Taidnapam Camping Trip - Day 1 & 2

Just day and a half after getting home from Spokane we were back on the road. This time to Taidnapam to go camping with Michael's cousins...Michael and Robin. 

Our trip to the campground took about twice as long as it should have. Not because of traffic, but because we had so many stops along the way. Our first stop was at CFA to eat lunch, then we went to Ga-Ga & Pa's to pick up the inflatable paddleboard I had ordered online and accidentally had shipped to their house. After that we made a stop at Bill & Christina's house to pick up their two kayaks to take on the trip. There was a mix up involved with that so it took a bit longer than we though. In the end it was A-Okay and we got to the campground just a little bit after we were hoping too! 

Setting up camp this time went SO much better than it has been in the past. It's so nice that the kids can be so helpful and it's even better when they don't argue! Jack and Owen are setting up their tent. 

Ella's helping put together the side table that Daddy uses next to his Blackstone. 

Daddy and Zeke are working on putting together my upper shelves in the kitchen. 

Michael cooking up some yummy BBQ chicken. Since we had that small issue of undercooked meat at Oasis this time he used his thermometer to make sure each piece was done. 

Setting the table! 

Time to relax!! Yes please!!! 

Michael and Robin's site was right next to our. These sites are more woodsy than Copalis, but there was a nice little trail between the sites. We had a nice time playing Five Crowns after dinner. 

The next day we packed up a picnic lunch and the truck with all our floating devises. Owen had already aired up the paddleboard....he loves paddleboards. I had bought a small two person inflatable boat back in 2019 thinking we might use it on our camping trip, but we never did. We brought that along as well. 

Michael and Robin's tent is actually attached to their truck so it's hard to go anywhere ones they set up camp. We decided to head over to Mossy Rock State Park because the access to the water is way better. There honestly is no easy way to get into Riffe Lake from Taidnapam since the water level in the reservoir is so low. 

The state park was about a 39 minute drive away. At first Michael and Robin were going to ride in the back of the truck, but we didn't feel good about that. Besides the back was filled with so much already it would have been difficult for them to sit back there. So we squeezed 8 people into our 6 passenger truck. Owen, Jack, Michael and Robin were in the back. Michael, Ella, Zeke and I were in the front. On our way there we ended up having to stop twice to fix the straps. Once because the boats shifted and then another time because one of the straps just came off. Once we finally got that all straightened out we were on the road again. 

We were just talking and driving down HWY 12 doing 55 mph when my seatbelt locked up and started to dig into my throat. It was not comfortable because I was twisted in my seat to accommodate Zeke....he was sharing the seatbelt with me. The only way to unlock the seatbelt is to take it off, retract it in and then pull it out again. I unclicked the seatbelt and had it halfway retracted when I heard Michael say, "Oh deer" and then I saw movement on the driver side of the truck. It all happened so fast! Since I wasn't buckled I grabbed the top of the truck with my right hand while using my left hand as a seatbelt for Zeke. All the while I squeezed my eyes shut and screamed. I was just sure a deer was going to come through the windshield and that the airbags were going to go off. Michael immediately slammed on his breaks. But the deer hit us or we hit her. Michael was able to pull over to the side of the HWY so we could get out and inspect the damage to the vehicle and each other. 

 

The vehicle was bad, but honestly it could have been worse. Thankfully the deer didn't go through the windshield. She actually hit the truck, spun around and banged into the bummer before landing on the side of the road. 

Michael was taking pictures of the truck and then he went and checked on the deer. He didn't want her to suffer, but she was already dead.

 I was dealing with the kids. Zeke was shook up, but Ella was the worst. She saw the whole thing happen since she was sitting right next to Michael. She had so much adrenaline pulsing through her veins she was shaking like crazy...so was I. She also was super emotional about the deer. I held her and let her cry a bit.

Everyone in the back was fine even though only Owen had his seatbelt on. I didn't know that prior to the accident! I thought they were sharing seatbelts likes we were up front. Although Zeke and I didn't have ours on at the time of impact. So in all out of 8 people only 3 were belted in during the crash. Thank you Jesus for keeping us safe! 

Zeke just wanted to turn around and go back to the campground, but I was adamant that we continue on. We needed to make good memories and not just have this horrible thing ruin our whole day. 

Thankfully the truck was drivable and it didn't like there was any wrong mechanical all at it was just cosmetic.

