Bayly Family Campout 2009

Camp outs with the Bayly's are never uneventful. Take last years camp out that ended after less than 12 hours with a midnight escape from an encroaching forest fire. This year, Dany especially seemed to be a target for mishaps. On Saturday alone she decided to eat a packet of silica gel beads (thankfully non-toxic, FYI to other parents), and got bitten by a dog. She had a really great time with her cousin Avery though, and they were a lot of fun to watch interact since they're almost exactly the same age.
Also, on our very first day, a hummingbird flew into our tent, and couldn't figure out how to get back out.
Despite these little adventures, we still had an amazingly good time. Teag and I showed up on Friday, and managed to avoid the all-night downpour two of his siblings families experienced on Thursday. Other than a brief cloudburst, we experienced beautiful weather the entire weekend. Teag managed to snap some really amazing pictures of the sunset right after it rained:
Maisie had a great time going on walks and "adventures", as she called them, and making bracelets with beads and boondoggle. Thanks to Treg and Carolyn for providing the craft stuff!
Treg and Carolyn also rigged up a zip line between two trees, and that was a real hit with all the cousins. Not surprisingly, Dany wanted to try it right away.

Maisie took a little bit of coaxing, but eventually she gave it a try, and became an instant fan:
We all took a trip to Rock Creek Reservoir on Saturday afternoon, and the kids had fun cooling down in the dam spillway.
Poor Dany wanted so badly to follow the big kids out to the deeper parts of the river, but the water got too "shibbery", and she needed uncle Treg to rescue her.
Then she fell down in the shallow part and soaked herself completely. After that, I think she'd had enough, and was content to be snuggled by aunt Carolyn.
Teag used a timer, and we managed to get a pretty good picture of all of us.
The dam was really huge, and the kids loved the waterfall pouring over the top of it. This pic gives you an idea of how tall it was, though you can't see the top.
Supposedly this campground was in the middle of bear country, but right next to our campsite was a wooden fence with a free range cow pasture on the other side. Methinks the ranchers aren't too worried about bears. Even still, I thought I'd let those bears know to steer clear of me by eating a few of their compatriots.
Thanks to all the Bayly family for making this a very fun, and memorable weekend!