Camping on the Beach 2011

We went to San Diego to camp on the beach a month or so ago and it was AMAZING.  The weather was near perfect, the kids did great, I got to run every morning... The list goes on.  We had to move spots every night and that was a pain, but totally worth it.  The pictures are all in some weird order, but for the most part, we just had fun together, played together, and had a wonderful family vacation.  I really did not want to come home.  For 4 days we didn't think about FaceBook or check email or watch TV.  Seriously one of my favorite vacations.

There was room for the kids to scooter and scooter they did...a lot!  We didn't find out till the last day that wearing a helmet was the law in CA.  Stupid.

This picture is worth a story.  These were our first neighbors.  The hippy-mobile.  Not only does it look like one, they were.  There were about 8 kids in total with serious nature/type names.  I had written them down so I wouldn't forget and I lost the paper.  Anyway, the kids were in the tree and crazy all over the place.  The next day I saw one peeing from the top of the tree, pants around his knees.  Nice.

Glade bought a skim board for the kids to try.  Nick got the hang of it pretty good, but Rhett totally rocked it.  No one else could even stay on it.  We have a billion pictures of them trying but I only posted the wipeout fun ones!

Brooklyn and Stephen are my two that fight the most, but get them in the water and they are two of a kind.

Chelsey's wipeout

Why is it that all my vacations lately involve so many of these??

Brooklyn giving the skim board a try

They are all laughing because right behind me Glade was trying to skim board

Another one of Chelsey

This was the scene at our camp in the evenings.

Are we talented or what?!

Glade giving it a try.

Bo took his fishing pole and spent some time trying to catch a whale.

Whitley on her tush.

They were all good sports in helping out with the chores.  Funny story about Nick.  The big boys slept outside on airmattresses.  The camp has tons of squirrels that feast on anything you may leave out.  He woke up to a little squirrel curled up in a ball sleeping on his legs.  He didn't think it was so cute.

Glade spent the majority of his time doing work.  I guess that's the beauty of technology.  I would complain, but it's this that made it possible for him to be with us at all.

Some other memories of our trip:

-laughing around the campfire
-teaching the kids how to play euchre
-getting milkshakes at the Jack in the Box across the street
-watching the kids pull our trailer down the street to switch spots
-having everyone turn and look as all the kids sang a popular song as we walked back to our spot
-being able to just wander across the path and stare at the ocean at sunset
-watching my kids BE for four glorious days

Camping 2011

Fourth of July was on a Monday this year so it made for a perfect camping weekend.  We went to a place called Kinder Crossing Trail up on the rim.  In total, we had 9 families with us.  The area was really dry and the days were still pretty hot in the beginning.  The first day we got there around 1pm and had just enough time to set up camp and get dinner ready.  The next two days a monsoon storm had built and we got rain both afternoons.  It was wonderful!!  It cooled right off and settled the dust and made for perfect chicken noodle soup weather.  The second day it rained clear into the night. 

Glade bought himself a new toy and spent more than a little while "grunting" over its manly-ness

We had several teenagers and they all played really well together and made the time spent much less boring.

Most of Bo's best friends were there so he never had a dull moment.  There was plenty of exploring and card playing and hacking things up with an axe to keep them busy.

There is a spider peeking out of Glade's back pocket.  It's big and rubber and he had much fun trying to scare people with it.

This is the view from the creek we hiked down to and played in. So beautiful.

Sara, Becca and Brooklyn.  The water was too cold but not too deep so they could mostly walk around in it and actually jump and swim in a few spots.

Dalin taking a dip

There were plenty of crawdads to be found so lots of the boys spent their time collecting them.

Brayden and Bo

This is part of the hike to get to the creek.  It was steep and not that easy.

If you look right in the middle of the picture, you can see the green water, that's how far we hiked down.  The hike was 1.2 miles round trip.

Jono came and stayed a couple of nights with us and we spent a lot of time playing games.

Kylee and Ava keeping dry in the rain.

There was a deserted little home stead that we were able to visit not far from camp.  It was built in the early 1900's.

This was there food storage area.  A separate little hut with shelves.  From all that I've read, I'd guess it was the icehouse.

I just love this picture.  Katy and Tessa