Last weekend my husband took our boys on their first ever camping trip so today I'm turning over my blog to him.
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I finally took the boys camping. We went to Beckler River Campground, just north of Skykomish. It was our first time there. The first evening we just setup our tent and got situated. The river was rushing making a wonderful background noise for sleeping. It was actually a good thing our site wasn't right next to the river as I originally had wanted. The boys were very excited just to be camping and to feel like they were in the woods.
The main activity was a hike on Saturday. And what a hike it was!
The hike was about 2,000 feet elevation over 3.5 miles, up to a beautiful mountain lake (Lake Serene, it's called). They walked for 3 hours to get to the top, leaving at 8AM and reaching the lake at 11AM. We had lunch at the top and returned for an almost 6 hour adventure. We almost turned back a few times on the way up. The middle section was an extremely challenging series of switchbacks and (log) stairs, at quite a steep grade. A was unstoppable. That boy is a mountain goat, and has determination to spare. He never complained and never tired on the way up.
I think C really learned a life lesson about pushing yourself past what you think is your limit to accomplish something. There were no other kids his age on the trail. Some other adults who saw the boys were very impressed. I carried C on my shoulders for as much as I could of the steep part, but eventually my heart wasn't going to put up with that any more. He's 45 lbs! Imagine hiking up stairs for the better part of an hour with 45 lbs on your shoulders. We (C and I) had to stop frequently to rest. He wanted to turn back on several occasions as it seemed like the switchbacks would never end.
Eventually we asked a couple of young men who were returning if we should turn back or carry on and they insisted that we should. They even gave us some water (we had not brought enough), and informed us that we basically had completed the most brutal section. So we took their advice, and found out they were right. The rest was straighter and less steep (though the surface was extremely rocky). C did all this in sandals, and I in a rather poor choice of shoes.
We made it to the top.
We saw one man at the top who had passed us on the way up, when he had said: "See you at the top". Once there he seemed surprised to see us and said: "I didn't actually expect to see you up here!" Some other adult hikers who had found the way up a challenge expressed admiration for the boys' achievement. Someone we encountered a couple of days later who had done the alternate to Bridal Veil Falls with similarly aged children said she'd been told not to do Lake Serene.
The way back was of course a lot easier, but it was still 2.5 hours of walking over rough terrain. C actually led the way on the trip down at first, but eventually both boys wanted to be carried, so I let them take turns on my shoulders. A is a heavy boy now. Imagine how that felt on my feet at that point. But he had earned it.
The final stretch home to the trailhead still felt like a challenge in its own right. We had run out of water with about a mile still to go. C was very thirsty, but he soldiered on with little complaining. The temperature was mild and we were shaded pretty much the whole time, so that was not an issue.
I asked myself as we were finishing: if I had known how hard that was going to be before starting it, would I have done it? I'm not sure the answer!
I asked the boys the same question in the evening in the tent before going to sleep. A didn't hesitate to say "yes", and I believe him. I think that boy was made to hike.
C also said yes. Then he said: "I never want to stop impressing my Daddy."
A good day.
Immediately after the hike we went into the village of Index and bought cold drinks and ice cream from the general store, and then hung out on the Snohomish River river bank. The boys were able to find plenty to do. In the evening we cooked up hot dogs and s'mores over a fire, played catch, and the boys had more fun in the woods and by the river.
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Sandpoint has a HUGE beach so we spent lots of time there. It was fun watching kids we didn't know make friends with my boys both at the beach and at the pool in Spokane.
And for just relaxing in the calm shallow water outside our condo:
We returned to Silverwood Theme Park (we went last summer) and spent a full day there. I used my little camera for the first part of the day (mistake) and therefore some pics aren't that great. Like this one of A and I on the ferris wheel. 
Bumper cars:
Our favourite part of Silverwood is the lazy river in the water park (Boulder Beach).
The lines for the waterslides were pretty crazy so we stuck with the wave pool, the lazy river, and the splash zone area. At the end of the day, we had a delicious meal (really!) at this restaurant at the park - The High Moon Saloon. This "saloon" lets little guys in.
Another fun thing the boys did was go-karts at Triple Play, closer to Couer d'Alene, Idaho:
It was hard to come home. Here's a photo taken in the morning just below our condo:
Here are some more photos of beautiful Bayview.
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