Gone Camping

We took our first camping trip this weekend with my brother and his girlfriend, Courtney.  We met up in Bend on Saturday for some dinner, can't miss out on 10 Barrel Brewery, and took off for Cascade Lakes on Sunday (after the US Women won that amazing come-back soccer game).  The weather was PERFECT, about mid 70s that felt much more like the 80s.  We posted up at Little Fawn Campground on Elk Lake.  It is on the other side of the lake from the highway so it was a little less popular with bigger camp spots.  Once we got set up, we cruised down to the lake to just take in the sunset.  Charli, on her first camping trip, had the most fun filling her bucket up with dirt then dumping it - on her, on me, on her chair, well you get the point.  She was quite the mess.  She is not afraid of getting dirty!  Char slept great while the rest of us stayed up for the campfire, complete with cold bevs and smores.  I can't remember when I last had an authentic smore - mmmm, amazing.  I immediately had to take on the mom role by having all the fixings ready for when the mallows were just right - sorry mom, I even did alright at it.  I promise to allow you to have that role when we all go another time.   On Monday, we packed up after enjoying pancakes and bacon (hmmm, this post seems to be a lot about food) and headed over to Elk Lake Lodge to rent some paddle boards.  This was a first for all of us, it was just a nice easy way to explore around the lake and get out to the water.  All in all, camping went great (there was one not so happy time where Char needed to take a quick ride to get back to sleep in the morning) and we are up for it again.  Enjoy the pics...sorry there are so many.

Yep - dumping dirt all over everything

Enjoying the campfire

I just loved seeing her little shoes outside the tent with our flops - why is it that little shoes are so cute?  Does it ever get old?

Family photo-op

On a walk around the campground

Steve and I paddle-boarding on Elk Lake

Sophie had to cool off - she found a friend in the background (he's a patrol dog on Mt Bachelor but his smartness didn't really rub off on Sophie)  There was also a black lab puppy, just 8 weeks old, that Char just loved.  I wish we had got a picture of the two together.

Chris and Courtney raced back - Chris won.

Char made a new friend, his name is Sam

Sam liked Char, Char wanted to show off her belly

 I love seeing little kiddos interact - so cute

I think Sam was saying something he thought was funny, but Char wasn't as amused

Charli's turn on the paddle-board

She needed the oar, she went and picked it up and knew that she needed to paddle with it.  She is an expert at copying what we do.  She also was not afraid of the water, just ran right in and kept on going.   I would have to stop her before she just went under, again not afraid.  Whew, she is quite the daring little one.