I'm Baaaaaack!!!! (Wait, didn't I name last years family camp recap post the same thing?)

*GrumbleGrumble* Why is my darn camera taking so long to download the pictures....wait (she suddenly realizes) maybe it's that 22 minute long video I took of the kids puppet show..... ;-)

 With out further ado (who else loves that word?) here are some family camp pics!

The sun coming up through the trees

Hiding from the camera

It's early! My Mom and I get up at 5:30 so we can have the bathroom/showers (we're talking warm water, with a locking door type showers here people.....showers! We were warned multiple times about how rustic the camp was....please! In my opinion if I can shower daily, it is NOT rustic!)

 Our cabin mid un-packing....it got more organized.....I promise!

.....and here is were I promptly took my camera up to the lodge and lost it until the middle of the last day.....opps! I have "borrowed" these pics off of my FaceBook friends pages, thanks FB friends!! =)



I failed rather epically(much to the amusement of half of the people at camp who made their way down to our normally secluded shore!) at standing on the board, but in my defense it's not really a paddle board.....

I on the other hand ROCKED the kayak (not me in the pic by the way!)

Three of our Pastors grandkids getting baptized! The baptisms are always one of my favorite parts of camp! =)

Western themed lunch at the lodge, we were all supposed to bring theme clothes for the lunches and dinners, it was great! =)

.....and last but not least....if you click on this last picture to make it bigger you will see the only picture of me taken at camp this year.....and no, I am not 9 months pregnant! =P

It wa super fun and I can't wait to go back next year....maybe next year I'll have one of those awesome car top tents....oh and a husband....a girls gotta have her priorities staight.....first awesome tent.....then husband!! ;-)

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A Mid Summer Nights Dream was AMAZING! I had tried to watch the movie but always got bored about a third of the way through, I didn't even catch the fact that they spoke in rhyme most of the time!

The VIP tickets were amazing seats (worth the hefty price tag for the seat alone!) and I got to order (and get carded!) my fist ever gin and tonic (I felt so sofisicated....then I opened my mouth and squealed, "I feel so sophisticated!" That kind of ruined the moment I'm thinking!), it was surprisingly good! Which might explain the second one I got during intermission..... =)

Here are the only pictures from Shakespeare in the park....taken in the car on the way there to make sure my Chai LipTint (What? that flavor is gone? I guess you'll just have to make do with one of her other AMAZING flavors!) looked okay.....*shame*what can I say? I just can't seem to remember to take pictures while I'm actually at an event! The dress I ordered to wear is way to big, so I got something on clearance at Kohl's, I'll take a pic sometime and show ya'!

For some odd reason I feel like before Penelope here.....not sure why.....maybe it's the really wide nose! =P

(How close to perfect did the hair look that night peeps? Pretty durn close if you ask ol' pig nose here!) 

.....and just for kicks here are a  few quick outfit pics, 'cause I love ya' guys.....no need to bow and offer me gifts.....though if you must.....leave the gifts on the table by the door, thanks! I was to lazy to go and get something of a smaller profile to prop the camera up, so I just bent over a bit.....again my sophistication is really coming out!

 Bandanna~Wal-Mart $1.99

Green tank~Wal-Mart $4

Skirt~Made by me!

Shoes~ Flip-Flops (not pictured)

Here is a close up of the bandanna, I love wearing them like this! The secret to a neatly folded bandanna that won't slowly unfold and rumple through out the day? Iron each fold as you go and it will stay put. I wore this all through out family camp and I never needed to refold it! =)

Family Camp!

I will be away at family camp for the next couple days, I will miss my little corner of the internet! 

(I wish!!)

Lots of pics and a super long camp fun filled post will follow! =)

CLICK HERE for a peek at what my dream camping experience would include!! See all ya'll in a few days! Don't do anything I wouldn't do.....wait scratch that....I'm boring! Live it up peeps! ;-)

Hello All!

I'm going to be gone for a few days and my 30 day challenge is going to end without me! I've posted everyday since I started, I was so happy that I hadn't missed any. Then last week when I realized our churches family camp was going on a week earlier then I thought. A little bit pf panic set in. Do not despair though, faithful followers, I have discovered a way to magically pre-post my posts so they will still show up at 8:30ish each morning when I'm away from the blogging world. This magic is sooo secret that only the chosen shall know how it is done, or anybody who has clicked on the post options link.....  ;-)

(Yes, Tim. I figured it out all by my little, technologically un-savey, self! Aren't you proud?hehe)

A couple pics from lasts years camp, it's been at the same place for years and years. In fact, our church helped build the new(when I saw new, I mean newer then the one that had been there for at least 50 years!) dining hall after the old one burned down!=)

Day Four

Day four we woke up, packed up and headed home! Very exciting I know! The road was very pretty, but very curvy! I had a wonderful time, the Kirkmans are great people to travel with. For all of you who were invited but didn't come, you really missed out!

