We couldn't hold out any longer. We needed to get to the woods. We did our best to do it safely.
The campground was small, and less than two hours from home. It was so very nice to get away from our house and live for a little while among the trees with the sound of the nearby river everpresent. What wasn't so great was the fact that the girls don't play well together, except under great duress. Elizabeth is constantly annoyed by Suzanne. Suzanne needs a playmate and often Mom or Dad does not suffice. So both girls were "bored," although Elizabeth was pretty content to just sit and read/listen to music, which is what she does at home.
Suzanne wanted very badly to swim, but the river that ran by our campground was not swimmable. After a terrible fit thrown by the nine-year-old, we got in the car to find a swimming area and discovered a beautiful little beach on the Columbia, maybe 30 minutes from the campground. The beach was part of a county campground with only a dozen or so campsites. Might be a future camping prospect!
On balance, the experience was positive, but it reminded me that we may be getting to the stage when it will become difficult to camp without a friend for each child. Because they are not friends with each other.
 |
| The water was so cold, but it felt so good. My feet won't be this pale for long! |
 |
| Upstream from my feet. No good swimming spots. |
 |
| The girls DID play together, but rarely. One of the "games" they played was Suzanne pushing Elizabeth in the hammock. But at some point it changed to sharing the hammock in this fashion, which everyone found hilarious. |
 | |
| This is what Elizabeth likes to do: sit and read or sit and draw. There's a picture of me in this same posture at Camp, reading a fat copy of some Stephen King paperback. |
 |
| Aw, they're playing together again! |
 |
| Barb and Suzanne enjoying the not-very-cold waters of the mighty Columbia River. We were in Washington; those hills across the water are Oregon. |
 |
| Suzanne swimming to me from her Momma. The Columbia is a commercial shipping channel, but it's crazy how shallow it is until you hit the shipping lanes. Barb's pretty far from shore and the water is maybe belly-button deep there. |
 |
| Elizabeth described my L.L. Bean camping shirt as the ugliest garment she'd ever seen. Then she promptly absconded with it. The camping chair over her legs/feet is for mosquito protection. |
 |
| It's not camping if you don't cook some dogs over an open fire. |
No comments:
Post a Comment