Mt. Rainer Camping

 Way back in August Ryan and I were feeling particularly brave and decided to take the kids camping.  We packed our van literally to maximum capacity and headed out for a one night camping trip.  We may never fully understand why so much gear is required for one night of camping, but such is the case.

We drove up to Mt. Rainer and camped in a nice wooded site.  Fortunately the only wild animals we met were some very cute chipmunks at our campsite and a nasty bee that stung Ryan in the forehead.  However, the frequent bear warning signs all over the camp had me on high alert for anything rumbling around in the bushes.  Ryan assured me many times there was nothing to worry about,  I guess I'm not that much of a Westerner to get used to camping in bear country :)   

 After we sent up camp the first day we headed out to hike the Grove of the Patriarchs.  There is a small section of the forest that has been protected from forest fire for thousands of years.  The next few pictures are from that hike.  Of course our camera gave up the ghost before we got any pictures of the old trees, but the scenery even before we got there was beautiful.

 This bridge bounced as you walked across it, thus greatly enhancing the excitement/danger value for all around.

 Here is the paved part of the trail around all the old trees.  We came to two ginormous trees that were close to two thousand years old!  The tops had fallen off and supposedly the tree was mostly hollow inside, but it was still alive and upright.  It's crazy to think of all the events in history that that tree has been around for!

  

The boys really enjoyed camping and actually did pretty well.  They were very well bundled at night and slept in to 6:30 (which is pretty good when the sun still comes up a little after 5).  We had hotdogs and smores at night and a dutch oven breakfast pizza in the morning.  We hiked to Sliver Falls after we had packed up camp and then drove home, exhausted.  Silver Falls was beautiful and if we ever go again, I will make sure we bring a camera that has a decent battery with it.  Ryan and I have desires to be more outdoorsy type of people so we plan on making a family camping trip a yearly tradition.  And who knows, if we ever get to the point where we can spend more time enjoying the outdoors and less time keeping the kids from poking their eye out with a stick or leaping into the campfire, we might make it a bi-annual tradition.