Here is a link to all of the pictures, there are some movies on page three of the fish at the aquarium and they go in no particular order. The downloads got messed up a couple of times!

http://s569.photobucket.com/albums/ss136/KatySue1986/Coast%20trip%20with%20Kim%20and%20Telli/

It was a great time and it was very reasonably priced. I will definitely do this again!=)

Day Three

I started out day three by myself on the beach. I took lots of pictures and played around with the different color settings, it was very peaceful and foggy. It was great! Then breakfast was the same as the day before, but Kelli and I wrapped the rolls around marshmallows, very very good! All we needed was some chocolate to make it perfect!=)

We went to the Tillamook cheese factory in the morning and let me tell you the tour has gotten way better. It is a definite stop on your trip down the coast. Kelli and I got some very good ice cream then we headed to Mo's for lunch. I am usually not a seafood fan, but their calm chowder was very tasty!

We headed off to Newport next and dropped Kelli off down town to find tea and shop and Tim and I went to the aquarium. I love zoos and aquariums and the like! They have added a sea tube or whatever you call those things that are big tanks with tubes down the middle that you can walk through. I was very happy I wasn't wearing a skirt that day, because the floors had port holes in them and at one point when I looked down a scuba diver was waving at me!

The aquarium was very neat, in the aviary a puffin gave him self a bath right in front of us and was splashed water at us, that was pretty neat! The odd water exhibit was beautiful! All of the tanks had blown glass in them, I love blown glass. We then picked Kelli up and headed to a very pretty light house. My camera died once again(man that thing eats up the batteries now a days!!) so I didn't get many pictures of the light house. It was very pretty and it was free, you can't argue with that! We then headed to Beverly beach for our last night of camping, and had some very good chicken for dinner, right Tim?=)

The stairs headed up to the light part of the light house, I love taking pictures of stairs!

The puffin, so cute=)

Kim and Telli at the cheese factory!

A picture of the almost perfect sand dollars I found when I was by myself. I kept the big white one to the right, what can I say?........I had to fight against the urge to keep all three!=)

The beach at 6:30 in the morning. B-e-autiful!

Day Two

We started out day two by cooking crescent rolls on a stick over the fire(Yeah! Tim got a fire started!) that was really good, thank you Kelli for the idea! Then Kelli went for a run down to the beach and Tim and I drove(yes we are the lazy ones!) down a little while alter and saw this really cool ship wreck that is just sticking up out of the sand. Very cool.=)

Then we drove to the Columbia river wildlife viewing bunker and walked along the bank for awhile, there were lots of birds! It was very pretty and the sand was interesting to walk in. It took great foot prints.

We then ate lunch and packed up the campsite to be out of there by one, and we went to the Fort Stevens historic area and looked at some awesome batteries(the kind that have guns, not the Duracell kind!) and climbed allover those, my camera died pretty soon onto the adventure so I didn't get very many pictures of the batteries. Tim as lots though, so if you want to see pictures go bug him!

We the headed on over to Sea Side and walked down to the beach through the midway crowd, it was very busy and full of tourists! The beach was very full of people very unlike an Oregon beach actually. Tim took pity on my poor camera-less soul and gave me some of his batteries so I got some pictures of it. Then we headed on over to Cape Look Out which was out next camping destination.

We thought we were going to be able to see the beach from our camp spot, but not only could we not see the beach because of rather large dune, but there was nothing between the campsites but some sparse knee high bushes! Hello friendly and not so friendly people!

Kelli and I walked down the beach to some really neat caves in the cliff and had our own little petting zoo of sea anemones, star fish, and all kinds of cool sea creatures! It was really neat! We couldn't get to the last and largest cave though, even at low tide you would need to swim or have a boat! I also got to take a shower, there where doors on the stalls for which I was very happy; but some inquisitive little girl kept peeking under my door and so ends day two!=)

The smallest sea cave

A view from a view point along highway 101, the best highway ever!
Kelli driving a very cool vintage Jeep!

The wild life vewing bunker on the Columbia river

The ship wreck on the beach, very neat!

Coast Trip with Kim and Telli~Day One

We left from Redmond at about 8am. After fitting camping things for four days and three people into a smallish car. You don't think three people would need that much stuff, but weren't we all surprised! We drove up to Astoria and went to the Heritage Museum and walked around down town for a bit. We also stopped by the ever impressive Fort Astoria the very highly advertised attraction, you should go if you ever get to Astoria, you'll be very surprised!

