Memorial Day 2006

Memorial Day 2006
Originally uploaded by cameradawktor.

My little family had a fantastic Memorial Weekend. We went camping with our friends LeRoy and Jenny. They, along with her mother, some cousins, and family friends, have camped at Ft. Steven's State Park in Hammond, Oregon for about the last 12 years.

It's a great campground, but I haven't gone there too many times. I had no idea that they put on quite the millitary display for the Memorial Weekend holiday. I didn't take many pictures of us actually camping, because it was so wet and I wanted to protect my camera. I'll probably upload some photos of the kids camping tomorrow.

Once the rain let up for a while, we went to the bunkers, rode an army transport vehicle for a guided tour, went to the Museum, watched the cannons go off and see the people in Civil War dress.

I thought the Fort was built for WWI, but evidentally, President Lincoln wanted the Columbia River and the inland passage to the West Coast protected during the Civil War, so he ordered Ft. Steven's to be built. Combined with Forts Columbia and Canby on the Washington side, the mouth of the Columbia is completely protected.

I enjoy History, so I had a blast exploring the bunkers and seeing the people dressed in their old uniforms.

My kids must be true-blue campers, because it literally rained almost the entire time. The only complaints I heard from any of them (in this case my boys), was that they HAD to wear their jackets to keep their clothes dry.

When you live around here, what's a little rain, I mean, we rarely even use umbrellas! So they really fought me on having to wear their coats.

My friend Jenny taught me to knit. I am excited about that because I bought some Alpaca yarn last summer to knit a scarf, so I've been wanting to learn. I've got a long way to go, but I think I'm getting the hang of it. Meyers D was doing pretty good learning too.

Yesterday I had so much laundry to do from camping, that I think my washer and dreyer were running from 8a.m. to 10p.m. I'm still not done yet, but have given myself a break from that this morning.

Please feel free to click on the photo mosaic and get a better look @ my weekend from flickr.