July 18th 2010

Whiskeytown Lake is so beautiful to wake up and see first thing in the morning. We all slept in until 8:30 in the morning, I started to hear the little ones getting dressed and exiting their tents. By the time i could get up to see them they were all down by the lake.
Katelynn is a good person to sleep with, quite the cuddle bug. However, our queen sized sleeping air bed doesn't hold air, so we decided to leave it behind. Matthew and Jenny said they would blow it up for the water.
Matthew was such a huge help packing us up so we could get out of there, but not before Jenny made us a great egg, sausage, and cheese breakfast burritos.
We hit the road by 10 headed for Bend, OR. The drive north was such a joy, the scenery was incredible, many of the mountains still have snow. We saw Lake Shasta was full to it's brim, I don't think I've ever seen that, no big red dirt beaches...the water line was up to the trees.
We saw Sister Buttes, and I handed Kate the map and had her pick out the place we would stay as there is a lot of good camping in Oregon. She picked out Tumalo State Park Campground.
This spot was just meant to be, God is taking care of us, I can feel Him. It was the last site available, it was paved in most parts for the disabled, right next to the showers, and across from the bathrooms. We registered and bought some firewood from the camp host.
I cooked dinner and Kate built the fire....we were on our own !! Now it feels real, we are fending for ourselves, and we are free!! We roasted marshmallows and read our books then went to sleep in our tent. All sooo peaceful. Sleeping on the ground isn't as bad as I thought, we have decided not to buy another air mattress.
Kate and I did wake up early (4:30) I made Kate stay in the tent and read so that we wouldn't wake up the other campers. We only managed that for one hour and were out making coffee at 5:30 on our cook stove. We are getting good at setting up and tearing down camp, the car is so small that every thing has a place and in it's place is where it has to be. We made a fire, took a shower, and had breakfast and were on the road by 9AM. Heading towards Idaho today on Highway 20.