Jake's golB: Mirr-- I Mean, Tadpole Lake Camping Trip

For Labor Day weekend this year, we stuck with our new family tradition and went on a camping trip. For those of you who didn't know, last year's Labor Day weekend was a torrential downpour and Jeremy was just 3 months old... But we toughed it out and had a good time with Mom and Dad Olsen. This year, the weather was MUCH better! In fact, the weather couldn't have been better! We left after church on Sunday and were planning on going to Mirror Lake. That however turned out all but impossible because Mirror Lake was PACKED! As were most of the campgrounds on the way up and even past Mirror Lake. We were a little discouraged for a while, but we noticed a little dirt road off the main highway and decided to take a look and lo and behold... a perfect campsite! It was covered up by trees from the highway and there was nobody there so we had it all to ourselves! There was even a neat fire pit set up for us already. So we decided to set up camp there for the night.

Jeremy takes the wheel! "Are we ready to go yet, Dad?"

And all that excitement and anticipation finally takes its toll on

the little guy... Don't worry, he wakes up later recharged for fun!

Amber roasting dinner over a no-match fire.

Now that's a woman! Love you, baby!

Dad and Jeremy putting the finishing touches on the tent.

Jeremy went to sleep right on schedule that night. Amber and I made smores by the fire and a great game of Monopoly which she dominated me in. It was fun. We put Jeremy in my sleeping bag for the night and it was really good to be able to have him snuggle up to me again. He seems to have really grown out of that lately... already growing up too fast. We had a great night's sleep and even slept in until 9 a.m. the next morning! Thanks to the JetBoil we had hard boiled eggs for breakfast with dried fruit. Delish! We decided to go for a morning hike and climbed the ridge behind camp and found a cool little meadow that was completely hidden from the highway. We followed it back through the trees and found two more meadows as well. In the last, we saw a doe and three fawns and even a moose! The moose moved off quickly through the trees, but the deer stopped and watched us for a while. As we started to head back, we stumbled across an old ATV trail and as we followed it, we saw another clearing through the trees. When we decided to investigate, we found an isolated lake waiting just for us! We later found a sign reading "Tadpole Lake" and it was really cool. We had it all to ourselves and we stayed there enjoying the rest of the morning. Jeremy had a particularly good time climbing rocks and playing. Our deer friends even followed us to the lake and grazed in the nearby clearing while we played. And just when it couldn't get any better, we found huge patches of perfect huckleberries on the way back to our camp! We were eating them by the handfuls and even Jeremy couldn't get enough of them. What a great day. We ate lunch and packed up camp. We had planned on stopping at Mirror Lake on the way for another hike, but it was so full that we couldn't even find a place to park. So we "settled" for delicious ice cream in Kamas instead. I don't think any of us wanted to come home. We all had a great time. Can't wait for the next camping trip!