Gem Lake

For Labor Day Weekend, and to count as our September trip, we hiked into Gem Lake. Our little family headed out Friday, while our friends Nick and Nate, Mike and Aric joined us Saturday. It was a pretty lake, with amazing views on the way. Definitely a popular lake with very few campsites. It was a good thing we went in when we did. I also didn't like how the few campsites were right on top of each other, and the trail led right through them. So all day long as people arrived they'd have to walk right through our site. I just prefer a little more privacy. We all had a great time. Before our friends arrived, Peter and Clifford went for a walk around the lake. Kristjan and I snuggled in my tent while they went out to do that. Later in the day after our friends arrived, Peter and Clifford went out again with them to explore the area some more. Clifford summited his first peak on Wright Mountain (!!) and even wrote in the summit log. Way to go Clifford!! After dinner Saturday night the rain started up, which we were expecting. By the time Sunday morning rolled around, it was just dumping outside. It didn't appear to be letting up anytime soon. The consensus was if we were going to be stuck inside our tents all day in the rain, then lets pack up and leave. And so we did. Yet ANOTHER hiking trip for us in the rain. We're definitely getting good use of our rain gear this year :)

Boys before we started hiking

 As we were getting packs on, I told Peter he had the whole Britney Spears/Baby One More Time look going on (kilt/skirt, gators/knee high socks). We had a good laugh over that, and I made him pose for a pic :)

 Views from the trail

 Snow Lake, which was on our way to Gem Lake

 Gem Lake in the evening

 Camp Life

 Sheeba was so exhausted from the hike that she was too lazy to stand up and her food

 Saturday Morning!

Kristjan and I cuddling in my tent

 Sheeba taking in the beauty of the lake

 Pics from when Peter and Clifford went off exploring on their own

 And here is me and Kristjan enjoying being warm in our sleeping bags

 We did come out of the tent at some point :)

 I tried to get a photo after everyone else showed up...and then there's Kristjan....

 More exploring.....

 Clifford signing his first summit log!!

Pic of Snow Lake AND Gem Lake......

......And the next lake over...Wildcats Lake

 Feeding the birds

 Sunday morning before we hiked out...

Last Day of Summer Vacation

Well, I did it. I SURVIVED summer vacation!!!! There were a few rough moments here and there, occasional tears of frustration, constant harping at the boys to stop fighting and to get along, but in the end, we made it through and no one was traumatized. Looking back at all the pictures we've taken these last months prove that the boys have had an amazing summer. They are definitely spoiled. They're not looking forward to going back to school tomorrow. As for me? I'm internally doing a happy dance and plotting what I want to do with my soon-to-be freedom once that first school bell rings at 8:40 am. Peter surprised me last week by informing me he requested the day off so we could spend time together, kid-free! I've spent this morning putting away new clothes in closets, packing up labeled school supplies into backpacks, and organized the pantry of school lunch items. I think we're ready!

Olallie Lake

This past weekend we accomplished our August backpacking  to Olallie Lake. It was really hard to get motivated and go on this trip. We didn't even get in to pack up our backpacks until after breakfast Saturday morning. Peter even made a comment about just staying home. But in the end, we went. We did this hike years ago, so we knew the hike itself was easy. We arrived at the lake in just under two hours. Peter and I worked on setting up camp, while boys spent some time in the lake looking for crawdads. The last time we were at this lake was when the boys were around 3 and 4, and Clifford found a huge crawdad at that time. So their goal was to find one again on this trip. That kept them busy for a while. As it started getting later in the day, the wind picked up. We headed into the tent to play some card games and eat dinner before retiring for the night. Peter and I slept a good two hours before we were rudely awaken by a loud gust of wind.....and then that was the end of any kind of sleeping for either of us. The rain came next, which we were expecting. Everything would have been fine had we been in our normal tents, but Peter wanted to try out a new tent system on this trip, using our mesh tent liner and a tarp. The tarp itself, which had previously been used as a liner for the hole that was dug at the bottom of the slide in our backyard and filled up with water, had little holes throughout the entire thing. Peter tried his best earlier to patch it up the big ones with duct tape, but it didn't keep the rain from seeping through and dripping onto us. Had the tarp not had this issue, we would have been fine in this setup. What a headache. No sleep for either of us. We were too concerned about staying dry. The boys, however, slept like babies. It was a little before seven the next morning when another huge gust of wind jolted us upright.  We had enough and started packing. We were out and back to our car by 10:15 am. On the bright side of all of this, we at least kept our goal. This coming weekend is Labor Day, which we'll be back out for our September trip. But at least this time the forecast is for sunny skies. Yay!

 Peter couldn't remember if he locked the car or not, so he had to head back down the trial to take care of it. Boys and I continued on hiking. Here's Peter and I each taking our own selfies while on the trail.

 Olallie Lake peaking out through the trees

We made it!

 Our camp site

 Some blue skies before the storm comes

 Views from our camp site

 Our tent for this trip

 Boys headed out to search for crawdads

 Ready for bed

 The next morning!

 Peter taking the tent down

Blurriness of the pic is from the rain dumping down. Everything about us was soaked. Good Times!