Crater Lake Vacation

Haley got her cast off on Monday, so our family was finally able to go do a bit of outdoor recreation. (Actually, we've had it planned all summer.) We went camping for 3 days at Crater Lake National Park. Tom's been there before, but it was new to the rest of us. Tom's dad came along, too.

Sarah really loved the tent. And we spent a lot of time there when we were in camp, because the mosquitos were as thick as I've ever experienced in my life thanks to a late spring!

Grandpa M with some of the kids. If you look really close you can see that Haley is wearing a heavy black walking boot to reinforce that newly healed broken leg. It shows much better below:

Here we are in front of the Pinnacles, which look like giant termite mounds in the side of the hill. We had a great time, except for some griping about mosquito bites. (Yes, I complained loudest. I thought I got the most bites, but now that we're home I've learned that Danny has me beat. Mine swelled up the biggest, though.) Haley even managed to hike a steep 1.5 mile trail down to the lake to take a boat ride. Jeff thought he would die coming back up the hill, but then he did great! All the kids earned their junior ranger patches and are excited to go to more national parks and start a patch collection.

Sarah has enough hair for 2 cute little pigtails these days. Of course, it takes two adults and a major concerted effort to hold her still enough, and there is a fair amount of screaming, but then she looks like this:

Spring is in full bloom in the trees in my front yard, and I have been working here and there at getting my early spring planting going. Monday was such a nice day, and it hadn't rained for a few days so the ground wasn't too soggy. I just set Sarah down with a baseball and a bucket of sand and she played so happily! Danny puttered around picking dandelions to feed to the chickens, and I was able to get a few lettuces and broccoli starts into the ground. The best moment for me was when I looked over and the two of them were laughing together and balancing little rocks on top of the ball. Those are the times parenting seems worth it.

I have been sewing and working away at our costumes for the handcart trek. Today I was able to go over and get a little help putting in some buttonholes so the work can progress. Maybe by next post I will have something worth photographing and posting!