On August 14th, we headed out for our annual camping trip to Oasis in Ephrata. We ended up driving two vehicles since Justine was coming with us and our truck only holds 6. I told him that if he wanted to come with us he'd have to pay for the gas in my van since we wouldn't be driving another vehicle if he wasn't coming with us. I estimated the gas would cost around $60-$65 and he said that was okay with him. The only other portion of the trip that the kids were responsible for was if they wanted treats from the snack shack at the campground.
Jack, Ella and Justine road with me in the van and Owen and Zeke rode with Michael in the truck. Michael headed out first with the trailer and then I left and went and picked Justine up and then we were on our way.
Our first stop after that was MCD's in Cle Elum for lunch.
I love ordering on my MCD's app since we always get so many points that every time we order we get something for free.
Love getting to go on adventures with this guy of mine!
Once we got to the campground we did our normal routine, Michael and the boys started setting up the trailer. During this time Ella and I headed into town and went to Walmart to pick up a few groceries for the trip. We usually have to wait until the back of the truck gets unloaded, but that was the nice part about having two vehicles...we just dropped Jack and Justine off and headed out. We did encounter some issues on the way to Walmart...the main road there was completely closed, but now we know how to get to Walmart from another way.
When Ella and I got back most everything at the campsite was set up. We still needed to work at getting the inside of the trailer all organized, but it really didn't take long at all. After that the kids wanted to go swimming in the pool.
Years ago Michael bought this special football that's made for the water. It thought it was the dumbest purchase then, but it has turned out to be so much fun. The kids will either play with that or with the diving sticks.
At first I was tossing it to them and they were jumping into the pool trying to catch it, but I'm not the best at throwing so Michael took over for me.
Eventually he was outside the pool throwing it at the boys. It wasn't really working, but they were having fun trying!
It's been our tradition for years to go to DK's Drive-In for dinner and dessert on that first night, but last year it was about $150 for our whole family.
I really love supporting the local economy, but I just can't justify spending that much.
This year we decided to have dinner at the campground and just go to DK's for dessert.
Even though it was just dessert for the 7 of us came to $55...which is still expensive.
One thing I love about camping is I plan the menu, I buy the food and most of the time I prep the food, but Michael cooks the food. We love our Blackstone so much we wouldn't even think of going camping without it.
In regards to the dishes we had the kids pair up in teams for breakfast dishes and then dinner dishes. For lunch we barely make any dishes since it's usually sandwiches, fruit and chips. The dishes teams were, Owen & Jack and then Justine & Ella and then Zeke & Owen and then Jack & Justine and then Ella & Zeke....and so on and so on! It really worked well and it make it so you weren't always working with the same person every single time.
Our pond!
This year Michael didn't even try to put my hammock up by the pond. Last year he put it up, but the part of the tree we always hooked it to broke off so there weren't any really good anchor points. He tried though and it results in the straps breaking loose and me slamming to the ground on my back which scared me to death, hurt my back and knocked the wind out of me.
My sweet Owen!
Instead of Where's Waldo it's Where's Justine? Bonus points if you can find Zeke too!
Zeke didn't go nearly as high as Justine!
Here's a picture of our campsite from the adjacent tent site. Michael, me, Ella and Zeke were inside the trailer while Owen, Jack and Justine were in the tent.
Ga-Ga & Pa joined us on Friday, August 15th. I told them that that was going to be our day to do all day golfing since the weather was supposed to be cloudy and cooler. It's not fun being suck on the golf course when it's miserably hot!
Pa took pictures of the inside boys tent.
Justine is so cute making his bed up all nice while my boys' beds look like a wreck! I only had the 2 twin inflatable mattresses for Owen and Jack so when we realized that Justine was going to be able to join us I knew I'd need to order another one. It was so close to us leaving that I couldn't get one delivered in time, but then realized why not just do an online order for pick up at the Walmart there in Ephrata. So that's just what I did! The only thing was they were out of the twin size so Justine lucked out and got a full size inflatable mattress!
Oasis has a 9 hole / par 3 golf course that we love to go to. To golf all day it's $20 per person and you can go as many times as you want. We told the kids we would pay for them to go one day, but if they wanted to go again that would be on them.
Other than mini golf this was Justine's first time golfing. You can only have four people per group so Owen, Jack, Ella and Justine were the first group.
Then Michael, Zeke and I were the second group. The night before I had told the lady at the gift shop that we were going to be golfing all day and I also picked up the little golf club set for Zeke. I love that he can still use them!
I hadn't been golfing in years. Usually when we camp, Michael will take the kids out and then I'll stay behind, lay in my hammock and read!
It's always fun to go into the woods and find lots of golf balls that people have lost.
This is the fairway of the 7th hole and it's killer. It's so hard to not lose a ball. I usually just take a drop on the other side of the trees. You can see Ella's white sweatshirt on the green out in the distance.
After all the frustration that is the game of golf it was time to go swimming again. This year Ella expressed interest in getting a two-piece. I let her pick out one earlier in the year that even though it was a two-piece it didn't show off her stomach. She still wanted to get an actual two-piece so I told her to talk to her father. Michael said that he would be open to it, but we'd have to have final approval. She found this one on Amazon that covered everything really nicely. It wasn't a string bikini and it wasn't a thong so Michael say it was okay. It looks like Justine has his right hand on Ella's leg in this picture, but he's actually holding onto his goggles.
The kids decided they wanted to see if they could hold each other up on their shoulders.
Ella's turn to hold up Justine!
Then he just sits on her!
These two are hilarious!
Zeke's turn!
I love the smiles on their faces. Zeke really does look up to Justine and loves having fun with him.
We went out golfing again and at one of the holes I noticed this bucket hanging off the fence so I went over to see what it said. It says...Bucket-O-Shame - Lost one? Take One. They aren't the cleanest, but let's face it neither is your game. Cheers!
Justine still wasn't too sure about golf, but he wanted to go out and try again. Michael was trying to give him some pointers.
Golf is most definitely one of those games that is a balance. You have you care enough to want to do well, but also not care too much that it makes you mad. You have to want to do well and get better each time at the same time knowing that you're probably gonna mess up so laugh it off when you screw up. You also have to realize that golf isn't a game where you are competing with anyone other than yourself. Did you beat your own score the last time you played? Cool!
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