So off to Mossy Rock we went. We got there without any more incidents. We did found out that we didn't have to pay to get into the park since we were staying at Taidnapam so that was cool. 

At first we parked up by the trees, but then we saw this handicap parking below and we asked if we could just unload down there so we didn't have to haul everything so far. They said that was just fine. So Michael pulled down there we unloaded and started packing it down to the beach. 

What looks like sand from afar and even in this picture isn't actually sand. It's just hard dirt. It use to be under the water when the reservoir was full. It's also the kind of dirt that is extremely slippery when it gets wet so getting down to the shoreline is challenging. 

 

So much so Michael was warning the kids about it while he walked down there and one minute he was standing and the next he was in the water. 

Us adults set up our chairs and basked in the sun while the kids had a blast on the water. 

Jack and Zeke had so much fun in the youth kayaks that we borrowed from the Kuch's. Owen of course was on the paddleboard the entire day. I did get in one of the youth kayaks at one point, but they really are make for youth. I was barely floating and I was sure I was going to tip over. 

Ella and I went out in the dingy and it was terribly difficult to steer. The paddles were not cooperating with me. 

Being out on the water meant I got some cute pictures of these kids. I love seeing them having so much fun. 

Jack crusin' out in the water!

Eventually Ella left me and got onto the paddleboard with Owen. Thankfully I finally was able to get back to shore. We found out later when Michael tried to go in the dingy that Jackson hadn't put in the rubber gaskets that hold the paddles in place. I knew that something was wrong! I'm not that horrible of a paddler. 

 

Owen also took me out on the paddleboard for a bit. It was so fun, but the water was a bit on the chilly side! 

After being there for hours we decided we needed to head out. It was going to take us a bit to get everything packed up, hauled up, put in the truck and then the almost 40 minute drive back to camp. Michael asked me to go get the truck and pull it down to the loading zone. I got to the truck opened it up, put the key in and it wouldn't start. The screen said there was a Start Fault Error or something like that. I turned off the radio and AC thinking it might me the battery, but that didn't work. Then I walked down to break the news. Michael and I walked back up to try to figure it out while Michael and Robin stayed with the kids. We were trying to look up online what exactly that error meant, but we had zero service.

I walked down to tell everyone we needed to haul everything up to the truck and come up with a game plan. One we got everything to the truck I decided to try walking closer to the ranger station to see if I could get any kind of service to call our insurance company. It was most likely going to take hours for a tow truck to get out there and the nearest friends that could help were at least 1.5 hours away. I finally was able to get on the phone with someone, but then I saw Michael flagging me down. Praise the Lord he got the truck started. How you might ask...he took the battery out of the fob and it worked. Not sure how that mattered, but the only thing we can think of is it had something to do with his dip in the water back when we fell in. Who knows, who cares...the truck started! 

On the way back we were on the lookout for the deer. We ended up finding it, but not in the last location we had seen it. Someone had come along and harvested the appendages so they had pulled it down the road a bit. I didn't really know that you could harvest road kill, but I guess it makes me feel good knowing she didn't die for nothing...she was able to feed a family. 

Back at the site we had dinner and then pulled out Michael's Pegs & Jokers boards and played that. 

Here's our campsite! When we were at Taidnapam last year we decided to walk around and see which site we liked the best. This site was awesome. It's so huge I'm almost surprised it not an ADA site. It's also super private with all that greenery on the left it blocks so much of the site. 

This is that area behind the greenery. So big and so nice and level. Definitely the site we are going to reserve every time we come here. 

It was a crazy exciting day and we are ever so grateful that no one was seriously injured and I'm so glad that we made good memories to help get pass the traumatic ones! 

Oasis Camping Trip!

Early this summer when our camping trip to Deception Pass got canceled I immediately called up Oasis in Ephrata, WA. Michael and I have camped there many, many times just not with children. Of course they were totally booked up for the time frame I wanted in June so we booked a trip instead for September 11th - 15th. 

The same week we were supposed to go camping was when all the crazy wildfires started happening. I wasn't sure if it would be okay to go over the mountains, but Michael said we at least needed to try. No matter what we'd make an adventure out of it. 

We left on Friday, September 11th around 10:30ish in the morning. The weather by our house was fine at that moment, but all the smoke from the fires in California and Oregon was headed our way. 

