Cougar Lake

There was a running joke this weekend that some one during the night would come across a cougar running through the forest. Smearing red lipstick on the trees on her hunt for 20 somethings. heeheehee..

When we pulled up to the campsite my jaw hit the ground. I have never seen a more beautiful forest. The only thing I have to compare it to is the Redwood Forest and even then I'd call it a tie.

The grounds were littered with fallen trees, ferns, and moss. The sun peeked though the tall century old trees shooting rays of sunlight to the ground below. It was absolutely beautiful.


Found a Banana Slug. This picture doesn't do justice to how gross it is! I should have put a quarter down or something to show the size. It was about 5 inches long. Imagine that thing getting in your tent and crawling across your face in the middle of the night. hahahha..(sorry, had to do it). YUK!


The camping trip was organized by Amy (on the left). It was a present for her husband Andy (next to Amy). Then we have Jeremy and Elizabeth (and little Kismet the poodle), and of course you all know Ryan and Juno, and the latest addition to our family, Bella the cocker spaniel.



Here's another one of Bella. The best camping puppy ever! We let her off leash and she stayed under my feet the whole time. We brought penny too but she was busy workin' on a bone to care about the forest. Such a princess. haha.

We put together our tent. Ryan then trekked off into the woods to look for firewood with the others.


Once the tent was up, Bella claimed her home and guarded the front door. She was gonna have to protect us from all those cougars....and their 23 year old boyriends...heehee.. sorry, last time.


Juno was being pretty good at this point because we were all always on the move. We'd walk some trails that were surrounding the campsite or go play near the stream. The crazyness didn't start till after the sun went down and Juno still wanted to run around in the dark. He finally went to sleep around 9:30p and at that point mine and Ryan's nerves were shot. 'Can't wait to go camping again without a two year old' was the quote of the night.


But when you see this face bein' all sweet to you, it just makes it all worth it.

After the bug was asleep we were able to relax and hang by the fire. We were roasting marshmallows and making s'mores AND the greatest creation of all things having to do with campfires... The Hobo Eclair. Amy can explain it better than I can. She has a fantastic blog called Playing House. Check it out!
I can't wait to go camping again and with others and share the knowledge of the best camping treat since the s'more.

I love that Eric broke out some Tenacious D as the first song of the night. Way to jump in the deep end first my friend!

Also took some shots of the night sky. This is a 75 second shutter. If I had a shutter release remote, I would have been able to capture some star sweeps. Next time for sure!


It was a good weekend of camping. Ryan and I haven't been camping since the 2001 or 2002 trip to Lake Elsinore with Tom, Heather, Marcus, Ed and David. It was nice to be out in the wilderness again.