Summer, Summertime!!!

So the Davis Family Camp out turned out to be quite the vacation indeed! We chose to head to Shasta Lake, because it was close and because we wanted warm weather. I looked on line for a camp site and actually called and talked to the Shasta visitors center to find out the best place to take the fam. We don't have a boat so I didn't want to be someplace where the boats were everywhere and my kids wouldn't be able to swim. I had three different places refer me to this particular spot. Now I am not a die hard camper. I LOVE to camp, even in a tent, but I want to leave my tent to go to the flush toilets, and the hot showers, I don't know why I let myself think this place would be okay without either of those things, but I did.
When we got there it became very obvious, very quickly this was not going to work. The camp site itself was only 10 feet wide and about 30 feet long, this includes the parking spot. Jammed into this tiny space was a bear box, a table, fire pit and a 5x5 square tent site ( I should have taken a picture, but I was a little distraught).

We have a rather large family, so when we bought our tent we bought the mega version, you know, four bedroom, dining fly, skylights, the works. Terry actually had to set the tent up in the parking spot, on the asphalt. Not to mention about 5 minutes after we got out of the car all my kids looked like they had just come down with the chicken pox for all their mosquito bites. Terry kept a super positive attitude, I however . . . cried. And remember the flush toilets that didn't exist, the only toilets there were about a mile away from our site, and come to find out my kids won't use vault toilets, sigh. AND about an hour after we got there Graeson started throwing up and had a fever AND Ryan was up all night coughing like he was going to spit out a lung or drown or something. We were so back into the trees there was no cell reception for 30 miles, scary. Anyway Terry turned camp into the Taj Mahal and we decided to grin and bear it.

The next morning we hit the lake around 9 am, it was already in the 90's :) The kids swam and swam, we were lucky to find a little cove off the main lake. It wasn't very wide from one bank to the next but it was really deep and the water was perfect. The 200 foot climb down the rock cliffs to get to the water wasn't so fun but after we got down there it was great.

We played there all day, but all the while I was dreading the camp site another night. We couldn't cook out side because the mosquitoes were SO bad even hanging out around the camp fire was not an option. So we decided we would pack up camp and head out.

We found our sanctuary in a motel 6 in Redding! It was tricky finding a place that would let us have our big hairy mess, Chance. This place ended up being perfect! The pool was right out side our door, it wasn't super fancy so I didn't feel bad at all about having the dog, AND it was close to everything we wanted to do. We took the kids site seeing to the sun dial bridge (biggest sundial bridge in the world, Dalyn was impressed).

It was about 105 :) and the bridge is made of glass and metal, Chance couldn't walk across without burning his feet off, so the kids and I trekked across and Terry and Chance went swimming in the river. There are tons of trails around there but my kids don't have a love for the heat like I do, so after about an hour they were ready to be done.

We used to pool a ton! And miraculously enough we managed to keep everyone sun screened enough, no one got sunburned (just really brown). Except Terry, but we really did try, we applied 50 sunscreen on him every couple of hours and he still got crispy! I guess superman in immune to sunscreen :) He says, "When you're this hot, you get cooked no matter what." so humble.

The last day we took the kids to the water park. It was SO fun. I was not allowed to go on any slides, but Graeson and I had fun floating in the lagoon and playing in the kiddie area. The other kids had a BLAST. I think we are going to make it a new family tradition.

Overall it was such a super fun vacation, and I learned a lot too! We will definitely head back to Shasta, only we will do the house boat thing next time. And Redding is so fun, who knew! AND its close!