Crater Lake with the Petersens

July 24 and 25, 2014

As soon as Teddy was born, Ben's dad and grandparents were anxious to meet him. After all, he is the first great-grandson. Ben suggested that they pick up Chelsea and drive up in their motor home so we could all head south on a vacation together. That's why at the end of July they drove from Utah to Oregon and arrived on a Wednesday night.

Teddy with Grammy (Great-Grandma Nyla)

Sweet little Teddy

They parked at a RV park near our home and so that night we ate dinner in the motorhome and chatted. It was great for us to catch up and they enjoyed time playing with Nayeli and getting aquainted with Teddy. We then headed out Thursday morning for Crater Lake. It was about a four and a half hour drive but, I'll tell you what, traveling in a motor home made it feel like it was nothing. We slept, ate, and talked as if we were sitting on a couch at home. It was wonderful.

Nayeli in her chair we pulled from the dumpster. This was right before it snapped her fingers and we had to throw it away :(

We arrived at Crater Lake and set up "camp". Since there wasn't enough room in the motor home for all of us to sleep comfortably, Ben and I had offered to sleep in a tent. We had even brought a brand new air mattress to make our camping experience with a newborn even more enjoyable (spoiler alert: it is practically IMPOSSIBLE to have an enjoyable camping experience with a newborn. But we'll get to that in a minute).

We then headed for the lake. We hit it just at the golden hour. It was beeeeeaaaauuuutiful! So huge and breathtaking.

Our whole group

 

Teddy

There are only a few lookouts for the lake so we drove to the two biggest and marveled. Some fun facts: Crater Lake was made when a volcano collapsed 8,000 years ago and is 286.3 sq miles large. It is the deepest lake in the US at a depth of almost 2,000 feet. The water clarity can be over 100 feet. It is beautiful and we had a great time seeing it.

It began to get late and we were all starving so we headed to a nearby mom and pop restaurant, Beckie's Cafe. It is famous for it's pie and it did not disappoint. The food was delicious. We then headed back to our camp and tried to go to sleep. I say "tried" because the night went something like this:

The plan was to have Ben and I on the mattress and the kids on the ground near us. However the night was chilly so I decided to have Teddy sleep next to me. Then we tried to put Nayeli in a sleeping bag but she was afraid of it because she had never slept in one before. Needless to say, before the flashlight had even gone out, all four of us were crammed onto the air mattress. To add to the camping "fun", Ben had a terrible cough and all through the night when he would cough, the mattress would shake. Then Nayeli would start to cry, Teddy would wake up, and I would have to nurse him to get him back to sleep. I was the perpetual pacifier. This cycle continued over and over throughout the night until about 5am when we felt the air mattress begin to sink from below us. I think that was the point that I almost jumped up and broke all the tent poles in half over my knee. Luckily, I was able to restrain myself and instead gave Ben a high five because we had just survived the worst night of sleep in our marriage. And no, that is not an exaggeration. It was awful.

Luckily, Ben's dad Dave is an early riser and had just gotten up to go hiking. Ben wanted to join him, but I decided to abandon the sinking mattress and inhabit Dave's bed with both kids. Thankfully we were able to catch a few extra hours of much needed sleep before the day started.

Dave took this picture on their hike. There are rivers that run through the volcanic rock in the area. Breathtaking isn't it?

After Ben and Dave's hike we all ate breakfast and were  ready to head onto our next adventure. Yes, it was a very short visit to Crater Lake, but our final destination was the Redwood Forest and the lake was really just a stop. Plus, we plan on going back to see more. And no, next time we will not take an air mattress. No way, no how.