The last week of summer for me – always a bittersweet time. I’ll miss the long lazy days of sunshine and the time I get to spend at home with my family, but I still look forward to the hustle and bustle of a new school year each September.

We ended our summer this year in grand style – a full week of camping with our kids. This was the longest camping trip we’ve ever been on and it was a wonderful success! We’ve gotten really efficient at dry camping, and by the end of the week our battery was still full (with a little help from our generator) and the tanks were nearly empty!

We started the family vacation with an overnight stop in Sunriver to visit the grandparents. We had a nice time visiting and enjoyed a great dinner at the Sunriver Brewing Company followed by a tasty breakfast prepared by Grandma B. We were sent on our way with full stomachs!

Our kiddos…Scott and Lindsey

The family out for a walk

Dad having some fun….

Scott and Grandma B at dinner

Lindsey at dinner

A wonderful breakfast to start the day!

Ready to roll….

Our first night camping was spent at the Smiling River Campground in Camp Sherman along the Metolius River. This is a favorite spot of ours. Visiting Camp Sherman is like stepping into another era…It’s quiet, peaceful and very beautiful. We stayed in site 10, which was perfect except for the family of raccoons that lived in the tree right next to our trailer and raided our food box at 2 a.m….other than that, it was a beautiful site, located right on slow moving river, totally private and surrounded by large, red Ponderosa Pines!

Site 10 at Smiling River Campground

Scott entertaining us around the campfire!

Nestled in the trees..

Close up of the tree bark

View of the river and cozy little cabin across from our site

Little spot of color along our morning walk

The historic Camp Sherman Store…a favorite place to spend the morning.

The Bambi…always makes me smile!

Us 🙂

Happy he brought his guitar!

This is the head water of the river and the water here is COLD!

Keeping us safe from chipmunks and racoons was a daunting job!

Ready for our next part of the adventure….