Down By the River - Summer Nostalgia

Now that summer is over, the kids are back in school and the days are getting shorting, I feel nostalgic.  The summer fun we had only a few weeks ago seems a long way off now.

We took a camping trip a few weeks ago in the Mt. St. Helens area. During the day we played and took in the local sights.  In the evenings, we often took the kids down to different parks along the Toutle River to let them wade and play in the sand.

The kids really enjoyed experimenting with erosion.  OK, I thought it looked like a geology lab.  They thought they were making a cool waterfall by digging cliffs into the sand then pouring water over it.

This is a representation of Mt. St. Helens.  It's creator enthusiastically threw sand up to simulate the big eruption for my photo :)

One evening we saw four river otters swim by us.  I was a little slow with my camera.  I got a great photo of the back of one otter's head and a blurry photo of one floating on his back.  They kind of came out looking like the Loch Ness Monster.

One evening there were hundreds of little frogs.  The kids had a great time catching them.

There is a lot of volcanic ash along the river from the eruption.  One park we visited had a volleyball court and play structure built with ash instead of sand.  I think this piece of play equipment is the best use of ash I have seen.  The kids loved it.

After a few hours by the river we came back to camp for dinner.  After dinner we would sit around the fire and wind down with smores and chat.  Very relaxing!

What are some of your favorite summer memories?