As we get ready for our March trip this weekend, I am finally getting around to posting about our February trip.
For February we went to one of my very favorite childhood camping spots, Jessie M. Honeyman Memorial State Park, in Florence, OR. As a child I loved camping in the wooded area, walking the short distance to the dunes (in the park) and laying in the sun for hours taking turns playing in the sand and then running down into the warm lake beneath the dunes. I can't wait to do that again, but that was not this trip. This trip we stayed a yurt with some friends of ours, Samuel and Kalea and their daughter Ira May. The weather was chilly but mostly dry (It rained the day before we came) and sunny. Something that was not there when I was a child is the addition of a large playground, so nice. We spent the mornings lazing around with the kiddos (avoiding our very loud neighbors) and playing in the playground. Yurts are wonderful, but they are also close together (often times - here closer than many I have seen) and there walls are still uninsulated. So, in a park that was almost completely empty (something that never happens in the summer, when it is almost always booked to capacity) we found ourselves right next to the loudest people in the park, music blaring late into the night, and little children running into our campsite to see if Mikaiah wants to play (of course she wanted to, but was not allowed) early in the morning. They were kind though, inviting us to party with them, but I think I would have appreciated a little more solitude. That said, it was still a nice trip and we had a lot of fun spending the day at a near by beach on the Ocean. Our dear friends are living in Medford and don't get to see the Ocean very often, so we took every advantage.
My favorite memory of this trip though happened about 3 am the second night. I was feeling super vigalente even in my sleep, trying to keep my children from waking up Ira May when all of the sudden I was woken immediately by a loud wailing. Mikaiah, who was sleeping above me on the top bunk was just sobbing "I WANT CARROTS!" She cried over and over. "I SO HUNGRY" It would have been hilarious if she wasn't so upset and wasn't so loud! I tried cuddling with her, tried rocking her back and forth, even gave her some raisins (we had no carrots.) Finally Seth gave her a raspberry shaped teething pacifier she has recently latched onto (though she never used one as a baby.) As soon as she had it she curled up and silently went to sleep. What a silly girl. Oh how I love her!
This weekend we are off to Astoria, Fort Stevens State Park. Weather Forecast: Rain, rain, and more rain. We'll see how it goes! At least we are prepared!
