Tag Archives: camping

Camping, take 2

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Well, folks, I think it’s official.  We are a camping family.  Last year left us with some significant doubts but we were heartened (mostly) by our trip last month for J’s birthday and were actually looking forward to our 5th annual Community Group campout.  From the moment we got pregnant with Isaiah we’ve been saying that Summer of 2012 would be our year and it turns out we were right.    A look back at the weekend in pictures…

Despite a decent slope to the ground, our group campsite was pretty awesome.
Some sun, some shade, two firepits, multiple picnic tables and we all got to be together.

With Jack as catcher and Daniel (not pictured) as an incredible pitcher,
Isaiah actually managed to make contact with the wiffle ball 3 times Saturday morning.
I’ve got to admit, I was sort of puffed with pride watching him hit that ball.
What can I say?  Kid’s a natural!

The boys were pretty pumped about their sunglasses

We were camping at Tolt MacDonald State Park and our campground was right on the river.
The boys had fun tossing rocks, some of our gang floated down the river and there was a lot of swimming

See the purple hammock just past Jason?  Maybe one of the more memorable (painful?) moments of the weekend was Saturday evening when Jordan was lounging in it while we all chatted around the campfire and the thing just split apart and dumped him onto the ground!

Gryffin scoping out the food situation

Isaiah spent a good portion of the weekend running.
He’d say “I go jogging” and off he’d go, sometimes alone, sometimes chasing the bigger boys
(and keeping up!) on their bikes

Here’s his classic stride

Taking a quick breather.

Owen (4) – new to the group but he made fast friends with Gryffin and Isaiah
and the 3 were inseparable for the weekend

And after the kids were tucked into their tents for the night, there were more shenanigans to be had.
In the spirit of the Olympics we staged our own decathlon.  Here’s Jordan bench-riding

 Me showing off a cartwheel

Trying to coach Jason in an elbow stand.  Things were ok…
…until this happened

All in all a great weekend.  And we’re thinking about squeezing in another trip or two before summer in Seattle comes to a close.    Here’s a link to my camping checklist (for car camping with potable water) and a few tips for when you’re camping with little ones…

  • Keep your general routine going – they will stay up later to be sure but keep naps and bedtime routines roughly the same.  At naptime and bedtime, we put the boys in the tent and then (mostly) let them fend for themselves.  They usually talked and played with their flashlights for quite a while before falling asleep.  No big deal.  They were in bed and we had some time on our own.
  • Bring multiple changes of clothes and socks for your kids.  I brought 3 changes per day per kid.   They will get dirty.  Really dirty.  Just roll with it and change them when things get out of hand.
  • Bring a lot of wipes.  I used them a lot for cleaning up food spills on their clothes and wiping their feet before they got in the tent.
  • Hand sanitizer.  Bring some.
  • Camp with other kids, if possible.  This was probably the biggest bonus for all of us this time around.  With Owen there, the boys had someone to play with and they had a grand time doing their own thing.  A win-win.
  • Bring a ton of towels – large, small, medium.  Junky ones that you can use to clean up anything.
  • Best toys this year?  Bikes, water squirters, a couple bins that I filled with soapy water so the boys could wash their toy cars with sponges.   I also usually bring sidewalk chalk, magnifying glasses, glow sticks (doesn’t get dark up here until after the boys are in bed though!), and a couple books.
  • Be flex with food.   This was kind of hard for me at first but, especially when camping with other folks, we let things slide with food.   We bring a few fun treats that the boys don’t normally get (juice boxes, granola bars) and tried to say yes to as many food requests as possible (hot dogs?  sure!  animal crackers?  sure!  potato chips?  sure!).
  • Be ready for the let down and some angst when you get home.   Your kids will be amped up all weekend, and for good reason, but that makes coming home and getting back into the routine a little rough at times.   You have a ton of laundry and unpacking to do and your kids are melting down fast.  I find that if I am expecting the let down and some tantrums upon our return, I’m not as bothered by it.     Take your time unpacking and easing back in to the swing of things.

Hopefully we’ll be able to get back out there soon.  I’m curious to see how we do when we are completely on our own, instead of with a group of friends.  It will likely be more work for us without all our friends there to help with the boys but Jason and I haven’t had time around a campfire alone since 2008 and we’re ready for it!  As far as camping goes, I think the Rusts have arrived!  

Surprise!

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I really like to pull off  a good surprise.   And Jason is a pretty easy guy to surprise.  He’s just ever-so-slightly aloof* when it comes to picking up on subtle clues that might give something away.  For his birthday last weekend I (with the help of several friends) managed to pull off a surprise camping trip.   It was not an easy feat but it was completely worth it when he pulled up to the campground on Friday evening with Jordan.