We then went to a cannery museum that was pretty cool, a little hard to find though, and later we found out that we should have stopped by the main office and signed liability waivers before going in, hmmm....makes you want to go doesn't it?=)

Then we drove across the Astoria bridge, very neat. Fort Stevens was where we camped the first night. It defiantly wins for best camp spot out of the three we stayed at.

He's in the jail house now

The highly anticipated and never disappointing Fort Astoria!

Telli setting our very posh table, I loved the plastic wine glasses. It just added something to the whole experience!=)

Kims tent.........

Mine and Tellis tent, is there someting wrong with this picture? ;)

For more Day One pictures click on the link below!
http://s569.photobucket.com/albums/ss136/KatySue1986/Coast%20Trip%20Day%20One/

East Lake Pictures

As promised here are a few of the pictures that I took camping. If you would like to see the rest go here:

http://s569.photobucket.com/albums/ss136/KatySue1986/

Pancakes, yum!!!

Between these two pictures is how the sky really looked, but I couldn't make it look right! The top one is far to dark and the second one is to light! Hrumph!

Is the shape of the mist enchanting? I love mist........

East Lake

I went on a camping trip this weekend to East Lake. I'd been there before, but just for day trips. I hadn't been real camping in a while, just in the backyard or a cabin. I was worried that the appeal of a tent and a sleeping bag would have worn off. Nope! It's still as wonderful as ever! There's just something about the campfire, sleeping in a tent, waking up in the early morning and hearing the birds, sitting there in the peace that I love and so many other things that I've missed.

We went up on Sunday afternoon and when we got there, there was snow on the ground still, yep snow! It wasn't cold till the sun went down then the chill set in a bit! If you haven't been to the Newberry Crater area you should go, the combination of forest, lakes, streams, and lava flow create a very picturesque landscape. We hiked the Big Obsidian flow and some of us(mainly me!) fell in the snow that inevitably covers parts of the trail until Mid July. The little green lake nestled right next to the flow makes one feel God can create beauty out of the bad things in life.

Here we are standing on a lava flow, a totally devastating event and yet look what it has become! Just listen to the glassy crunch as you walk over a path made of crushed obsidian and pumice. You can feel the different textures beneath your feet and feel them with your hands as you trail your fingers over the surrounding rocks. The deep black of the obsidian and the light pastels of the pumice contrast with the sparkling white of the snow. Moss and lichen grow in these unfriendly circumstances and when you come upon a tree the hardiness of Gods creation is once again made fresh in your heart. It makes you feel that it's out of the hard times God creates the most beautiful parts of your life!

Sorry, normal prose just wouldn't do for that last paragraph! We also drove up to Paulina Peak. You can hike or bike up, but a more committed group of hikers would be needed to accomplish this=) I for one am more of a recreational hiker, no South Sister or things of that nature for me! We had Tim(the friend who is being a bad influence on my musical tastes!) drive up because it was rumored to be a slightly scary drive. As it turns out that was a very good call. We couldn't make it all the way to the top and had to u~turn on a small mountain road. We climbed up to an out croping of rocks and scrambled up to take a gander at the view. It was beautiful. I forgot my camera though, so you'll have to take my word for it!

We then headed back to camp for dinner, fellowship and campfire worship(right Kelli?). On a side note I finished The Janitors Boy by Andrew Clements, a must read! All of his books are must reads, I haven't read one yet that I didn't like. Sleeping was a little cold, but mostly just my nose. I woke up early as usual and read and walked by the lake till Tim got up and we tried to make a fire. Three times! It never worked. No matter how much lighter fluid Tim squirted on it. Tim made us pancakes and though they stuck and were a little black, they were still very good and very much appreciated. We had fake syrup, sometimes fake syrup is just needed. Camping is one of those times!=) Lost the dog a few times, but we always found him!

The Toomeys finally got up and we watched in awe(at least I watched in awe!) as Mr. Toomey made a fire, that stayed lit!!! We sat and talked for a little bit more. Then we packed up camp and went for a hike along Paulina Falls. We walked along one side of the creek until we reached the bridge then turned back to go the the base of the falls. Had a lot more fun scrambling along on different rocks and taking pictures. Lots of pictures. I remembered my camera this time. Then we came home and unpacked and showered! Last time I went real camping I short hair, short hair is much nicer for camping! Nothing holds on to smoke smell better then hair! For some reason what smelled so good out in the forest really gets stinky at home! Pictures will come in the next post, but I fear this one is to long already!