5th Annual Dads and Kids Camping

By my count, this was the 5th annual Dads and Kids Camping Trip, and it was by far the biggest.  We had six dads this year, along with eleven children, which made it quite a crew!  I took Friday off from work, so we got a relatively early start, leaving a little after ten.  If the kids'd had their way, we'd have left at 6:00 am! 

Our first stop was a walk we've done several times before, the Shadow of Sentinels walk, among a beautiful grove of old growth fir trees.  It really is amazing to place your hand on a tree that is 680 years old -- that tree was ancient when our country was founded! It's a short, flat walk, which made it a good start.  We stopped to take a picture by the big stump – I think we’ve done this ever year:

After that walk, and lunch, we were off to pitch our tent.  Our cousins arrived as we were doing so, so once they were ready we took a walk down to the Skagit River.  The children are wonderfully clever at finding hiding places I would never think of, like this hollowed out tree by the edge of the trail:

This was Simeon’s first year, by the way, and he was completely psyched to be there.  He liked the hiking, he liked the tent, he liked the campfire, and he especially liked the s’mores.  Uncle Time is also a good thing:

After the River visit on Friday, we had dinner and the big campfire.  It really doesn’t get dark in the Northwest Summer until well past 9:30 pm, so the kids were up pretty late.  On the positive side, they completely crashed once they were in bed.

Saturday morning was our big hiking day, up on Mt. Baker.  I’ve learned that with the kids, shorter hikes are better, so even our big hike was less than 2 miles.  By the time the hike was done, we had some tired hikers!

Saturday afternoon involved a longer visit to the Skagit River, with more swimming, splashing, and mud.  We were blessed with lovely, sunny weather for the afternoon!

Saturday evening was the full campfire, since all the families had arrived by then, plus a Ranger Talk on Creatures of the Night.  This particular ranger would toss candy to kids who answered questions correctly, which definitely got her audience’s attention!  Sim was so tired, though, that he dozed off and fell off his bench, so we retired for an early bedtime for him.  The others followed not long after.

I don’t have any pictures from Sunday – we had a simple breakfast, broke camp, and tried to head for Mass in Sedro-Woolley.  It had been rescheduled (whoops!), at which point we raced back to Seattle and dragged our tired, informal selves to the most formal, liturgically high Sunday Mass that Blessed Sacrament offers.  Sim was making me laugh: he isn’t used to incense, and covered his nose for almost the whole Mass.  After Mass came donuts, of course, and a quiet afternoon.

Thanks to all of the Dads who came along this year – a campfire with six families is really a blast.  Looking forward to next year!