In The Hartland: Camping at Coho

Well, we just successfully completed our first trip of the summer. We did have six trips scheduled until last week when Ron learned that his mandatory, Admin retreat in August is scheduled for the same time that our camping trip on Hood Canal was planned. As a result, we had to cancel it which makes this camping trip the first of five trips instead of six this summer which is actually fine with me as I was already feeling overwhelmed about all of the work that this was going to be for me.

As I mentioned in the previous posts, I scheduled this trip to stay in the Coho Campground back in March when I obviously had no idea of the incoming heat wave. It turned out to be such a blessing for us as staying in our house on Monday night would have been simply unbearable. Since Ron and I felt so awful Sunday evening due to how hot our house was (and also being so sick for me), we just didn't have the energy to start packing for our camping trip. As a result, we had to crank it into high gear on Monday morning and pack everything for our trip in a matter of hours. Since I was feeling so poorly, it took all of the energy that I could muster to work in my 90 degree kitchen packing up all of the food while Ron worked outside loading up the car and camper. After a quick lunch, we pulled out by 1 p.m. which was our hope as it allowed us to be in an air conditioned car for the next three hours during the heat of the day. Although we drove through a town that hit 112 degrees (wow!), it was "only" 104 degrees when we pulled up to our campground. Needless to say, it was so hard to drag our bodies out of our comfortable car and into the scorching heat when we arrived at our campsite.

After quickly unhitching our camper and pulling a few things out of our car, we got dressed in our swimsuits and headed to Lake Wynoochee to spend the rest of the afternoon in the water. We were then able to come back and cook dinner and set up camp in the evening heat before the temperature amazingly started to drop (like the weather forecast had said it would). By the time it was 9 p.m., it was totally comfortable on Monday night! It was such a miracle and such a blessing! We then spent a mellow two days at our campsite and back at the lake before packing up and heading home at lunch time on Wednesday. Since both Lia and I felt pretty under the weather from our bad colds the entire time, this turned out to be a more mellow camping trip than I am used to. But I am just grateful that we were able to come as both Lia and I were pretty tempted to cancel last minute on Monday morning. I am just so grateful that we were able to escape the worst day of the heat wave to go and spend some quality family time in the beautiful Olympic National Forest for a few days.

The unbelievable 112 degree temperature that Ron and I saw on his car's dash screen on the drive out to Lake Wynoochee.

Logan and Lia cooling off in Lake Wynoochee in 104 degree weather soon after arriving.

Emmy and daddy standing in the water.

Due to how bright and hot the sun was, Ella stole Ron's huge straw hat soon after getting out of the water. I just thought she looked so cute in it--especially while wearing her watermelon swimsuit.

Ella modeling daddy's hat.

Ron, Emmett, Logan, and Lia swimming in the water with the mountains off in the distance.

Ella, Logan, Emmett, and me in the water.

As the sun began to set and the campground started cooling off, Emmett decided he wanted to try out his bed before we actually put him to down for the night. Here is our cutie with his ya-ya and comfy cozy all snuggled up and ready to go to sleep.

Since one of our two large air mattresses has a hole in it (that I have never been able to find and fix), I made poor Lia sleep on it instead of me. She looked so funny when she woke up Tuesday morning all sunk down low into the middle of it. This is the funny picture I took of her.

Although Emmett slept with Lia and me in the tent, he loved going to hang out in the rooftop tent with Logan whenever he had the chance. Here are the two boys playing in the tent together before breakfast.

After getting dressed, Ella headed straight for the hammock which is one of her favorite things to do whenever she camps with daddy.

Within a matter of minutes, Logan and Emmett joined Ella in the hammock and it quickly became a wild and chaotic tangled mess of legs and laughter.

The kids with all of their tangled legs laughing away.

Emmett soon wanted out leaving behind a cute pair of siblings. Ella and Logan have loved playing and fighting in this hammock ever since their dad bought it years ago.

We enjoyed a delicious breakfast in our campsite on Tuesday morning.

We then headed out on a morning outing to see where "Man Camp" had taken place for Ron and Logan right on the banks of the Wynoochee River. The setting was beautiful. We enjoyed walking across this old foot bridge to get a better view of the river below.

The gang crossing the bridge.

Ella posing for mama.

Ron and the kids.

The beautiful river.

After we returned back to camp, we all ate lunch and then I put Emmett down for his afternoon nap while Lia read a book and Logan and Ella hung out with Ron. Unfortunately, Emmett was never able to settle down in his bed and fall asleep (a first for any of our two-years old children while camping) and so we gave up by 3 p.m.

Ron then set up the horse shoes (or "ring horse" as Ella calls it) in our campsite for the three younger kids to play for awhile. Here is Logan tossing a horse shoe.

Emmett trying to make a ringer.

Ella taking a turn.

We then drove back down to the lake to spend the rest of the afternoon before dinner. Logan and Ella enjoyed building their own "campfires" in the sand with rocks and sticks.

A close-up of Ella's "cooking station" and campfire.

Emmett was much more brave the second afternoon and spent the majority of the time in the water instead of in Ron's arms.

Ellie and me.

After swimming at the lake, we came back to our campsite where we enjoyed eating dinner and hanging out around the campfire in totally normal and pleasant weather. We all kept on commenting about how good it felt to be feeling the 70 and 80 degree weather all day long. All on his own, Emmett put together these two camp chairs for him to relax in. We just thought it was the funniest thing!

Ella requested to move into the tent with Lia, Emmett, and me on Tuesday night. Due to the hole in the air mattress (that we had blown up again last night), the two girls woke up almost on top of each other the next morning. I thought that it was so funny that I snapped a picture of the sleeping sisters before they woke up.

We enjoyed one last meal around our picnic table on Wednesday morning before starting the massive packing up process. I just loved how everyone looked surrounded by all of our hanging swimsuits, clothing, and towels that we had hung up on our pop up canopy.

Emmett enjoyed eating all of his meals from his little chair on top of the picnic table. He looked so cute perched up there. Here he is enjoying his eggs and sausage on Wednesday morning.

While we were packing up on Wednesday morning, I snapped a few pictures of the children in our campsite to show how beautiful the location was with all of the tall, evergreen trees surrounding us. The Olympic National Forest really is a beautiful place to visit.