Camping

This past weekend we went camping. It will probably be the last time this season. God Bless the pioneer women, camping and being almost 8 months pregnant does not go hand in hand. Granted I bring my own matteress, I still have to schlep myself to the bathroom in the dark, at night. And a walk around the campsite is not the hikes I used to do but seem to do me in anyway. Apparently hippos can't walk far.
For adventure, we went to a new site I had never been to before in La Center, Washington. Don't get me wrong-I am glad we went and I am glad we checked out the site. We will not be camping again there anytime soon. 500 feet off of I-5 does not a restful weekend make. On the plus side, the site was super easy to get to, but we heard diesel trucks down-shifting all weekend. Hmmm-not the camping experience I dreamed of.
However, we were very close to the south rim of Mt. St. Helens, so we trekked up there and took Asa to his first cave. We didn't not go caving-I was not ready to haul my butt around uneven ground-but Asa got to go in, see it get dark, feel the temperature change, and all those other things Mr. Rogers says is good for little kids. They even still have a lot of snow on the ground, thanks to a cold and crappy Spring, so he touched the snow, walked in the snow, and fell down in the snow. We also spent some time at a Merrill Lake, where Asa got to take his clothes off and be all white-trash and wade around in his diaper. He loved this, and thank you to the tween girl who threw the dead crawfish far out of Asa's reach. He wouldn't put it in his mouth, but he WOULD HAVE touched it and promptly put his fingers in his mouth. What's grosser than gross-my son.
Our final activity was suppose to be looking at the historic Grist Mill on the way back to our campsite, but like all good parents, I left Asa's favorite two trains back at our lunch spot-which was conviently an hour away. I let him take those suckers in with us in hopes of keeping him occupied during lunch and it worked great-until he put them in the window sill. When we drove back to get them in the small, small town (pit stop?) of Cougar, you could see those trains from the road. So whoever was in town that day so them, and we still managed to drive off without them the first time. So much for our powers of observation. Still, the good news is we got them back and all is well with our train world.
We got back to camp in time to roast hotdogs, sit around the fire, and pray to the force that covers these things that Asa would settle down to go to sleep at a reasonable time. By 10pm, we realized we blew that force when we had to go back for the trains so I totally caved, went back on my word, and threw a Thomas the Train Engine DVD on the ol' portable DVD player we had brought JUST IN CASE, and got Asa to settle down that way. It wasn't what I had envisoned but it worked. And in a 36 hour period, it meant Asa saw 1 hour of tv. I guess it won't make him a criminal but I still felt guilty.
Sunday we used up the rest of the fire wood, listened to a few more diesel trucks, and saw a cottontail rabbit snack by our tent. It was pretty cute, and Asa is still talking about the "baby rabbit".
All in all, good time. We saw new sights, experienced new activities, and did at least manage to come home smelling of campfire and get a few mosquito bites. But next year, we pick a new adventure spot.