It was so exciting getting to go over the mountains in our truck. We've dreamed of this for a couple years. The truck did fabulously and Michael actually commented on how he was having to hold the truck back because that baby just wanted to GO! Up in the mountains the smoke has this fun effect of making it so you could see the definition between the different hills. Normally it looks like one hill with a bunch of trees, but with the smoke it really accentuated the depth between the hills. It was actually quite pretty! 

Our plan was to stop in Cle Elm for lunch. We knew they had a nice Burger King there that we could go to, but our bad luck from the prior camping trip was still hanging on. That Burger King was closed down! Off to MCD's we went. Of course the drive thru was too tight for the trailer and the inside was closed. I ended up having to download the MCD app, order our food and wait by the parking spot that I indicated we were in since for obvious reasons we couldn't pull the truck and trailer into the parking spot! Good grief! It took quite a while to get our food, but it all turned out okay.

The rest of the drive was uneventful and actually it felt like it wasn't nearly as long as I had geared myself up for even though it was about 4 hours travel time to get there. 

When I got out of the truck to go check in I noticed that the ladies in the office didn't have masks on. I was holding mine, but once I saw that I was so excited! I actually told both of them it was so nice to see their smiling faces! We barely wore masks at all the whole trip and it was divine. 

We got camp all set up and Ga-Ga & Pa came to visit. They were staying down the road at the Best Western. I decided instead of going to the store prior to the trip I'd just buy the few things we needed at Walmart once we got there. With Ella in tow, Ga-Ga & I were off to Walmart. While we were there I noticed that Walmart had a trampoline for only $198! I had been trying to find one for the kids, but none of the Walmart's within 50 miles of home have one and everyone selling the exact same one I found at Walmart in Ephrata wanted over $350 for them on Offer-Up! I was so excited, but I didn't buy it because I wanted to talk with Michael about it first. 

That first night for dinner we decided to support local and got dinner at DK's Drive In. I ordered the food online and Michael and Pa went and picked it up. It's was SO yummy and the milkshakes were amazing! 

We rode bikes over to the office to check out the pool and we found out it was closed. I was so bummed! When I had called to make the reservations I had specifically chose this weekend as it's the last weekend that the pool is open according to the person I talked with. Unfortunately the pool was never able to open due to Covid. This was a major bummer since Michael and I had plans to golf with the older boys and we had hoped that Ga-Ga & Pa could hang out with the Ella and Zeke at the pool to keep them busy and they wouldn't feel left out from golf. 

That first night we didn't have the propane hooked up so we didn't use the heat, but the next day I had Michael hook it up. Once it started to get dark it cooled down in a hurry. 

Saturday, September 12th....Golf Day!!! 

Oasis has a 9 hole par 3 golf course and it's just perfect to learn on. Plus you can pay for all day golf and go as many times as you'd like. All day was only $15 for us and $12 for the boys. 

As you can see it is a little bit smoky, but it wasn't terrible. When we reserved for September the guy on the phone said they have the best weather with temps around 79. The week prior we were checking the weather and it was showing 90+ for temps. In actuality because of the smoke it barely got warmer than 65 most days. Of course we had packed clothes for warmer weather and basically ended up wearing the same clothes the whole trip since it was so chilly out. 

These boys LOVE golf! This makes Daddy very happy! This makes Mommy very nervous since golfing isn't cheap! :) 

Ga-Ga & Pa took Owen and Jack to the Farmer's Market & Starbucks so Michael and I took Ella and Zeke to play mini golf. 

The mini golf course is definitely in need of repair, but it was still loads of fun for the kids. 

The funny thing was later during our trip, Michael took the kids into the woods to go searching for golf balls and they ended up finding the old mini golf graveyard back there. I hope they'll be throw this one back there soon. Although since mini golf only costs $5 a person I highly doubt it will change anytime soon. The last full day of our trip the kids asked to go into the woods by themselves to search for balls. They ended up finding 31 balls...the day before they found 27 with Michael. Needless to say we came home with a lot of extra balls.  

This right here is the pond next to our campsite. This was our saving grace since the pool was closed. No, not because the kids went swimming in it...ewww! No...it had turtles and frogs in it and it kept Ella and Zeke busy for hours and hours! 

