The 1st camping trip of the season included: Scott - Spencer and I, my older sister Lindsey with her 2 kids - Natalie and Alex, and my little sister Katie. We camped overnight at a campground in Cascade ID. Scott was on shift at the fire station and had to stay within the city to be on call. The trip started out with a lot of drama. We arrived in Cascade with high hopes of a wonderful lakeside campsite; equipped with bathroom and water. Although the site did have all those things, it just wasn't quite what we were expecting. We felt like we were camping at Black Canyon Reservoir in Emmett. It was all grass, nothing to seclude your campsite from your neighbors, parking lot in the background; although there were several campers, most people were there just for the day to go boating. The beach was full of people most of the time. We were hoping for a little more wooded area, for the kids to explore, and to seclude the campsite a little. So we packed up and drove all the way to McCall to see if Ponderosa State Park had an open spot. I knew that it was a long shot, but I know that they keep a few sites open for "walk-ins." Unfortunately they were completely booked for the next 4 days. Luckily Scott's brother Jason, and wife Lisa let us stop at the their place in McCall to stretch our legs before shooting back down to Cascade. We planned on Pitching our tent in their backyard, but we knew that Scott wanted to join us, and he had to stay in Cascade. Between the drive from Cascade to McCall and back again, a campsite in the Cascade campground opened up that was perfect. Still not exactly what we hoped for, but this was the only site that had a few trees around it; enough once our tents were up to give us the "woodsy" feel.
The 2 little boys had a blast. They rolled their cups down the hill, played in the dirt, put stuff in the fire...Lindsey's two loved the fire. They couldn't have gotten any closer than they did. Spencer was not thrilled. Initially he started crying when we started the fire, we couldn't figure out what was making him so upset. Then he ran into our tent, and watched the fire from as far away as he could. He eventually came around, but was always a little Leary. Starting the fire was one of our many battles. When it was time to start it Scott got called away to help with a roll over accident, and Lindsey, Katie, and I were left to start the fire...How hard could it be?!? First we forgot to get wood. Round 1 trip to the gas station. Then we forgot matches. So we asked a nearby camper if they had any, they did and generously gave us strike on the box matches, with no box. Luckily, I remember I had matches in my emergency kit. Fire won't start. Round 2 to gas station. I didn't want to make round 3, so I bought a duraflame log, briquettes, and charcoal lighter fluid. Even with all that the fire was still giving us trouble. We eventually got it flaming, but the fire was a battle throughout the entire trip (even with Scott there).
The boys loved their new camp chairs, and eating on the cooler. All the kids, I guess excluding Spencer, loved roasting hot dogs. Natalie sat and roasted forever, until her roaster was completely sterile:) The food was another battle. It was around 9 at night before we ate dinner, due 2 campsite hunting, and fire hassle. Breakfast was also difficult, we couldn't get our grill to heat up very hot. We finally realized that we had it on for so long boiling corn, that we were out of propane. And lunch was disaster. Katie and I were going to have mac and cheese, but the water never boiled. We couldn't get it to boil over a fire either. We waited for 2 hours for our water to boil before we concluded that it wasn't going too. When we tried boiling it over the fire, it took us 45 minutes or so to even get a fire for it to boil on. Then we pulled it off, put it back on the stove, and put a paper towel on the rack, above the fire where the pan stood; it didn't even burn.
When my sister's and I think about camping, the lake always comes to mind. When we would camp, we would spend our days on the boat or in the lake. So we decided to take the kids swimming. Lindsey and I decided to "cut loose." We forgot about hair and coldness, and the hassle of it all, and go swimming in the lake. Not just splash around with the kids, but swim out aways.....
Can you see us? If you look really closely you can see our heads. You can kind of make out my white hair, way out there.
Here is about half way back from where we were. When we were little, we use to swim around Payette lake with our goggles on. I remember there were huge piles of big rocks at the bottom of the play areas. Lindsey remembers once when we brought our good friend Tony Sheehan camping with us. Him and Lindsey went all the way out to where the buoys were, and found a big mound of rock way at the bottom. So they, rock by rock, moved the mound to more shallow water. We use to spend hours swimming in the lake, and it hasn't changed. The kids were ready to go before we were.
Had to throw in a picture of Katie:) Once we hit the lake, everything was fun from there. We still had our battles, but it was fun. The stars are awesome up there. We managed to get the kids to sleep and play cards. Scott was still gone, but it was really fun to play with just my sisters. Our cards issue was that our lanterns weren't all that light producing. We had 2 lanterns, a candle, and a flashlight, and could still barely see our cards:) We all got a million mosquito bites, and the kids got unbelievably dirty. Spencer is a drooler, so he was covered. Natalie is also constantly licking her hands and wiping her face so she was extremely dirty as well. But who cares, right? It was fun while it lasted. Now Natalie's face is a little raw, and Spencer's whole body is raw. Spencer has extremely sensitive skin, atopic dermatitis, and anything gives him a dry rash. This case it was mostly from the sand, from lake swimming. Also, just from caked on dirt, that wasn't immediately washed off. I'm still cleaning sand out of his diapers. 
And of course, allergies had to take their toll. I rarely get symptoms anymore, I was on allergy shots for 6 years...unless I'm around a cat or a blossoming tree. But poor Spencer started reacting to something. Luckily it was only a few hours before we left, but his eyes just started watering, and puffing up. We don't know what it was from, especially since it was right before we left. If it was a plant, you'd think that it would have happened sooner...maybe a bug bite? Overall, it was fun, and really nice to get out of town, and relax.
This was the first time this year that we have made it out on the boat. It was so nice outside, and the water was really smooth; hardly any other boats.
You can't ride the boat as a little kid, and not help Grandpa drive it:) I think all of my cousins have memories of helping Grandpa drive the boat.
After boating we played on the shore. Spencer, Natalie, and Alex all got new buckets to play with. It's not the nicest beach to play on, a lot of gravel. But Spence had a lot of fun putting the rocks in his bucket.
Scott's older brother works for the Valley County Police Department, and also got to ride in the parade.
When all of the sisters/sisters-in-law lived in the same area, we would try to do a girls-only lunches on each others birthday's. It doesn't happen so much anymore, we have been split in several directions. So when we can, as many as we can, try to go out to Olive Garden; always the place of choice. Scott's little sister came up from Arizona for the family reunion, so we couldn't miss the chance to get as many of us as we could out to eat. This picture is of Scott's mom, and 3 sister's; I was the only sister-in-law to make it.
