Sep 19, 2008

3rd Annual Labor Day Weekend Camping Trip at Mt. Rainier (3ALDWCTMR)

This post is dedicated to Emily and Bowzer the Hound.

Lessons Learned:
  • Even if the weather forecast calls for fair skies and temperatures in the high 60's, if you live in Washington, you still need to bring hats, gloves, winter jackets, and above all, extra tarps and ropes.
  • You never know how many times your 5 year old goes potty each day until you are 100 yards away from the nearest bathroom.
  • As much as you think "I want to try something besides S'mores this camp out," once you get there, all you really want is S'mores.
  • 3 year olds and puppies are a lot alike.
  • Banana peels don't burn very well.
  • You can have your car all neatly organized and clean, but within 5 minutes of being on the road it will look like all your stuff exploded in your car.
  • Warm a rock by the fire and then put it in the bottom of your sleeping bag, and you will sleep soundly all night (until your 3 year old wakes up and starts screaming, "I want to get out of here!").
  • 6 kids can go through a Costco sized container of Hot Cocoa in a little less than half an hour .
  • If you ask your 5 year old to help pack up to go home, the result is a 3 hour tantrum.
  • When it's time to pack up, if you take down the rain fly and leave it draped in front of the door to the tent that is still full of stuff, your wife will throw her own tantrum.
  • You can get a pretty dang good hamburger at the highest Visitor's Center at Mt. Rainier.
  • Finally, we can't go camping without at least 6 other people and a dog to help us. Thanks Wassons! We'll see you again next year, same time, same place.






4 comments:

Bob/Kristy said...

That's a great picture of Nate in the baby bjorn! My favorite moment of the trip was when Sam walked over to the edge of the campsite with Mia's chair, lifted it over his head, and threw it off the side of the hill, while Mia ran towards him crying, "No Sam, DON'T THROW MY CHAIR!" He was so pleased with himself.

John said...

I think we have some great candidate pictures for Stovall Family Calendar 2009.

THEY CALL ME DADDY said...

I love Nate in the top picture. I didn't even notice he was there until I saw the eyes peering out of the baby pocket he's in. I imagine him thinking to himself, "...and the point of all this is...???
Clearly I'm projecting my own views of camping on little Nate. To me camping is like Home Teaching. It takes a great deal of effort but whenever I do it I'm glad I did.

SUZY "LA JEFA" said...

Is that a baby sleeping bag that Nate is in? He is too cute but so are all your children. I love the pictures of the kids going to school. I might have cried if I had to put them on a bus - that seems harder. I loved Sam with his binky. Ryan had his until after his 3rd birthday. We tried the same "Goodbye binky party/binky fairy" plan with him that we used with Jacob. It worked, but it was so painful. I will have to post about that on our blog. We have some pictures of it that can explain it all.