Oregon Holts: Camping: Take Two!!

Well, it could be said that we are now seasoned campers with a toddler. Or can it? Do two weekends in a row count? I'm counting it.

We took Noella first camping when she was 8 months old. We met our great friends from Olympia (Meredith and Dan and Autumn) and were happy to be in good company on the gorgeous Lewis River in Washington State. It was still exhausting and hard. No one slept, Noella was crawling and tried to put every twig, pine needle and rock in her mouth. At a year and a half, it was slightly easier. We were by ourselves and packed up way too much stuff for one night of camping, which may have made it more difficult. Noella had nightmares about campfires (woke up screaming "fires, fires fires!"). After the first two attempts, I thought "this isn't as fun as it used to be", "wouldn't it just be better to get sleep, keep the baby clean and stay in our routine?", "will we ever do this again and actually feel relaxed and have fun"? In response to the first thought: it gets even MORE FUN to see the joy in your child's eyes while experiencing something you love. And, well, the answer to the first question, is, of course, yes, but the answer to the second one is YESYESYES! Two and a half is a great age to take a child camping. Noella loved her sleeping bag, loved riding bikes with the other kids around the campsites, loved s'mores (duh), loved the campfire, loved taking the kayak out on the lake, loved cooking outside, loved getting dirty. Really, the only thing she didn't love was taking a nap in the tent.

This past weekend, we went to Waldo Lake. This lake is in the Cascades and is surrounded by the Williamette and Deschutes National Forests. The Pacific Crest Trail passes through the area. It is also the second deepest lake, after Crater Lake. It is a gorgeous body of water that, when the light and wind are just right, looks electric blue. The bottom is white sand. So lovely. There is a 25+ mile mountain biking/hiking trail that circles the lake, not to mention hundreds of miles of trail surrounding the area.

We were lucky enough to be invited by a fantastic group of people. Some friends of ours in Ashland and their family go every September. Part of their family also happens to include our good friends here in Bend. Noella was SOOOOOO excited to have so many nice friends to play with.

We arrived Friday late afternoon and set up camp, visited and cooked dinner. Saturday was the fun-filled adventure day: kid bike races and stunts (Noella is getting quite daring on her balance bike - barreling down steep rocky hills that the 8 year olds were trying), late morning paddle and playing on the shore, mountain bike rides for both Adam and I, dinner, followed by a sunset paddle, more s'mores and campfire action. Sunday was winding down and packing up. It was a great way to end the camping season!