Oasis Camping Trip 2025 - Day 3 & 4

On Saturday we decided we wanted to go on a little road trip. 

First things first though we had to feed the ducks! It's so funny it seems like every year we come camping there is a different animal/reptile/insect that is featured during our trip. In 2020 when we came there were tons of frogs. Ella and Zeke just kept on catching them by the pond. In 2022 it was squirrels...they were all over the place and the tree at our campsite was their super highway. They even tried to break into the Costco mixed nuts container. 2023 it was also ducks. 2024 there were lots of dragonflies.

Our little road trip had a few stops...first we went to Walmart to get a few things and then we had to stop at Big 5 in Moses Lake so Zeke could buy a skateboard. 

 He got this super cool one! 

The skate park we went to was in Moses Lake it was aptly named Skate Park. 

See that area in the background to Ella's right. I tried to walk backwards up that to get a higher vantage point to film Jack from and the concrete is SO incredibly smooth my feet just slipped right out from under me and the next thing I knew I was on my butt and my head hit the pavement. 0 out of 10 stars do not recommend! 

We stayed for probably an hour. We had brought a card table so those of us that weren't skating could play cards, but I forgot that this is Eastern Washington so it's way to windy to try to play cards outside. 

Pa & Miss Ruth joined us for a couple nights. There's campsite was about 6 or 7 campsites down from ours. 

Even trying to play cards at our campsite was hard so we stuck with dice games. We were playing Quixx...it's a fun, easy game!

After game time the kids wanted to go for a swim, but unfortunately someone pooped in the pool so it had to be shutdown for 24 hours. I'm not sure why so long...maybe that's how long it takes for their pumps to fully circulate the water, but it was a total bummer. Thankfully Pa came through with a solution and we took the kids over to his hotel so they could swim in that pool. 

Camp chairs are not conducive to snuggling so these two shared one. 

 

It's always fun to hang around the campfire just chatting! 

Sunday morning! Even camping these two wear matching clothes. 

Whenever we camp Ga-Ga & Pa come over for breakfast. 

My sweet Jackers! 

Bros! 

My gorgeous man! 

This was our first camping trip using our new outdoor kitchen. A friend from church gave it to us. It's so awesome. It has two zip-up cabinets on both sides which is a great place to keep some of the snack foods. It kept them safe from animals and it also limited the times the kids needed to go in and out of the trailer. The table top area served as a buffet line for the food so we no longer had to try to put all the food on the picnic table. The area underneath was a great drying rack for the overflow of dishes that wouldn't fit in the normal drying rack. The upper storage area was where we put the hot chocolate and apple cider packs. I also put the bug spray and other random things. The hooks came in handy for all sorts of things from cooking utensils, goggles or pot holders. 

Sometime during this day Owen decided he wanted to pay for everyone to go golfing again. It was so sweet of him. We also took the kids back to the hotel to swim again since the pool was still closed. 

For the last couple of years instead of buying individual water bottles to bring with us I was buying gallons of water and then filling those into a big water dispenser for everyone to fill their reusable water bottles with. Then I bought a filter for the trailer so ever since then we've just filled up the water dispenser using the trailer. On this trip Jackson somehow broke the knob of the water dispenser. He just broke it a little so Michael being the MacGyver that he is got to work and fixed it as best he could. Shortly after that Justine came along to fill up Ella's water bottle and the knob broke again. This time it was not going to be fixable. It was only a matter of time though since it had been fixed already. When we got home from the trip I looked up the part online and bought a couple replacements. 

These two love to hang out in the trailer! 

After dinner time the ducks came for another visit. 

The first couple times we had a fire we use the gas firepit, but this night I really wanted to have an actual fire. 

It wasn't really that cold at all so I had to stay way back so legs wouldn't feel like they were burning. 

It was a nice fire! 

If we're gonna have a fire that means we're gonna have s'mores! 

Just love this family of ours and the fact that our parents get along with each other. Such a blessing! 

So funny to have a fire and be wearing a tank top and shorts! 

Ga-Ga & Miss Ruth were a little more cold though! 

Jackson does not look like he was in the mood for me to take a picture. :) 

Love doing life with this man. So many memories made and so many more to come! 

The next morning we packed up and headed home. Justine ended up owing me $65 for gas. We got stuck in such awful traffic on the way home we were even able to play heads up in the van. We stopped at Thorp to go through the antique area really quickly. I needed to go see my Chiropractor so we went there prior to taking Justine home. He had an orientation class for his Running Start program so he used my phone to login to the meeting. Later on after we dropped him off he found out his boss had scheduled him to cover someone's shift so he had to rush to work. It was a crazy end to fun trip! 

Oasis Camping Trip 2025 - Day 1 & 2

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!