We officially dominated our first family camping trip. Given the tremendous build up including a reservation made several months in advance (not my style), and stories for the boys describing s'mores and other wonderful things about camping, you would have thought we would have been more prepared for our trip. But alas, prepared is not our style.
The original plan was to camp for two nights but a rain storm blew in Friday morning so the rain combined with some complications from Hank's neutering surgery made us decide to stay just one night instead. We were supposed to leave on Friday, but as of Wednesday we still did not have a tent or sleeping bags, two necessities for camping. Thanks to Google express and Costco, all of our camping gear showed up on our doorstep on Thursday morning (Google express is amazing BTW, if it comes to your area, sign up, it will save you so much errand running).
We packed the truck, hit the grocery store for some food and headed down to Big Sur. For some reason the boys insisted on wearing specific hats for our camping trip. Brady thought Mickey ears were the most appropriate and Brody went with a wizard hat. They also insisted on bringing their elephants instead of pillows. Rock on with your bad selves, boys!
It is a very reasonable drive from our house to Big Sur so we arrive fresh and ready for the woods (and beach). The camp site was awesome and we were camping with three other great families. We set up our tent while the kids played together and set off for a hike. We opted to find a dog friendly hike so the four of us headed to Pzfiefer State beach, a hidden gem on the Big Sur Coastline. Purple sand, giant rock formations and cypress trees make this spot a must see! We hung out and played at the beach for awhile and then headed back to the camp site. We also let the dogs swim in the river right next our campsite and the Hank had his first swim! He liked it, we think. We cooked dinner while the kids all played together and repeatedly (seemingly EMOM (every minute on the minute)) asked for s'mores. Once the s'mores supplies came out, the boys dove in head-first to their first s'mores experience. It is a no brainier and they loved it!
Somebody was very pleased that he snuck into my picture!
We got the kids ready for sleep and I laid in the tent with them to try and get them to settle down. They were so amazed that we were sleeping outside, so much so that just when they were almost asleep (or so I thought) Brady yelled out into the darkness "I can't believe we get to sleep on the ground!". It was so cute. Unbeknownst to me, Hank was also trying to hunker down for the night next to the fire with Chris and the other grown-ups. He kept trying to crawl into the camp chair but it would tip as soon as he climbed up. Chris let him into the tent with us and he promptly laid on the air mattress right between the kids and passed out. I think our littlest baby was just as excited and Brady and Brody that we were all sleeping on the floor together!!
The night was, well, let's just say it was a night to remember. Not long after crawling into the tent, it started to rain. The rain turned to pouring rain and that's what we heard all.night.long. About two hours into sleeping, I could hear Brady tossing, turing and grunting, basically doing what I call "angry sleeping". I grabbed him and snuggled him close so he would warm up and that settled him down but it kept me wide awake the rest of the night. I felt like I woke up 1 million times and everyone time I opened my eyes all I could think was "why the heck isn't it light yet. Please please please let dawn break". At one point I woke up with Brady's fingers in my eye socket and Hank's face/droopy lips plastered up against mine. Again, it was still dark and all I could do was try and go back to sleep. Finally, I could not take it anymore and I had to go to the bathroom. My rustling woke everyone else up and we were all awake and partying inside the tent at 6 am (foreshadowing: it was 6 am according to my watch). Now, under normal circumstances, it would have been light at 6 and I could not figure out why it was still so darn dark. I kept thinking "man, this is some storm that is creating this much cloud cover". Fast forward a couple of hours and we realized it was Daylight Savings weekend! The clocks changed overnight and we did not know! Chris actually said (before he knew the clocks changed) "the only hours I slept were from 1-3. I Never saw 2 am for whatever reason"... now we know why!!! What a fantastic night to lose an hour!
As soon as we had enough light, we broke down the tent and got ready to go. We had a blast but when the tiredness set in, I wanted to be on our way home. We had breakfast with our friends and the kids played in the rain. When the moment was right, we said our goodbyes, hoped into the truck and drove back up the coast. It was a totally wonderful time and I am looking forward to doing it again. Chris has many many happy childhood memories that come from camping with his cousins. I think the boys are going to have just as much fun camping with friends and family and generating similar memories!
No comments:
Post a Comment