Saturday, August 06, 2011

Camping at Horsethief Reservoir

We went camping up at Horsethief Reservoir. It was too overcrowded. We were lucky to get the last spot available. Since Mr. Wonderful and Firstborn were coming up later, Uncle Nate supervised Secondborn and Thirdborn in the making of fire. They tried flint and steel. Then they tried matches. Thirdborn spilled matches everywhere. It took a lot of tries but they finally got a decent fire burning.

Uncle Nate was so patient with the young pyromaniacs. He deserved a gold medal.

The boys ran to the lake to try to catch fish for dinner while Nate, Eliza, The Love Magnet and I waited back at camp.

Thirdborn came running back to camp with a huge fish. We were surprised he caught one so quickly. He told us he did not catch it, but that he found it. He thought a boat must have hit it. He wanted so badly to cook it for dinner. Mr. Wonderful and Uncle Nate had to point out that the coloring was off and that it would probably make him very sick if he tried eating it. Thirdborn was so disappointed. He really wanted to have trout for dinner. No way. Not this fish.
Finally it was time to cook brats (my back-up plan for dinner) and s'mores for dessert.
Thirdborn LOVED s'mores!
The Love Magnet loved s'mores!

Did Secondborn like s'mores? Not sure.

We kept the fire going pretty late. It was fun to sit around, watching the stars.

Three of the four tents we had between the eight of us. Plenty of room.

The morning was cold. Good thing we had three Eagle Scouts (Mr. Wonderful, Uncle Nate, and Firstborn) who knew how to build fires.

No, Thirdborn did not have a black eye. That was dirt all over his face. He slept with that all night and claimed he had just washed it.
After Mr. Wonderful's fabulous dutch oven Mountain Man breakfast, it was time to go fishing.

Mr. Wonderful bought a pink and yellow little kid's tube for The Love Magnet to play with. Secondborn decided to commandeer the apparatus for the more worthy pursuit of fishing.
Secondborn got pretty far out on that little tube. No fish were biting, though.
Thirdborn had great fun rescuing dragonflies from the water. When I asked him why he was doing that, he replied so he could use them to bait his fishhook. No fish were caught and we had to head home.
We stopped at Fisher Park in Cascade to see if we could catch something. By this time most of the campers looked like they were ready to head home to hot showers.
I just had to compare height between Firstborn and Secondborn. Yep, Secondborn has almost completely caught up to his bigger brother.
The Love Magnet fully monopolized Aunt Eliza. Poor Uncle Nate was trumped by his more popular wife.
Thirdborn had to try one last time. No fish were biting, not even in a small, fully stocked pond. *sigh* Maybe next time.

5 comments:

Angela said...

Ha ha ha!!! Nate looks like the guy from the American Gothic painting. And when did Scott get his Eagle Scout? If you're not posting at least e-mail me. I had no idea! I didn't know you were into camping Carrie. Not I. S'mores...mmmmm.... Camping...not mmmm...

Unknown said...

Carrie was a pro camper. I think this trip will go down in her camping conversion story.

We had so much fun!

Scarehaircare said...

First time camping outside of ward campout and girls camp. Decided I like it. It helped that Mr. Wonderful had a huge blow-up mattress in our tent. :) I would like it better at a much less crowded location. Bothersome neighbors...

Kristin said...

Oh I miss camping. My hubby hates it :)

SMITHNATION said...

Super cool to sleep on the ground! Nice to see you are out and about in the wilderness once again. Looks like so much fun.