Thursday, July 28, 2011

Camping in Island Park

Right after graduation our family took off for our campsite with Johns sister Sarah. We were driving in the dark looking for a campground we had never been too....it was difficult and the scenery didn't look too promising. We pulled into Buttermilk campground around 10:00 that night. Thank goodness for having the tent trailer because it makes everything so easy and fast. We knew there was a lake nearby and right before we climbed into bed John noticed lights reflecting in water super close to our site so we went to bed with high hopes!

We woke up the next morning and were wowed with our site! We were only 30 miles away from West Yellowstone so it was really pretty. Our site was awesome!


It was huge and we had a private little path down to the water and the lake. The lake reminded me so much of Lake Cavanaugh.

We set the rest of camp up that morning and I was putting up a clothesline for towels and bathing suits and Caleb found some rope and really wanted to set up his own line. He was very diligent about hanging his things up all weekend long.


Mike and John found a nice little sandy beach just down from ours and with a little effort from Mike they created a nice little beach for us. The kids had a lot of fun just playing in the sand and water.



The big kids found ways to entertain themselves on the beach too :)


We were stoked to finally get to use Johns $5 boat. It was so nice to have!


The kids loved to go out on it and we used it as a makeshift dock for the kids to jump off of. It was also used for a little fishing but that's a post for tomorrow.


The water was pretty nice in my opinion for a lake but everyone else seemed to think it was too cold. Everyone but Aliya that is! She was my swimming buddy the whole weekend!


We had a crazy wildlife encounter with 2 moose!


They walked right through the campground and down to the water right next to our little beach. Davis saw them and said "look horsey's!" They were huge! They went out into the water right next to where we were and went for a swim.


When we were coming back to the beach in the boat they were swimming in right next to us. They ended up just behind us on our little beach within 15-20 yards! It was crazy! They suddenly took off and I was amazed with how fast and light on their feet they were for being so huge!

We ate a little too good this trip!


Lots of cobbler and lots of s'mores!


Chris had some huge marshmallows and Davis made a s'more out of one. Only he hadn't got the marshmallow very hot so it wouldn't squish down!


Even for his big mouth it was a little too much!



Davis and Caleb took turns riding their bike through the woods and it kept them very busy!


On Sunday night it seemed we had worn the kids out to exhaustion as a case of narcolepsy swept around and one by one we found kids sleeping in chairs.



Even Becks fell asleep!


It was just so great to be with family and see the boys playing with cousins!


It was pretty great to just hang out with this guy too!


We really needed that time to slow down and play together!

I cant wait to go camping again! Its one of those things that you forget just how fun and great it is until you go again. I have big plans for camping around here the rest of the summer!

1 comment:

Pam from Over the Big Moon said...

Looks like a blast and that spot looks amazing. We've got to do a close camping trip one of these weekends!! Glad you had such a great time! See you in the morning!