In August of 2003, we took our third camping trip as a family.  It was BY FAR the best one yet.  This is the Little Crater Lake campground.  You may recall that I took my east coast friends Eric and Jeff to this campground in 2002.  Since that trip was so good, I decided to take the family here for a known-good experience rather than chance another bad trip like this one or this one.

We had a good time.  We hiked a bit to get a good view of Timothy Lake.  We also brought bikes so the kids could ride around the campground.  The only hiccup occurred when we let Jarod & Patrick go off and play with a couple same-age kids they met there.  Patrick came back to the camp bloodied.  The details were sketchy, but we think he was racing on foot with another kid on his bike and they collided.  The bike won that battle.  ;-)  As usual, Amy handled the situation like a professional and had him all fixed up with the first-aid kit we brought.  I was very impressed.

In the end, we had such a good time that we will likely visit again and again!

When we got there, we just chilled for a bit, playing cards.	Amy cooked up some standard mac n' cheese.	It was a short hike up a road to the well to pump water.
S'mores!	S'more s'mores!	Even more s'mores!
This is Little Crater Lake.	It's not a crater at all.	But it makes for a unique water feature.
Amy wanted at least one picture of me doing the dishes.	Gotta have some every night.	This is Timothy Lake.  You can see where Little Crater Lake is situated if you look in the upper right corner.
After about a mile of hiking, we came to a beach.	We ate our lunch and Amy played on the shore.	On the hike back, the kids really started to take off.
Time for a short break... with some yummy yogurt raisins and M&Ms.		Big tree.
A couple of family pictures...		And a shot of Mt. Hood on the way home.