Side Note: This is also the pond that Michael swam out into to rescue an orange kitty that we named Pumpkin. She was so sweet and we loved on her for about a day and then she took a turn for the worst. We ended up taking her to a local vet that dealt more with horses than cats, but he told us that Pumpkin had feline leukemia and she wouldn't make it. Michael and I both held her as he put her to sleep. It was one of the hardest things we've had to do and we were both bawling like babies. I can still picture in my mind our huge tears hitting the stainless steal table that she was laying on. 

Here's our awesome campsite. It's site 69 and it's right across from the bathrooms. It's also right next to the pond and set back from the site in the right if this picture. Plus the 4 sites to our left are tent sites only and the majority of people who were camping were in RV's so those sites were empty thus making it a giant grassy area the kids could play on. 

The kids used the grassy area to practice their golf swings and hit balls back and forth. It was so nice not having to worry about them hitting into the next campsite. 

My boy who loves to camp, but also loves to read! 

Ella loves to practice her writing skills! 

She also loves to show off her writing skills! 

Ga-Ga bought this giant box of chips for the trip and the kids love it. I brought one to our camping trip at the ocean too. I believe that we only ended up bringing home a few bags of Cheetos. 

Ella Grace loves her Daddy. She also is never cold! I would be freezing if I was wearing shorts and a tank top! 

These two had some serious fun together on this trip! 

I wore these same Capri pants the whole trip since the only other thing I brought were shorts! It was no where near warm enough to wear those! See Owen's shoe being roasted...his foot sunk in a hole when Michael took the kids fishing. 

Speaking of fishing...Michael took the kids to the fishing pond that's on the property. There were signs up saying there was no fishing after Labor Day, but we asked and that didn't apply to guests. I thought the kids would love it since they had hours and hours of fun fishing up in the Big Horns in July. No such luck though. There weren't really all that many fish....the pond is stocked in the spring so it had been picked clean almost. Then Owen's shoe got all wet and that was that....he was done! They only fished the one time. There was an injured bird at our campsite that Owen tried to feed the worms to. 

Using that Road Trip grill again! This thing was worth every penny and really it wasn't that expensive! 

Later that day, Ga-Ga & I went back and bought the trampoline. When we first went shopping there were 3 of them, but when we went back there were only 2 left. I had talked with Michael about it and at first he thought there would be no way we could fit it in the truck with all the kids bikes. I told him it was basically a the size of a giant Christmas tree box so then he felt okay getting it. I thought that Ga-Ga & I would be able to just pull the box off the shelf and into the cart, but NO WAY! I couldn't even budge it. I had just asked an employee a question, he was so helpful I decided to track him down again and he helped us. He got a flat cart, loaded it up and took it to the customer service desk and put it under my name. After I paid for it the lady there said she'd help us out by herself and that's when I told her how heavy it was. She was really surprised and asked another lady to help us. It was hilarious really. I had visions of Ross from that Friends episode yelling..."Pivot!" because one lady couldn't lift the box high enough to get it up on the tailgate of the truck. We finally just shoved it over and rolled it on it's side. Right after we got it in the truck one of the guy workers came over and was like...why didn't you ask me! It would have been so nice to ask him, but we didn't see him. He did get the box all straightened out and push back in the bed of the truck. 

September 13th was an explore day! 

I wanted to take the kids to Dry Falls and have some educational experiences. Unfortunately the smoke had other plans for us. 

It was really bad, but we made the best of it! 

Dry Falls is behind them, but you can't tell at all! 

Cute kiddos! 

Standing out on the lookout! It was a bit freaky being out there, but heights aren't my favorite thing! 

It would have been so fun to see it without all the smoke! 

Of course the kids saw these binoculars and wanted to use them to lookout. At what....smoke!!! :):) 

The Visitor Center was closed of course, but at least they had some information boards we could read. 

At the campground they gave us a brochure that talked about things to do in the area. I read about the Lake Lenore Caves and thought those sounded like fun. After not being able to see Dry Falls I was hoping this one would be a win. Ga-Ga & Pa just hung out in their car while we went on this adventure. 

The smoke was still bad, but at least we could see where we were going. 

The beginning part of the trail up to some stairs was paved which was nice. This was the only time during our hike where my chest was burning. It probably wasn't the best time to go hiking, but we had to work with the hand we were dealt! 

Here's the view looking out. I'm sure it's normally way more amazing than this, but even still it was pretty! 

You can see our vehicles over there in the parking lot! When we pulled in there was one other vehicle...we saw the family that was hiking go by on another trail. Other than that it was just us! 

