Sasquatch weekend...

Arrgghh....how did it get to Thursday already! Anyway, we made it; a very successful and fun camping weekend in our new (to us) VW Westfalia. I must admit that it was great having a van to sleep in, rather than a tent. It made putting the kids to bed easier. And sleeping was a lot more comfortable than in our tent. There was enough space to comfortably fit all our stuff and the van was great on the highway. For our first trip of the year, we headed to Deer Lake campground in Sasquatch Provincial Park. This park is relatively close to the city and not far from the small town of Harrison (famous for its hot springs...but, in my opinion, not up to much). The park wasn't accepting reservations this early in the season, but we did note that both Deer Lake and Hicks Lake campgrounds were almost full. Everyone wanted to capitalize on the good weather. We survived the "breath of doom". In fact, Ellee was fine and didn't even pant that much.

It took us a while to get out of the city and so it was about a 4 hour drive all-in-all. But we got there in good time and were able to go check out the lake. The lake is beautiful, surrounded by mountains and forest. The campsites are relatively small and not very well treed (problems if you needed to put up a tarp), but adequate. Bronwyn met a little girl who was camping with her family in the adjacent campsite and essentially disappeared for most of the two days, busy playing "raccoon detectives". She had a great time and was also in her element.

She also devised a game which involves swinging and batting one of her stuffies on a string, and there is some weird point system that she has devised and which makes sense only to her. It made for an ominous entrance to our camp. I would never have used my stuffies like that!

And River loves camping. He was so engaged and present when we were camping. There is something about the outdoors. His "stimming" (this is when he finds something interesting and spends an extended period of time running back and forth and looking at the object from different, strange angles and flaps or walks on tiptoes) and other repetitive behaviour decreased and he found lots of things to do. I was a little worried about how he would be, but once we were there I was reminded of how he was last year when we went camping. He doesn't mind being out of his routine and finds many things to fascinate him. Outdoors definitely suits him. He also didn't bolt like he did last year...but it's only the first camping trip.

On Saturday we did a lovely hike/walk along the lake. We just walked half of it because River only has little legs, although he was being a trooper scrambling over rocks and under fallen logs. And Ellee can't jump about like she used to.

In the afternoon Trini and Lorne dropped by our campsite. They were camping at Hicks Lake (a last minute change of plan). We sat by the lake and Mark took the kids out kayaking. I also took the kayak out for a while. What a gorgeous day!

This is an action shot of daddy "saving" Bronwyn from falling off the log!

So all in all it was a really good trip. Bronwyn had such a good time that she cried half the way home. We are looking forward to the next one.