Camping is one of those things that if I think about it too much, I would probably never schedule into our calendar.  It's exhausting, takes an enormous amount of preparation, isn't all that comfortable,  and results in many loads of laundry BUT my children love it so I think it will be part of our family memories for years to come. 

Pictures of our trip with our seminary family from last week are now in my slideshow.  I unfortunately didn't take as many pictures as I usually do - the cold air must have done something to my brain!  After our 3 hour drive down to Pt. Magu, we set to work setting up our area of the campsite.  We have the appearance of very experienced campers since we have so much nice camping equipment thanks to our families who granted our request of camping equipment for Christmas one year.  Since BW is mainly responsible for this task, I got to chase Boy2 up and down some hills and through some bush for quite a while.  It has been 8 months since our first ever camping trip and I was amazed at how much different it was camping with our little guy this time.  For one, he is much more surefooted and fell a lot less.  He was able to get up more trails and this meant that I was pretty constantly on the go.  Conversations were started to be interrupted as I saw him heading for the hills.  Also, since he is out of a crib we didn't bother to take the Pak-n-play on this trip.  He got his own sleeping bag!  Not that he actually slept in it.  Both nights, he wormed his way into sharing my sleeping bag with me!

The wind whipped up early and I pulled out my kids' winter coats, hats and gloves that I had recently bought because we were moving to the snow!  On night two I was glad I didn't have a thermometer to make me feel any colder than I already was.  The kids slept in their coats that night.

I will say that it is definitely more fun to camp with a group of other families.  Not only are there built in friends for my kids to play with, but the cooking is shared!  Each kid found one or two other friends to play with.  Girl4 latched onto a 4yo boy who she only knew as her "camping friend".  She never did find out his name, but just called him her "camping friend."   Boy7 found plenty of other boys who were really good at finding sticks and coming up with all sorts of games with which sticks were required.  Girl8 found a group of girls to go "hiking" with, collect flowers and find secret hiding places. 

On Friday morning, everyone was geared up for a "kid friendly" hike.  It wasn't long before we came to a steep section of trail and we realized that we had taken the wrong trail!!!  We headed back down and I was all ready to say that I had completed my hiking duties for the trip.  But I dutifully followed my kids with up the correct trail.  The wind had died down and it warmed up.  I was surprised by how far my kids were able to go though I did eventually have to turn around with the younger ones.  We were able to see some beautiful wildflowers, lizards and butterflies. 

After a short nap, we headed down to the beach.  I knew it would be way too cold to actually go in the water so I didn't even bother to bring my kids swimsuits, but for some reason my kids couldn't get it through their heads that one COULD go to the beach without actually going into the water.  Eventually, they found something else to occupy their time - rock climbing.  There were some great rock formations and Boy2 thought he could keep up with all the other kids.   Amazingly, we came through without any major injuries.

BW eventually joined a group playing volleyball and the older kids were able to join him.  Girl8 was especially impressed with her dad's volleyball skills and kept bragging in the car about how he was diving for balls.  I just kept thinking about the hike from the morning and knew that my beloved would probably be very sore the next morning.

We heard some great devotions and had some wonderful worship time around the campfire.  Boy2 fell asleep on my lap both nights.  Girl4 enjoyed roasting the marshmellows but wanted to eat hers plain.  Our seminary family has been such a blessing to us and it was so fun to spend some time with them.  I kept myself busy enough that I didn't allow myself to think of the fact that I probably won't be seeing many of them on a regular basis anymore.  I continue to operate in a "see you later" mode since we aren't quite finished with seminary yet.  It will be a great joy to find out where God has planned each to serve - we may have friends all over the world someday! 

In the end, I couldn't wait to get home to my warm bed and a long shower - comforts that you aren't truly thankful for until you've been without them.  Then we looked forward to celebrating Sunday with our new church family and starting (finally) into a "normal" routine. 

Blessings!

-J