Lake Crescent~ Yearly moms camp trip

Last year was our first moms and kids campout HERE. It was so much fun that Jenny organized another campout. This time at the beautiful Lake Crescent. Our own family has been camping here for many years thanks to a tip from a friend. We fell in love. The water is so amazingly clear and blue. The scenery is breathtaking. I needed a break...enough said!

I HAD to pick up prawns at The Hull family shrimp place. By "place", I mean trailer that is parked on some property. There aren't any signs to show how to get there unless you are on this particular backroad that you wouldn't venture on to unless you knew that there was fantastic shrimp there. The guy is like Bubba Gump, only white and toothless. The shrimp is like nothing I have ever tasted. Sweet...crablike...and the texture...oh man. My mouth is watering again. Best move on. The girls would rather play with the heads than eat the tails, which worked great for me.
Dinner down at Tophams. We had to be sure to camp as close as we could so that the kids could go back and forth as much as we knew they would. Good thing too, because that is exactly what they did. Even still, Hiram and Rylan still managed to wander off and worry us for about 10 minutes.
I have still been trying to shake this flu/cold thing that I have and after setting up the tent and packing everything to our spot, I was burning up. The remedy was to promptly go swimming, much to the delight of the little kids. We swam for quite a bit. It felt incredible.
Later on, we met up with the VanAkens and the Kollodges who were set up a little ways down from us.
Ky and Aubrey told a great story from what I concluded. I had a finger in my "good ear" so I couldn't hear, lest it be to scary for even this girl. In any case, it was fun to watch the girls telling the story. :)
Jill and Chloe hung out in the tent and played some made up game of rising from the dead? Chloe has first hand experience as her father happens to be a mortician! Let's hope the rising part doesn't happen at his funeral home!

Everyone sitting around the fire right before this mama went to bed (or tried to).
My pesky cough got only worse in the cool air of the night. It kept me up, along with Mae singing any song she could think of, the cars/trucks/SEMI's barrelling up and down the road, and Mr. Hoot owl. That actually sounded pretty cool. A mix between an owl (which he was) and a coyote, (which let's hope he isn't) these are the "Twilight" playing grounds after all!
I finally fell asleep just as the sun came up. Tophams rise with the sun, so in no time, I heard Cade down below wanting to come wake me up. He had told me the night before that I had to jump off the dock with him in the morning. I let him know that I am not much (or even remotely close) of a morning person. Needless to say...he didn't come up and try to wake me up. Sweet boy. I DID jump off the dock with him earlier the previous day, so he was satisfied that I would hold up to my end of the bargain.
Today...everyone wanted to go swimming immediately. I had to wake up a bit. We headed for the beach. I swam a bit with everyone, had the smaller kids jump off the dock into my arms, and swam around with Hiram in the kayak.
Brennan and Rylan were so sweet together. Why can't it be this way always?
Look at this view!
Brennan and Rylan together. So sweet.
Oh yes...he finally let me take a picture of him.

I love these girls. Simply.....love them.

My favorite picture of the entire trip.

You may have noticed that there aren't too many photos of the other moms. There are two reasons for this. First, Jenny and Chantal took their kids to the coast an hour or so away. They had gotten to the lake earlier and had spent a full day there, so they were ready to move on today. Second, is because, sadly....right after this last photo was taken, Mae walked over to me and put her head on my lap and said her head hurt. I took her straight to the tent to lay her down. Within 5 minutes, she was sleeping and feverish, waking up from time to time to vomit. Within 20 minutes, I was packed up and headed back home. So....here we are....home. Bummer. Seriously.
The healthy kids were really bummed as they had just started rope swinging from a tree into the water. Rhonda and I looked at each other and laughed. Mommyhood....sometimes....it's a witch.
Don't ever make plans you can't break!