Camping in Donner Lake

I didn't realize how "80's neon" the girls looked until I saw this picture!

Itadakimasu!

"Wish you were here, Mitchell!"

Our first nite's menu: teriyaki rib-eye, potatoes, YUMMY corn-on-the-cob, melon, and Spam musubi...followed by s'mores and hot chocolate, of course!

The extent of our "rock climbing" in front of Donner Lake

Daddy and Lindsey went fishing everyday! They caught just one - about 3 inches long

Had we known how much fun it would be to going camping, we would have started a long time ago! We would also have invested in better camping equipment (Gus is STILL letting me know how hard it was to sleep on those cheap Wal Mart sleeping pads!).

At first, we were a bit out of our element - the girls shrieked when they saw flies, were upset when they dropped something on the dusty ground, and didn't know what to do when the car (thus the DVD player) was turned off. By morning, however, they woke up filthy and happy that I wasn't pushing them to take a shower.

We spent our days doing everything "campy" - eating, fishing, throwing the frisbee, and just enjoying quality time together. We had only 2 scares. First, when the Park Ranger came by because someone had reported that a "little girl" (Lindsey) was running around picking up dried twigs that we asked her to get as kindling for our fire. I had no idea that this was breaking a park rule! The Ranger was kind and nice and told me that we didn't fit the "profile" of those wanting to disrupt nature, so he just asked that we didn't do it again. The second scare was while Gus was sleeping on the cot OUTSIDE of the tent - he couldn't get a truly restful nite's sleep as he imagined a bear coming up to claw his face off, so when a pine cone dropped onto his sleeping bag in the middle of the nite it scared him silly!

We planned our week so that the last day was spent at a hotel in Reno for a nice shower, swimming in the pool, Cartoon Network, and the luxury of a buffet for dinner. I know the girls REALLY enjoyed it because when I asked them what they liked better - camping or hotel - and they said both!

By the way, special thanks to Bachan and Jichan (and Auntie Rina!) for taking care of Mitchell the entire week. We knew that he would LOVE the outdoor play, but wouldn't be able to handle tent sleeping. Not having a 2-year-old to worry about made it a truly relaxing vacation.

I'm already working on getting better equipment for our next camping trip!