Camping and the State Fair

Last weekend, we took off Friday afternoon for a weekend of camping. Here's what it looked like when we arrived at camp.

We braved it and got out of the car anyway. We set up the tent in the rain (not so fun), cooked dinner in the rain (no so fun), had a picnic dinner sitting in the tent (a little fun), and went to bed early to the sound of rain tap-tap-tapping overhead. Sigh....Jack was so excited about camping, but he wasn't too sure about it after this first evening.  

Luckily, Saturday turned beautiful.  We camped at the spot where Troublesome creek comes into the Skykomish River. The water was very shallow, so not a great place for fishing, but lots of rocks to splash, and Aspen enjoyed running around. The water was icy, so we didn't go in much! The area is completely beautiful and scenic.

 Here's our very shady and green campsite. It was at least 10 degrees cooler at camp than it was out by the river bank because not much sun was penetrating.

 Oh, there's the sun peeking through...look at all that moss. It was a very green, very damp camp, but gorgeous.

 We cooked tin foil dinners in our fire and then sat around the fire for a little bit, Jack in his Jammies.

Now to this weekend. We started Friday evening with a quick trip to the park. Jack has been getting much braver climbing lately.

Then, Saturday we met up with Colin and Lesa and the boys for a trip to the Evergreen State Fair. We enjoyed fried food, farm animals, exhibits, and various shows.  Jack and Sam as cows:

 Jack and Sam as farmers, collecting eggs:

 We watched some chain saw wood carving demonstrations. It was amazing what these guys were making right there at the fair. If I'd had a much bigger budget, I could have finished Christmas shopping for my parents in a couple minutes. They would have loved to have any of these in their front yard:

One of the highlights of the fair was the petting zoo, which had not only the usual pigs, goats, and sheep, but also wallabies, deer, llamas, ducks, and cows.

 Of course, we had to walk through the quilting and sewing exhibits. They were amazingly talented as usual.

 Mike wasn't too excited about this picture, but isn't it cute...

 The best part of the lumberjack show was watching them spin on the logs in the water. They are very fast on their feet.

 They can climb quickly too.

We  had a fun time, and it only rained on us a little bit. Unfortunately, Mike started coming down with a cold and had a fever by the time we got home. However, today he seems to be mostly recovered.