staircase

What's summer without a quick and crazy camping trip with good friends! After a very short breather following Ocean Shores, we headed out for a last minute, cram into the car, arrive in the dark, one night camping trip with some awesome, fun, great friends! As mentioned, we didn't arrive until kind of late--basically just in time to throw up a small tent, check out the river nearby, make a few trips to the flushable toilets (nice!), and visit around the fire, before getting shushed into our tents by the friendly campers down the hill.

The next morning we woke up bright and early, had a yummy breakfast (thanks, Doug & Mel), and ventured out around camp. It was a beautiful area (Staircase National Forest), and there seemed to be plenty of hiking. So we figured we may as well fit in a quick outing before heading back home.

And so the hike began.

Here's Kevin and Joe (as Porter has taken to calling him), checking out the trail map.

The kids climbed trees ...

enjoyed being with their friends ...
(as did the adults)

explored giant roots ...

and giant rocks ...

found cool sticks ...

skipped some rocks ...

and just hung out by the water ...

So the down side to the hike, was that a ways up the trail (right at the point where we probably knew we should have turned back;) we ran into a bit of trouble with an angry posse of bees. They were all hyped up about something and had a great time poking at several of our group members ... mostly small ones and mostly just those with a last name beginning with "S" (sorry guys). Anyway, I suppose there are no pictures of this because we were too busy running away. Maybe next time;).

Thanks family S for the fun adventure!