Goose Lake

We were invited to go camping over Labor Day with some friends last March.  That's right 6 months ago.  So this trip has been a long time coming!  I was a little  nervous about it due to our last camping experience. But we gave in and paid someone to fix the heater in the trailer before we left because it was going to be cold while we were there.  We left Friday after the kids got out of school (actually technically I took them out of school about 45 min early.  Bad Mom!  But it ended up saving us from waiting in traffic for an hour on the way up because of a wreck...so maybe good mom?)

We went up to Goose Lake which is about 30 min North of McCall. It was gorgeous.  And cold at night!  Our last morning there we woke up with frost on the windows. Our heater ran so much that it wore our battery completely out and we had to be rescued from the cold by our friends generator.  Thank heavens for friends with real camping gear!!!  The days were gorgeous and we were able to stay toasty warm in our little tent trailer at night.  The set up was so great this time that John and I decided we like camping again!

We had quite the group.  Six families and about 35 people.  A small army if you will. 

 

 The views and the campground were gorgeous.

 

One afternoon we spent a couple of hours in McCall, but it was ridiculous because it was chilly so we went back to our campground to play games more appropriate for 70 degree weather.

 

We hiked to a waterfall another afternoon.  The hike was 2 miles downhill to the falls.  It was a gorgeous hike.  The kids climbed all the way down the rocky cliff to get to the bottom of the falls. Being the overprotective mother that I am I about had  a heart attack.  But I contained my fear and let them explore and no one died.  Thankfully.

 

Owen and Ains both caught fish.  There was lots of fish catching and eating while we were there. 

Owen caught this adorable little frog.  Apparently last year at Goose lake at this time there were thousands of these little guys around the lake.  

 

 

The kids had so much fun with friends that I rarely saw them.  They played hard everyday.  I loved it. 

 

My favorite was probably the awesome game of capture the flag we played.  Parents vs. Kids. I wish I had a picture of Owen and his buddy diligently guarding their flag, or of Ainsley crawling through the forest in a stealth-like manner.  It was great fun.  I loved that all of Emmie's little friends had self imposed themselves in prison and would scream for someone to tag them so they could get out.  Even though no one had ever told them that they were in jail and they could get out any time they wanted.  It was too funny.

I definitely want to head up that way to camp again.  It was great.