Daroga state park...

By now we have camped at a lot of group camps in WA state. We have done this for about six years...or for six years now and this was our first year with this group going to Eastern WA. Everyone that came has come before, but the only families that have been there every year are us and the Reynolds. We were excited to have the Benners with us this year and the Bjorns, but we really missed the McMullins, who had to cancel at the last minute. :(

 So I think Daroga Park might be the first choice for us, we may just go there every year from now on with this group. The group site is really private from all the other campers, it is adjacent to another group site, but since our site accommodates 150 campers, we hardly noticed the group next to us because we had lots of room between. The bathroom facilities were nice, there is access, though not perfect or ideal for lounging, it was great for swimming and wading...to the river right at our site. The views were wonderful, we had a nice, covered kitchen area with water and sinks and electricity. We also had a great big parking lot where the kids could zoom around on bikes or with scooters with no concern for safety from other cars. The only downfall for me was the loud road that was right behind the sites, I found it fairly noticeable at night even with white noise in our tent trailer. The other downfall for me was the distance to the day use area, which was spectacular. I didn't love packing so much up to go and that I would need to drive back to get things I forgot. Granted, without a baby and with a husband and my own vehicle (Chris dropped us off Thrus. night and then went to work on Friday, so I was alone that day to do it without him...of course my friends were very helpful, but it was still a lot of work.) I loved being able to use the water right by our site the second full day...so nice! Not as ideal since not everyone joined me down there, it was me and the kids which was perfect, but most of the adults stayed by the picnic shelter. So anyway, we are going back there next year! Votes are in!

Our drive there should have been uneventful...ipads and a book on tape for the older two...until...

We were stopped six minutes after they closed I-90 for rock blasting! We so could have been on our game out past that by then if we had known it was scheduled, but we didn't look ahead! Boo! We spent an hour outside our truck, feeding the girls a snacky dinner and getting to know the other people stopped. One guy, who was literally grilling Salmon on the side of his fancy RV was also doing the state a service by sweeping the guardrails. I guess he was really bored!

Leo chillin' in his carseat.

Kiley Benner, Bets, Ruby and Kesley Reynolds walking through the campsite.

Talmage Reynolds, Wyatt Reynolds and Braden Benner playing games. This is a good shot of the site...see the glassy river right past them? That whole field was all ours!

Here's the adults after breakfast on the last day. Sommer and Be, Kelly, Greg and Chris with Leo. Anders Bjorn in the background. The field and river are behind Sommer.

Leo slept like a serious champ in the trailer with me. It was kind of miraculous actually...stay tuned for why!

The weather was super hot, like 99 degrees during the day and 68-70 at night. At midnight we were all still pretty hot and I took a river dip around 8pm the last two nights. Felt so, so, so good. The water was pretty cold! Beautiful sunsets!

Here's a shot of our site from the bathrooms. River on the left of the shot and the parking lot is on the other side of the shelter on the right. This is when everyone was packing up to go home.

Another beautiful sunset during one of my night swims.

The kids were obsessed with finding fresh water clams. Here is Owen Benner, Alice Pierce, Cameron Daves (he came with the Benners) and Madison Bjorn.

Oh my. These two! This is Betsey with her pal, five year old Sophie. Sophie is so excited about being friends with Betsey, she cried the night when we arrived and she didn't get to see Bets because she was sound asleep in the truck. They had a great time playing together!

Sophie brushing Betsey's hair. Betsey wearing filly clothing for a camping trip! :)

Betsey and Alice being goofy by the water.

This was probably 7pm, it was just really hot and we all enjoyed the refreshing water.

The kids caught quite a few toads while we were there. Pretty fun!

Okay. So. Eastern WA storms are no joke. Thankfully Thursday night was perfect, since Chris had to get up at 5:30 and commute back to the west side to work. Friday night was super stormy...tons of rain and LOUD THUNDER and lots of really close lightning. Turns out, it was really loud and close because it struck down in OUR CAMPGROUND in the day use area!! There was a telephone/electicity pole thing struck! The fire department came and everything. So people woke up with stories of scared kids and a few areas of water in their tents. Nothing to horrendous, but people definitely lost sleep. It went on for awhile.

So the next night, we were playing cards around a table at midnight when we heard LOUD wind all of the sudden. It sounded close, but like it was hitting a wall and not getting to us. We were all looking in the direction we could hear it coming when we decided to secure some of our stuff. We no more had stood up and the wind hit us! FAST! I have no idea how fast the wind was, I've tried to look it up on the weather almanac and I don't find anything...but it was fast enough to take a few trees down...that must say something! Here is a tree down in the other group camp that was next to ours. I'm sure that was super comforting!

So I ran to the tent trailer when the wind started because I had all the windows on all three sides of my bed, where Leo was sleeping, wide open and I knew the rain was coming. I got them all zipped up with just a few drops hitting and then the winds were beating against the trailer wall and I thought we were going to blow away. Seriously. The rain was heavy very fast and I ran out to help people with the chore of trying to secure all our stuff, and Chris took over in the trailer. I was grabbing things that blew away, even Leo's bag of dirty cloth diapers was blown a good twenty feet by the time I got outside. I ran to check on the Reynolds and they were in a bad way. I could literally see their bodies as the winds blew their tent against them wherever they were in the thing. They were trying to get out, but it was capsizing in the middle and it was hard for them to get to a door. I got the four kids in a line holding my hand and we ran to take them to our trailer. By this time, I was soaked to the core, dripping wet like I'd just jumped into the river...that wet. I ran over to the Bjorns to see how they were. They were okay, but their tent was taking a beating and their kids were freaked. They ended up relocating to their minivan for the night. Couldn't talk them into squishing into our trailer. I tried! The Benners checked out find and they actually held strong in their tent the whole night. In the morning we all had fun telling stories, claiming things from the river that had blown away and drying things out. Ben wrote the company that made his tent and they sent him a new one free of charge! I guess it was supposed to hold up in a hurricane! Good to know! 

I'm so glad I got a pic of all the kids together! Betsey is on Kiley Bjorns lap, then Braden, Wyatt, Kesley, Talmage, Kiley Benner. Next row, Lincoln, Millie and Madison Bjorn, Eden, Ruby holding Leo, Alice and Sophie Bjorn. In the front, Cameron Daves and Owen Benner.

I am so glad I got a shot of Sophie on Betsey's Dora bike! She was on that thing 24/7 to the point that her little tush hurt the second day when she got on. Hahahahaha. Betsey is just figuring the thing out, so she didn't mind sharing. We had a great time and look forward to it again next summer!