Cascade Lake

Our next trip after Twin Falls was camping at Cascade Lake for the weekend. Anyone who read my blog about the last camping trip is now thinking that I must be crazy and a glutton for punishment, and you are right. I just can't say no when I think of doing something I know Max will enjoy. So, we threw together some things and off we went with my parents to the lake. And we had the best time.

Max loved putting up the trailer, eating in the trailer, and even sleeping in the trailer. Although, that was less than ideal. We had to jam the port-a-crib in between the benches, and when he would rock himself to sleep, the whole trailer would move. Really. I can only imagine what the neighboring campers must have thought. The first night, Max must have rocked in the middle of the night for over a half an hour. It woke pretty much everyone up. I thought he must have finally gone to sleep, but instead, he stood up, declared "off" to the blanket on his head, and then was just starting to whine when I pulled him into bed with Greg and I. It was a cozy quarters with the 3 of us and our ill fitting foam padding. Mine was thicker than Greg's, so I laid mine on top his and it created a little hill for me and a gully for Greg. Not ideal for us, but the second night, Greg had returned home to go to some early morning meetings on Sunday, so I had Max in the gully and it worked pretty well.

The lake water is unsurprisingly cold, as Cascade is in the mountains, but the days were hot enough it made the lake bearable. Max waded up to his chest and played until it finally got too cold and then he had a great time playing in the sand. We knew the camp hosts of the campground and they were nice enough to take us on a ride in their motorboat around the lake. All of us loved that, including Max.

Max also passed the time playing with his cars, of course. He loves to drive them along flat surfaces at his level, just like this bench. However, the dirt was not exactly level, and his batman camp chair fell over 3 times while he was in it. He wasn't really hurt, but by the third time he was just getting so mad. But we couldn't let him sit on the bench and drive on the table because he would lean over too far and fall in between the bench and table, smacking his chin or whatever on the way down. My mom came up with a solution; we got the step stool out of the trailer and sit him on the bench (with his feet on the stool) so that his cars could still have their long road. It worked pretty well for the most part.

The best part of being a mom of 2 year old is when he does innocent (or maybe not so innocent) stuff that just makes you laugh. Like when Max grabbed the bag of craisins, held them up lovingly to hug them under his chin and said, "I love you, raisins." Or when he would sit in the dirt, rub his hands back and forth, clearing away the little pebbles and declaring the patch "all clean!" Or when he branded the "big red car" with his dirty hand prints.

And one of the best parts of this camping trip: no throw up.