First I asked a few of our closest friends if they would be game to go camping with us.  Once that was established, I searched (and searched and searched) until I found a potentially good campground.  There is no dearth of fantastic camping sites in the PNW but it’s summer and pacific north westerners tend to get a tad slap happy (we go absolutely crazy, people) when the sun comes out to stay in the summer time and I could not find a single campground in the entire state that was reservable 5 days out.   So I was stuck with first-come, first-served.  I managed to find a good-looking spot just an hour outside of Seattle and decided it was worth a shot.

I told Jason that I was “working on his gift” and that he wasn’t allowed to come into the bedroom, say, when I was packing our clothes or the kitchen when I was packing our food in the cooler on Friday morning.   It took a lot of finagling (read: lying through my teeth) to pack the car up and get out the door but I managed to do it with some serious help (more lying) from our summer house guests, Jordan & Belinda.

We told Jason that Belinda was taking me for a surprise outing with the boys.  I feigned wariness with Jason about where Belinda might be taking us, pretending to be concerned about the boys and nap time and such.   And so with J encouraging me to “just go and enjoy” we made it out the door by about 8:40am, bikes atop the car and all and Jason none the wiser.

We caught the Fauntleroy ferry to Southworth and we were on our way!  We arrived at Illahee State Park around 10:15 and snagged the largest and best campsite just as a thunderstorm rolled in.  Awesome.  We were admittedly a little nervous about the gray skies but Belinda and I were undeterred and we cautiously set up camp.  I then sent a strategic text to Jason telling him that Belinda had surprised me by bringing to Olympus Spa and that there was incredible childcare on site.   He thought this was just grand!  And a few minutes later Jordan popped in to the office to tell Jason that since Belinda had taken me out for a belated birthday surprise, he thought he’d take Jason out for an early birthday bike ride later in the afternoon.

Jason texted a couple hours later to ask if I was bringing the boys home for nap time and I wrote back, telling him that I was going to see if I could put Isaiah down for his nap there at the spa and have Gryffin do a “quiet time” in the daycare’s reading room.  All of this was complete fiction.  I made it all up.  I’ve never even been to that spa and they do not have childcare.   But dude bought it, hook, line and sinker.

I then attempted to put the boys down for a nap in our tent (total fail) while Belinda went in to town.  I insisted that they stay in the tent for a 2 hour “rest” and then got them up and we played in the campground and eventually made our way down to the playground in the park.   The timing couldn’t have been better.  We glimpsed Jordan’s car pulling into the park and had just enough time to grab the boys and hide behind some bushes.  Just as their car started to pull up to the campground entrance, we popped out and shouted “surpise!!”  The look on Jason’s face was the best.  He was SO confused!  ”Whaaaat?  You came over here from the spa?  Are we going to have dinner together before our bike ride or something?”  I wish I had a picture of him when I told him that the spa was all a lie.  He was stunned.  He really thought I had been soaking it up all day, getting massages and pedicures and walking around naked at the Korean spa (which, by the way, is reportedly an incredible spa) while Gryffin and Isaiah happily puttered about in the on-site day care.

Shane and Kelly pulled up about 20 minutes later and our campsite was officially set up for the weekend.  Jack and La Verne arrived the next morning and the rest is history.  Here’s the rest of the weekend in pictures…

Remember last year’s camping trip?   It wasn’t much to write home about and this was our first camping trip since. I feel obliged to tell you that the first night was absolutely wretched.   Isaiah slept soundly until about 10pm and then he woke up crying/screaming every. 45. minutes.  Until 4am.  Ghastly.  We tried every possible sleeping configuration (in the pack and play, in his own sleeping bag, in my sleeping bag, on my face, on my chest, next to Jason, on top of Jason) to no avail.  We seriously considered packing it in and foregoing a second night.  But it had taken me SO much work to get there, our friends had come, and I was hellbent on sticking it out.   At one point, Jason had to get out of the tent all together and while he was fumbling with the zipper, he inadvertently stepped on Gryffin’s arm and then G-man was screaming, too.   This is Isaiah sleeping off the rough night.  He napped for almost 3 hours on Saturday afternoon.  The second night both boys slept the entire night without a peep.


Gryffin spent a significant amount of time on Saturday watering our car.


Going for another fill up of water.
Somehow Gryffin ended up without his shorts for the second half of the day.
Not at all surprising.  Kid digs being naked.


Jack, of course, supplied us with some serious eats.   Here he is shucking oysters.  Only Jack shucks oysters on a camping trip.  He also cooked clams and a live crab.


