Camping fun

One of my favorite things is going camping.  We really wanted to go to Mount St. Helens but we couldn't find any available spots, so we found a different area and found a campground with no other reservations. I reserved 3 sites cuz we had 2 other families that wanted to join us.  We went up Thursday afternoon and got set up.  Unfortunately it's too dry this year and there was a fire restriction so we couldn't have any camp fires.  Makes camping at night kinda lame.  Our friends didn't make it until bed time so we had a great time as a family hiking and exploring and being together.  There were a ridiculous amount of bees and I really worried that they were going to ruin our weekend.  A shallow river ran behind our campground and the kids had an amazing time exploring and catching craw dads and hanging out.  Of course everyone ended up with wet shoes at one point or another.  We explored and had lunch at soda springs and the kids played in the river and we saw a cool bridge and bubbling springs.  They also found a big frog. The bees weren't as bad during lunch and we were grateful for that . They were quite annoying during all meals.  Then we headed up the river 5 miles to Bumping Lake.  The website said it has "sandy beaches" and apparently I think of sandy beaches as much else rocky.  But when we got there the kids found that there were thousands of little tiny frogs all along the shoreline.  They used the sand buckets and collected frogs by the handful for hours.  It was an enjoyable afternoon in a nice breeze and sunshine. It was wonderful that the kids were entertained and the adults just visited.  Dutch oven dinner with aggressive bees for dinner at camp and then off to bed after a scary story or two. The kids slept great and it was less cold the second night than the first which was nice.  We woke up to rain off and on Saturday morning.  It didn't stop us from having fun but makes it annoying to put away everything damp cuz we have to set it out to dry when we get home.  We stopped at Boulder Caves on out way home.  It was a nice little hike about a mile long and a walk through a very dark rock.  I love finding cool things in nature. we at a picnic lunch and then headed home. On the way home we all tried to figure out when we can go camping again.