Larrabee State Park

WARNING: LOTS OF PICTURES!

We have a tradition of going camping with our good friends, the Pynns, every summer. This summer we ventured out to Bellingham, WA to Larrabee State Park. We had never been there, but our friends had. They hadn't actually camped there before, so we thought we'd give it a try. It turned out be awesome! We really did love it. Minus the fact that there was an active, working train track that ran right on the edge of the campground! Yes, in the dead of the night, and wee hours of the morning, we would hear the loud roaring and honking of a train. This went on both nights we were there. Luckily, our kids slept right through it. Jeremy and I didn't, but as long as the kids did we were ok. Besides that, it was a great campground. It was just a short walk from the water and close to town. It had toilets and showers, which are always nice. Although, I never did make it to the shower!!!

Anyways, our trip went something like this...Friday night we drove the almost 2 hour drive to Bellingham. We (and when I say "we" I mean the MEN) set up camp in the dark. Not recommend when you have 5 children ages 5 and under! And, not to mention neither of us (again, I mean our husbands) had ever set up our tents before. Both were brand new, out of the box. :) We finally got the kids to bed around 12:30 a.m. and we followed shortly after, only to be awakened again by that dang train!!! The kids slept through it though and all was well.

Morning came all too soon and Collin was wide awake at 6:30 a.m. I took a walk with him while everyone slept. Jeremy got up about an hour later and took over and I went back to sleep. Finally we were all awake, ready to make some yummy breakfast and get ready for our only full day to enjoy. Our day consisted of a trip to the beach, Collin sleeping wherever he could, a trip into town, a picnic and some soccer at a park in town, a small festival at the park with crafts, music, face painting, ect..., a stop for ice cream, a car tour of Western Washington University (where our friends attended), a hot dog dinner over the fire, smores, a hike out to watch the sunset, chit chat around the fire, games, and lots of snacks! What a day! We ended the night a little earlier, but not much earlier than the previous night. We still got woken up by the train, but the kids did well again and slept through it. And, Collin slept in until 7 this time, which was kind of nice.

Sunday, we made another tasty breakfast and started to pack up. We had a goal of getting to church at a local ward that started at 1:00. To my surprise, it took us all morning, with no time to spare to get ready and make it to church. By the time we got everything packed up in cars, our lunch premade and handy to eat later, get ourselves looking somewhat presentable for church it was 12:45. Who knew?! After an hour of church, we headed out to a park on the marina to eat our lunch and watch the kites that were being flown. It was a nice and relaxing way to end our weekend. Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures of that park, but it was really pretty. We then headed back to the real world of smelly clothes to wash and lots of camping gear to unload. Thanks Jason and Wendy for a fun weekend!!!

Wiped out!