Classic Jordan & Bees

Jason dive bombing the hammock fest


The guys decided to take a late afternoon plunge into the sound.
It doesn’t look high in these photos but it was a definitely a jump


Excellent form, as always


Where’s the famous toe point, Jordan?


Shane, feeling a little nervous!



The gang


Happy Birthday, Pal!  Hope it’s a great year!

*Some evidence of said aloofness…

  1. On Friday morning I had already stealthily packed our pillows and our books/reading materials for the weekend.   When I banished Jason from the kitchen so that I could “work on his birthday present before leaving with Belinda” (pack the cooler), I thought he would just go downstairs and start working a little early.  Nope.  Dude decides to go upstairs.   To read.  I thought my cover was blown, for sure.  How would I explain the absence of ALL his reading options?   But it was too late.  I couldn’t run to the car and grab them and somehow get them up there before he made it up the stairs.  But when he gets up there and doesn’t see his books anywhere in sight, he just shrugs and decides to make the bed.  Make the bed!  I’m not exaggerating when I tell you that he has not made our bed in at least 6 months.  I always make it.  But I purposely left it unmade so that if he went up there for some reason during the day, he wouldn’t notice that all of our pillows were missing.   But make it he did and when he asked what happened to the pillows, I just shrugged, avoided eye contact and mumbled something about the boys playing with them.  
  2. When I told Jason in the aforementioned text that the spa had childcare?  He looked it up online.  He wanted to see this incredible childcare set up I was raving about.  When he found NOTHING on their site about childcare, he apparently just shrugged and thought it must be a word-of-mouth kind of thing.  
  3. I should not have asked a 3-year-old to keep a secret but I had no choice.  I had to take the boys grocery shopping for the trip and, of course, had to pack with them underfoot.  Gryffin talked about camping several times, right in front of Jason (“Mama!  The sun isn’t out!  Does that mean we can’t go camping?”)  Jason did not even give it a second thought.   Just figured it was random preschooler rambling.    In Gryff’s defense, he did a remarkable job keeping quiet, all things considered.

Weekend Review, Camping Edition

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Well, folks.  We did it.  We survived our first-ever Rust Family camping trip.   We hit the road Friday afternoon with our car fit to burst.   Despite some gnarly traffic in Everett that added an additional hour to our drive, we made it to Larabee State Park with relative ease.   Our walk-in campsite was perfect.  The sites on either side of us were empty, we were away from the cars and just a few steps away from our friends at the end of the path.  Excellent.  So far, so good.


We set up camp, explored the grounds a bit, and fed the boys dinner.   Things were going really well.  But then… then we put Isaiah to bed.  That wasn’t pleasant.  For anyone.   He screamed and screamed.  We soothed, sang, hugged and cuddled.  And tried again.  He screamed and screamed.  And round and round we went.   I decided to take refuge with Gryffin down at our friends’ campsite while Jason attempted for a third time to put Isaiah to bed.   I could hear the wailing all the way down the path but I was still optimistic.  Still certain that this was going to be the best weekend ever.

About an hour later, Isaiah was finally asleep and it was time for Gryffin’s turn.  We decided that I would take him in, put him in his sleeping bag and lay with him until he fell asleep.  At which point I would exit the tent and spend some time with the grown ups.  Wrong.  Kid did not go to sleep for, like, 3 hours.  Nice.  There I am, in my jeans, contacts still in, teeth not brushed, and hankering something serious after some s’mores.    After hours of Gryffin popping his head up like a whack-a-mole, chit chatting about this and that, I finally brought him into my sleeping bag and he went right to sleep.  Why didn’t I think of this sooner?   Ok, he’s asleep.  Don’t. move. a muscle.  But it was not to be.  Jason returned to our campground just 2 minutes later to go to bed himself and woke the G-man up.    Sigh.  We finally all fell asleep around midnight only to be woken up once an hour throughout the night by the loudest train I have ever heard.   It was a long night.

Up @ 6am.  Not too shabby.  Jason and some friends took off early for a 12 mile run, in preparation for their half marathon in a few weeks.  I made the boys oatmeal, feeling very much like a really cool-camper-I can roll with anything-check me out-I can handle this by myself kind of mom, and then we set off for an “adventure” as Gryffin likes to call it.  It was a great time.  We explored the camp ground, Gryffin on his balance bike and Isaiah in the backpack.

After a good long time, we returned to the campground feeling good. It had been a good morning. Then I casually glanced at my watch.   8:45am.  8:45!   What?!   W o w.  Ok.  Alright.  No problem.  We’re having fun.  We’re rolling with it.   Jason and the other runners returned and we headed over to the other campground for a second breakfast.    The rest of the morning was spent eating and hanging out with our friends.   We went down to the beach for frisbee throwing, rock skipping, and exploring.  Good times were had by all.

