Oregon Camping

Troy's brother Tom came into town over the Memorial Day weekend with his wife Kim and their 4 kids (Tim, Malorie, Gideon and Emily). Tom had decided to camp while he was here so on Saturday night we all piled in two cars and drove out to Mount Hood National Park.

We set up enough tents that the neighbors probably thought we were starting a colony. Tom and Kim had this great screen room that we set up in the middle of the camp where we could sit bug free and eat a dinner of fried chicken, chips and multiple varieties of licorice.

Then it started to rain.

We watched as the water pooled into a lovely spring lake around the base of our tent, shifted further and further toward the middle of the screen as the water came in the sides and listed all the things we were grateful for in between lightning and thunder strikes. Among the blessings were: 'at least we're in a forest,' 'it sure is pretty out here' and 'can we go home now.'

Troy and I...expert campers obviously...forgot any sort of tarp or sleeping pad and when we moved our tent out of Lake Hood we weren't very careful about placement. We used a bunch of black plastic garbage bags as a barrier between the wet ground and our sleeping bag. Good thinking until it became clear that not only were we on a slope but we were on a rocky slope so steep not even the mountain goats would consider sleeping there. We slipped and slid down the hill all night to wake up a few minutes later and try to inch-worm our way back up. I had a "shoulder rock" (you know, the rock that pierces your shoulder when you lay on your side) that I used as a guide to know if we were back to the right place. We had zipped our bags together (how romantic) so when the couples inch-worm competition is on at the summer olympics, we're headed to Beijing. Yes. We were THAT good...or at least we were by 6am when we gave up.

The kids had a GREAT time. Malorie let Scout sleep in her tent and Scout has been talking about it ever since. Tim and Malorie were both really good sports and kept a close eye on the kids while they roamed, and by roamed I mean slid down, the muddy hill that towered over our camp. We brought two full changes of clothes and had used them both up by 10 am with all the mud. It was cold, it was slimey but I think the kids would be there still if it weren't for Troy and I being such pansies.

We made great memories that will be with us for a long time. I can imagine us all gathering around in twenty years talking about the Great Rain Camp of aught 8.

This camp needs a top 20 bottom 10 list.

Top 20:

1. Stealing Ketchup Packets and sharing them with the neighbors
2. Licorice straws too short for the bottles
3. giggling girls
4. that wasn't my blue bra
5. Tim and Rand being offended by the bad word wall
6. Watching Rand freak out about the book in the rain
7. Chips at every meal
8. Playing Gloom in the dark
9. Laughing so hard that we almost had to go use those portapotties
10. Laughing more when we listed 'constipation' as one of our blessings
11. When Kim sent Malorie to give the orphan neighbor boy a cinnamon roll
12. When the parents of the orphan boy finally woke up and when they got out of their tiny pup tent a giant dog came out too.
13. Setting the kids' tent right-side-up again after the whole thing rolled onto the door during the night
14. Mint 3 Musketeers
15. The off-switch of Random's Prince Caspian sword
16. Savannah walking around in muddy socks and flip flops.
17. That happy look on the kids' faces while they were following their cousins up and down the mountain
18. Extra changes of clothes
19. Garbage bags
20. Tom's relentless spirit that actually got us to go camping

Bottom 10:

1. Mountain lions
2. Portapotties that haven't been emptied since 1908
3. rolling up wet tents
4. Fireworks at 2 am
5. whose blue bra was that?
6. Rain
7. hypothermia
8. getting the kids to go to sleep when all they want to do is giggle
9. broken glass on the ground
10. uneven campsites with a stream running through it