Family Camping Trip - plus a friend ! August 23-24, 2009

Lee, Amber, the grandpuppies, Milt and I met John and Kohl Hensler in Fort Bragg for a camping/abalone diving (separate post) trip. Kohl had been visiting John in Washington at McChord AFB for a few days, and he and John drove down from Washington so that we could spend a week (?) with John before his deployment. As Lee, Amber, Milt and I got to the campsite (Hidden Pines Campground) before John and Kohl arrived, we set about setting up the tents we had with us. Lee and Amber were pretty efficient at setting up tents.
Milt "pitched" in to give Lee and Amber a hand with the first tent. Since this was a borrowed tent, it took a few minutes to get going on it, but once they figured it out, it went up really easily and quick.
Amber was pretty ingenuitive and found a rock that she could use to pound in the stakes - since we had forgotten to bring along a hammer....c'mon, give us a break - it's been a lot of years since we have packed for a camping trip! (maybe I won't mention that we had to send the boys to the store later to see if they could buy a couple of lanterns !)
Kohl's mom had sent along with us a tent for him, so Lee and Amber got that one set up also while we were waiting on those guys to arrive ! Lee's decided that this is the type of tent he wants to have - he's anticipating some hiking/camping trips into Yosemite...
John and Kohl arrived safely from their roadtrip from Washington and he brought along a tent that they went to work on...
Okay, so John's comment was....3 guys, one an eagle scout and still needed a girl to give them a hand !! Just kidding - this was actually the first time John had used this tent he bought for a bargain of $30 on the internet....
Bullet was quite the lazy camper - he figured out pretty quickly that my pillow was the perfect napping spot !
The looks of a diving campsite....This was obviously taken the next morning after the dive for abalone.
Tyke had a little bit of a hard time keeping up with his toy. Or maybe I was having a little bit of a hard time keeping from throwing it into the blackberry bushes ! Whatever was the case, Milt had to scrounge around in the thorny bush to retrieve Tyke's toy. You can see how anxious Tyke was watching Milt trying to find the toy ! ....what a good grandpa
Okay, so I threw the toy back into the bush !! ...I don't have much of a backhand. This happened before the tent was completely assembled and Lee quickly figured he could use a couple of tent poles to retrieve the toy -- unfortunately it was pretty high up into the center of the bush --- Amber is assuring Tyke that Daddy can get his toy !! too cute, huh
At this point, Amber decided she could climb a stump on the other side of the bush and reach the toy -- Tyke had to get a birds eye view, with Lee's help, to be sure his mom reached his toy ! Can you believe this little dog --- you can see personality written all over him.
Lee gets the job of reaching into the thorny bush, this time, to grab the toy - at least I didn't toss it into the bush further !!....it's a wonder they continued to let me play fetch with Tyke...lol
This is the infamous toy Tyke was continually trying to get someone to throw for him. That poor little toy was covered in dirt and pine needles by the end of the first afternoon !! Tyke would just gingerally get hold of it and give it a good shake to loosen the dirt and pine needles when he went to pick it up !! ...how smart is that !
Tyke was not always anxious to share his toy with Dakota - and Dakota loved to tease Tyke and try to chase for it....
Tyke and Bullet would often just stop dead still and listen to the wind rustle the trees....wonder what was in that forest????
Bullet liked just sitting around and enjoying the campfire ! He knows how to have a good time on a family camp trip....
Here's the guys enjoying the campfire.
Kohl couldn't refuse to play fetch with Tyke ...and Tyke would play that game all day long if someone was willing ! ....at least Kohl was a better thrower than me and no one had to retrieve the ball from the berry bushes.
We had a really fun time getting together in Fort Bragg. And, this was a good practice run for Lee and Amber and the puppies....they have a Yosemite trip planned with Amber's sister and her husband.
John mentioned that he thinks this would make a really fun family reunion each year ! I will say, it was more fun for me this time than those few camp trips we made when the boys were younger....it's much easier now that they are adults....until they go looking for firewood !