.  

They're officially part of the team.

Waiting and watching.  Just like the players.  They told us that it was fun getting the inside scoop from the dugout, with things like the players' nick-names, hand signals, and the fact that some of the players said 'bad words'.  We told them that it's o.k...that's just what guys do, and that they'll do the same thing when they're their age.  Both boys were impressed with the team and said that they were really nice. 

 After the game Chris and Nate had to collect all of the balls as the teams did their 'good game' high-fives.

When the job was over, they ran and found us in the bleachers. Those are the smiles of two boys who had an awesome time. They can hardly wait for the next game!

Camping at Champoeg

Slaters, Cotters, Moores and G'ma camping in yurts at Champoeg Park.  When you book a yurt 10 months in advance, you can only hope for a good-weather weekend.  We didn't luck out, and it was rainy, rainy, rainy.  But we still had fun!  

Slater siblings.  We missed Uncle Greg, but he was in Ashland celebrating his 47th birthday.

Some things never change.   The fire pit is always the biggest crowd pleaser on a camping trip.

I wonder if this had anything to do with Nate's big puke at 1:00 a.m.???

Group shot!

Glow sticks for the cousins at dusk.