We spent the 4th of July with my side of the family this summer. We had a picnic, badminton, swimming, water balloons, etc. Everything you need to have a successful summer get-together. That evening Paul and Mason put on a wussy Oregon fireworks show for us, which was great thanks to their stacking abilities with the spent cartridges. I think only one little guy got shot in the eye from flying debris but he was a neighbor kid so it doesn't really count. He's fine. That night we camped out in the parking lot of HP and watched the City of Corvallis' show. That is always one of our favorite parties of the year.
In late July we camped at Fort Stevens with about 100 people from our ward. It was lots of fun hanging out outside of the church setting. Paul was the "wagon master" which meant he was in charge of making sure everyone had a registered spot to camp in. He was having a grand old time riding his bike around the loops checking on everyone, and getting fed I don't know how many dinners. We had fun while the sun shined, and even when we got a bit wet cuz we borrowed grandma's trailer :) I love to camp and I don't mind a short camp in a tent when its good weather, but I sure do appreciate having a trailer.
In August we had a camping Erickson family reunion at River Bend County Park outside of Sweet Home. Its a great place to camp. Unfortunately with the extremely dry fire conditions we had this summer, we were unable to have any kind of fire. That meant hauling our gas grill to cook on and to warm us up in the mornings. The last day of camping was so smoky due to the wildfires in the area. It was pretty miserable towards the end.
Speaking of miserable, this was Mason's worst camping trip EVER! He had a brace on his knee due to his diagnosed runner's knee that he developed playing football. He was supposed to wear his brace and move as little as possible. I guess he thought he could still get up and blaze a trail through the campsite because if you look closely you can see a red owie just below the brace on his left leg. I was just resting in the tent when I heard Mason yell, "I'm bleeding! Dad! I'm bleeding!" I jumped up and raced to where he was, only to find Paul lying on the ground with his hand on Mason's leg, COVERED in blood. My first reaction was to tell someone to call 911 because there was so much blood, but it turned out to be a small puncture wound that was GUSHING blood down his leg. He was clearing a trail with his small pocket knife and it slipped and stabbed his leg. I still can't believe there was so much blood. Paul took him to urgent care where they didn't even stitch him up, much to my chagrin. He was unable to do anything the rest of the camping trip due to his two injuries. It was tough for him to sit around while the rest of us swam and ran around during the family olympics. Aunt Alloa was very kind in figuring out ways Mason could be a judge and photographer for the event.
Here we are with a bunch of cousins swimming in the South Santiam river. Mason kept grandma company at the river. It was a perfect place for the kids to ride their floaties down the "rapids." Its a great, family-friendly place to camp.
Each family had their own colored t-shirts. We were obviously orange. We won the whole olympics, but I think we were actually tied with another group and they were gracious enough to say we could call ourselves the winners. Like I really care, I'm not competitive or anything. We had tons of fun at the olympics and also later that night stargazing. It was a really fun trip, except for the smoke.
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