Michael and Jaspenelle

Camping Countdown

(Me at Skookum Lake, WA in 2006)

So it is decided! We are going camping up at Skookum Lake on September 5th, 6th and 7th with Shannon and Rachelle. Andrea and Peter might be coming up on the 6th too. I am so psyched!

Skookum is in the Colville National Forest. I haven’t been there since 2006, so it will be interesting to see if it has changed much. I hope not! The campground is perfect, 25 spots, not to big or small, lots of trees (not like those campgrounds devoid of greenery.) There is a trail all around the lake that is wonderful, and then the lake itself of course, totally gorgeous. It is $12 a night per vehicle. The only thing I am unsure of is if there will be a ban on campfires that weekend, but there is lots of rain in this week’s forecast though so hopefully any ban will be lifted by the 5th.

Last time we went, we drove up to Gardner Cave in Crawford State Park and walked across the US/Canadian border, but this time we will probably spend more time at the lake. My swimsuit does not fit so I will be doing the t-shirt and shorts bathsuit thing. Besides that I have no idea how anyone could breastfeed in a one-piece suit.

I am not worried about how Damian will be out there, he loves being outside and we cosleep. We are going to have to bring all his cloth diapers to make it through, and his potty. And we’ll have a bucket if handwashing is needed. On a side note, he will be turning 3 months old while we are there. He was 17-lbs yesterday and 26-inches long, which is the average size of a 6 month old, he is growing so fast!

So, twelve days to get everything together, which more then enough time (too much time!) I am already pulling out and sorting our camping stuff though, as well as plotting a dehydrator meal for Friday or Saturday night. Any ideas? Our dutch oven kind of got left on the patio all the winter and has rust, I have no idea how to remove that… Elbow grease and wire brush? Michael always makes cobbler in it. He is an excellent cook when it comes to camping, must be a boy scout thing.

I can’t wait!

(Blue tarps are a necessary accoutrement for the Northwest camper, but hopefully we will avoid the biggest thunderstorm of the season this time!)

Weekend Recap and Valentines

Someone held a door open for me today and reminded me it was Random Acts of Kindness Week today. Which was very funny and cute.

This past weekend was fun, lots of kindness! We went to a discussion group at Shannon’s on Friday night and had a vegetarian potluck. I have never had miso soup before, or tofu that I considered edible for that matter… I love this group because we just talk with no set topic, which is really nice sometimes.

On Saturday night we went over to Andrea’s for a “Medieval” movie night. We watched “Robin Hood - Men in Tights” and “The Reduced Shakespeare Company” (which was a really great comedy theater piece of three men reducing all 37 of Shakespeare’s works into one hour.)

Sunday… we didn’t do much. It was very windy, parts of Spokane declared a state of emergency because of blowing snow drifts. I feel for anyone who lives in the West Plains… We are on the South Hill though and other then the wind, the roads are (finally) clear. We went grocery shopping. The overabundance of bad weather lately was evident at Safeway though. You know the weather has been bad for way to long when the grocery store starts running out of food…. It makes you appreciate local food so much more too. Safeway’s produce department (and quite a bit of the rest of the store) is filled with signs that says “Out of Stock Due to Weather”. I think all the mountain passes are open again today though, so we are no longer cut off from the world.

They did have strawberries though, ya! They were reasonably cheap too for Winter, because of Valentines day.

I know a lot of people don’t do Valentines day because of “rampant consumerism” or whatnot, but I am looking forward to it. I got Michael a little something and I am really looking forward to his reaction to it. I ordered it today though so it might not be here by Thursday though…

I think it is important to be in touch with your relationship and the needs of your spouse all year around, but I still like Valentines because it is a little reminder of that in the middle of the most depressing month ever, of the importance of love. (Okay, before someone says it, I know, technically January has more suicides then February worldwide but the people who found that out have obviously never been delayed in the subway in Paris in February because another person jumped in the tracks…) February 14th is also Singles Awareness Day isn’t it? So even a holiday for the party poopers pessimists…