Nap time.  This did not go well.    Isaiah woke up screaming after about 35 minutes and would only sleep like this…

Awww, cute, though, right?  Jason was pretty beat after his run so this was a pretty good deal for him.

Gryffin, on the other hand, who normally sleeps about 1.5-2 hours every afternoon, slept for about 25 minutes.    This was not good.   I sat with him in the campground for about an hour, reading books, eating snacks, waiting for the other fellas to wake up so we could go join our friends down in the park.  Poor G-man was exhausted and at the end of his rope.  There were several tantrums, time outs and toddler angst on his part.  For my part, also severely lacking in sleep or any down time by this point, I was also near the end of my rope.  And watching all of our friends walk by, heading off for some afternoon fun in the sun made me feel even worse.  They were all completely friendly, totally sympathetic and kind, of course, but I couldn’t help feeling kind of alone as I hung behind yet again.   I often feel this way, like Miranda in that scene in Sex & the City, right after she has Brady.  All her friends are heading off to go shopping and after hustling her into a cab with her newborn, the shot pans out, showing her watching from the cab’s back window, getting smaller and smaller as she moves further and further away from her friends.     Some people might interpret my feeling (or the scene with Miranda) as a wish to be free, to not have kids that tether us.  But that’s not it at all.   I wouldn’t change it for the world.  It’s just lonely sometimes, being the only ones with kids on a trip like this.

J and Z finally woke up.  We went to the park, just in time for everyone to leave to go get happy hour oysters down the street.  I stayed back with the boys so they could hit the playground and Michelle hung out with me (bless her soul!).    We had an incredible dinner later in the evening made by Jack & LaVerne and Brian & Nicole.   The boys both crashed hard, falling asleep within minutes so Jason and I BOTH got to enjoy s’mores (peanut butter s’mores, no less) and much laughter with our friends around the campfire.  A great way to finish the weekend.

We left after breakfast the next morning and had an uneventful ride home.

Despite all the tantrums, sleep disturbances, soaking clothes, trains running all the live long night, we had a wonderful time with our friends.  And you know, slipping noiselessly into the sleeping bag next to Gryffin the second night, listening to Isaiah’s sweet sighs and wiffly snore, gazing at Gryffin’s little face in the dark as I drifted off, feeling Jason settling in on the other side of him, I thought it really doesn’t get any better than this.



Let’s Go Camping

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Everything we’ve read tells us not to do it.

Don’t even attempt it.
 Why not get an RV?
Why not stay in a motel?
It’s going to be a disaster.
You’ll wish you’d stayed at home.

But we’re going to do it. We’re going camping next weekend, advice be damned!

Jason and I dig camping.  I had never been before we got married 10 years ago and it took some time to woo me.  Well, it took moving to Washington and the glorious Pacific Northwest.  Who wouldn’t like camping up here?   We’ve had some incredible camping trips.  An epic (and cold) 16 day trek across British Columbia and back in the Fall of 2006.  10 days in Southern Washington in early Summer of 2008.   But now we have kids.  A 1-year-old and a 2-year-old, in fact, and everything is different.    We like nap time and going to bed right at 7pm every night.  Well, Jason and I like it, anyway.  How do you manage nap time when you are camping and can’t use your awesome blackout shades and white noise machine?  And how do you expect your kids to sleep until 7am when it gets light in Washington at, oh, 4am?  We’re about to find out.

Our Community Group is going on its annual campout next weekend.  Last year we rented a small cabin nearby and joined in on some of the fun.  But it wasn’t the same.   So despite all the warnings we’ve received, despite the fact that we’ve already wimped out twice this summer, we are going to do it.  We’re heading to Larrabee State Park next Friday and hoping for the best.    We booked a walk-in site near our friends and we’re planning to take two tents so that we can separate the boys @ nap time.   At night we’ll all pile into 1 tent.   Isaiah in a pack & play and Gryffin in between Jason and me.  I started making lists and getting organized yesterday.  And I made a few minor investments that I hope will make it more fun and exciting for the boys.

Matching backpacks with an added fabric initial pinned to the front to tell them apart.



Ok, so Isaiah will probably not wear this just yet.  But I’m thinking he needs to have his own to play with, right?

Seriously, are these cute or what?  Matching bear chairs!  Jason was not pleased with this purchase but my sister says they are a great investment and they will really like having their own little spot to sit and such. Can’t wait to see them sitting in them at breakfast in the wee hours of the morning.

Wish us luck!  And if you have any (helpful) tips or ideas as someone who has been there and lived to tell, do share.