The day after Easter we headed down to Ocean Shores for some camping FUN with some of our favorite peeps. Bryan found this amazing group campsite that was perfect for entertaining the kids and keeping them off the road. While we set up camp the kids road their bikes...
Bryan set up the bounce house for the kids as well...
Once we were settle the kids all gathered around our picnic table and we had began our first of many daily craft times. I had seen these homemade lanterns on Pinterest and was eager to test them out...
That evening we all gathered around the campfire to roast some marshmallows...
The next morning the kids were eager to eat breakfast and head outside to play...
Bryan bought a plethera of games to add to the trailer. A few weeks prior we literally had SEVEN large Amazon boxes show up on our front porch. I had no idea what it was until Bryan explained that he had been making a "camping wishlist" on his phone and finally ordered everything on it. We had a lot of fun going through all of the boxes and the kids were dying to finally play The Snipe game....
Off they go to hide them...
Later that afternoon we headed on down to the beach to play in the sand. The kids rode their bikes while we walked behind them. All of a sudden Jack threw down his bike and began running back toward me...
...just to bring me this! I LOVE this sweet boy so much it makes my heart hurt.
We had to ditch the bikes mid-way through our route to the beach and cross over the spooky troll bridge...
Then it was up the big daddy hill...
AHHHHH...and there was the beach...
Jack P attempted flying the kite...
And our Jack found me a dead starfish...
We headed a little further out toward the ocean to collect some sand dollars...
There is just something magical about riding a horse on the beach...
The longer we stayed at the beach the quicker we became aware that this was going to be a messy morning...but that just made it all the more FUN!
LOVE this one of Annie...
Emily tested out the kite one last time...
Then we all headed back to camp. We cleaned up, dried out, had some snacks and then the kids gathered with me for our daily craft. I mixed up a bunch of dye for our sand art project and decided to test out the colors on the sand dollars I collected...
Charlie was super eager to begin crafting and was the first one sitting down when I got back to the table. The kids helped me mix in dye with sand from the beach and then they each filled their own vial with the sand, creating their own design...
After a little rest with crafting the kids all headed into the bounce house to burn off some more energy...
Our Charlie LOVED riding Jack P.'s bike!
The rest of the bunch were all in the BIG ball so I dipped in my camera and tried to get a few random shots...
Later that afternoon some more of our friends, the Darraghs, came over to our campsite for dinner. If you couldn't tell from this picture, our trailer was the kid hangout...
Charlie LOVED walking their dog...
Later that evening we had a huge camp out dinner and celebrated Mackenzie's 10th birthday!
Then the kids gorged themselves on birthday cake and minions!
The next morning the kids did some smaller scale crafts...
...and played at our campsite...
another game...
some squirt guns...
Here is a picture of our site from the back: Pearsons (left), Jones (middle), Darraghs (right)...
On our way down to the beach the kids ran into a little boy with a snake!
Four of the nine heading up the dunes to their "secret castle"...
I headed on up to the castle as well just to make sure everything was safe and got a shot of the dads below (Michelle and Mary Elizabeth were gone running some errands)...
Up on top all was good!
The kids spent a LONG time jumping over the "hot lava moat"...
After a while I got Charlie to come back down to the beach with me...
Maddy was SO good with Charlie. She literally toted him EVERYWHERE by the hand and he loved every minute of it!
Emily and Annie, hand in hand as well...
By the time we got back the kids were exhausted so I whipped up some dirt cups for them to snack on...
That evening the kids were tuckered out so we piled all nine into our trailer and turned on a movie while we adults had some fun at the campfire...
The next morning it POURED for the first time and we said our good-byes to our friends. We too packed up to go but while everyone else headed home we started phase TWO of our spring break trip!
Alder Lake Campground:
The kids and Daddy played another new board game while we settled in the next evening. We had had a quiet raining day inside the trailer while it rained and rained outside...
The next morning the rain let up a little and we headed to Northwest Trek for the day.
We had spent a day here
last year and it had proven to be one of our favorite new places to take the kids. It is a lot slower paced than a zoo and a little more our style featuring all native Northwest animals. The kids were excited and jumped aboard the tram as soon as we arrived...
The weather was perfect for spotting animals and the black tail deer were the first to come our way...
Big horned sheep...
Bison...
A lone mountain goat...
Roosevelt elk...
more bison...
Charlie thought these guys were amazing...
caribou...
One of my favorites...The big daddy MOOSE...
After our tram tour we headed out to explore the park. Emily was literally running full speed to see the cougar but to her dismay it was out of the area for awhile so that the beaver could spend some time swimming...
We ventured forth and found the coyotes...
Then the wolves...
Then the brown bear...
...and the black bear...
Sea Otters...
Raccoons...
The lynx...
We checked the cougar area for a second time but still no luck so we headed into the lodge for some lunch...
As if we were not wet enough, the boys found a fountain and stood underneath it!
We took a stroll through the gift shop so the kids could spend their "chore money" and then headed on back to check on the cougar one last time...
We spent a long time with the cougar and when Emily was finally ready to go we headed back to our campsite. This was our first time camping at Alder Lake and I have to say that it was absolutely beautiful, even in the rain...
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