Kid free weekend

My parents offered to take Corbin and Eliza for the weekend last weekend so we could go kid free camping. Now that Eliza is not nursing it is much easier to leave her. Oh my, it was heaven! We decided to invite some of our friends without kids, Nikki and Mark. It was great to have some friends along who we don't get to see as often as we would like. The drive down was long but it was all worth it.

We headed to the Cascades Lakes just west and south of Mt. Bachelor and Bend. We found a great spot on Crane Prairie lake. We opted for the walk in tent sites so we could have our own little beach. We had the whole peninsula to ourselves! Along with all the ants... one of the only downsides of the whole trip.

After setting up camp on Friday, Nikki and Mark went to explore how to rent a canoe. There were no canoes left, only little outboard motor boats! But oh so much better :-) We got to explore a huge part of the lake- which is almost 5 miles long. And we were on VACATION!! It was little slow luxury! We had to make a quick portage back to our camp site for some refreshments ;-)

That is our little campsite. You can barely see Nikki and Mark's tent through the trees.

Adam and Mark braved the water for some jumping off the boat.

The lake is a man made reservoir where they just left all the trees standing when they flooded it. It makes for great fish and bird habitat. It makes for tricky slow boating.

At first Adam told us these were cranes but we thought they looked more like pelican's. We later learned they were pelicans. I guess they migrate here every summer. Who knew? We also saw tons of eagles, osprey, heron's and other birds.

The second day, we headed out on a bike ride. We rode 20 miles on relatively flat, nice, quiet roads. The area has all these old "Resorts" at the camp grounds. So we rode to get some food at the Twin Lakes Resort. We had some awesome burgers, club sandwiches, and Adam opted for the special Chili Burger.

With a heavy stomach, we luckily only had 6 miles to get back to our camp. I was a little slower on the way home...

But the 80+ degree weather allowed us to jump into the lake (ok, ease) with our newly purchased $4 floaties. And preferred beverages too!

Nikki and I thought life was pretty rough while on our camping vacation! And our $4 floaties were worth every penny! We watched the boys play frisbee and then go and try to show off for us by jumping off the sinking boat dock. We shouldn't have let "old" men try to show off around teenagers and lovely ladies... Mark hit his head on an attempted back flip... luckily he just grazed it and was ok, but it was a close call!

We enjoyed just sitting around, reading, eating late, eating a lot, late fires, "sleeping in", uninterrupted conversation, not constantly watching out where everyone was going, who was doing what to whom, etc. And with modern technology and cell service we got constant picture updates from my parents about how Corbin and Eliza were doing. It was comforting to know they were doing well and having fun!

Thanks to my parents and Nikki and Mark for rejuvenating us! We really needed it and enjoyed it so much!

Of course, my parents had stories to tell. Corbin had a rough start and missed us. He also had some rough nights of waking up. One night he even got sick from eating too much cantaloupe and then more food. Eliza didn't like to let my mom out of her site but did well too. They got to go and see a bike race and my mom got a wading kiddie pool. They were both so excited to see us when we got home but also had a GREAT time with Grammie and Buppa!

Taking some time for ourselves is worth it. It makes us better parents when we see them again. I really truly believe it. I missed them both but I knew they were in safe hands. We are lucky to have parents who are willing to give us a break and help out! It was good for everyone! Yay for some kid free time. Now we can't wait to taking them both camping. There is room to enjoy it both ways too!