Camping at Donner

While Zach was working in Tahoe, we took the opportunity to go camping in his neck of the woods. We stayed at the Donner Memorial State Park camping grounds. The girls loved it. Really we should be taking full advantage of this beautiful area we live in, but life gets busy. Eleanor had only been walking a week or so and she got absolutely filthy. She is fairly stable, but add a little bump and came a little tumble. Then she would come straight to mom. So I was probably just as dirty as she, though I guess it is still better than if she were crawling. Sydney could not wait to roast her first marshmallow. Really, she would repeat over and over how she wanted cook "schmarshmallows." So after a bite or two of hot dog, she put her mallow in the fire. And it maybe stayed in there for about ten seconds. I don't think she cared that her schmarshmallow was in the exact same condition as before it went into the fire. I'm not even sure how many she ate that night, but she wasn't complaining of an upset stomach or of being hungry still so I didn't care. ( I know great parenting- everyone should take notes.) Interestingly enough though, she didn't want to make s'mores. She just ate the barely cooked mallows. Eleanor didn't care for dinner ( she ate avocado instead) or dessert, which was fine with me because that was one less sticky situation I would have to clean up. Zach and I, of course, roasted our marshmallows to perfection and while I had the Reese's variation, Zach enjoyed the classic. Going to bed wasn't too bad. Eleanor just loved that we were all together. So it was hardest just getting her to lie down in one spot. I would say we were all asleep by ten, which was good because Zach still had to go to work in the morning. He was able to get ready without a peep from the girls. So we slept in until it started getting warm. And while Zach was working, the girls and I went swimming in Donner. (It is actually not as cold as you might think. I wasn't tempted at all to eat either of the girls.) So we swam most of the morning. Then I pushed them in the stroller to go on a little hike. They fell asleep pretty fast. So I turned around and went back to camp. After their nap, we had lunch and went swimming again. It was great because Eleanor would be at camp just long enough to be covered in dirt and then we would go wash off in the lake. Zach was able to join us for our afternoon swim and when were done it was schmarshmallow time again! Well almost, we had to have our hot dogs first. I converted Zach to eating hot dogs my way, while camping anyway, by just roasting and then piling a bunch of BBQ chips in the bun with the dog and viola, a masterpiece. Sydney and Eleanor liked the chip idea. And then, of course, dessert. It was great fun. And Sydney keeps asking when we get to go camping again. So we hope to try again before the season ends. Maybe by then Eleanor will be a little more stable and little less dirty. ( I'll try to get the pictures up later. We are experiencing technical difficulties.)