camping and fishing

We've been planning on going camping all summer, and we finally followed through. We tried a place called Riverdale Resort. It was not what we had imagined, but fun nonetheless. One of our first orders of business was to take the kids swimming in the pool.

Because I don't have a swimsuit that fits me with my bulbous belly, I sat on the side.

There was a slide, but we didn't try it.

Our kids are young enough that they love just being in the water.

Even if they have to take turns with Daddy.

After swimming we set up our tent. It was a very nice grassy area. We were the only tent campers. The rest of the place was full of RVs. We obviously missed that memo.

On the other side of the fence from our campsite was a dairy farm.

The smell was constantly present.

Here Graham is showing off the injury he received to his head from running down a ramp, tripping, and hitting his head on a rock wall.

He also had an "ouchie" on his finger which he insisted I take a picture of.

Dinner was enjoyable... while it lasted. The grey sky in the background was moving in fast.

We ended up roasting our hot dogs over the stove because there was nowhere to make a fire.

Unfortunately, the storm hit us before we had finished eating and brought some strong winds with it. We managed to get the kids and some of the plates of food into the car, while our other plates full of food were blown relentlessly off the table, along with the bag of chips and anything else that weighed less than a child, or so it seemed.

We finished eating what we had salvaged in the comfort of the car, while we waited for the storm to pass over.

Then we took the kids to the office for dessert---they all chose the bright, rainbow ice cream.

After dessert, Shad wanted to drive around and check out some reservoirs for fishing. There were a few people out on the water with their water toys.

I've never seen a water toy hauled by a tractor. Gotta love Idaho.

Shad decided to try his hand at fishing, while I watched the kids (when they weren't fishing) and took lots of pictures.

The sun was just setting, so I really did take a ton of pictures.

Drake had a good time trying to catch a fish.

Avery gave kisses.

Graham sat down to fish for a little while.

When he stood up, there were a whole bunch of stickers on his pants.

And they didn't bother him one bit.

It was a nice night for fishing.

I think the kids had a good time.

And they even caught a couple of little fish near the end of the evening.

Once they caught their fish, we headed back to the campsite to go to bed.

Avery recently graduated from sleeping in her pack 'n' play when we go on trips to sleeping in a sleeping bag, and she does great. It was plenty warm all night long, so we all slept well (if you don't count the number of times I woke up to try to find a comfortable position).

The next morning was bright and sunny and storm free, which made for a much more pleasant meal than the night before.

After breakfast we cleaned up, packed up camp, and checked out.

We decided to try fishing a small reservoir that we had seen while driving the night before.

We didn't stay here very long.

Mostly because we never saw any fish.

And Graham and Avery were getting too comfortable with the water.

So we left to go try the next place.

I don't know what this what, other than a tractor with a load of people riding behind it...

We ended up at Johnson Reservoir, where we spent the rest of the morning.

Drake got the first catch.

Avery played with rocks.

More waiting.

Then Graham got to reel a fish in.

And finally little Avery got to help reel a fish in.

But I don't think she was interested in getting very close to it.

Even Shad caught a biggie...

Although Avery seemed unsure of the fish...

...she was more than delighted to find the cup of worms.

And she played with the worms until we finally packed up and headed back home.

I'm glad we were able to go camping. Being seven months pregnant doesn't make it easy, but it was still fun. And I'm glad Shad got his fishing fix in too.