First Summer Camping Trip

We were so excited this year to go on a camping trip that we only waited till one day after school. We went up to Mt Madonna County Park. Which, when I mapped it, showed it was in Watsonville. When I saw that, I read "hot, dusty, and dry" So, we packed accordingly. It couldn't have been more the opposite! It was like camping in the thick of the Santa Cruz mountains. It was wet, cold, and COLD! Like campfire going 18 hours out of the day cold. Like couldn't sleep very well at night cold. Like adults creeping into the cars at times to get warm cold. Despite the cold, we had a really good time. We had amazingly good food- pancake and bacon breakfasts, pizza pockets made with basil pesto and garlic in them, lots of hot chocolate, and even warm chocolate chip cookies all cooked over campfire! And of course, we have pictures to prove it. 'Cause what would camping be if we didn't have proof that we were cold and dirty? If only you could smell us through pictures. It took a good two days to get the campfire smell out of our hair and clothes. I'm pretty sure it's still there...

As soon as we drove up Joel saw some deer and took the kids to see them. Do you see the deer running off behind the trees?


It wasn't long after that that they started a variety show of their own. Each kid would get up and do something funny and all the other kids would crack up.


The kids were excited to see A LOT of these guys around (for those of you not in the area it's a banana slug)



The kids were so good at keeping themselves busy. At one point, they started a train and ran around the camp singing songs like: Twinkle, twinkle and Mary had a little lamb. You know, all the pop hits.


We went on lots of cool hikes like these:



We "discovered" some ancient ruins (I know, poor quality shot..)


And we had a lot of happy kids!






We want to go again! Soon!!