The rocks were so cool! 

When I read about caves I was thinking more like the Ape Caves down by Mt. St. Helen's, but these aren't those types of caves at all. Which duh...now that I think about it of course they wouldn't be the same. The Ape Caves were made by lava. These types of caves are created most likely from erosion and the rocks just breaking apart and falling away. 

The landscape was so cool! We live in such a fun state! 

Even though it was smokey and the heat from the sun wasn't coming through I got all sweaty from the climb. 

This cave was pretty big! 

The rock formations were just so out of this world! 

Jack found his throne! 

The overhang was a little freaky. I was just praying there wouldn't be any earthquakes. 

There was even this bunker type situation that some previous visitors had built. It was a bit difficult to get down in there, but the kids tried. 

Even though the caves weren't exactly what I had envisioned we had so much fun exploring. 

If I were to hike the caves again I'd make sure to wear shoes with better soles. I didn't even think about it and just wore my slip on tennis shoes. Good running shoes or hiking boots would definitely had been better with all those pointy rocks. 

The sun was trying it's hardest to shine through all that smoke! 

The coolest landscape! 

There was one GIANT cave! 

Another Lyndsay had been there too. 

Fun fact...in middle school I toyed with the idea of spelling my name differently. I thought it would be fun if it was spelled LynZ. Thankfully I changed my mind. 

Michael and the kids were venturing into the cave thats not quite pictured in the lower right hand corner of the above shot. The smoke sure makes it look even more out of this world. 

I decided to stay up top while Michael and Jack headed down. 

Shortly after Owen and Zeke followed suit. 

Ella Bean was going to stay up with me.

Then she saw that her brothers were doing something fun and she didn't want to miss out. 

Off she went! 

I thought it would be fun to walk around and stand on top of the cave.

Here's the view from the top of the cave...oooohhh....aaaahhhh. LOL!

 

Here's the view from down below in the cave! Way more impressive! 

After that big cave the trail pretty much ended. You could have hiked further, but we were tired and almost out of water. 

When we got back down to the parking lot we took the obligatory picture by the sign. 

Because of all the wildfires and the fact that it was supposed to be so hot we didn't even bring any wood with us. The first night we saw other sites had fires in their fire pits and found out as long as the fire was in a contained pit they were still permitted. The next day Pa went and bought some wood for us. The folks in the campsite next to us came up and offered us their leftover wood which was so nice. Pa did end up buying another batch of wood though so we could keep the fire burning.

The kids were so excited that we got to show Ga-Ga & Pa the fun color changing fire that we experienced with the Kuch's out at the ocean. 

All throughout our trip Ella and Zeke had so much fun catching frogs. They even started naming them. 

They were so sweet to the frogs and very careful not to hurt them. 

It was so crazy how the coloring of the frogs differed so much. It made it much easier for the kids to distinguish between the frogs. 

A boy and his frog! 

On our last full day it was so cold! I didn't even want to come out of the trailer. In fact Ga-Ga, Ella and I stayed in there playing a game for a while. 

Later I couldn't stand being inside anymore so we sat down at the picnic table and played Catan. 

Michael took the boys golfing more and we sate around the fire pit chatting and watching YouTube comedians. It was SO cold we all had to bundle up. 

It was just so crazy that we were excepting 90+ degrees and it was barely 60 degrees our last full day of camping. 

Ella only brought sandals and flip flops for the whole trip. She hiked in the caves and ran around in the coolish weather all with no real foot protection. Crazy girl! 

Since we couldn't go swimming, fishing was a bust and all the smoke made it difficult to see we had to make the best of a bag situation. It can be super fun sometimes to get really bored because you learn about skills you never knew you had...like spelling your name using pretzels! 

I am so proud! :) 

Joking aside....it wasn't exactly what we had pictured when we envisioned our camping trip, but we made the best of it. What has actually turned out the way we expected this entire year?!?!?!

On our way home the smoke was crazy nuts. In fact I think the smoke was less over in Eastern Washington so it was actually a good thing we were east of the mountains. 

Once we unpacked the trailer, I started laundry and then decided it would be fun to get the house all decorated for fall. It's my most favorite season! 

Every year it's our goal to camp at least 4 times with the trailer. This year we were only able to use it 3 times, but that's pretty good with the crazy year it's been. Hopefully next year we'll actually meet our goal!!!