camping!!!

we finally did it! it took us a little over a month of being in the beautiful northwest but we finally took our first camping trip. all five of us (including ben) loaded up and headed for the wilderness. we ended up at Beacon Rock State Park which is in Washington right on the border of the Columbia River. So actually this was Kirsten and I's first ever trip to Washington which is kind of a fun side-note!

We made it to the campsite around 1:30 and quickly got things set up and started adventuring (what else do you do when you're camping?) it didn't take us long to find a trail that led to the summit of Hamilton Mountain and past a couple waterfalls. it ended up being about a 10 mile round trip hike and as you can imagine from the word "summit" it was significantly up hill for the first half. but it was beautiful and it didn't hurt that it was probably about 65 degrees outside (this is August 2nd at 3pm). 

we got lots of great pictures along the way...look at the rest on our flickr page. there's a link in the top right hand corner of our blog!

by the time we made it back to camp it was close to 6 oclock and we were tired and hungry. it was spaghetti for dinner (one of my specialties on the fire) and then smores and rook (kirsten and I won in thrilling fashion). and then after a little bit of laying in the hammock and looking at the stars it was off to bed (off to ground is more accurate but whatever).

the next morning before we left we went for one more hike, this one to the top of beacon rock (which is apparently the largest monolith in the northern hemisphere or something). it's basically the lava part of a volcano that cooled and then the outside of the volcano eroded away leaving this giant rock sticking our of the water. 

it was definitely uphill, but compared to the day before it was nothing. 

it was a great first trip in our new home! the first of many...