Flowing Lake

Jessica and Hannah after two nights of camping and no shower! Hot!
Jeff packing away the camper on our last day

Tonaiya and her first fish!

Boom!

Something weird my camera did. Alex said "set your aperture to F8" and I could not, for the life of me, figure out to set my aperture to anything but what it was already on! Grrrr.....

More fireworks.......

Charlie did not like the fireworks and found a safe place to hide!

Jeff and me!

Jeff and his buddy Shade in a rare moment of peace.....

Balloon Glow

Balloon glow at twilight

oohh......Pharoah's Fury.....so scary!

Ye old ferris wheel....

Hannah, Jessica, Hayley, Harrison, Tonaiya

Hayley having some difficulty making the bed in the camper!

This past weekend we went camping to Flowing Lake park. This is located only about 35 minutes from our house, so it's "easy" camping as far as that goes. Still had to pack, load, plan, cook, wash, make beds, unmake beds, put up, tear down, etc. But it's close enough that it doesn't take us forever to get there and if we really want/need to run to town for something, it's not unreasonable to do so!

Friday afternoon we arrived and set up, cooked some hot dogs for dinner, and headed to the town of Snohomish for Kla-ha-ya Days. This was basically a small-time carnival, with the addition of a "balloon glow" and fireworks. The balloon glow was where they put up several hot-air balloons at twilight and then take turns turning on the gas and making the balloons "glow". It would have been a wonderful photo opportunity if I had more skills. Many people were there with their tripods and nice cameras. But since I know next to nothing about my camera settings, I had nothing but trouble trying to get photos. Still, I took some and then there was a fireworks show. The dogs HATED it, and I took pictures one-handed while holding Charlie in my other arm as he shook in terror!

The next day Harrison, Tonaiya (his friend) and I headed to the beach while Jeff napped and the girls stayed in bed almost all day, reading! Jeff came down later and canoed over to where I was. We took a short canoe ride, then Harrison and Tonaiya tested their canoeing skills. Those two were in the water all day! The girls came down later, but Hannah and Jessica (her best friend) only stayed a few minutes then went back up to the camper to read. Hayley enjoyed trying to get a tan and we all headed back around dinner time. I made spaghetti for dinner and then Jeff, Harrison and Tonaiya went fishing. Harrison caught four sunfish!

Sunday morning Tonaiya and Jeff woke up early and since no one else was up, they took off fishing by themselves, in the canoe. Tonaiya caught five sunfish (and later, a perch!) and those were her first catch ever! She was so excited to have gone fishing (and we were pretty excited for her, until her grandma picked her up and reminded us they were vegetarians - oops!). Oh well, she had fun! We packed up and headed home to have a "Harry Potter movie marathon" (Hannah's idea). We watched the first two movies in a row and then Jeff and I had to pack it in (work tomorrow....). It was a fun weekend. Now, the laundry..........sigh..........