FALL CAMPING

We ventured on our first ever FALL CAMPING TRIP this past weekend. We rented a motor home and headed to one of our favorite spots on the coast. The kids were so excited to ride in the camper and mommy was excited to have a warm cozy place to hang out in and not deal with a tent. Grandpa, Grandma, Uncle Jesse, & Aunt TT joined us as well and they stayed in a little cabin at the campground. On Friday daddy picked up the camper and we loaded it up. Allie, Luke, and myself had everything lined up on the curb and the kids were waiting in their camping chairs for daddy to get home. Once we were loaded up we went to pick Andrew up at school. He was very excited to show his friends who walked him up to the office "the camper" Our drive was nice...the boys loved being able to sit at the table and color and play. Friday evening we just got settled, walked to see the horses, gave grandpa and grandma a tour of the campground, had hot coco, and roasted marshmallows when Jesse and TT arrived. Our first night sleeping in the camper was very good. Everyone slept good and it was super cozy. We were surprised to wake up to dry weather on Saturday. After a yummy camping breakfast we headed out for a hike on the beach. We hiked to a beautiful look out spot where we saw seals, birds, and lots of jelly fish. It was a great and long hike, but the kids loved it. After lunch we hung out at the campground and relaxed. Around 3 the rain finally started so we loaded in the cars and took a drive up the coast. We stopped at a pumpkin patch that "looked" cute, but ended up being very weird and muddy. We left there, got a warm Starbucks and headed to a beach to see the tidepools. It was pouring rain and we had to climb down the side of a cliff, but it was worth it. There was a big family of seals swimming in a little pool right in front of us, tons of starfish, sea urchins, and we even saw a huge group of tiny baby sea gulls. The boys ran around so excited about everything they saw. Luke was very into saving the starfish, so he would collect ones that he saw on the shore and would throw them back in the water. Even though it was raining and we were soaking wet, we had a great time. When we got back to the campground it was time for HOT showers and then we hung out in the camper for the evening and ate dinner and the kids watched a Halloween movie. Uncle Jesse had caught a crab at the tidepools, so he cooked it in the camper and then ate it. The kids enjoyed watching the process. It was rainy and windy all night and we were very glad that we had a camper to be in. It made it super cozy. On Sunday woke up to a wet and muddy campground so we packed up, went to breakfast, and headed to the redwood forest. We went on a hike there on our way home. Again it was raining, but beautiful. We saw banana slugs and tons of newts. Luke loved picking up the newts. Aunt TT licked the banana slug and Andrew thought he wanted to, but opted out of that activity. It was a gorgeous hike through the giant trees. Once again we took our wet clothes off and got cozy inside for our drive home. The drive home was a little scary with a lot of rain and wind. Daddy did a great job driving the camper through all the crazy weather. It was a great weekend and we will surely we doing some Fall Camping in the future. We loved having grandpa, grandma, Uncle Jesse, and TT with us!!