Well we enjoyed our last camping trip of the year. We were so glad to have gone and now I am happy to report on it while it is still pretty fresh in my mind.
[Afton LOVES to camp and she also LOVES to help carry things. What a great girl she is.]
We went camping Thursday September 17-Saturday September 19. I am part of an LDS homeschooling group here in the Bay Area and we went with them. It was SOOOOO much fun.
We wanted to leave early on Thursday so we could get to camp and have plenty of time to figure things out before everyone else arrived. Fortunately for us, we had the opportunity to do 2 service projects before we left. That put us about 2 hours late but we were ok with it. It made us feel good that Scott was home to help others. Usually he would have been at work.
The drive to the Portola Redwoods was crazy!! It was only about 40 miles away but took an hour and forty five minutes. We had this SUPER windy road we had to drive on. I could only go about 15 miles an hour. But we had such a good time cracking jokes and laughing and telling stories. It was GREAT family time. We got to camp and realized that the parking was UP the hill to where the campsites were.
[Here is our camp from almost the top of the hill. If you look REALLY closely all the way down the hill you can see what looks like the roof of a tent, that one is ours!!]
We made 2 trips before I realized that we could drive down the road, unload to our camping area and then drive back up to where the parking was.
[Our little “sacred grove” (as it was fondly named) in the midst of all the happy chaos.]
After all the unloading and setting up was done we had just enough time to prepare to do our parts in the weekend. Each family was assigned a certain task and both Scott and I had to do ours the first day. So Scott talked with all the kids about safety in the campsite and around the fire. Then I did 2 crafts with the kids (a leaf name tag and a nature plate). Both seemed fun and successful.
We ate dinner as a group but each family just brought their own thing. We made hobo dinners. They were good as always.
Then I started putting little ones to bed while Scott and the older kids stayed up and enjoyed a campfire full of games, songs and laughter. After all our children were in bed sleeping and all the other families were still getting their kids to bed, Scott and I enjoyed the fire by ourselves for about an hour. I love those times around the fire with Scott. They are so peaceful and loving.
[Jaime and her new found friend. Jaime is so excited that there are girls her age who are homeschooled. Since all the families we have hung out with so far here in Fremont all have boys Jaime’s age, she figured she was doomed to hang out with boys forever. This LDS homeschooling group has been so good for both her and Alix. I LOVE it.]
[Peek a boo!! One of Keri’s favorite games. What a sweet and fun girl she is.]
[Our favorite part of camping…..clean up! It really is more fun to do dishes in the great outdoors. Not sure why!]
The next morning started out early. We made our breakfast goo over the fire and after clean up we got dressed and went on a group hike. The older kids and two adults went on an all day 13 mile hike. They had a great time. We went on a hike that took 3 hours and was probably 2 miles (hard to tell when you are herding little kids the whole time).
[The “group”. We really did enjoy hiking with a group of people. Always someone to talk to and it kept the kids more motivated. They wanted to keep up with each other.]
After lunch of PB & J, Scott and some of our kids went on another hike while Keri, Niah and I napped. It was GLORIOUS. It was quiet and cool; perfect sleeping conditions. After they got back, Niah and I went for a hike. That was fun to spend time together, just the two of us. After that we started dinner preparations while a dad taught the kids how to lash. He then ended up making a seat and a swing. The kids thought that was the COOLEST thing.
[Is that not the coolest? I remember lashing during young women’s camp. We had to make a seat that could hold a certain number of gallons of water. I remember ours holding the weight and I thought that was cool. But a swing? Impressed!]
After dinner and smores we played campfire games. Again, I put kids to bed one by one. This time they went right to sleep. They were exhausted from all the walking and hiking and playing with friends. Scott and I did not end up staying up till the fire went out. We were both pretty tired too. But we did end up chatting with a few other adults for almost an hour. That was fun.
Saturday morning started out early too. We started breaking camp while others were getting breakfast ready. We got about half way done before we went up and enjoyed breakfast. They had planned two more hikes for that morning so we all went on the first one and then Scott and half the kids went back to camp to finish packing while I took the other half of the kids on the banana slug hike. By the time we got back, Scott was done packing up. We put the last things in the van, said our good byes and were gone by 1:30pm.
[This hike was pretty cool. We walked into the woods quite a bit and saw some VERY impressive trees. This particular tree led up to a path. All the kids (and adults) braved the walk across the tree to the hiking path above. It was a very awe inspiring hike. The best of the ones I went on. By the way, that is Niah on the log if you couldn’t tell.]
[Don’t we all look so EXCITED to be there? Thanks Jaime for learning the “stand there and smile till I say we’re done” rule. I’ll have them all trained eventually……right?? This was taken on the first hike on Saturday morning.]
It was a very fun trip. We had never group camped before and it was fun to see the kids constantly playing, exploring and laughing with friends they had just made or have only known for a little while. There was no fighting or arguing. They all seemed to just enjoy being together. It was also reassuring because you always knew they were with somebody and not off by themselves. That gave them more freedom.
[This is what Keri looked the whole time. A crawling baby is so hard to keep clean. At one point another mom came up with some wipes and did a once over on Keri. 2 minutes later Keri looked the same as before. I love dirty babies when we are camping. It shows they are having fun.]
There were about 35 kids and 18 adults. I really enjoyed being in the trees. The last few places we have camped have been based on water so it’s not located in a forest. This was beautiful. The weather was great, the noise level was low and the trees were beautiful. But, camping in the redwoods also meant LOTS of mosquitoes. We got EATEN. Especially Alix and Milo. Alix was the worse though. She had 20 of them and most of them swelled and she scratched them off. Poor girl. We tried to keep bug spray on them, but I didn’t bring enough (I had forgotten how bad they were) and so we kept borrowing but I felt kinda silly doing that so much! The hiking trails were marvelous and there were so many. I am so happy we got to camp there and enjoy one last family excursion before real life really has to set in.
[So we brought this toy for Keri in hopes that she would walk more than crawl. Instead Milo (and eventually every kid at camp) realized the fun of hauling that thing to the top of the hill and screaming down the hill at an insane speed. I do have to report that not one kid got seriously hurt. On the last day, one kid fell off but was fine in less than a minute. What kids come up with!]
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