July 5, 2012: Day 1, Olympic Peninsula Trip

  

Crossing the Tacoma Narrows Bridge

Crossing the floating bridge at Port Gamble.  Hood Head, the nothern extent of Hood Canal is the island looking thing out there.

  

Enjoying the park at the campground.

   

Yummy sea snails for dinner :)

  

Camp before and after the fire…

I’m going to try to type in my written journal of each day.  I will type it exactly as I originally wrote it to get the real emotions/feelings of the events.
Journal Entry 1
Day 1 of our 12 day girls camping adventure!  And what a day it was.  We left the house at 9:15 and had an uneventful day driving the 400 miles to camp.  The girls either read, played with the Tags, or napped most of the drive.  We got to camp at 5:15 pm and it is beautiful here and the site is perfect.  We explored camp a bit before getting all settled in.  There is a fun little park a short walk from our site with swings, a big slide, and a big toy.  Even the bathrooms and showers are nice.  When we got back to the trailer is when the fun started.  We set the girls up playing with their princesses and play houses by the picnic table and we thought we would get the inside of the trailer set up.  We got the gas turned on and went ahead and put the fridge to gas and lit the pilot light.  While I was sitting there on the floor, I opened up the fuse box and fixed the fuse for the radio, presto we have music! And spark! We have a spark at the fuse.  No big deal, just static, right?
Wooooosh!
Flames erupted from the front of the fridge, right in my face!  We grabbed the fire extinguisher and ran outside and there were flames in the fridge access panel of the fridge too!  I couldn't get the extinguisher to work so I handed it off and started yelling “FIRE, FIRE, HELP, FIRE, SOMEONE HELP!”  No one, not a single person, came to help.  Mom got the fire out and I got the gas turned off.  After the initial excitement and fear wore off, we were so thankful that if this was going to happen, at least it happened without anyone getting hurt or serious damage.  An RV guy is coming to check it out for us tomorrow, but we are pretty sure the fridge is toast.  It’s late and I’m exhausted!  We have lots to do tomorrow (our scheduled activities, plus new errands {new fire extinguishers and ice}).
This is sure to be an adventure!
End of journal entry.
I’m so very thankful that the fire yesterday wasn't worse.  It was very scary and to think about what could have happened is terrible.  I used that fridge on gas when I took the girls by myself to Yellowstone last year.  If that had happened during the night with me by myself, I don’t know if I could have gotten myself and the girls out of bed and out of the trailer in time.  I know I wouldn't have had time to use the fire extinguisher.  We also could have walked away after lighting it to go for a hike or play outside and the whole trailer would have burned down, if not the truck 5 feet away.  Its so scary, and I’m glad there is a guy coming out to check it out in the morning.
I hope day 2 is more fun than scary!

October 2011: Last Camping Trip of the Year

After our busy week to Montana and Wyoming, we were off to Little Diamond for one last camping trip with Grandma.  We have been looking forward to this trip and bought fishing poles for our first fishing trip!

 We tried fishing in the morning (about 10am) but it was cold, and foggy, and not fun.  But we did see a deer swimming across the lake!

 While we were waiting for it to warm up, we played in the park.

 Back to the lake, it was a beautiful afternoon.  We only had one bite, but we failed to bring it in :(.  We did get lots of practice though :).

 After dinner we had a fire and used the funky flames things from Walmart.  They worked really well this time.  They turn the fire blue, green, and purple.   It got so warm that Abby had to pull her pants up to cool off.

On Sunday after a dip in the hot tub, the girls played with the fairies and the princesses outside.  What a beautiful camping adventure to round out the year of fun we had!

October 3-7, 2011: Girls Yellowstone Adventure

We have friends in Livingston, Montana who I really wanted to visit this summer.  They were unable to be home when we were through their way in June, so two weeks ago I decided that I could take the girls on a trip over to visit, and make one more trip to Yellowstone while we were so close. 

I was a little worried, being the first trip I've taken where I'm the only adult along for more than one day.  We drove 1300 miles and traveled 4 states, camping along the way, and we had a great time!

 We enjoyed our drive through the Mammoth area, and got to see the terraces and springs.

 As we were driving along, we spotted a beautiful waterfall and a spouting chocolate pot.

 We drove the Firehole Canyon drive.

 And stopped to hike along the Fountain Paint Pot trail.

 After watching Old Faithful erupt and the short videos in the visitor center, we checked out the kids discovery room.

 

 Love the Sinclair dinosaur!

Thanks Selena for taking a picture of me! 

After our fun day in Yellowstone, we went to the Chico Hot Springs with our friends.  We had a great time swimming in the hot springs.  It was our first time swimming in the rain!  

 

 On Thursday we drove back towards home and stopped in Missoula to visit some dahlia friends.  We had a nice visit and stayed overnight.  Friday, we headed for home, but just to do laundry, because we were on our way to go camping with Grandma Judy one last time!