One last adventure...

 

We love camping - always have and always will - so as we planned our summer, we knew that a weekend of lake camping with dad, Robie and the girls in Prineville was a must! As summer unfolded, the best weekend for a trip to Central Oregon was Labor Day -- four weeks before the little miss was scheduled to arrive and of course, Maddie's annual trek to the lake to celebrate her birthday :)

We made our way to Bend on Friday, gathered up all of the camping gear Saturday morning, headed to Prineville and loaded the boat (a couple times!) to begin our adventure. The camp spot was perfect -- water on both sides, a great spot for tents, meals, hanging out and swimming!

A dog's dreamland... no leashes, no being left alone at home... Kenai was in HEAVEN (Rio and Winston tolerated him, which is about all we can ask for).

Thanks for being such excellent hosts! The camping meals this duo whips up would make any chef proud!!! The baby back ribs have become a camping tradition :)

Bob and I had one goal for the weekend... get Kenai (our water dog???) to become a swimmer. Who knew that teaching a lab to love the water would be such a challenge. Don't get me wrong, he has become a fan of the water (a slow process, but he likes it now) -- splashing in it, chasing other dogs in it, peeing in it (yes our dog is known for squatting and peeing as soon as he gets into the water - awesome!), etc., but swimming has been a bit of a challenge. Every once in awhile he will lose track of where he is and swim, but it is VERY rare and he never does it on purpose. Labor Day weekend goal #1 - make Kenai Michael Phelps!

We thought that us, in the water, would motivate our pup to take the plunge (pun fully intended)! Little did we know, gunshots would actually make our pup a water dog ;) Sunday night (yes after a full day without swimming for Kenai!), Bob and Chase's boyfriend, Anthony, decided to shoot a couple of handguns with a piece of wood in the water as a target. Kenai's natural (?) hunting instinct kicked in and he WANTED those logs out of the water! The boys took a break from shooting and sure enough, there Kenai went to retrieve the targets. After that, he was hooked! He still doesn't dive in gracefully - his entrance to the water is pretty funny to watch actually - but he swims nonetheless. In fact, he swims in Prineville and in Seattle, which has made walks at Green Lake even tougher now -- all he wants to do is swim!

Three dogs swimming - that means Kenai is one of them :) Yay!!!

Three layers of doggie ;) Talk about spoiled pups!

As I mentioned, Labor Day weekend is also a time to celebrate the youngest in our fam... Miss Maddie! She has had lake birthday celebrations since the fam moved to Bend many moons ago and we were so happy to take part in this VERY special one -- her 21st! Chasie wanted to make Maddie a necklace out of airplane booze bottles (the little mini ones), similar to what we made for her in Las Vegas almost 2 years ago. We picked up the booze, and a few other 21-er necessities, in Bend before heading to Prineville and made Maddie a "21 Fun" bucket complete with a dizzy bat, a koozie, glow necklaces for the big night out and her beautifully crafted necklace. Very fun!

The almost 21 year old being crowned with her necklace!

The weekend was just perfect - lots of sun, good food, laughs and of course water sports (for those of us that weren't 9 months pregnant!) Bob "retired" from wake boarding a couple of years ago after realizing that wake boarding typically equals a dislocated shoulder after every attempt to try anything beyond standing on the board behind the boat, but he is now working on his water skiing skills. Not too shabby for his 4th or 5th time behind the boat!

And as for me... I enjoyed every minute of our last adventure before baby. Some thought I was crazy to go camping 9 months pregnant, but it really was fun! Dad had several sleeping options for me to choose from (very cute how concerned he was about my sleep on the lake!) and I must say it wasn't much worse than sleeping at home. So glad we went camping and enjoyed a lake weekend before the baby arrives -- next summer... camping with an almost one year old. Sign me up!

And just to prove that I was actually there -- photo evidence of the big ol' belly on the lake! (Hoping no one loses their lunch!)