The Brown Bulletin: Camping!

We love camping, but it seems like every time we go, we go with other family members (not that that's a bad thing), but this time we wanted to go with some good friends. So we were excited and our plan was to go out to Pacific Beach and camp all weekend. Everything was prepped and ready for food and clothes.....UNTIL.....it decided to rain and thunder and lightening Friday morning/afternoon. So we will just say that the weather started us to question if we should go out to the ocean where the weather is usually worse. Our friends decided they didn't want to go, we still debated, and then decided that camping was a MUST, but maybe just not 3 hours away. So we decided to go out to Scenic Beach (funny because it's only 20 minutes away), put the boat in and go crabbing and clamming. A 20 minute drive was actually nice. Even though we were very close to home, it felt like we were far away, which was perfect!

For those of you who have ever launched a boat out at Seabeck, you know what I mean when I say it's a horrible launch. TJ does a good job putting the boat into the water, but this launch kept kicking us to the right side, which was my side with the DROP OFF!!!! I had my head out the window to watch the trailer and our car. I was watching the Pilot's rear tire get closer and closer to the edge. I tried to stay calm because I knew TJ was concentrating, but I finally had to YELL to have him stop. We were inches away from our back tire dropping off the ledge. I just couldn't watch anymore. After a little sweating and heart pounding, the boat was in the water! TJ got the pots ready with fish scraps and chicken, which smelled lovely and we threw 4 pots in to stay over night.

Before we put the boat in, we set-up camp so when we came back we were ready to have some dinner. Simple dinner called hot dogs! We had some friends stop by to visit for awhile (her parents live in Seabeck, haha), so the kids played at the campsite and then we went to the park.

Next on the agenda was SMORES! "How can I have some more of something, if I haven't had anything yet!" hehehe Name that movie! Check out my good lookin' fire starter.

Family shot by the fire. It definitely would have been fun having friends with us, but I have to admit camping with just our little family was very nice and just what we needed!

TJ roasts the BEST marshmallows so he made me one, Kenton just wanted the Graham Crackers, and Sophia ate all the SMORE items separately (without the marshmallow roasted). 1 SMORE is always delicious, but always enough for me.

TENT TIME!!! We didn't even have air mattresses...oh yes we were roughing it. Kenton had the best spot in his pack-n-play. I love how our tent is big enough for us and more! Kenton thought it was pretty cool being all together, so he had to go tackle Sophia and we had to play a wild game of "Go Fish!"

The next morning we were ready to set out and check our pots! Launching the boat was a little better. TJ definitively kept the car to the left this time. Sophia got her crabbing license, so she was excited to see what she got out her pot. I drove the boat around the pot while TJ reached and hooked it. Sophia helped pull in the rope. She got 3 big keepers and then another 3 out of my pot. Grabbing the crabs was not happening for Sophia and I, so that was TJ's job. Look how feisty they were.

We had 1 pot we couldn't find, so as we searched the kids had a snack and hung out on the boat. They were truly troopers:)!

We decided to head out to the clamming spot. As we crossed the Hood Canal from the west to the east end, it got choppier and choppier. We were getting sprayed and bounced around. In the middle of all the bouncing, Kenton fell asleep which was pretty crazy. On the front of the boat was a trolling motor and depth finder and I told TJ that it was bouncing, but he said that was normal. Well, minutes later the trolling motor stood straight up and then ripped off the front of the boat and flew under. We heard it hit the bottom of the boat and just hoped that it didn't hit the main motor. Thank goodness it didn't but that trolling motor was worth some money, so that was a bummer. At that point TJ did some evaluating and decided it would be better to turn around because we still had a ways to go (mind you no other boats were around us). On our way back 2 big waves came over the boat, but luckily the water didn't hit any of us. We had to go fast enough to get over the waves, but not too fast to get slammed. Sophia started to get a little nervous. We made it back to the launch safely. TJ jumped out with the kids to get the trailer while I held the boat on a rope. I was wearing my rain boots because of the clamming, but they did not do the job. Because the waves were quite choppy, my boots filled up with water, my jeans got soaked up to my knees, and the boat decided to beach itself, so we had to work to get it unstuck. PHEW! WHAT AN ADVENTURE!