Our sixth stop on the vacation, and a close call.

This ended up being my second favorite place to camp on our trip. :)

After settling in we drove down to the beach because it was a ways away. There are lots of nice trails there though, around the park and down to the beach and when we come back (which we definitely plan on doing) we will bring bikes and go exploring. I didn't get any pictures on my camera, totally forgot to bring it, so I took all the pictures with Ryder's phone. Even though I've asked many times he has yet to down load them, so I'm doing this post without those pictures, for now. Maybe I will be able to add them later. :) There was an old shell of a boat there that the kids thought was pretty cool (wreck of the Peter Iredale) and the beach was very nice. We saw a bald eagle fly low over our heads and we were in awe! There were quite a lot of cool birds to be spotted. At the campsite there was a playground right by use and the kids thought that was really awesome. I could see it clearly from our campsite so I let them run over there and play without us.

This boy. Oh this boy. He tried to cut his finger off! Let me elaborate.

After dinner Banden and Ira asked about a fire and Ryder said they could help. I didn't really think anything of that and went about my business cleaning up, then decided to go check on Atty and Leiella who had headed back to the playground. I was only gone less than five minutes. I went to walk back into the trailer and got quite the shock. There was blood everywhere. I panicked. Ira was standing there silently and I kept asking what happened and he wouldn't answer me. I noticed a paper towel wrapped around his pointer finger so I asked him to show me. He pulled the paper towel back and I just about fainted. It looked like he had cut all the way down to the bone and it was bleeding badly. I started screaming what happened to Ryder and he told me he had no idea, Ira had just told him he needed a drink of water. He came rushing into the trailer and we both were shocked by what happened. Apparently Ryder had let him try with the ax and had showed him a safe way of doing it and it seems as if Ira didn't do it that way (although he swears he did) and he slipped and sliced his finger. Thankfully it was at an angle and not straight down and not as bad as I thought at first. But still bad enough that we weren't sure if he needed stitches or not. Ira didn't cry this whole time until we mentioned stitches. Ryder left to go ask a camp ranger where the closest hospital would be and Ira just started bawling. He did not want stitches and was more upset about that than the cut. I was fighting being really, really angry that Ryder wasn't watching him closer, or that he was even letting Ira try with the ax in the first place. One of those situations where mom definitely would not have let that happen but dad thinks they are old enough to try and lets them. Sometimes he is right and I need to let go a little, sometimes he is wrong. The problem is when he is wrong sometimes it goes terribly wrong. I'm just glad Ira didn't completely chop his finger off! Ryder would have had a hard time getting over that guilt and I don't know if I would have forgiven him so easily. Not to mention that would have been a horrible way to end our vacation! Hopefully this situation showed Ryder that I am overly cautious for a reason! Anyways in the end we decided after looking closer at the cut and weighing everything out to not get stitches. We cleaned it up, put medicine on it and wrapped it up really well. He will have a scar, and a wild story to tell. Needless to say this put quite the damper on our night. I could not go to sleep for hours, I just kept thinking about what I would have done if I had walked back to the campsite and saw his chopped off finger just laying there. I couldn't get those sorts of images out of my head. I kept thinking about Ira too, how he was willing to endure great pain silently simply because he didn't want to admit he messed up. He is such a perfectionist. He worries me on so many levels. But he is brave, and strong, and always striving to be the best. If he can channel this the right way he will go far in life. He is also impulsive and a thrill seeker and likes to do things for shock value, take it one step further than everyone else. I am not going to be able to sleep all through his teen years. ;)

Anyways the next day we went to check out the shorebird conservation area before we left. This campsite is a bird lovers paradise. :)

Ira's poor finger. Bandaged and taped.

Over all we still had a great experience at Fort Stevens, despite the accident. This is one amazing park. Not only is there a beach to explore, there is also Trestle Bay, and two lakes, Swash Lake and Coffenbury Lake. As well as a museum. We only explored a fraction of this. We will most definitely be back. :)