We went camping at the KOA at Ft. Stevens on Oct. 18th-21st. The kids had a 4 day week-end because of parent/teacher conferences. We went with 2 families from our ward, the Nelsons and the Kelleys, both great friends of ours. When we got there the night
of the 18th, it was dark and rainy and we hadn't had any dinner. We had planned to stop and get something to eat on our way there, but I think Noah had fallen asleep and we didn't want to stop because he would have woken up. So, the kids ate cereal and Garrett and I cooked some chicken and had salad. The kids are eating on the floor because by the time we got things unpacked and Garrett got the trailer unhooked and "stabilized", Maggie had already made up her bed (the kitchen table). They made for some cute pictures, though.
Oct. 19th
This was the next morning...this is where Noah sleeps so that he can't get out of bed at night. They were all playing in there that morning.
We haven't stayed at a lot of KOA's before, but they are pretty awesome. They had a free pancake breakfast every morning. Since it was close to Halloween, they had the place decorated and had all sorts of fun activities, Halloween related.
This was walking back to our trailer after breakfast. We really lucked out because the weather was cold and cloudy, but the rain held off all day and only rained at night time.
what is it about kids and puddles?
They had two playgrounds, a small mini-golf area, a pool and this thing...I think it's called a bounce pillow or something. These are mine and Kate's kids...David, Brooke, Paige, Lydia, Nicholas and Zach
Playing mini-golf
more bouncing
In one of the buildings, they were showing Halloween movies like Beetlejuice and Hocus Pocus, had free ice cream, and they also had this Haunted House open at night. We didn't go through it because all of my kids would've been too scared.
They also had this bounce house in the building, too. We didn't stay in there very long because they did have some yucky looking masks and decorations up.
Playing at the playground
climbing up the stairs and going down the slide over and over and over...
The kids also went swimming everyday. One of the days, we had a big scare...Noah was playing around the side of the pool with some balls. (Garrett was right there with him). But in a split second, he fell down and his hand went down to brace his fall, but his hand was over the pool and he fell into the pool head first. As soon as it happened, Garrett dove onto his knees and grabbed for him, missed the first time, but then was able to grab his foot and pull him out. This all happened in a matter of seconds. Luckily, we don't think he inhaled while he was under because he wasn't choking or spitting up water or anything. He was pretty scared, though. As we all were. Garrett scraped up his knees and feet pretty bad, but I was so glad he was right there.
Oct. 20th
The next day we went over to Ft. Stevens and went to check out the wreck of the Peter Iredale and then looked at the batteries of the old millitary forts there. This is what I found on the internet about it:
In 1906, the crew of the sailing ship Peter Iredale sought refuge at the fort after the ship's captain ran her aground on Clatsop Spit. The wreck is still visible today within the present-day boundaries of Fort Stevens State Park.
Fort Stevens was the primary military defense installation in the three fort
Harbor Defense System at the mouth of the Columbia River (Forts Canby and
Columbia in Washington were the other two). The fort served for 84 years,
beginning with the Civil War and closing at the end of World War II. On the nights of June 21 and 22, 1942, a Japanese submarine fired 17 shells at Fort Stevens, making it the only military installation in the continental United States to receive hostile fire during World War II. The attack caused no damage to the fort itself. The backstop for the post's baseball field was the only casualty. Fort Stevens and its gun batteries protected the river until shortly after World War II, and was decommissioned in 1947.
This is the remains of the Peter Iredale.
Bella was too cold, so she stayed up near the car with Tonya and Tim.
Brooke, Paige and Lydia
Tonya holding Kate's baby, Gabriel.
There's Bella
The whole group
This was at the old fort. It was kind of spooky inside, but still pretty neat.
Where the gun was
what it looked like long ago, thanks to the internet
Paige and Brooke
Lydia and her friend Blake
I love this picture because Mike was demonstrating how it would sound when they shot the gun.
After we were done here, we drove down to Cannon Beach to get lunch at Mo's.
More puddle splashing.
This picture is for my brother... :) We'll see if he reads my blog.
Garrett ordered this peanut butter pie for me while I was in the bathroom. We all split it. It was pretty good!
When we were done eating, we went out and it was pouring rain. Ugh. So we drove back to the KOA and went swimming, I think. We were able to have a fire both of these nights, although we did put up our canopies because it did rain off and on some.
Oct. 21
The next morning, we were going to go to sacrament meeting with the Nelsons, but our kids were still sleeping when it was time to get ready to go. I had no desire to wake them, especially Noah, who never gets enough sleep camping. Anyways, after a leisurely morning, we packed up and headed back home.
